Chapter 33
All eight of them sat staring at Jin as he lifted the piece of white fabric, revealing a third Christmas tree. This one was decorated with candy canes. There was silence for several moments. Finally Kingsley spoke up after looking at the three trees openmouthed.
‘‘Are you saying she is a triplet?’’ he said.
Jin’s grin broadened. ‘‘She could be one of a set of quintuplets as far as we know. I just have three contributors.’’
‘‘More important, are you saying she’s alive?’’ said Merrick.
He and Drew exchanged glances and leaned forward as if somewhere in the three trees they might catch a glimpse of her.
‘‘She could have gotten hit by a truck this morning and be dead, but she didn’t die in Dr. Fallon’s apartment,’’ said Jin. ‘‘No one did, as far as the evidence shows. But two very anemic people left there.’’
‘‘She’s alive,’’ said Diane. ‘‘And she’s bought herself a really big head start.’’
‘‘You would never even know to look for her again were it not for Jin,’’ said David. ‘‘Way to go, buddy. Sorry for thinking you’d finally gone over the edge.’’
The two marshals did not look happy. ‘‘Can you tell us anything that will help us find her?’’ said Merrick.
‘‘Nothing definite,’’ said Jin. ‘‘But I can tell you something interesting.’’ He brought the third tree around and set it beside the other two. ‘‘This is Clymene,’’ he said of the tree with the candy canes. ‘‘The other two, the one with the red ornaments and the one with the blue ornaments, are her two sisters. There’s been a lot of twin studies in epigenetic research. Twin babies have, as you would expect, very similar epigenetic profiles. The older they get, the more different experiences they have, the more divergent their profiles get—that’s especially true in twins that have been separated at birth or at some other point in their lives. Clymene’s two sisters have similar profiles to each other. Clymene’s is very different.’’
‘‘Clymene was separated from her two sisters at some point,’’ said Kingsley. He was literally on the edge of his seat. ‘‘Is that what you are saying?’’
‘‘Yes,’’ said Jin. ‘‘I don’t know if that will help catch her, but I thought it was interesting.’’
‘‘In a way, it supports what Shane mentioned,’’ said Kingsley. ‘‘The Clymene in Greek mythology was a daughter whose father sold her into slavery. She may have chosen that name to commemorate an event in her own life.’’
‘‘The Greek Clymene also had two sisters, by the way,’’ said Shane Jacobs.
‘‘Well, hell,’’ said Merrick. He turned his attention from Jin to Kingsley. ‘‘You said she won’t go anyplace we would know to look for her. So we don’t know where to start.’’
Diane noticed that the marshals seemed more willing now to listen to Kingsley’s ideas on Clymene, as if suddenly the knowledge the profiler possessed might be of more use than mere academic curiosity. At this point, Diane guessed they would take all the help they could get.
‘‘No, she wouldn’t. She will hide in a persona we don’t know about,’’ Kingsley said.
‘‘Would she come here after Dr. Fallon? She seems to want to get even,’’ said Merrick.
It struck Diane that he was considering using her as bait.
Kingsley shook his head.
‘‘I think messing with Diane was just icing. Clymene planned this diversion to draw attention away from herself by making everyone focus on Diane.’’ Kingsley nodded toward Garnett. ‘‘Which was helped greatly by your DA when he shifted investigative resources from looking for Clymene to trying to figure out what Diane might have done with her body.’’
‘‘I’ll be sure and tell Riddmann that,’’ commented Garnett.
David turned to the marshals. ‘‘I’m sure you recalled your BOLO on Clymene once Diane was accused of having killed her.’’
‘‘Only because you guys said she was dead,’’ said Drew. ‘‘We don’t normally issue BOLOs on corpses.’’ He wasn’t defensive so much as exasperated.
‘‘I think Clymene did a good job of fooling all of us,’’ said Diane. ‘‘All cons are good magicians and that’s just what she did, a little sleight of hand.’’ She stood up and stretched her legs.
‘‘So,’’ said Merrick. ‘‘Where do we look now? Do we plaster her photograph everywhere?’’
‘‘Maybe, but it might force her deeper into hiding,’’ said Kingsley.
‘‘I think we should,’’ said Neva. ‘‘She has a real problem. She has two sisters who look just like her. That makes our chances of finding one of them three times as good. All three will have to go into hiding. How far does their loyalty go, to disrupt their lives that way?’’
‘‘I think they will be plenty loyal,’’ said Shane. ‘‘If they’ve gotten this deep in it together, it means that they’re devoted. You won’t break them apart.’’
‘‘Who are you?’’ asked Garnett.
‘‘Yeah, who are you?’’ echoed Drew.
‘‘Oh, of course, you don’t know me.’’ He grinned. ‘‘I’m Shane Jacobs, FBI agent from the art theft division.’’ He held out his hand, which Garnett and the others shook in turn.
‘‘So, Clymene’s been stealing art too?’’ said Drew with raised brow.
‘‘The girl gets around,’’ said Merrick.
Jacobs laughed. ‘‘There is the possibility that in her effort to make Dr. Fallon’s life miserable, she misdirected some stolen artifacts to this museum. I have no proof of Clymene’s involvement, but I thought I’d crash your party anyway. As for my statement about not being able to break Clymene and her sisters apart, I’m also an identical twin and I know the attachment of twins to each other.’’
