“As I recall, she did not. I can ask the head of housekeeping if she is aware of anyone having been in contact with Rosanne over the years, but my guess is no one has. I have not heard her name mentioned since the day she left, until today. Rosanne was a good worker, but she kept to herself. Again, I’m very sorry.”
“I am, too.” I sigh. “Do you know where in Petaluma she was living when she worked here? Might she have had roommates or a landlord who she stayed in touch with?”
He hesitates before answering. “Sorry, but I don’t think I’m at liberty to divulge an employee’s personal information to someone I’ve just met. I take it none of your other family members have stayed in touch with her?”
“No. It’s... it’s complicated with my family.”
“I see.” He stands, signaling he has nothing else to offer me.
“May I leave you my phone number in case your head of housekeeping might know where Rosanne went when she left here?” I ask. “And would you be willing to contact the landlord of the last residence you have on record and inquire about Rosie? I know it’s a lot to ask. I wouldn’t trouble you if it wasn’t important. That person can just call me, then, if they have been in contact with her.”
“I can have one of the clerks look into this for you.” He reaches into the breast pocket of his suit coat and removes a hotel business card from a little brass case. He hands it to me. “Jot your name and telephone number on the back of the card there. If we hear that anyone might have information for you, I will call you.”
I write down George and Lila’s phone number and hand the card back to him. My frustration seems to keep me pressed to the chair, and I rise as if burdened by the weight of it.
“I can see you had hoped for better information about your relative, and I’m sorry I can’t provide it, but I can tell you when she left here she seemed happy,” Mr. Brohm says.
The heaviness in my chest lessens a bit. “She did?”
“Yes. Happy enough for me to remember it, Miss Calvert. I hope you can take some comfort in that.”
“Thank you for telling me. It actually means a great deal.” I shake his hand, leave the hotel, and return to the Studebaker to head back to San Francisco.
•••
I spend the next two days alternating between feeling like I’ll never know what has become of Rosie Maras and nursing the hope that I will.
I check the local and regional phone books in the downtown library, looking for a Rosanne Maras to no avail. I place calls to directory assistance in Los Angeles and San Diego and Sacramento. No Rosanne Maras is listed.
I call the Sonoma County social services office and ask for Eunice Grissom, the name on the letter I found in Celine’s file cabinet, not knowing if she’s still a social worker employed there. She is, but she offers me no more than what I already know: Rosie was released from county oversight on her twenty-first birthday.
“I’ve not heard from her,” the woman tells me. “And it’s not likely that I would have. She wasn’t under any obligation to keep me informed of her whereabouts.”
“Do you know where her baby was placed? Or perhaps what kind of family adopted her?” I ask next.
“Even if I did, I couldn’t tell you,” Mrs. Grissom says.
I’d figured as much.
“Can you tell me if Rosie was agreeable to her daughter being adopted? Can you tell me that?” I ask.
“I’m not telling you that, either.”
“She wasn’t, was she? That’s why she named her. Rosie wanted to keep Amaryllis.”
“Rosanne Maras was seventeen, homeless, and with no means to support herself. It doesn’t matter if she did or didn’t.”
“It matters because Amaryllis will be the only child Rosie will ever have.”
Mrs. Grissom is quiet for a moment. “So you know about the procedure she had done at the institution.”
“I do. Dr. Townsend told me all about it.” I suddenly don’t care if I burn a bridge here. This woman will be of no help to me. “And she didn’t have it done. It was done to her.”
Mrs. Grissom’s tone changes when next she speaks. “I didn’t make that decision. I wasn’t consulted.”
“But you knew they did that sort of thing when you took her there, didn’t you? My sister-in-law knew. And how could Celine have known unless you told her?”
“Look, I do the best I can with what I am actually able to do. Try doing my job and see how well you can make the laws work perfectly for the people under your care. I have to go. I’ve got far more to do today than time to do it.”
