The Silent Sister(84)

“Do you know Celia’s last name?”

He shook his head. “I knew her grandfather, Charlie, really well. His last name was Wesley, but he was on her mother’s side.”

“Can I talk to Charlie?”

He shook his head. “He passed away years ago,” he said. “Good man. He left me all his vinyl, but I’d closed the store by then. He never talked about Jade after she left, and I never asked questions. I figured the less I knew, the better.”

“I’m trusting you to keep this quiet.” I pressed my finger to my lips.

“You can trust me,” he said. We looked down at the bright green field for a long moment. “Here’s what I think,” he said finally. “I think if Jade’s made a new life for herself, you should leave her alone.”

My eyes stung. He was probably right, but I couldn’t do that.

“I need my sister,” I said, when I thought I could trust my voice. “I thought she was dead. I just want to…” What did I want? Was I going to hurt her by finding her? I felt my lips tremble. “I need my sister,” I said again.

He rested a big hand on my shoulder then, nodding. “I think you’ll do the right thing,” he said. “And if—when—you find her, tell her Grady says hello.”





43.



I was able to get a standby flight out of San Diego the following morning. I’d considered flying to Portland, but what would I do once I got there? Portland was a big city and I had so little to go on. I stayed up half the night searching the Internet for a Jade Johnson, thinking that would be much easier than finding Ann, but I was wrong. There were over eighty Jade Johnsons on Facebook alone. I studied their pages until my eyes ached and I finally fell asleep with my computer wide open.

* * *

I had to change planes in Charlotte, and as I waited for the puddle jumper to New Bern, I checked my phone for messages. Only one, and it was from Jeannie. “I’m concerned about you,” she said. “I’m stopping over tonight to check on you. Don’t worry. I won’t be staying and I won’t be doing any work there, but I don’t feel good about the way we left it the other day—a lot of hard feelings on both sides, I think—and I just need to make sure you’re okay.”

I groaned. I should call her. Tell her I was fine and not to come over. We could talk next week. But I didn’t even feel like speaking to her answering machine, much less to her. I’d deal with her later.

My flight was late and I tried to doze sitting up in the chair, but all I could think about was my conversation with Grady.

She was an awesome girl.

Every time I remembered him saying that about Lisa, I smiled. Suddenly, I felt as though I knew her. Hearing about her from my parents, or more recently from Jeannie and Caterina, had never had that impact on me. But now I knew she was awesome. Grady hadn’t based that assessment on her musical ability. He hadn’t even known about that. He’d based it on the person she was, separate from her violin. That was the person I wanted desperately to find.





44.



Jeannie didn’t even knock before walking in the front door early that evening. After my blowup the other day, I would have thought she’d have the sense to at least knock before barging in, but no. I was sitting barefoot on the living room floor surrounded by piles of paid bills and statements and tax documents pulled from the cabinets. I’d already filled two big black trash bags with paper I’d have to shred later, but I didn’t want to take the time to do it now. If there was something—anything—related to Lisa in those cabinets, I wanted to find it. So far, I wasn’t having much luck. Most of the documents were ancient utility bills and medical records I saw no point in keeping.

“Well!” Jeannie stood in the middle of the room, smiling. “I see you’re finally making some real progress.”

I glanced up at her, but said nothing. She was dressed in white slacks and a navy blue blazer with a gold TOP REALTOR pin on the lapel.

“Maybe you just needed a little space from Christine and me,” she added.

“You’re right.” I shoved another fistful of paper into one of the trash bags. “I needed some time on my own, that’s all.”

“I understand. Oh! Look at this!” She’d spotted the photographs I’d taken with me to San Diego where they now lay on the coffee table. She picked up the picture of Lisa standing back-to-back with Matty, locks of their hair tangled together. “Is this the most darling photo or what?” she asked.

“It really is.” I had to agree.

“I haven’t seen this picture in a long time,” she said. “They look like Siamese twins here, don’t they? That’s what they were like. You hardly ever saw one without the other.” The pink of the setting sun poured through the window and across Jeannie’s smile. “She’s wearing the necklace I gave her,” she said.

I’d been about to toss another stack of papers into the trash bag, but lowered my hand to the floor.

“What did you say?” I asked.

“This necklace.” Jeannie tapped the picture with her fingertip. “I gave it to her. It’s jade. Lisa always wore it, and that touched me so much. It had Chinese symbols carved on the front and back. They meant ‘long life’ and ‘joy,’ or something like that.”