like a fifties shot. Late fifties. Maybe early sixties."
Charlie had begun to feel uneasy with the first mention of the photographs. She didn't want to look at Bethany, afraid of what her own face might reveal. She fingered through the photographs cooperatively, unable to avoid noticing the fact that they represented all styles and all periods of time. There were tintypes, there were old black and white snapshots, there were studio studies, there were hand-tinted portraits. Some of them had handwriting on the back, identifying either the subjects or the places. Charlie didn't want to think what this meant. Jessie-Lynn just before Merle's wedding.
Henry Leel said, "So how'd you come to think these Lawton folks'd be here? At this shop in Temecula."
"There was a receipt," Bethany responded. "Charlie, show him what you found in that frame."
Charlie handed over the slip of paper. As Henry Leel squinted down at it, she said, "It must have been a coincidence. The picture ... this one of his parents... it was a bit loose in the frame, and he must have been just using it to fill in the gap. I saw it and... Since I was hoping to track down his family, I made a leap that wasn't warranted. That's all."
Chapter 15
Henry Leel pulled thoughtfully at his chin. He cocked his head to one side and tapped his index finger - its nail blackened by some sort of fungus - against the receipt. He said, "These're numbered. See here? One-oh-five-eight in the top right-hand corner? Just hang on a minute. I might be able to help you." He rustled within his rolltop desk, rousing Mugs from her slumber at its side. She lifted her head and blinked at him sleepily before pillowing herself once again in her paws. Her master brought forth a worn, black, floppy-covered book of an official nature and he plopped it onto his desktop, saying, "Let's see what we can come up with in here."
In here turned out to be copies of the sales receipts for merchandise for Time on My Side. Within a moment, the shop owner had leafed back through them to find what was on either side of 1058. 1059 had been made out to a Barbara Fryer with a home address in Huntington Beach. "Not much help there," Henry Leel said regretfully, but he added, "Say now. Here's what we want," when he saw the receipt that preceded it. "Here's who you're looking for. You said Lawton, didn't you? Well, I've got myself a Lawton right here."
He swung the accounts book in Charlie's direction, and she saw what she'd anticipated seeing - without knowing or understanding why she would be seeing it - the moment she began fingering through the old pictures. Eric Lawton was written on receipt number 1057. Instead of an address anywhere at all, there was only a phone number: Eric's work number at the pharmaceutical company where he'd been director of sales for the seven years that Charlie had known him.
Beneath Eric's name was a list of purchases. Charlie read gold locket (14 ct), 19th century porcelain box, woman's diamond ring, and Japanese fan. Beneath this last was the number ten and the word pix. Charlie didn't need to ask what that final notation meant.
Bethany pointed to it, saying, "Charles, is this - "
Charlie cut her off. Her limbs felt like lead, but she moved them anyway, turning the account book back to the shop owner and saying, "No. It's... I'm looking for Clark or Marilyn Law-ton. This is someone else."
Henry Leel said, "Oh. Well, I s'pose it wouldn't be this fellah. He was too young to be who you're looking for anyway. I remember him, and he was... say... fortyish? Forty-five. I remember because look here, he spent near seven hundred dollars - the ring and the locket were the big-money items - and you don't see that kind of sale every day. I said to him, 'Some lady's going to get lucky,' and he winked. 'Every lady's lucky when she's my lady,' he said. I remember that. Cocky, I thought. But cocky in a good way. You know what I mean?"
Charlie smiled faintly. She got to her feet. She said, "Thanks. Thanks so much for your help."
"Sorry I couldn't've been more of a one," Henry Leel replied. "Say, you want to head off right now? You're looking green around the gills. Ask me, you need a straight shot of brandy."
"No, no. I'm fine. Thanks," Charlie said. She gripped Bethany's