Chapter 16 - THE PRIVATE HOME IN PENNSYLVANIAMaple Glen Recovery Home no longer existed.
The building became luxury condos.
Lacey drove anyway.
Alone at first, then asked Catherine? She changed mind, took Nora? Let's have Lacey choose Catherine to go with, significant.
“You want come?”
Catherine stared at message.
Only if you’re sure.
“I am.”
They drove separately and met.
The old Victorian remained under renovations.
A plaque:
Maple Glen Residences.
No public mention previous home.
Lacey stood sidewalk.
“I was here.”
“For three weeks maybe.”
Catherine’s face pale.
Neither remembered.
Catherine wanted touch building? No.
Archive records revealed L.B. cared by nurse Margaret Doyle, now ninety, living nearby.
She agreed interview with detective and later Lacey.
Margaret remembered child because “family paid unusual cash.”
“Dark-haired little girl.”
“Called Bell.”
Lacey asked:
“Was I crying?”
Margaret looked.
“First days.”
“Then less.”
“Did anyone visit?”
“A silver-haired older woman maybe twice.”
“Could be Beatrice.”
“A man in suit.”
“Harold.”
“Catherine?”
Margaret studied photo.
“No.”
“Jonathan?”
“No.”
“Did you know missing?”
“Not until police stories weeks later.”
“By then child gone.”
“I suspected but director told different child.”
Margaret carried guilt.
“I should have called.”
Lacey said:
“You were staff.”
“But yes.”
Not absolving.
Margaret nodded tears.
“I was twenty-eight.”
“I believed employers.”
The system of deference.
She remembered pendant:
“It calmed you.”
“You rubbed it.”
Lacey touched.
Early attachment to object perhaps because familiar from home.
No infant memory consciously, but sensory comfort.
Margaret also remembered song Beatrice sang.
Catherine recognized family lullaby.
This further confirmed.
After Maple Glen, child transferred St. Brigid foster under name Louise Bell.
Then Norwoods.
Lacey laughed darkly.
“Louise Bell.”
“They turned nickname into alias.”
Catherine closed eyes.
Documents:
birth date altered by six weeks.
Place of birth unknown.
Parents listed deceased/unidentified? This enabled abandonment.
Fraud.
How court accepted?
Affidavits.
Agency reputation.
Weaker verification era.
No DNA.
Plausible.
They walked around building.
Catherine said:
“I hate that you were twenty minutes from us.”
“Don’t.”
“What?”
“Make geography tragedy.”
“It’ll destroy.”
Catherine nodded.
Twenty-six years taught alternate paths endless.
Lacey looked windows.
No memory.
She felt disappointed.
Expected body knowledge.
Nothing.
Maya later:
“You were one.”
“Not remembering doesn’t make less real.”
Good.
On drive back, Catherine asked:
“Lunch?”
Lacey said yes.
They stopped diner.
No fine dining.
Catherine ordered grilled cheese.
Lacey laughed.
“You?”
“What?”
“You look like salad person.”
“I contain multitudes.”
First relaxed lunch.
They talked unrelated:
Catherine hated driving highways.
Lacey loved bad reality TV.
Catherine admitted watching baking competitions.
Lacey mocked.
Relationship forming from ordinary.
At end Catherine said:
“Today was terrible.”
“And lunch was nice.”
May you like
“Both.”
Yes.
Related Stories
