From Here to Paternity

found the sizes of the families on the sheets interesting, if appalling. Most of the families seemed to have a child every two years like clockwork. Here and there was a three-year gap, which Jane took to indicate a miscarriage or a stillborn baby. Many of the women were in their forties and still had an infant around, as well as children as old as the early twenties. Jane tried for a moment to imagine herself with a tiny baby and a couple more still to come, and shuddered at the thought.
    There were also a great many middle-aged spinsters and bachelors living with elderly parents, sometimes several in a family. It was hard to realize that marriage hadn’t always been the norm. A man who couldn’t support a family simply didn’t marry. And a woman who never got a proposal had no alternative but to stay at home forever. Jane found herself studying these long-dead families and imagining their lives. It was surprising how much you could tell about a different way of life just from names, ages, and the other seemingly impersonal data on the forms. On one sheet, depicting a New York neighborhood at the turn of the century, not a single adult listed his or her place of birth as anywhere in the United States. On a single street there were Rileys, O’Callahans, Kolenskis, Kleinschmids, McSheas, Pfeiffers, and Joneses. What a rich jumble of languages one must have heard spoken along the sidewalks there!
    After a bit, Jane folded up the census reports and put them in a pile, then began looking over the rest of the contents of the file. There were a lot of newspaper clippings, some originals protected in plastic sleeves, some photocopies. Most had to do with the Romanovs. One very old one was a small official portrait of Tsar Nicholas and a cousin Sergei not long before the Tsar had abdicated, according to the text of the article, which was from a London newspaper. Perhaps this man was the father of the Gregor Roman that Doris had followed. There was a much larger duplicate of this picture in the folder as well. It was also much clearer—apparently a copy of the actual photograph. On the back was a handwritten notation of where and when the photo had been taken, and the name of a person in Holnagrad. Presumably this was who had supplied it to Doris.
    Jane set the clippings on the pile as well. All the rest of the material was handwritten and typed notes. Many of these had to do with Gregory Smith of Colorado. One sheet, a handwritten one, was a sort of chart. It was labeled “Sheepshead Bay Court Records“, with a long film number and three columns. Two names were starred with a red pen:

*Roman G.
Book B
Page 16
Dolman, T.
Book B
Page 601
*Smith, N. D.
Book D
Page 493
Smith, A. C.
Book G
Page 83
Rutheven,?
Book M
Page 500
Wiley, J.
Book O
Page 4
Aulkunder, J.
Book Y
Page 342
Sellinger, Q
Book Y
Page 770
Schellberger,?
Book Z
Page 113
Harmon, D.
Book AA
Page 612

    What on earth was this all about? Jane wondered. Were all these people somehow connected with Gregory Smith? At least in Doris’s mind they must have been. The references must have to do with documents, but what kind of documents? The list would surely mean something to somebody who knew how to translate it.
    Satisfied that she’d tidied up the file, Jane slipped everything back into the folder and put it on the counter between the kitchen and the dining area. She must remember to give it to Lucky so that it could go to someone to whom it would mean something. She poured herself a cup of coffee, took it back to the living room, and stretched out on one of the sofas to skim through her new copy of I, HawkHunter .
    That was where Shelley found her an hour later, sound asleep with the book over her face like a tent.

Chapter 16

    “Jane, wake up. The sheriff wants to talk to you,“ Shelley hissed.
    Jane sat up, angry with herself for falling asleep and feeling so fuddled. “Give me a minute to slap myself awake,“ she said, tearing toward the bathroom, where she slapped some cold water on her face and brushed her teeth fiercely, thinking at least her gums and cheeks would be awake and they were both fairly close to her brain.
    As it turned out, she didn’t need any special wits for this interview. The sheriff asked her the same things he’d already asked before. Did she know Doris or Bill before coming here? Was she a member of the group that was meeting here? Why did she go to Mrs. Schmidtheiser’s cabin? Why did she head toward the snowman? This was a