I don't feel comfortable about it. It's painful.'

I'm your sister. You can trust me.'

'We were never very close,' he said bluntly. 'Not like you and Kathy.'

'Or you and Kathy,' Jessica said. 'But I still love you.'

She waited.

'I don't know where to begin exactly,' he said. 'It started her senior year of high school. You had just moved to Washington. I was at Columbia. I was living off campus with my friend Matt. Remember him?'

'Of course. Kathy dated him for two years.'

Almost three,' Edward corrected. 'Matt and Kathy were like something out of another century. They were together three years, and he never got, well, below the neck. I mean, never. And it wasn't just from a lack of trying.

Matt was as strait-laced as any guy I knew, but that didn't mean he didn't Push it now and again. But Kathy held him off.'

155

Jessica nodded, remembering. Kathy had still been confiding in her at that stage.

'Mom loved Matt,' Edward continued. 'She thought he was the greatest.

She used to invite him over for tea like something out of The Glass Menagerie. A gentleman caller sitting on the porch with the youngest daughter. Dad liked him too. Everything seemed to be going well. They planned on getting engaged in another year, married after he graduated, the whole Chevy-and-apple-pie love story. Then one day Kathy called him on the phone and just dumped him. No explanation.

'Matt was shocked. He tried to talk to her, but Kathy wouldn't see him. I tried to talk to her too, but she just blew me off. Then I started hearing rumors.'

Jessica shifted in her chair. 'What kind of rumors?' she asked.

'The kind,' Edward said slowly, 'a brother doesn't like to hear about his sister.' oh: 'Worse than oh. Guys were trashing her nonstop. Someone had finally found the key to Miss Prude's chastity belt, they said, and now they couldn't get it back closed. I even got into a fight. Got the shit beaten out of me protecting Kathy's honor.' He spat out the word honor as though it had an offensive taste.

'She changed at home too. She never went to mass anymore. I thought Mom would have a stroke - you know how she gets about stuff like that.'

Jessica nodded. She knew only too well.

'But she never said a word. Kathy started staying out late. She went to college parties. Some nights she wouldn't even come home.'

'Didn't Mom stop her?' Jessica asked.

'She couldn't, Jess. It was unbelievable. Kathy had spent her entire life in fear of the woman. Now it was like Kathy had found Kryptonite. Mom couldn't touch her.'

'What about Dad?'

'He was never as strict as Mom, you know that. He wanted to be everyone's buddy, not the bad guy. But strangely enough, Kathy grew closer to Dad during all this. He was thrilled by the sudden attention. I think he was afraid if he laid down the law, he'd push her away from him.'

Sounded like her father. 'What did you do?' she asked.

I confronted her.'

'What did she say?'

'Nothing really. She wouldn't deny it or admit it. She would just stand there and smile eerily. She said I didn't understand, that I was "naive."

Naive. Can you believe Kathy could call someone else naive?'

Jessica thought a minute. 'But none of that explains what started it, what made her change in the first place.'

Edward opened his mouth, stopped. He spread his hands, then dropped

156

them back to his sides as though they were too heavy to hold up. His voice was barely audible. 'Something with Mom,' he said.

'What with Mom?'

'I don't know. I think maybe Mom does. Kathy became withdrawn from you and me. But she still loved us. It was Mom got the brunt of it.'

Jessica leaned back in her father's chair, considering his last comment. 'I knew Kathy had changed the last couple of years, but I had no idea…' Her voice sort of faded away.

'But it ended, Jess. You have to remember that.'

'What ended?' she asked.

'This stage Kathy went through. That's why I don't think it's related to her disappearance. By the time she disappeared, it was all in the past.'

'What do you mean, in the past?'

'She changed back. Oh, I don't mean she started going to mass every Sunday or became buddies with Mom. But whatever had twisted her out of shape had finally let go. She was regaining her old self. I think Christian had a lot to do with that. I think he helped bring her back from the edge. The slutty behavior certainly stopped. So did the drugs, the drinking, the partying. Other things too. The smile even came back a little.'

Jessica remembered Kathy's school transcript. The terrible grades in her senior year and the beginning of college. Then the sudden turnabout back toward excellence that had started her second semester freshman year when she met Christian. It added up with what Edward was saying.

So was the past irrelevant? Was this period of her life, as Edward had insisted, all behind her? Perhaps. But Jessica doubted it. If it were truly dead and buried, why was her picture now appearing in a pornographic magazine? And that of course led to the central question in all this:

What had made Kathy change in the first place?

Jessica still did not know. But she now had a pretty good idea who might.

157

30

There were several things Myron enjoyed more than visiting Herman Ache.

Having his eyeball removed with a grapefruit spoon, for example.

'I heard your press conference on the radio,' Win said. The top was down on Win's racing-green Jaguar XJR. Myron was not big on having the top down. It was just a question of time before a bug got stuck in his teeth. I trust that Christian was pleased with the deal.'

'Very.'

'The press still hasn't picked up on Nancy Serat.'

'Jake hasn't released her name yet. Once they do-'

'Party time.'

'Exactly.'

'Does Christian know?' Win asked.

'Not yet. He was so damn happy. I just wanted to let him enjoy it a little longer.'

'You should warn him.'

'I will. Jake promised to let me know the second it got out.'

'You seem to like this Jake fellow,' Win noted.

'He's a good man. We can trust him.'

Win wiggled his fingers, regripped the wheel, accelerated. 'I don't trust officers of the law,' Win said. 'It's safer that way.'

The car was going very fast. The West Side Highway was not built for such speed - a four-lane highway with traffic lights every twenty yards.

Plus the 'ongoing' construction didn't help. The construction had been going on for as long as anyone could remember. History books stated that Peter Minuit, the Dutchman who purchased Manhattan from the Indians in 1626, often complained about the delays around Fifty-seventh Street.

But none of that deterred Win's hefty accelerator foot. The Javits Center was a blur. So was the Hudson River, for that matter.

Myron said, 'Could you slow down a tad?'

'No need to worry. The car has a driver-side air bag.'

'Wonderful.'

They were getting closer to Ache's office. Myron's stomach knotted - not