The Lost Girls Of Paris. Пэм Дженофф

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       Chapter Eight

      Grace

       New York, 1946

      The suitcase was gone.

      Grace stood motionless in the concourse of Grand Central, letting the end-of-day crowds swirl around her as she stared at the space beneath the bench where the suitcase had been that morning. For a moment, she thought she might have imagined it. But the photographs she had removed from the suitcase were there, thick in her hand. No, someone had taken or moved it in the hours while she had been at work.

      That the suitcase was no longer under the bench should not have been a surprise. It belonged to someone and hours had passed. It was only natural that someone had come to claim it. But now that it was gone, the mystery of the suitcase and the photographs became all the more intriguing. Grace looked down at the photos in her hand, which she felt bad for having taken in the first place.

      “Excuse me,” Grace called to a porter as he passed.

      He stopped, tipped his red cap in her direction. “Ma’am?”

      “I’m looking for a suitcase.”

      “If it’s in the stored luggage, I can get it for you.” He held out his hand. “Can I have your ticket?”

      “No, you don’t understand. It isn’t my bag. There was one left under a bench earlier this morning. Over there.” She pointed. “I’m trying to find out where it went. Brown, with writing on the side.”

      The porter looked perplexed. “But if it isn’t your bag, why are you looking for it?”

      Good question, Grace thought. She considered saying something about the photographs, but decided against it. “I’m trying to find its owner,” she said finally.

      “I can’t help you without a ticket. You might want to ask at the lost and found,” he replied.

      The lost and found was on the lower level of the station in a quiet, musty corner that seemed worlds away from the bustle above. An older man with white sideburns wearing a brimmed visor and a vest sat behind the counter, reading a newspaper. “I’m looking for a suitcase, brown with chalk writing on it.”