Letter dated January 27, 1953, from Leahy, Mills, Vickery & Ahern states that the writer (and signed as such by Mr. Ahern) has no record, nor the knowledge of any application for an annulment proceeding, or Divorce proceeding which is said to have been contemplated by Edward George Dalton, or John Edward Dalton. Neither did he have any record nor knowledge of same by a Mildred Rose Fischer Dalton or by the father of the groom, Mr. George W. Dalton. Adding that he had handled all legal matters for both men since 1922.

Her mother had borrowed her dictionary recently. Maybe for “contemplated.” Contemplating was something Charlotte had been doing a lot of in the past few days. Contemplating her family’s scandal, contemplating never returning to high school, contemplating the likelihood of graduating from high school if she never went back. Where does someone in a small town go to escape public scrutiny and scorn? She wondered where Gilbert Ogden and Flora Parker had gone, if they were still in the business of robbing banks, and if they had need of a young, hardworking accomplice. Charlotte was wondering what would drive someone to rob a bank as she placed the pack of Lucky Strikes and the little brown notebook back into the hatbox, and noticed the envelope of money taped to the underside of the hatbox’s lid.

Chapter 26

U.S. dollars to Canadian dollars. Gilbert Ogden kept a close watch on the fluctuation of the exchange rate, and would try to time his bank trips to maximize their funds. Never the same bank twice. His and Flora’s top priority, as bank robbers on the lam, was to avoid suspicion. Blending in with, as well as keeping their distance from, the rest of their Toronto neighborhood was another priority.

They had spent significant amounts of time sitting in the window seat on the main level of the house, just behind the heavy crimson damask curtain, observing the comings and goings of the neighbors, and making notes of regularities in schedules, and deciding on the safest, low-activity times to leave the house.

“Does anyone live in that big house?” someone visiting their neighbors might ask. “Well,” the neighbors would answer, “we haven’t seen them yet, but there’s usually smoke coming out of the chimney.”

Flora had bought some French language books from the bookstore a few doors down from the third bank Gilbert visited to exchange money. She liked to curl up in the overstuffed chair by the fireplace and read.

“Just like Bonnie and Clyde used to do,” she’d say to Gilbert with a curt nod followed by a laugh.

Flora Parker and Gilbert Ogden had to be the dullest outlaws in history. Playing Scrabble and chess, reading Chekhov and Austen, and practicing their bonjours and au revoirs, just in case.

Flora had read good things about Quebec. If it got too hairy for them in Toronto, if suspicions were raised about the pleasant, quiet, seemingly invisible people who had moved into the neighborhood just a couple of months ago, they could go farther north, Although not Montreal, Flora thought. Too big. Heading north would really probably be their only option. They couldn’t go back now.