“Please remove his restraints,” she said.
“That’s against protocol,” one guard replied.
Sin looked at Joel. She knew his spirit was broken. “Please,” she said. “On behalf of the FBI, I will take full responsibility for his actions.”
The guards removed the restraints and told Sin they would be outside the room if she needed help.
Joel sat down, rubbing his wrists. He looked drugged, but coherent.
“How are they treating you?” she asked.
He slumped in a chair and shrugged. “Okay, I guess.”
“Has anyone hurt you?”
He shook his head.
Reaching across the steel table, Sin clasped his hands in hers. “Joel, I need to ask you a few questions.”
“Did you find Miranda?” he asked in a meek, trembling voice.
“I did. And I can promise you that she won’t be visiting you anymore.”
His countenance changed a bit. Visibly showing relief, Joel lifted his head and looked at her for the first time. “What did you want to ask me?”
“I need to ask you about your childhood. Do you think you can talk about that time?”
“I’ll try. I don’t remember some of it.”
Sin’s eyes smiled back at him. “What can you tell me about Ashley and about her time at Water’s Edge?”
“Not much. Miranda was always trying to keep us apart.”
“Did you know she was your sister?”
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “I mean, looking back I guess it makes sense.”
“Did you know she and George were Miranda’s children?”
“Yeah, I knew that, but—”
“You didn’t know she was your mother.”
Joel shook his head. “Miranda told me that she found me when I was a baby. That I was abandoned by my parents. She told me that she took me in because she felt sorry for me.”
“When did you realize that you were her son?”
“I never knew Miranda was my real mother until Ashley said she was my sister.”
Sin was quiet for a moment. “I’m having a hard time understanding. Help me out. Please.”
“At Water’s Edge, Miranda called me by my name. She never referred to me as her son. I can remember her introducing Ashley and George to other people as her children.”
“Were you friends with any of the other students?”
“I never had much contact with them. She didn’t let me go to class with the rest of the kids. She tutored me herself.”
“Before you came to Miami, when you were with her in Texas and Alabama, what was she like?”
Joel seemed confused. “I wasn’t with her in Texas and Alabama.”
“Where were you?”
“Foster homes.” His eyes opened a little wider. “She would visit now and then. She told me we’d be together one day.”
“What was she like back then?”
“She was nice, I guess,” he shrugged. “When she came for me and told me that I was going with her to Miami, I was really happy. We both were.”
“What changed? Why did she become abusive? Do you remember the first time she hurt you?”
Joel quivered and goose bumps rose on his arms. “I remember being about fourteen. I was living in the back room of the school. I had a girlfriend, one of the girls from the school.”
“What was her name?”
“Brianna.”
Damn, Sin thought. “Was that the same Brianna that disappeared the night Miranda’s car crashed?”
Again, he nodded.
“Okay,” she continued. “So what happened?”
“I was with Brianna in my room and Miranda caught us kissing and stuff. She started screaming that I was just like my father. And Brianna was a whore just like the others.”
“What others? I mean, did you know what she was talking about?”
Joel shook his head. “No. Miranda wasn’t making any sense. She just yanked Brianna by the arm and told her to get back to her dorm room. She said she would deal with her later. She told me to get dressed and to meet her in the art studio.”
“What happened in the studio after she caught you with Brianna?”
“She went crazy. She kept calling me, Ash. I didn’t know who she was talking about. She said that if I was going to act like my father, she would treat me like him.”
“Is that when she started hurting you?” Sin’s voice broke when she spoke. Her words getting stuck in her throat.
Joel had a blank stare; he said nothing.
Sin waited a few minutes to see if he would come back but it was as if he had retreated into another world. She knew he wouldn’t be able to tell her anything more.
She called for the guards who escorted Joel back to his cell.
Joel’s words and the ramifications of how deep his abuse stuck with Sin after she left Chrome. Vivid images, vile images, looped in her mind the entire time she rode down to the Keys.
69
Sin stopped in Marathon to stretch her legs and make a couple of phone calls. One was to Charlie. He sounded as if he was happy to be home, and she breathed a small sigh of relief. He told her that he was at the airport and Sin said she would meet him at his hangar. She couldn’t help but notice that his voice sounded weak.
She rolled onto the access road that led to the old Key West Airport. A newer one had been built to accommodate larger aircraft, but the locals and small aircraft still preferred the original. This was where Charlie’s hangar was located; Sin’s home-away-from-home.
Giving the throttle of her bike one quick twist, she blasted down the long road that housed the hangars. She did it for old-time’s sake and to announce her arrival. The guttural roar of her Panhead echoed off the tin buildings letting Charlie, and anyone else within a half mile, know she was there.
She stepped off her bike and saw Charlie in the same position she’d seen him in a thousand times. He was bent over an engine of one of his projects.
“Holy shit,” Sin exclaimed. “Is that a 1941 Cessna AT-17?”
She heard wheezy laughter come from inside the engine compartment. “It is an AT-17 Bobcat,” Charlie said, “but it’s a 1942. You’re slipping, Sinclair.”
“Sue me,” she said,
