Page 40 of What's Left of Us

She’s definitely more formal than Emeric, but I’m not sure if she’s ever been interviewed by a federal agent. “That’s me.”

Serenity glances at Emeric, who looks puzzled as he studies her. “Remember how I wanted to stop by Dad’s place?”

“It was a true displeasure to see Wayne again,” Emeric agrees.

She ignores him as she passes off the umbrella and starts digging through the little black purse on her arm. “Um, Emeric mentioned some stuff he knows about the case. That Jo-” she interrupts herself, pointing back towards the couple still by the coffin, “-Jo and Vinny relayed. They were going over some facts I think. Mentioned keys?”

Christ, the key detail is something that we’ve been stuck on sincebeforePorscha broke Alastair out. It’s a detail that helps us prove Porscha’s involvement and the ease she had getting to prior victims, but only in the original case.

“There were some keys originally found in the older cases,” Jensen says, speaking while I consider Serenity’s question.

“Yeah, Jo said her mom used to cut them,” Serenity agrees, and I glance at Gabe beside me. She doesn’t have the same contempt in her voice when she mentions Porscha like everyone else does, and I wonder what she knows. “Anyway, it made me think of this picture that Dad always had hanging in one of the halls. It’s one of the only ones he had of his parents and his sister. He doesn’t talk about Porscha much.”

Emeric shields the paper she pulls out, and I take it when she hands it over, still dry. Flipping it over, a much younger Porscha looks back at me.

This is when her hair was still natural blond, her face full of youth. There’s a lack of wildness in her eyes, and she almost looks bored sitting for the photograph. It looks like one of those staged family shoots inside a store, with a grey-black background and everyone giving the camera a forced smile.

I’ve seen pictures of Porscha’s relatives. She looks more like her mother, who had bouncy blond hair. Wayne has dark hair like their father did. Aside from the familiar similarities though, one thing draws my attention.

A gold key around her neck. It’s a necklace on a thin gold chain, and clashes with the rest of the picture where no one else has any jewelry showing.

“That looks like the keys found at some of the crime scenes,” Tyler says, peering at the picture with me.

“It’s from 1991,” Serenity says, and I glance up at her again. “It’s on the back of the picture. I just thought what Emeric said about keys sounded familiar, and I remembered the picture from Dad’s house so I thought I’d bring it to you.”

“You could’ve taken a picture of the picture,” Emeric points out, but he doesn’t sound upset. Maybe confused.

“I don’t know if it means anything,” she continues, looking around. “But I thought maybe it could help? And Dadjust complains when he sees it, so I don’t think he’ll miss it very much.”

Nodding, I take the picture and tuck it into an interior pocket. The rain is finally slowing down to little more than a sprinkle, but the clouds are still dark and dreary above us. “Thank you. This could be helpful.”

Serenity smiles at the same time Emeric gives me a skeptical look. He’s slightly more familiar with the FBI, and he’s smart enough to know that what I’m saying means this could be inconsequential to the case. But, if the photo is from ‘91, Porscha should be pregnant with Jo.

Instead of walking away, Serenity steps closer and takes my hand. I expect her to shake it, but she leans in and stands on her toes. I hesitate, glancing at Emeric who just watches us, and lean in when she points to my ear.

“I’m sorry for your loss, too,” she whispers, dropping back onto her heels as quickly as the words leave her lips. Then she gives me another smile, grabs Emeric’s hand, and leads him away beneath the umbrella.

“What did she say?” Jensen asks, turning to me. I watch the couple go, wondering if Serenity has any idea at all the darkness hiding within her family.

Pressing my lips together, I glance back towards Jo and Vinny. She’s no longer kneeling in front of the coffin, instead the couple is walking the other way towards their car.

“She just asked me to be careful with the photo,” I say, turning back to the SUV. “Come on. We have to end this case.”

“Tell me again how you have a handle on the Citrus Grove Slayer case and I won’t have it transferred.”

I meet Deputy Director Pabst’s gaze, his eyes sweeping across the board of evidence that now takes up a massive portion of the downstairs in my house. It’s extensive, the twenty-two official victims lined up in order on one side of the space. Up until Estrada, they all looked a lot like Jo and teenage Porscha. After Estrada, the victimology changed.

There is one additional name on the board since we swept through the Nunes’ home: Gwen Abrahams. She was the sixth victim, and with the ID cards found on the property we now know her name.

“Both of the known killers are accounted for,” I tell him, following everywhere his eyes go. I know we have a lot of information, and speaking with Serenity and Emeric on Friday made things more confusing. I didn’t expect to see Pabst today, especially first thing in the morning.

“You mean one’s dead and one’s trying to claim insanity,” he replies, turning to gaze at me. "Media attention on this case has subsided for now, shifting instead to police brutality—an issue that consistently captures public interest."

I clench my teeth. Lance Wallsburg died in the hospital. Suicide by cop. I’m the one that shot him, since the three guards stationed to watch Alastair were struck by surprise, and the woman watching him also died. One of the bullets Lance fired struck her in the throat, and she later died in the ICU.

That’s why Pabst is here, because I shot a former police captain in a hospital with too many conflicting parties at the scene. Jo, Vinny, Alastair, they were all present. I was there because of Gabe, because his wound is giving him grief, and after chatting with Alastair’s attorney about wanting to meet and talk about the case he let slip about him being here. I didn’t think we would actually have time to chat with Alastair, but like Jo and Vinny, I wanted to see him. See if prison was treating him differently, and justseehim.

Pabst should be questioning the team who traveled with him, the local PD to see if anyone suspected Lance of going rogue, and fucking Norbert. I can regurgitate information about the case to him once again, but I didn’t choose to walk into a hospital and open fire.

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