Prologue
Page 38
She let go of his hand and shook her head. “You don’t get it. Vlad’s sister and her husband were the only real options. But then the war came and I was sick about it. Horrible. Millions dead. And afterwards everything was so screwed up it was years before we could do anything. Years before we even knew anything. Every time off from school I’d go to the Soviet Union, searching...”
“That’s all different now,” he said. “We’ll look it up. For all we know those wars never happened, none of them.”
“But they did happen, Paul, at least, they happened for me and you.”
Behind him Paul deVere heard the knob rattle and he turned to the door. He watched as Grace, every inch the daughter he knew, walked through the doorway, her arms filled with shopping bags. His face exploded in a smile.
“Hey Dad, hey Mom, who’s pitching tonight? It was supposed to be Conestan but the Globe said something about that rookie lefty maybe getting his first start.”
Three steps into the room Grace halted abruptly, her mouth hanging open. Paul stared back, equally open-mouthed, at the doorway.
“My God!” Grace exclaimed.
“Oh my God!” Paul repeated, under his breath.
Grace’s mouth closed. “That’s what I said, Dad. Mom, what the hell did you do to your hair? It, it looks great, doesn’t it, Sis?” she said over her shoulder to her companion. “Although it does look like something out of the nineteen sixties. You guys going to a costume party?”
Paul stared at the young woman standing just a few feet behind Grace. Her long brown hair hung straight down her back, and her angular features and deep blue eyes were unmistakable.
“Natasha?” he croaked softly. “I, I don’t get it.”
He swiveled back to Amanda who sat behind him, beaming broadly at the pair who had just walked through the door.
“How, how can this be?” he rasped in absolute confusion.
Instead of answering she again checked the screen in front of her before sitting back on her stool.
“I just thought I’d do something different with my hair,” she said airily. “Like it?
“So Nancy,” she said turning her attention to the older girl without waiting for an answer, “you haven’t seen your father’s new lab? He’ll give you the grand tour. Every time is like a new experience for him, right, honey?” she asked, turning to Paul.
She checked the screen again. “Maybe after you finish up that PhD at the University of Chicago you can get a professorship here with your dad. Any reason you can’t have a father and daughter teaching in the same department, Paul?” she asked coyly.
Amanda reached over, clicked out of the screen in front of her, and stood up. As she passed Paul she lightly took his hand and guided him to his feet.
“It’s O.K.,” she said softly. “It’s all O.K. Like I said, there’s something else I have to tell you about, about Ithaca, about when I left, but it can wait.”
She turned to the two young women at the door. “First, we have to take our daughters to the game tonight at Fenway Park. Some parents our age take their kids for granted but I don’t think we’ll ever do that, will we? And besides,” she added mischievously, “the rookie’s pitching and like you always say, Paul, we’ve got to prioritize.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Greg Ahlgren is a criminal defense lawyer in Manchester, New Hampshire. He received his B.A. degree from Syracuse University in 1974 and his J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law in 1977. He has been a criminal justice professor, a state legislator, and a political activist, and has appeared as a frequent guest on both national and local television and radio shows on true crime and historical issues. His other books include the international thriller The Medici Legacy and, together with Stephen Monier, he co-authored the true crime book Crime of the Century: The Lindbergh Kidnapping Hoax. If you enjoyed this book and wish to peruse other books by the author, or wish to comment on this book, please visit his writing website at GregAhlgren.com. He can be contacted directly at Greg@GregAhlgren.com.