A few minutes later, the cab turned onto an upscale street and stopped in front of a narrow brick row house. Mark paid the driver and then opened the door.
Inside the house was neat, with oak floors and a lack of photos or other personal items, except for an old-fashioned gramophone in the corner. Grace looked for signs of a woman’s touch, but found none. It didn’t look as though Mark had spent much time there at all. He led her into a study with a phone on the wall. “I’m going to make us some coffee,” he said before leaving her alone.
Grace walked to the desk, then pulled out the piece of paper where she’d jotted down the number. She dialed and recited it to the operator. The radiator behind Mark’s desk hissed softly as she waited.
The line rang once, then again. This wasn’t going to work, Grace thought with a sinking feeling as the phone rang on and on. She started to hang up. But just before the receiver reached the cradle, there was a noise on the other end. Grace brought it back hurriedly to her ear. “Hello? I’m trying to reach Miss Annie Rider.”
“One moment.” There was a thud as the phone was set down or dropped, then footsteps, which started loud and faded. Grace imagined a rooming house like her own in New York, a landlady fetching her tenant.
“Yes?” A different woman’s voice, scratchy this time and decidedly English, came across the line.
“Miss Rider?”
“Who’s asking?”
Grace cleared her throat. “My name is Grace Healey. I’m so sorry to bother you, but I am trying to locate Sally Rider. Annie Rider was given as a contact.”
“Sally?” The woman’s voice rose with surprise. “What about her?”
“I was trying to reach her. I thought you might know where she is.”
“Sally was my sister.”
Was. “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize she had passed.” Sally had not been listed among the girls who had gone missing under Night and Fog. “Was she killed during the war?”
“She wasn’t. She died after the war, in a car accident.” Like Tom. Grace’s stomach tightened.
Grace forced herself to focus on the call. “I’m sorry to trouble you. I had some questions about the work your sister did during the war.” She paused. It seemed too intimate to ask over the phone. “I’m in Washington now, not terribly far away from you. Do you suppose we could meet?”
“I don’t know...” There was a hesitation in the woman’s voice.
“Please, it’s very important. I can come to you if it’s easier.”
“No,” the woman said quickly, as if the intrusion into her home would be unwelcome. “I have to be at The Willard tonight. If you’d like, we could meet in the bar at seven.”
Grace hesitated. Meeting tonight might mean missing the last train back to New York and staying over—something she hadn’t contemplated at all. But it was her only option if she wanted to learn more about the girls.
“Thank you. I’ll be there.”
As she hung up Grace cringed, thinking of Frankie and missing a second day of work. She considered asking Mark if she could make another call, then decided he wouldn’t mind and dialed the operator again to place it. Frankie might be gone for the day, she realized, as the line to the office rang twice with no answer. But a moment later his voice filled the line. “Bleeker & Sons.”
“Frankie, it’s me.” She did not have to say her name.
“Kiddo, how are you?” His voice sounded distant. The slight slur to his words made her wonder if he had been drinking.
“Frankie, you don’t sound good. What’s wrong?”
There was silence, dead air over the line. “It’s Sammy. He came back. There was an older kid at his cousin’s place who tried to take the money I gave Sammy. Sammy fought back and he got beat up.”
“Oh, no! Is he okay?”
“Yeah, he’s got a shiner and a busted lip. He’ll live.” Her heart screamed out at the idea that the little boy, who had been through so much, had now suffered this as well. “But he can’t go back there. You were right, kiddo. He shouldn’t be on his own so young. I’m filing papers to get him in the state system.”
Poor Sammy would wind up in a boys’ home after all. “I’m sorry, Frankie. It’s so hard getting involved. Maybe we can figure out something else.”
“I think we’re out of options here. But we can talk about it when