Again, he nodded.
“Then what happened? Joel, please tell me what happened.”
“You know what happened!” He tore her hands from his face and pushed her away
As he stood, Fletcher and Garcia had their weapons pointed at him.
He stared at the weapons, eyes wide with fear.
“At ease, Boys,” Sin said in a calming voice. “No one is going to do anything rash. Right, Joel?”
“I’m telling the truth,” he stammered. “I don’t know what happened to George.” He paced the room and stood in front of a stunning portrait of Miranda within the mural.
Sin eyed the details. There was something different about this likeness, compared against the images she’d seen of Miranda.
“She wanted George painted like the others, but then after the boat blew up she changed her mind. She was so excited.” He looked at Ashley. “Do you remember how she would get when she was excited?”
Ashley’s eyes sparkled at the memory. “I remember,” she mouthed.
“That’s how she was when she saw the flames and thought that Agent O’Malley was dead.”
“What about George,” Sin pressed.
“When you died, she said the image was finished.” Joel quoted the final lines of the poem: “And secrecy the human dress. The human dress is forged iron.”
Ashley threw up her hands and started screaming, “What the fuck does that stupid poem have to do with George? Where the hell is my brother?”
Her yelling made Joel immediately cower. Sin had Garcia take Ashley out of the room.
“What does he mean?” Fletcher asked.
“ ‘And secrecy the human dress’ is the last line in the first stanza of Blake’s poem,” Sin said. “I think it refers to the fact that Miranda’s art was secretly painted by Joel. He was the true artist; it was always a secret.”
“And the other line?”
“That one refers to how he was supposed to kill me. I was supposed to be on that boat, ‘forged in iron.’ ”
“So where is George?” Fletcher asked.
Joel had moved and was now standing in front of another scene. “She said she was going home.”
“Did she take George with her?”
Joel just stared at the mural and repeated, “She said she was going home.”
Sin was getting nowhere.
A dead woman was going home. This is useless.
She walked over and cuffed Joel’s hands behind him. About to take him from the room, she looked up and saw what he was staring at so intently. Passing off Joel to Fletcher’s care, she studied the painting.
“Son of a bitch,” she whispered. “She’s alive.”
Pulling her phone from her pocket, Sin began snapping pictures.
58
“This is all starting to make sense,” Charlie said.
Sin had him on speaker in the conference room. With her were Ashley, Fletcher, Garcia, and Raul Sanchez. Prior to the meeting, she sent him a file of the pictures she’d taken of the walls in the art room. Her phone was hooked up to the laptop and the pictures from Water’s Edge filled the monitor.
“That’s the house where we found Vincent Ash and Joanna. I mean Miranda,” Sanchez said.
“You’re sure?”
“He’s sure,” Charlie answered. “We will never forget that place.”
“Joel kept repeating that Miranda was going home,” Sin said.
“Are you telling me that Miranda is still alive?” Ashley said.
Sin placed her hand on top of Ashley’s and squeezed lightly. “I’m afraid so.”
Ashley’s entire body shook. “How? I mean, the police report said she crashed into the ocean. There is no way she could have survived that fall.”
“She didn’t,” Sanchez said.
“Care to explain,” Sin said, “because we are all a little confused.”
“Charlie, you want to tell them, or should I?” Raul said.
“Go ahead,” Charlie answered. “I have something I need to do, but I will be in touch.”
The phone disconnected.
“Do you remember a girl named Brianna Willow?” Sanchez asked Ashley.
It took her a moment, but then she nodded. “Brianna was a student at Water’s Edge. Kind of sketchy. The night Miranda died she ran off.” Ashley started waving a finger in the air as if trying to make a point. “When Miranda needed booze or cigarettes, she used to send Brianna. She looked much older than her age.”
Mayor Sanchez nodded. “The official reports from that night said that Miranda was killed and Brianna ran away. Charlie and I did some digging. Brianna had a bad drug habit: heroin.” He stood and paced the room, appearing to grow more agitated as he spoke. His arm movements becoming more exaggerated. “God, this is so messed up. This entire case is a fucking nightmare. The staff in the liquor store near the school was able to ID Brianna from some pictures. They weren’t able to ID Miranda.
“Charlie was still with the Bureau and had to leave on assignment. He asked me to follow up, but,” Sanchez stared out the window, “I didn’t. I just wanted this case to end. I never wanted to hear the name Miranda Stokler or Vincent Ash again. I told Charlie that I was able to confirm Brianna’s disappearance.” His voice trailed off, “I told him that I thought it was Miranda behind the wheel.”
“He took your word for it?” Sin said. “He didn’t follow up on his own? That doesn’t sound like Charlie.”
“He trusted me.”
Sin wanted to explode, but kept her emotions in check. “So it could have been Brianna behind the wheel that night?”
Sanchez continued to stare out the window and nodded.
“Any proof?” Sin asked.
“Not yet, but—”
“Any way to get it?” Fletcher interrupted.
Sanchez nodded. “I’ve contacted Frank. He has agreed to have a salvage company dredge the waters. It’s a long shot, but he agreed it was worth a try.”
“If you’re correct, this case is far from finished,” Sin said.
“And George might still be alive,” Ashley exclaimed.
59
Sin gave Evelyn some last minute instructions and was headed out when the elevator opened and Jack and Gonzales stepped into the squad room.
“You bitch!” Jack yelled. “I can’t believe you let me…us…think you were dead. Do you have any idea how that made us feel?”
“Yeah, I do,” Sin said, pulling her hair
