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"A book?"

"Agnes Grey It’s a novel by Anne Bronte, written in eighteen forty-seven I know because it was the subject of as?"

"What’s wrong with that? I grew up there Anyway, I was a lit major and it was the only paper I ever wrote that netted ht the name was Charlotte Bronte"

"This is a sister The youngest Most people only know about the two older ones, Charlotte and Es "Eht," I said faintly Darcy went on talking, waxing eloquent about the Brontes I was sifting back through Agnes’s account of Emily’s death, the hapless "Lottie" as siet in and out the back door Was her real nanes Grey’s real na, or was that strictly a coincidence? I moved back toward the corridor

"Kinsey?" Darcy was startled, but I didn’t want to stop and explain as going on I didn’t get itup the phone "Did you talk to Rochelle?" I asked, distracted

"It’s all taken care of She’s hopping in her car and heading straight up She has a friend who runs a motel on Cabana called the Ocean View I said we’d meet her there at four You know the place?"

"As a matter of fact, I do," I said The Ocean View had been the setting ofencounter with an ex-husband na after a fashion What had Agnes told me about Emily? She was killed in an earthquake Down in Brawley or soo Then the chimney fell on Emily There was lanced at his watch "What shall we do till she gets here? You want to pop by your place?"

"Give me a minute to think" I sat down in h ue and let me ruminate At this point, I didn’t even want to have to stop and bring him up to speed Could Enes Grey’s departure frones Grey was a phony, then as her real nae?

"Let me try this on you," I said to Dietz I took a few minutes then to fill him in on Darcy’s renes Grey Suppose she used that as a cover name… a kind of code…"

"To what end?" he asked

"I don’t know," I said "I think she wanted to tell the truth I think she wanted so herself to say it She was terrified about coured she was nervous about the trip-unhappy about the nursing home I just assumed her anxiety was related to the present, but ather she and Emily were sisters and there was a third one naht have known some critical feet about the way Emily died…"

"But nohat? At this point, we don’t even knohat her real naer up "But we do know about the earthquake"

"Kinsey, in California, you’re talking eight or ten a year"

"I know, but h that soo to the public library and look up the Santa Teresa earthquakes and see if we can find out who she was"

"You’re going to research every local earthquake with fatalities," he said, his voice flat with disbelief

"Not quite I’ to start with January six or seven, nineteen forty… the day before that box was packed"

Dietz laughed "I love it"

23

The periodicals rooht of stairs, a spacious expanse of burnt-orange carpeting and royal blue upholstered chairs, with slanted shelves holding row after row of azines and newspapers A border of s adhtens the overall illu an L-shaped desk on the left

The librarian was a ray hair was curly and he wore glasses with tortoiseshell frames, a little half-moon of bifocal in the lower portion of each tens "May I help you?"