Page 26 of CJ

“Yes. I’m sending them now.”

“What are you looking for, Georgie?” asked Jill.

“It’s just a feeling, but,” she said, opening the file that Hiro sent, “if I’m right…” Her voice trailed off as she opened all six of the wedding photos. All but one was taken in a courthouse or small room. She lined them up, side by side, and laughed.

“What’s so funny?” asked Moose.

“They’re not the same person. She’s got a twin. Alana has a twin out there somewhere. Look. They look nearly identical except for their hands.”

“I’m missing something,” said Dan.

“Women get plastic surgery all the time, and it’s usually very good. I mean, breasts you can see, sometimes you can see when they have a nose job, or cheeks or something, but Gray told me once that you can always tell a woman’s true age from her neck and decollete, and her hands. Look at this woman’s hands.”

“They’re wrinkled,” said Jill. “Wrinkled, and they have age spots on them.”

“That’s right. Now, look at hers. This was allegedly an earlier wedding.”

“There are no wrinkles or age spots. It’s a different person,” smiled Jill. “Alana has a twin out there, or someone else is Alana.”

“We need to get the DNA of Alana, or whoever it was that was killed in that house and compare it with the pre-marital blood work for each of these. I don’t think we have one person we’re looking for. I think we might have two.”

“I can access the autopsy results and lab work from here. I’ll roll it through the databases and see what we can find.”

By the time they were back at the hotel, they were exhausted and starving, but the weather was already turning colder, and walking anywhere seemed silly when the hotel had a great restaurant. Unfortunately, everyone else in the hotel was thinking the same thing.

“I’m really sorry, folks,” said the waitress. “As you can see, I’m slammed tonight. Two of my people didn’t come in because of the weather. I’ll bring you some appetizers, on the house.”

“Thank you,” smiled CJ. He looked at Jill, squeezing her hand. “You look lost in thought.”

“I’m just remembering something, and I’m not sure if I’m remembering it right. I mean, all of this comes at you, and you start to question everything. But I remember the first time I met Alana, I thought she was terribly small compared to Adam. She barely reached his chest. It was like she was the size of a twelve-year-old.”

“So, she was small,” said Moose. “Lots of women are small to me.”

“No, I know. I’m getting there. The next time I met her, we were all at a dinner, and she looked different somehow. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but she seemed taller. She was wearing heels, but it wasn’t just that. It was the length of her torso and forearms. I couldn’t put my finger on it back then, but knowing what I know now, I don’t know, maybe I’m imagining it.”

“Don’t sell yourself short,” said CJ. “Our memories are powerful. You’re remembering things that seemed out of place then, and now you can pinpoint why. It’s possible that if they were twins, they were moving between marks for some reason. Maybe different skill sets needed for each one?” He shrugged, and Jill frowned at the thought of it.

“Jill?” Dan prompted her from across the table.

“I’m just trying to figure out how two Army Rangers, both relatively intelligent men, and three other men and a woman, whom I have to believe were relatively intelligent as well, could be fooled by one woman or two.”

“Don’t sell our sex short,” said Georgie. The waitress stopped and set down baskets of truffle fries and hot wings. They quickly gave her their orders, and she dashed away again. “Women can be incredibly devious and deceitful. We’ve worked a lot of cases where the bad guy isn’t a guy at all. These women could be working alone or with someone else. We have no idea right now. I think what I really want to know is what were they getting out of this other than money.”

“They weren’t even getting that much money,” said Jill. “We’re talking a few hundred thousand dollars in life insurance policies. You asked a great question of the team. Why wouldn’t they go after the D.C. politicians? The answer is the D.C. politicians are more devious and crooked than they were. Maybe they tried once and failed. Or, maybe the D.C. politicians didn’t have what they needed.”

The food was slow to arrive, but when it did, it was delicious and hot. They laughed over family stories, trying to leave behind work for a few hours. With all the people in the restaurant, it was loud and even a bit magical with all the snow falling outside.

“Are you going to miss the Pentagon?” asked Moose.

“Absolutely not,” laughed Jill. “I loved what I did there, helping to prove innocence for our service men and women. But all the politics and bullshit and hoops you have to jump through get to you in the end. I was ready for a change, and when Ham and Georgie came through the doors, it was my signal that it was time. It was perfect timing, in fact. I didn’t know that my handsome, sexy neighbor was one of you.”

“Mama Irene would say that was a happy coincidence,” smirked Dan.

“Georgie? You were right. Except they weren’t twins. It’s three sisters made to look identical.”

“Three? We have three sisters who’ve been altered to look identical?” she asked.

“Yes, and Angel is here to tell you who they are.”

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