Part 13 (1/2)

Wally took a deep breath and let it out in a rush. ”Okay. Good,” she said. ”Nothing personal. I just now realized I wasn't ready for it if you were. Not yet.”

”You're not ready because I'm not your mother,” Dr. Rainer said kindly. ”When you face her, you'll know her. And you'll be ready then. I'm sure of it.”

When I face her. Wally's mother was alive. She took a moment to let the reality of it sink in. It was hope that had driven Wally's search forward, but in a corner of her heart she had always held on to a small amount of doubt, a lifeline to protect her in case her search ended in failure. That doubt was gone now, and Wally allowed herself to embrace the feeling of joy ... and antic.i.p.ation. The thrill of it raced through her, taking her breath away.

”Tell me everything,” she said, barely able to speak the words.

SIXTEEN.

Detective Atley Greer pulled onto 88th from Columbus and parked in a loading zone, just a few doors away from the doctor's address. He was seriously dragging after a long day of canva.s.sing on a home-invasion case, and when he spotted a Starbucks across the street, he headed in that direction for a jolt of espresso. He was early for his appointment and had plenty of time.

Atley was halfway across the street, just a hundred feet or so away from the coffee place, when he noticed that the shop was in the process of closing; the manager herded three teenage kids out onto the sidewalk and locked the door behind them. Atley stopped and scanned the street for another nearby source of caffeine but saw none, and was just about to head straight to Dr. Rainer's office when something started to nag at him: hadn't he seen those kids somewhere recently? He turned back to face the Starbucks and saw that although the shop had been closed, the teens were staying there, lurking outside the coffee shop as if waiting for someone. He looked them over again-still at a distance-and suddenly he realized who they were. These were Wallis Stoneman's friends, the ones she had been with in the Greenport train station security camera footage. This coincidence struck Atley as especially unlikely; he'd been hunting them for over a week and here they were, outside an office where he was about to have a meeting that had to do with Wallis. What did that mean?

Atley looked away from them immediately, hoping they didn't realize that he'd noticed them. After a few moments the teens abandoned their post in front of the Starbucks and began walking together down along 88th Street. They moved casually enough that Atley couldn't tell if they'd made him or not. Following their movement in the reflection of a shop window, Atley waited until the teens disappeared around the corner at Amsterdam and jogged after them. He reached the corner and stopped there, peering down the avenue to confirm that the three kids were still far enough ahead of him that they would not feel him on their tail. They continued casually on their way down Amsterdam, not once looking back behind them.

Atley checked his watch. He still had half an hour before his appointment with the shrink and this was too good an opportunity to pa.s.s up. He started walking after the kids, south on Amsterdam at their same casual pace, keeping the distance between them consistent. They reached the corner of Amsterdam at 87th and turned left, moving out of view. Atley picked up his pace and reached the corner in less than ten seconds, but ... when he made the left turn onto 87th, he looked east down the street and saw no one in front of him, not on either sidewalk. No teenage street crew, no one. Empty.

”You gotta be kiddin' me ...” Atley mumbled angrily. He hurried along 87th, looking into doorways, scanning the recesses of walk-down bas.e.m.e.nt apartments, but the kids were nowhere to be seen. There were several storefronts nearby, including a dry cleaner, a pizza place, and an empty s.p.a.ce that used to be a bank, but a scan of these spots turned up nothing.

”Son of a b.i.t.c.h...”

Tevin, Ella, and Jake hunched low and motionless, hidden behind the half-size Dumpster in the pa.s.sageway behind the bank. Peering carefully out toward the street, they could see the cop looking around, p.i.s.sed off, wondering how they had lost him.

”How do we know this cop?” asked Jake.

”We don't,” answered Tevin. ”I don't, anyway.”

”Me either. So why is he on us?” Ella asked.

As they considered the question, they watched the cop give up and turn around, headed back to where they had first spotted him: outside the Starbucks, across the street from the shrink's office. Where Wally was.

”This is not good,” said Tevin.

SEVENTEEN.

”I won't leave here until you tell me everything,” Wally said when Dr. Rainer had hesitated to answer her.

”I'll tell you what I can, Wally,” Dr. Rainer said. Wally could see that there would be boundaries to this interview; she would have to be cautious not to spook Dr. Rainer any more than she already had.

”You knew my mother very well,” Wally began.

”Yes. Since she was your age.”

”In Russia. You and Benjamin Hatch both knew her.”

Dr. Rainer was surprised to hear Hatch's name come from Wally.

”Yes. Benjamin and I ... we were together in those days. During our years at the Emerson School. Benjamin and I worked there. For a time, he and I ...” But the doctor's thoughts drifted for a moment, and she didn't finish her sentence.

”And my mother ... do you have a picture of her?”

The question seemed to catch Dr. Rainer off balance. Strange, thought Wally, since it seemed like a simple yes-or-no.

”I'm sorry, no,” Dr. Rainer finally said.

”But you still know Yalena. She's here.”

A pause. ”Yes.”

”Do I know her?” Wally had a lump in her throat now, her voice cracking a little; she hated being in the grip of something so beyond her control. ”Do I know her, Doctor?”

Dr. Rainer s.h.i.+fted uncomfortably in her seat. ”I have questions too, Wally.”

”No, you don't understand,” Wally protested. ”I have to find her. Who is she, Doctor?”

”I can't tell you that, Wallis,” Dr. Rainer said. ”I made that promise. And it wouldn't be safe. If you had that knowledge, there are those who would do anything to make you tell, you see?”

It was obvious that Dr. Rainer would not compromise on this point, and Wally couldn't afford to lose her as an ally.

”Okay,” Wally said, trying to hide her impatience. ”Then what can you tell me about her?”

”What do you want to know?”

”Well ...” Wally had too many questions. Where to begin? The beginning. ”What was my mother like? Back then, in Russia.”

Dr. Rainer thought back. ”Smart. Pretty.” Dr. Rainer looked up and set an appraising look on Wally, obviously making a comparison. ”A lot like you, Wallis. Lovely, but ... more conventional. She had a worldly education; her own mother worked on the staff of the Emerson School, so Yalena practically grew up there, among the Americans. She was athletic. She played the piano well. She was a reasonably good student. Boys liked her, but she was ... reserved. By nature.”

”How did things go wrong for her?” For the past week, Wally had been weaving imaginary narratives in her mind, trying to imagine the sequence of events that had resulted in Yalena Mayakova giving up her own child, her own flesh and blood.

”She had been raised by a single mother,” Dr. Rainer said. ”And Yalena craved a strong male presence in her life. She was drawn to men, not boys.”

”She found someone,” Wally said.

Dr. Rainer gave a dreadful sigh. ”Someone found her.”

”And there was trouble.”

”Not at first, but yes. Bad trouble.”

”What was the man's name?”

Wally watched as Dr. Rainer wrestled with this question. Did she have to right to reveal the name to Wally? Did she have the right not to?

”Klesko.” Dr. Rainer spoke the name with reluctance, as if it were a dark spell that she feared might conjure the man himself. ”Alexei Klesko.”