trying to think of nice things about Mona.
âI woke up and the study door was wide open and she was gone. I thought maybe sheâd gone over to Shadow Grove.â
âWhatâs Shadow Grove?â Gretchen asked.
âA spiritualist colony,â Esther said. âWhich is a nice way to say, a bunch of kooks who made their own little town out here in the country.â Someone as eccentric as Esther calling people a bunch of kooks made Gretchen laugh.
âSheâd been back and forth between here and there that last visit,â Esther went on. âBut nobody there saw her after sheâd disappeared. You must know all this already. The police and that psychic your momâs friend hired were putting together a timeline.â
Gretchen turned away and looked out into the woods. She had been sheltered from many details in the aftermath of Monaâs disappearance, but now as Esther was talking, she remembered people in and out of their apartment, looking through her motherâs things. She remembered seeinga story on the cover of the Post that said The Lady Vanishes and had a picture of Mona standing in front of one of the galleryâs most recognized acquisitionsâa photograph by Michelle Manes of ghostly children playing in front of a tombstone shaped like a lamb. She remembered her father whisking the paper out of her hand. Telling her it was garbage. Thatâs she shouldnât read those things.
What Gretchen wanted least to remember was this: after two months the detectives and even the psychic said the same thing. There was no foul play. All evidence pointed to Mona leaving on her own accord. Sheâd abandoned them, the gallery, everything. She didnât want to be found. The psychic said she saw Mona with a second family, and that it was a struggle and she missed Gretchen and her father, but that she was needed where she was. The police said there was nothing to do without a motive or a body.
Gretchen also didnât want to remember the grief her father had gone through, or how he quit his practice in the city and started taking medical assignments in the developing worldâgone for months at a timeâand then came home and spoiled her, buying her whatever she wanted. The only saving grace of that time period was living just two floors above Simon.
For some time, people continued to tell her theyâd findher mom, that things were going to be okay. But after a while no one talked about it, about Mona. The gallery closed.
The lady vanishes, Gretchen thought. Just like that. And now here she was six years later, maybe closer than sheâd ever been to knowing what Mona might have been doing those last days. She was almost an adult herself. She was inheriting a house, and had more freedom and access to information than sheâd ever had. If she could find Mona she could tell her how she felt. And some part of her knew that she also just wanted to see her again. To have a mom.
She looked right at Esther. âLetâs solve this.â
âHell yeah,â Esther said, raising her glass. âThatâs the plan!â
Sometime after midnight Esther thought the woodland creatures would be done scavenging and safely back up in the attic. âThey come down around dusk and then go back up to their place,â she explained.
âHow can you live with squirrels or raccoons or whatever those are?â Gretchen asked. âAlso, doesnât the cat keep them away?â
Esther laughed. âUsed to be three cats,â she said, not needing to explain more.
âWhy donât you call someone to come and take them out of here?â
âNot a bad idea,â Esther said, her speech languid from drink. âLetâs add it to the list.â
Gretchen laughed and shook her head. It was hard to fathom this woman. In one sense she was so put togetherâthe way she dressed, her intelligence, her down-to-earth sophistication. And at the same