The men surveyed the street rather than the restaurant.
Curtis straightened his tie and hurried toward the door.
He assumed an important guest had decided to eat late.
The woman entered without removing her gloves.
She introduced herself as Claire Whitmore, executive director of Whitmore Industries.
Curtis smiled so broadly that Nora could see the strain in his cheeks.
Claire did not return the smile.
She asked which employee was Nora Bennett.
Nora raised a hand, certain she was about to be accused of allowing someone to use the diner telephone without permission.
Claire approached the counter carrying a narrow leather case with two brass clasps.
She said that Henry Whitmore had asked her to deliver it to Nora personally.
Curtis looked from the case to Nora and back again.
Claire explained that the elderly gentleman Nora had served was Henry Whitmore, the founder of a company whose name appeared on hospitals, rail terminals, and apartment buildings across the city.
Nora glanced toward the dark windows and wondered whether she had been the subject of an elaborate joke.
Claire set the case on the counter but did not open it.
She asked Nora to confirm her full name and the name of her mother.
Nora answered the first question immediately.
The second made her grip the counter.
Her mother had been named Elise Bennett, and she had died fourteen years earlier.
Claire closed her eyes for one long moment.
Then she asked Curtis to give them a private room.
Chapter 3: The Photograph
Curtis led them into the back office without offering to move the dirty coffee cups from the desk.
Nora refused to leave the kitchen door closed because she did not want a conversation with strangers to become another reason for punishment.
Claire accepted her condition and asked the two men to wait outside.
She placed a small key in Nora’s palm.
The brass clasp opened with a soft click.
Inside the case lay a folded letter, a photograph in a yellowing cardboard frame, and a narrow blue ribbon.
Nora recognized the ribbon first.
Her mother had kept one exactly like it around a wooden box of family photographs.
The photograph showed a younger Henry Whitmore standing beside a woman in a white laboratory coat.
The woman was Elise Bennett.
Nora had never seen her mother in a laboratory.
She had known her as a home health aide who worked double shifts and came home smelling of lavender soap.
Claire said that Elise had once worked in a research division belonging to Whitmore Industries.
