by J. M. LeDuc
CHAPTER 54
Sin and her men were back in Miami by eight that morning. Their first stop was to meet with Evelyn after she’d grabbed their gear from Fletcher’s jeep.
Using an alias, Agent Mellissa Fischer, Sin called Sea View and asked for Joel’s phone and apartment number.
“My gosh, he’s suddenly popular,” the receptionist said. “Please hold, and I’ll ring him for you.” A few minutes later, she was back on the line. “He’s not answering his phone, can I leave him a message?”
“No thank you,” Sin answered, “but I have one more question before you hang up. You mentioned he’s been popular lately. What did you mean?”
“Who are you again?” the receptionist asked.
“Agent Mellissa Fischer, with the FBI. Would you like my badge number?”
Sin could hear the receptionist huffing. “No, that’s fine. The weird thing is, he never has guests, but in the past couple of days he’s had two. One yesterday afternoon and then one last night.”
“A woman?”
“Yes.”
Sin hung up. “Shit!” She dialed Ashley’s number, but it went to voicemail. She then typed out a text. “It’s Agent O’Malley, call me!”
Reading it over, Sin rewrote it. If Joel had Ashley, she didn’t want him to know she was alive. “It’s Agent McGuire, please call right back. I have vital information.”
Within five minutes, her phone rang.
“Agent McGuire, have you found George?”
Sin had Fletcher answer the phone so Ashley wouldn’t freak at the sound of her voice. “Ashley, you’re speaking to Agent Fletcher. I want you to listen and not say a word. Are you somewhere you can talk privately?”
“Yes.”
Fletcher handed the phone to Sin, and nodded.
“It’s Agent O’Malley.”
“Oh my God, I thought you were dead. I thought I was all by myself. I thought—”
“Ashley, I need you to calm down and listen,” Sin said. “Where are you?”
“I’m in my car. I’m sitting outside the gates leading to Water’s Edge.”
Sin threw her head back and mouthed, “Fuck.”
“Please don’t go on the campus. I need you to meet with us.”
“He has George,” Ashley cried. “I know he does.”
“How do you know?” Sin asked.
“Meet me at the Pancake Palace on Crandon Boulevard in Key Biscayne, and I’ll explain.”
“We will be there in thirty minutes.”
When Sin slid into the booth, Ashley didn’t recognize her. She was wearing a bobbed, blonde wig with a dress that looked like it would be a better fit for Hershey, Pennsylvania than Key Biscayne, Florida. Ashley was about to give her the boot when Sin spoke.
“Just smile like we’re old friends.”
Ashley pasted a bizarre, awkward smile on her face and studied Sin.
“Damn, you look like one of those psycho clowns,” Sin commented. “Give me the smile you give people who walk into your gallery and ask questions about Miranda. That fake smile.”
Ashley’s expression changed to one that could light up a room.
“That’s better, now how about some coffee, and then we’ll talk about what the hell has been going on with George and Joel.”
“Sounds like a great idea,” Fletcher said, sliding into the booth next to Ashley.
“Yeah, I could go for some bacon, eggs, and pancakes,” Garcia said, sliding in next to Sin.
“Bacon?” Fletcher said in a heavy Aussie accent. “I thought you were Jewish?”
“Only on the holidays where gifts are given.”
“That’s enough, children,” Sin said. “Let’s order and then we’ll talk.”
Ashley told them about George being very upset after leaving the FBI field office. She told about how she tried to talk him down from his irrational thoughts, but that she was unable to talk any sense into him whatsoever.
“I tried to call him again an hour or so later to check on him, but I had no luck. I went to his home but he wasn’t there,” she said. “That’s when I went down and spoke to Bobbi at the gallery.”
“Was she talking in complete sentences?”
“Why,” Fletcher asked, “is she disabled or something?”
“Something like that,” Sin replied.
Sin’s sarcasm temporarily broke the tension at the table.
