Chapter 4: The Hospital Chapter

On Monday morning, Vivian did not come to the sunroom. A housekeeper named Rosa met them at the door instead and handed each of them an envelope. Inside Nora's was a single index card in Vivian's sharp, slanted handwriting: Today you interview each other. I want to know who I am trusting.

Eli read his card, turned it over, and laughed. "She's directing us," he said. "We're in a Vivian Hart picture now."

"I don't do interviews," Nora said. "That's the whole point of being a ghost."

"Then I'll go first." He sat down on the stone steps of the terrace and squinted up at her against the sun. "Ask me anything. Anything at all. I promise to tell the truth, which is more than most of our clients can say."

She sat two steps above him, notebook on her knees, and asked the questions she would have asked anyone. Where he grew up. Why he started ghostwriting. What he read when nobody was watching. He answered all of them easily and well, and by the end of an hour she had four pages of notes and the uncomfortable feeling that she knew nothing about him at all.

"You're very good at this," she said finally.

"At what?"