Escape Velocity

Chapter Twenty-six

Christina had barely handed me the diary when Melisse got a call from Dr. Seabron. It was very mysterious as Melisse gave clipped one-word answers. She rushed out, saying that it was big and that it changed everything.

"What do you think that's all about?" I asked, no longer concerned with the details of how Kate had tried to hide the diary on the bookshelves in the Drake Library, though I wished they had confronted her.

"No idea. But there were some news vans at the front entrance. Maybe they want to interview Kate about her rescue."

"It hasn't been publicly announced. That can't be it."

"Well, whatever it is, it doesn't involve us. We need to finish our online search. You know more than you did the first time we tried. Let's check again." She pulled her computer out of her tote bag and opened it on her lap. "How should we divide it up?"

"You're willing to keep working on this?"

"Why not? With Parallax over, I don't have anything else to do. Let's start with some names."

"Okay, my great-grandmother was Eleanora or Lora Vasari. Her daughter was Ginevra Vasari. My great-grandmother was born around 1918 in Bologna. That's all we know."

Christina began typing before she spoke. "You take Eleanora. I'll try Ginevra Vasari. If they don't turn up any results, we'll try under Ossola."

"Here's my great-grandparents' marriage record. November 6, 1945. Norfolk, Virginia. It has her parents' names. Giovanni Vasari and Armina Montanto. Nothing's coming up for earlier records in Italy."

"I found a few broad matches on Ginevra Vasari, but nothing worth pursuing so far. This is hard but we should keep trying. It can take years to track people down."

"Oh, man. That would be bad. I don't have years." I cleared my throat. "I wish I had years, but I don't think I do."

Christina said, "Let's try Ossola. They might have adopted her."

"If they all lived."

"Don't say that. Let's be positive. We will find her. I can sense it."

"What if Ginevra married? I mean, she probably did. Then there'd be a whole different name. What if a different family adopted her?"

Christina sank back in her chair and said, "Ugh."

The different searches for Ginevra Ossola provided me with no good leads. A search by first name came back with thousands of results; I didn't bother clicking on any of them. For the second round, I limited it to marriage records.

I said, "This might be a possibility. 1976 in Bologna. A Ginevra Portere married an Eduardo Brunetto." I clicked through the summary details to view the digitized image of the marriage record. Of course, it was in Italian, plus almost illegible in spots.

Christina's fingers flew with wicked determination. "This is crap. There are no birth records for Ginevra Portere. As in zero. Not even partial matches."

There was no way I was giving up. If I had to search all night, I'd find an answer. The memory of Gramp in the hospital was all the incentive I needed.

Then I had another thought. There could be more information in that marriage record.

And I knew someone who spoke Italian.

~~~

The main lobby was filled with journalists. Even CNN had shown up. No sign of anyone from Parallax until I found Dr. Brunello at the Milky Way Cafe. He looked like he was hiding out in a corner booth with his computer and seemed distracted when I interrupted him.