“When I couldn’t find George anywhere I tried to call you, but you didn’t answer.”
Sin glanced at Fletcher’s and Garcia’s cuts and stitches. “We were a little preoccupied.”
“I went to the FBI office,” Ashley continued, “and after I heard about the explosion, I decided to go see Joel.”
Sin decided to let slide the fact that Ashley had lied about not knowing where Joel lived. She needed Ashley on her side. “Did you see him?”
Ashley shook her head. “He never answered the door.”
“So how did you end up here?” Fletcher asked.
“Oh, I forgot the most important part,” Ashley said. “On my way out of George’s gallery, I found a painting of Miranda’s I’d never seen before. I asked Bobbi about it and she said a man dropped it off, saying that it was one of Miranda’s last paintings created before she died.”
“Is that common?” Fletcher asked.
“No,” Ashley said, shaking her head, “in fact, it has never happened. I know everything my mother ever painted, and I have never seen this piece before.”
“So, it’s a fake.” Sin was confused as to where this conversation was going.
Again, Ashley shook her head. “I don’t think so. It screams Miranda. It’s her style and her stroke. You can copy someone’s style, but it’s almost impossible to copy someone’s stroke. There are just too many nuances.”
“What are you saying, Ashley?” Sin asked.
“Remember when I told you that Joel was Miranda’s assistant? That he showed promise in his art, and she took an interest in him.”
“Yes.”
“I think Joel painted this piece, and I think it’s a hint for me to follow. It shows where he took George.”
“How can you be sure Joel painted it?” Garcia asked.
Ashley reached into her purse. “He left a card and asked for George to call him.”
She handed the card to Sin.
Sin read the card and her expression morphed from a woman in pain into that of a soldier ready for battle. “Eat up, boys. It’s time to go to work.”
CHAPTER 55
“I need to see that painting,” Sin said.
“It’s in the trunk of my car,” Ashley responded.
Sin, Fletch, and Garcia spent the next few minutes getting an art lesson as to why Ashley thought it had been painted by Miranda or Joel, but Sin still didn’t know how the painting told Ashley where Joel and, quite possibly, George were.
“Do you mind if I take it out of the trunk?” Sin asked. “The shadows are making it difficult to see.”
Ashley had no objection. Sin removed the painting, closed the trunk, and laid the canvas on top.
“What is this a painting of?” Sin asked.
“It’s the administration building at Water’s Edge,” Garcia answered. “It was painted from a northwestern perspective early in the morning.”
Everyone looked at Garcia.
“Care to explain,” Sin said.
“Yeah, even I didn’t catch most of that,” Ashley commented.
“I know what building it is because that is the building King and I concentrated our reconnaissance on before the taskforce’s raid. That’s the building we were perched on. I know the angle because of the surveillance photos, and I know the approximate time of day because of the shadows. Whoever painted this was extremely accurate.”
Sniper’s eye, Sin thought. “Okay, we know the building, but Ashley, why do you think it’s a message to you from Joel?”
“All the windows are the same except for one.” Ashley pointed to a window in the top west c
orner of the building. “Whoever painted this made sure to add a faint glow coming through this window.” She stopped and looked at the others. “That’s the room where Miranda held her art lessons. That’s where we would be called to when we were punished. There are only two people besides my brother and me who would know that.”
“Miranda and Joel,” Fletcher added.
Sin bit her lower lip but said nothing. She just stood, hands on hips, and stared at the painting. Finally, she turned toward Garcia. “I saw a fire escape on the back of the building when we were there earlier. Is it still useable?”
“The escape is a bit rusted, but it is useable,” Garcia said. “The amount of rust makes it impractical to try to extend it to the ground, so someone will have to scale the building to the second floor.”
“So how do we climb?” she asked.
“Each window is recessed into the brick, so there is a three to four inch sill around each of them. The architect also framed each window by building an extra layer of brick around them. They are close enough together that someone tall should be able to climb from one to the other all the way to the top. Thankfully, we only need to climb to the second floor. The others can be reached by the fire escape.”
