“And no fat price to sweeten that glamour,” Margaret said.
“They’re not all the same,” Eve said quickly. “Look at her face. We believe that the girl we’re looking for might be a relative of this dead child.”
Josie studied the photo. “Nice bone structure. Very photogenic. I’d probably remember if I took her photo.”
“But you don’t remember her?”
She shook her head. “It’s like an assembly line. There’s no way I can make any of them stand out. No grace. No drama. I’d probably try with this one, but if she didn’t pay to have her photo taken, I wouldn’t bother. But what a bride she would have made someday. Pity that she—” She stopped. “Maybe I do remember…” She snatched last year’s yearbook from Eve. “A bride…”
“Not old enough,” Margaret said. “Except maybe in India or—”
“No, of course not,” she said impatiently. “But it was the gown…” She was rifling through the pages. “I arranged the folds, and it turned out—” She found the page she was looking for and turned it around. “The girl at the end of the second row. You see how beautifully I draped that collar around her neck?”
It was a photo of a girls’ choir. All the girls looked to be between the ages of ten and fifteen, and all were dressed in flowing white robes.
The girl at the end of the second row …
Small, dark hair, high cheekbones, winged brows, delicate features.
“Bingo,” Margaret said softly.
Not Jenny, naturally. But so close …
Eve couldn’t take her eyes from that picture. “What school?”
“Ronald Reagan Middle School,” Josie said. Her finger was going down the name list. “Second row … Cara Delaney.”
She was flipping through pages again. “That appears to be the only organization to which she belongs … No, here she is again in the band photo. Violin.”
Choir. Violin.
I got to keep the music.
And Cara had also been permitted to keep her music.
Eve closed the yearbook. “May I borrow this? I promise to return it.”
Josie nodded. “See that you do.” She was smiling. “I really made that robe look good, didn’t I? You should see what I can do with an entire wedding party. Magnificent.”
“I’m sure that’s true. Thank you.” She headed for the door. “Is that school near here?”
“About twenty minutes north.” She was frowning down at her Persian gazing balefully up at her. “Do you know, I think he has lost weight.”
*
“You set the GPS while I call Joe,” Eve said when they reached the car. She wasn’t sure that what she had promised him would be enough, but she’d keep her word. “I think we’ve found her,” she said as soon as Joe answered. “Cara Delaney. She looks so much like Jenny that they have to be related. We’re going to the school now and try to find out more about her.”
“We always thought that it might be a family resemblance we were looking at,” Joe said.
“No might about it now,” Eve said. “She has hazel eyes, not green, but everything else is right on.”
“Jenny’s sister?”
“I don’t know. It would be my guess. But she would have had to be only about three when Jenny was killed. What were two children doing out there in those woods? And why was Jenny murdered, and Cara—” She stopped. “Too many questions and not enough answers. But Cara Delaney has to have parents or guardians. At least I’ll have someone to ask. I’ll call you again after I get to the school and find out more.” She paused. “How are you?”
“Healing as fast as I can. And I haven’t jumped that guard Nalchek put outside my door. Though don’t count on my holding out past tomorrow.”