“What is it?” asked Ethan, leaning over to see what pictures held her interest.
“Nothing, I guess.” She replaced the photos and went through the rest of the folder. She almost closed the cover, then stopped, frowned, and went back to the photos of evidence and debris found at the scene. She bent and examined one picture in particular, and her blood turned instantly to ice. “Ethan! Look at this.”
He leaned closer. “What?”
She handed him the photo, which showed bits of broken glass, a few metal splinters, part of an orange brake light lens, and several coins scattered across a stretch of stony ground below where the body had been hanging. “See what they found on the ground below his feet?”
“What?”
“The coins,” she said, tapping the picture.
It took Ethan a moment. “Sure, some change that fell out of his pocket.”
“No,” she insisted. “I think those coins were placed there.”
“What? Why?”
“Count them.”
“Okay. Fifteen nickels, eleven dimes, three quarters, and one silver dollar.” Ethan did some quick math. “Three dollars and sixty cents? Three-six? Are you going to tell me that it’s a Bible reference? Chapter and verse, something like that?”
“No,” she said. “Fifteen, eleven, three, and one. Add that up.”
He did. “Thirty coins.”
Dana shook her head. “No,” she said. “Thirty pieces of silver.”
He stared at her. “What…?”
“How did Judas die?” she asked.
Ethan took the diagram of Todd Harris’s injuries and ran his finger across the line that had been drawn across the throat. “Judas ‘went and hanged himself,’” he murmured, repeating a biblical quote, one of the few that had ever stuck in his head. “Oh, man…”
“It all fits,” Dana said, slapping the file closed. Ethan took it from her, added it to the big folder, replaced the rubber bands, and locked it in the drawer.
They sat together, and this time Ethan took her hand in his. His smile was gentle and he curled his fingers around hers. There are times to talk and times to say nothing. This was a time to let silence wrap itself around them. They were behind locked doors, safe inside, together, and all the storms and darkness were outside.
When she finally got up to go, he said, “I should walk you home.”
“No,” Dana said quickly. “It’s not far. I’m okay.”
“No one’s okay.”
The image of Saturo sprawled on the dojo floor with a broken nose filled her mind. Remembering that didn’t fill her with pride. It made her feel like an animal. But a tough one, at least.
“Really,” she said, “I can take care of myself. Besides, if I come strolling up with a guy, my dad will kill both of us.”
“But he’ll be cool if you walk home alone?”
“I’ll tell him I got dropped off at the corner,” she said. “Really, I’m good.”
At the door, Ethan said, “What do we do with all this? With those visions, with the file? I mean, we both think that somebody’s out there pretending to be an angel and killing people. We know it, but we can’t prove anything. So what do we do?”
Dana leaned her shoulder against the door frame. She was still holding Ethan’s hand, and she looked down at it, at the way their fingers intertwined. It felt good. Safe. And something more than that. The moment stalled, though, because Dana felt like she should say something and, clearly, so did Ethan. Neither of them seemed to know what, though.
Ethan nodded. “What about what that lady Corinda said? What do you think about that?”
“I don’t know what to think. I mean, I can’t believe I know anyone who would do something like this.”
“They’d have to know some things,” he said. “They’d have to know the religious stuff. They’d have to know about cars. It can’t be easy to fake all those accidents so well the cops think they are accidents.”
“And he has to know about anatomy.”
“Why?” asked Ethan. Then he said, “Oh, right. To be able to make the other injuries look like they happened in accidents.”
“He’s smart,” she said.
“He’s an animal.”
“Sure,” said Dana, “but animals can be smart.”
Ethan looked past her out into the night. “Sure you won’t let me walk home with you?”
She smiled. “I’m sure.”
Then, without thinking about it, she stood on tiptoes and kissed him. Neither of them expected it to happen, but it happened anyway. Dana suddenly realized what she was doing and immediately backed away, shocked, embarrassed beyond words, her hand rising to hide her mouth.
“Ethan, I’m … I mean I—” she began, but before she could get anything else out, he bent forward and kissed her.
One-millionth of Dana’s mind tried to make her back away. The rest of her leaned in. She was no expert on the subject of kissing, but she was pretty sure this was a very good one, and it lasted a good, long while.