“Someone tall? That narrows the possibilities,” Fletcher said.
Sin pointed to the painting, placing her nail on the lit window. “Where is the fire escape in association to this room?”
“Same side.” Garcia said. “It’s facing west, but the ladder is dead center and the room is in the northwest corner.”
“Fletch, you’ll have to make your way to the roof and then traverse until you’re immediately above the window. On my mark, you’ll join the party.”
Fletcher nodded his agreement.
Sin looked at Ashley. “We need your help.”
“What do you need?”
“I need you to lead us to Joel straight through the front doors.”
Ashley lit a cigarette and stared at the painting. She inhaled deep and blew smoke at the canvas.
CHAPTER 56
By two in the afternoon, everything was in place. Fletcher was going to make his way onto the Water’s Edge campus by way of the construction entrance and traverse the backside of the grounds using the other buildings and trees as cover.
Ashley would be the decoy. She would drive onto the campus and head straight for the administration building. She was going to walk through the front door while making as much noise as possible. Her job was to be a distraction.
Jack’s news conference was scheduled to air at 2:30. Sin hoped his remarks about her death would cause Joel to let his guard down. Soon after its conclusion, Sin and Garcia were going to catch a ride with Ashley hiding low on the back seat of her car.
Sin, Garcia, and Ashley sat in her car in a Dunkin Donuts parking lot watching Action News on Ashley’s tablet as the daily news report was interrupted by a special news report.
That was Sin’s cue to let Fletcher know his coast was clear to head toward the administration building.
“This is Jim Day reporting from the Action News newsroom. We have breaking information concerning yesterday’s explosion and its possible link to the Painted Beauty Killer case. I am going to send you out to Tiffany Swenson who is on the scene.”
Tiffany? What the hell is she doing there?
The picture transitioned to Tiffany. She was wearing a scarf on her head and it was evident to Sin that there were still some burns under all her makeup.
“Thanks, Jim. This is Tiffany Swenson reporting for Action News. I am standing alongside the crime scene where a boat suspiciously blew up yesterday afternoon. A boat where Agent Sinclair O’Malley, the lead investigator on the Painted Beauty Killer case, was known to be staying.” Tiffany looked to her side and nodded. “Agent Jack McGuire is ready, so I will send the broadcast back to you, Jim.”
Jack looked worse than Tiffany. He was wearing a wrinkled suit and his dark aviator sunglasses. Behind him to the right stood Gonzales, who didn’t look any better. Next to him was Mayor Sanchez.
Sin was listening to Jack but watching Raul Sanchez.
He brought his hand up to his face as if he was wiping sweat from his brow, but Sin saw beyond the simple gesture. Sanchez was messaging her with hands signals Charlie had taught her.
Contact Charlie
A glimmer of a grin began to rise from her lips. A glimmer that was wiped clean by Jack’s words and emotion.
“I am here to read a short statement prepared by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.” Jack cleared his throat. “I will not be taking questions. At approximately four p.m., on the twelfth of September, an incendiary device now known to be the plastic explosive, C4, exploded on the houseboat behind me. With the cooperation of Mayor Sanchez and the city of Miami Beach, the FBI was able to retrieve security camera footage from the Fontainebleau as well as footage from the traffic cameras. This footage showed three people walking onto the boat seconds before it exploded.” Jack’s voice cracked as he spoke. He reached under his sunglasses and wiped a tear. His chest rose and fell as he tried to collect himself. “The Bureau was able to identify the three people, and we are deeply saddened to report that Agents Sinclair O’Malley, Jasper Fletcher, and Fidel Garcia were killed as a result of the explosion.”
Crying could be heard off camera. Jack turned toward the noise and pointed. “Someone please help Ms. Swenson.”
The camera repositioned, showing Tiffany visibly distraught, rocking back and forth on her heels. Although her burned hands covered her face, her sobs could still be heard.
