Jo did not wait for Tess to tell her why the Alder Hotel wanted a meeting. She called while Tess was walking toward the bus stop. “Somebody rang me pretending to be you,” she said. “Where are you?”
“Outside my building.”
“Come here. I wrote down what she said.”
Tess went to Jo's flat instead of the hotel. Jo opened the door before Tess knocked and held up a page torn from a grocery pad. Her thumb had left a dark pencil mark in the margin. The kitchen smelled of onions. Two plates were set out, one covered to keep the food warm.
“Tell me before I read,” Tess said.
Jo folded her arms. “She said, ‘It's Tess. Mum left papers and I need to know what I took home.’ She spoke as if I'd watched you pack the car yesterday. I said I didn't.”
“How did she sound?” Tess asked.
“At first I thought you were crying. She rushed past hello and kept saying Mum, and I thought you couldn't bear talking about yesterday. Then the voice started bothering me.” Jo unfolded her arms. “That's the part that made me talk longer than I should have. I thought if it was you in trouble, I'd be cruel to ask for proof.”
“You didn't give her anything.”
“I told her I left food at your place. And when she asked if I was coming to see you Friday, I said I'd come to the library event if I got off work. I didn't give her your hours. The event's public, but still.” Jo watched Tess write it down. “They were little things to say when I thought I was talking to you. They feel bigger now.”
“It tells her you can get in.”
“You let me in yesterday. I gave my old key back years ago; Mrs. Dyer has the spare now. The caller asked about it like she knew there was a key somewhere.”
Tess remembered Jo returning her key after moving across town, making a show of putting it in Tess's hand because she did not want their friendship to feel like an open door she could use without asking. Tess had laughed at the ceremony then. Today she was grateful Jo remembered it.
“Did she ask for my address?”
“She knew it. She asked whether I had gone into your flat and seen a case. I said you'd let me in with food, not that I'd inspected your furniture.”
“What made you know it wasn't me?”
“She asked if I still keep the spare key at my place. I don't. You know that.” Jo set the pad down. “Also you don't call your mother Mum when you're trying to sound businesslike.”
Tess almost smiled. “No. I save that for when I'm trying to annoy Mara.”
“I knew by then. I said I didn't have it. She asked who did. I told her to ask you directly, and she hung up.”
“What number?”
Jo showed the call log. The number was visible, not saved under a name. Tess photographed it, then asked Jo to start again and give only the words she remembered exactly.
“You can stop interviewing me,” Jo said when Tess asked whether the caller had asked where she would be Friday. “She asked about the event. That was all. I wouldn't leave out anything else.”
Tess lowered the pen. “I know.”
“You don't sound like you know.”
“A hotel called this morning. Someone checked into a room under my name and tried to collect a package June addressed to me. They didn't get it.”
Jo pulled out a chair. Tess sat. Jo remained standing. “And you weren't going to tell me until after you got a transcript from me?”
“I found out today.”
“You found out about the call to me because I told you. If I hadn't recognized her, would you have wanted me to bring her your address?”
“No.”
“Then I needed a warning, Tess.”
Jo had helped her move into the flat. She knew Mrs. Dyer and the spare key, which part of the window stuck, how to find a clean towel without asking. Tess had wanted to keep one person outside June's paper, but Jo was already inside the route the stranger had tried. “You're right,” she said. “I should have called before I left work.”
Jo sat opposite her. “What is in the package?”
“I don't know. The hotel says June arranged the delivery. They're holding it until I collect it with ID.”
“Why send it to you at a hotel?”
“I don't know that either.”
Jo took the lid off the second plate and let the steam out. “When we were teenagers, your mother once sent me to give Mara a note instead of calling her. It was about a car that needed moving. I felt important for five minutes. Then I saw you standing in the hall, waiting to ask June whether she would be home for dinner.”
“I don't remember.”
“I do. I didn't know until later that June had a habit of making everybody a messenger for one small part of her day.”
Tess put her pen down. “She used you too.”
“A note about a car isn't what happened today. I am saying I know how easy it is to feel helpful before you know what you're carrying.” Jo looked at the grocery pad. “This woman on the phone tried the same thing. If she'd sounded a little more like you, I might have told her more.”
Tess wanted to thank her for noticing the difference. Jo would hear it as praise for passing a test Tess had not warned her she might face. Tess lifted the warm plate instead.
Tess could tell Jo about the list. The page was in her bag. She rested one hand on the zipper and thought of June's handwriting, six women named and crossed out. If she showed it, Jo might look at Tess as a person scheduled for something on Friday. Tess did not need to make Jo carry that fear before Tess knew what it meant. She did need to give her enough to refuse another call.
“June left a locked case of papers,” Tess said. “I brought it home after the funeral. The caller is asking people whether I have it. I think she wants that and the hotel package. I don't know who she is yet.”
“Does Mara?”
“She recognized one name connected to June's errands. She's bringing her old slips.”
Jo's face changed at the word slips. “How many of these people did your mother send through our streets?”
“I don't know. I used to be angry that Mara knew and I didn't. Today I'd settle for knowing how one person got my name.”
Jo got up to check the covered plate. “I can call Mrs. Dyer. Tell her someone may ask for the spare.”
“I will do that. She and I have a way of checking.”
“Do it now.” Jo handed Tess the warm plate and her phone. Tess put the plate aside and called Dyer. There was no answer. She left a message asking Dyer not to release the key to anyone without speaking to Tess on her saved number. She did not say the list or the hotel on voice mail.
Jo watched her put the phone down. “If I get another call?”
“Ask something the caller can't get from my name.”
“Like the book you threw at me when we were twelve?”
“You threw it first.”
“That isn't a verification question. Half the neighborhood remembers.”
They chose a phrase from an old joke about a cake Jo once burned and Tess pretended to eat. Jo wrote it on the back of the grocery pad, then scratched it out. “I can remember it.”
Tess ate while Jo told her which parts of the call had felt strange even before the key question. The woman had rushed past a hello and named June as if grief were a credential. She had not asked how Jo was. Tess usually did, even on the days she forgot to listen to the answer. Jo said that last part without trying to hurt her. It hurt anyway.
At the door, Jo held the grocery pad out. “Keep the words. I don't want another hour with you asking if I changed one.”
“I wasn't going to ask for another hour.”
“You were starting a second list of questions before I fed you.” Jo's voice softened. “I'm your friend. I will help you remember the call. I can't become the front desk of your life just because somebody else tried to get through it.”
Tess folded the pad along its torn edge. “I don't want that.”
“Then next time start by telling me what happened to you. You can ask what I heard after.”
“I trust you.”
“You trust me to notice a false caller. You didn't trust me enough to tell me there might be one.”
Tess took the page. She could not correct that in a notebook. “I will call after the hotel.”
“Call before you go home,” Jo said. “I'm making another plate whether you want it or not.”
Outside, Tess checked her phone. Mrs. Dyer had not called back. The hotel manager had left a message confirming the time to meet. Tess took the bus toward the hotel. Before the second stop Dyer called. “Come back,” she said. “Someone asked me for your key.” Tess got off at the next stop and turned toward home.