Chapter 6

Dani waited after his answer.

Sal had nothing else ready.

Gina took the chair he had left.

"She wouldn't speak to us."

Dot made a small sound.

Ruth looked up.

"Is that accurate?"

Dot rubbed the edge of her apron.

"No."

Gina turned toward her.

"Be careful."

Dot's hands stopped moving.

Ruth set down her pen.

"She can finish."

Dot looked at Sal.

"Renata came back the next morning."

"You were upstairs."

Sal straightened.

"What?"

"She had Ben with her."

"She asked to see you."

Gina spoke sharply.

"You weren't on duty."

"I came for my check."

Dot looked toward the staircase.

"The front desk called upstairs."

"Then they told her to leave."

Sal's face changed.

"I never got that call."

Gina kept her eyes on Dot.

"You can't possibly remember a phone call."

"I remember your answer."

Dot repeated it quietly.

"Mr. Sabatini has nothing further to discuss."

Ruth picked up her pen again.

Sal stood behind the chair.

His fingers rested on its carved back.

Dani watched the white show around his nails.

"Did my father say anything?"

Dot nodded.

"He asked if your mother could get her things."

"What things?"

"Her work clothes."

"A box from her father."

"Whatever was in her old locker."

Dani looked toward the coat room downstairs.

Dot shook her head.

"Different lockers."

"We used the basement staff room then."

Gina rose again.

"The police have their statements."

"This doesn't need to become a reunion."

Sal looked at her.

"Sit down."

Dani's head turned.

"No."

The word stopped him.

She faced Gina.

"You don't have to sit."

Then she faced Sal.

"And you don't get to order everybody quiet."

Ruth watched without interrupting.

Sal let go of the chair.

"You're right."

Gina gave a thin laugh.

"Now she runs the meeting."

"No," Dani said.

"I'm asking about my mother."

Dot pulled a tissue from her apron.

She folded it instead of using it.

"Ben got her outside before she fell."

Dani lowered herself into the chair.

"He was a good man," she said.

Sal nodded.

"I didn't know him."

"But you knew her."

"Yes."

"How?"

Gina reached for her purse.

Nobody moved to help her.

Sal looked at the old photograph.

"We were together once."

"Before your father."

Dani's hand went to her pendant.

Sal noticed.

"Ben was your father."

"I know who my dad was."

"Of course."

Ruth leaned back, giving them room.

Sal spoke toward the desk.

"Renata ended it."

"She wanted a different life."

"What did you want?"

He looked at the walnut cabinets.

Then at the safe.

"I thought she would change her mind."

Gina's purse clasp snapped shut.

Dani did not look at her.

"And when she didn't?"

"I believed something I should've questioned."

Dot finally used the tissue.

Sal's voice grew rougher.

"She was twenty-five."

"I had people at every door."

Dani glanced toward the open office entrance.

A man in a dark suit stood outside.

He had been there since the police arrived.

Sal followed her eyes.

He stepped into the hallway.

"Go back downstairs."

The man left without speaking.

Sal returned but stayed away from the door.

Dani loosened her grip on the coat.

Ruth asked Dot whether Renata ever wrote afterward.

"Not to me."

"Did you try to find her?"

Dot's shoulders dropped.

"Once."

"I asked Gina for a forwarding address."

Gina said nothing.

"What did she tell you?" Dani asked.

Dot looked at Sal.

Then back at Dani.

"That your mother had asked us never to contact her."

Dani touched the old photograph.

"My mother told me never to say our name here."