“Our office,” Jack continued, as the camera swung back to him, “was also able to find footage of a man boarding the same vessel earlier that morning. He carried a duffle bag and wore a black ball cap and dark sunglasses. If anyone saw this man or knows of his identity, you are asked to contact the number on the bottom of your screen. This man is thought to be the Painted Beauty Killer.”
Jack folded his papers and placed them in the inside pocket of his suit. “We will not rest until the killer has been brought to justice. Thank you.”
The newscast immediately went back to the studio and Jim Day.
“Well,” Sin said, “could you recognize Joel from those pictures?”
“I couldn’t be certain,” Ashley said.
“Well, we’ll know soon enough,” Sin nodded. “Garcia, let’s get moving. Fletch should almost be in position.”
CHAPTER 57
Fletcher waited behind the mortuary building for a signal from Sin. He hadn’t been there long when his smartphone started to vibrate. It was time to make his move.
He stayed low and ran, with gun drawn, to the spot where Garcia had instructed. He holstered his semiautomatic and grabbed hold of the first floor windowsill. The plan was for him to make his way to the fire escape and wait. As soon as Ashley started making a fuss, he would climb to the roof and again wait.
Climbing up onto the first sill and holding onto the ledge with his fingertips, he just hoped his strength held out.
Ashley white-knuckled the steering wheel as she pulled off of Crandon Ave. Pulling up to the main gates of the Academy, she suddenly stopped. “There is a big chain and padlock on the gates.” Her voice cracked with each word.
“Calm down,” Sin said from the floorboard of the back seat. Back up as far as you can without getting us killed and ram the gates. That chain won’t stop a three thousand pound car.”
Ashley backed up onto Crandon Ave, slammed her foot on the gas, and crashed through the locked gates. She picked up more speed and blared the horn as she drove up the long, winding entrance. Continuing to drive even when the driveway ended, she finally screeched to a halt at the base of the steps leading up to the once magnificent entrance. She threw open the driver’s side door, stood, and screamed toward the building.
“Joel! I know you are here and I know you have George. I’m coming up.” She lowered the ferocity of her voice, “Please don’t do anything rash until
we talk.”
She walked behind the car, popped the trunk, and removed the painting. “We need to talk about this,” she yelled, holding up the painting. “It’s amazing. You have so much talent. I want to help you, so everyone will know how talented you are.”
With the painting in hand, she walked up the stairs and into the building.
The windows had been boarded up, so the hallways and stairwell were dark, but it didn’t matter. Ashley could have navigated them blind. Finding her way to the stairwell was easy. Making herself climb the stairs was not.
She remembered being dragged up those stairs late at night by Miranda, long after curfew. She cried the entire way up the five flights of stairs. Art class, Miranda had called it as she picked up a switch and an artisan blade. Her own mother forced her to stand in front of a mirror and disrobe. With every article of clothing that dropped to the floor, Miranda told her what was wrong with the way she looked.
“Your skin is too pale! Your fingers are too stubby! Your teeth are too crooked!”
Ashley shook her head, and the memories from it. My God, I was only seven, she thought. The day that witch died was the happiest day of my life. Maybe the only happy day.
With a fierce determination, Ashley bounded up the stairs, talking the entire time, “Joel, I know where you are hiding. You are in the art room. Do you want to know how I know?” She waited for a response, but kept climbing. When she didn’t receive one, she continued, “I know because you weren’t the only one Miranda punished. George and I were hurt by her, too. That’s why George went to visit you. Joel, he went because he understands your pain. We both do, and we want to help.”
Sin and Garcia waited until Ashley was inside the school before slithering their way out of the car. They had made their way to the bottom of the stairs and could hear Ashley a landing or two above them. They tried to time their steps in unison with Ashley’s so that Joel would only hear one person within the stairwell.
“Joel,” Ashley continued, “I’m sorry that we never came to visit you after we all left Water’s Edge.”