Cara was gazing at her in bewilderment. “Coincidence?”
Eve knew she wasn’t handing this well. She didn’t know how to do it any better. Okay, just go for it, and take care of figuring out everything later. She drew a deep breath. “It’s a coincidence that I’ve been sculpting your friend Darcy’s, face for the last five days.”
*
Eve strode over to her workbench and jerked off the black velvet cloth that was covering the reconstruction. “No, it’s the same face, dammit.” Her gaze was going back and forth from the reconstruction to Darcy’s features. Same jaw. Same high cheekbones. Same nose. Same lips. Even the same sparkling blue eyes. “Not just a resemblance. Not a coincidence. It’s the same face.” Her hands clenched. “Do you know what that means? I made a mistake. This reconstruction is going to be useless as far as ID goes. I must have seen a photo or a TV clip of Darcy’s show sometime in the past, and my memory grabbed and used it when I thought I was doing a new reconstruction. That’s always a danger, but I’ve never made that mistake before. I’ll have to break it down to the skull again and start all over.”
“Maybe you won’t.” Darcy’s gaze was fixed on the face of the reconstruction. Her face was as pale as Eve’s as she moved slowly, stiffly across the room toward the worktable. “You say this is … a skull?”
“Yes.” Eve had been so disappointed that she had failed in her attempt to bring Sylvie home that she had ignored the fact that for ordinary people, Eve’s mistake would seem macabre and even frightening. “I’m sorry, Darcy. I didn’t mean to involve you in—”
“That means she’s … dead?” Darcy asked unsteadily. “Of course, it does. Who could—live without a skull. How?”
“She was shot in the temple.”
“Shot.” She flinched. “Would there have been—pain?”
“No. Joe believes it would have killed her instantly.”
Cara was suddenly beside Darcy. “It was a mistake, Darcy. This has nothing to do with you. Eve will fix it, and you won’t look anything alike.”
“Yes, we will,” Darcy whispered. Her fingers were shaking as she reached out and gently probed beneath the chin of the reconstruction. “There was an old break right here…”
Eve went still. “Yes, there was. It took me longer than usual to seal it.”
“You did a good job. I can barely feel it.” Her hand dropped away, and she stood there, staring at the reconstruction. “A skull…”
“Darcy,” Cara said. “What—”
“Dead.” Tears were suddenly running down Darcy’s face. “She’s dead, Cara. I knew it, but she—I feel sick.” She closed her eyes. “I think … I have to throw up.”
“This way.” Cara whisked her out of the room and down the hall to the bathroom.
Eve watched them go and turned back to the reconstruction. So beautiful, so like that gorgeous, vibrant young woman who had stood before her only a moment ago. “I’m very confused, Sylvie,” she murmured. “But I believe we may have brought you home.”
*
“Twins.” Cara told Eve a half hour later after she’d settled Darcy in the bedroom and come out to speak to her. “That’s all she’d say, and I wasn’t going to interrogate her right now. She can’t stop shaking, but she didn’t want anyone with her. I’ll check on her later. I put her to bed and left her alone to come to terms with it.” She added grimly, “Though I don’t know how anyone comes to terms with the death of a sister. I never really did, and I was only three when my sister was killed. And Darcy just found out that skull belonged to her twin. I don’t believe she’d even been told she was dead. It’s no wonder she went into shock.”
“I would have been gentler about it if I hadn’t believed I’d made a mistake,” Eve said. “It wasn’t as if it was a resemblance, it was exact.” Eve wearily shook her head. “Or maybe I wouldn’t. I was pretty much in shock myself. I’ve been so absorbed with this reconstruction since it landed on my doorstep that it seemed impossible I hadn’t gotten it right.”
“But you did get it right,” Cara said. “And the whole thing seems impossible.” She rubbed her temple as she dropped down on the couch. “On your doorstep? What do you mean by that?”
When Eve had finished telling her of that night, Cara was shaking her head again. “You didn’t tell me. Why didn’t you let me know what was happening?”
“What good would it have done? You weren’t involved, Cara. And you have your own life and your own problems to take care of.”
“You tell me all the time that you consider me family. And then you don’t tell when some nut drops a skull on your doorstep?”
“Joe and I were taking care of it. I was doing the reconstruction, and Joe was investigating to try to find out about the teeth and DNA. That was our job and not yours.”
“You’re my job,” Cara said fiercely. “You and Joe and Michael. Can’t you see that?”
Yes, she did see it, Eve thought. Cara had always tried to give back to her for taking her into her home without counting the cost. That was one of the reasons she had thought it best to send her to that school in New York. She needed to live life to the fullest and not think about taking care of Eve and the family. “There was no overt threat, just the skull that was delivered. It could have been possible that it was someone who wanted me to find out who the victim was so that she could be identified.”
“But you didn’t think that was true.”
Eve remembered that blackened skull, the hole in the temple, the broken mirror. “No, I didn’t think that was what was happening. But Joe has been very careful, and there’s no sign that whoever delivered that box has come back. I’m sending the reconstruction to Forensics tomorrow, and that should cut my ties to the skull. If the aim was to get me to do the reconstruction, then I’ve complied, and my job should be considered over.”
“If that was the aim,” Cara repeated. “But what if he already knew? What if he was the one who shot her? And you said she’d been burned beyond recognition. What was the reason for that?” She shivered. “Ugly. So ugly, Eve.”
More than Cara realized, Eve thought, remembering that charred skull. “I don’t know the reason. Like you, I thought it was proof that whoever had done that to her was a monster. And monsters have to be caught and destroyed, Cara. That was what I was trying to do by finding out who she was.”
“And bring her home.”
Eve nodded. “But you did that when you brought Darcy Nichols into this house. And there has to be a reason why you did that, Cara. Joe doesn’t believe in coincidences, and he’s going to want to question her.”
“No!” Cara said. “You saw her when she was looking at that reconstruction. She’s practically a basket case right now. Give her a little time, then let me do it.”
Eve nodded. “I understand. No one wants to hurt your friend, Cara. But we have to have answers. That poor girl I’ve been living with for the last five days deserves to have them.”
“But Sylvie’s the one who already knows all the answers,” Cara said sadly. “What she needs to know is what we’re going to do about it.”
Eve nodded as she gave Cara a hug and rose to her feet. “I’ll give you your chance. I’ll call Joe and tell him what’s happened and ask him to take Michael out to eat after soccer practice. It will be time for Michael to go to bed by the time he gets home. That should give Darcy the night to pull herself together. Okay?”
Cara nodded. “And it will give me time to pull myself together, too. My head is whirling. I’m jumping from thought to thought, and every one of them is wild and makes no sense whatsoever.”
“Then I’ll make you a cup of tea and a sandwich and we won’t talk about anything but your school, and music, and Michael for the rest of the evening. Is that a plan?”
“That’s a plan,” she said huskily. “Only let’s limit it to Michael. Somehow, he manages to make everything seem all right.”
CHAPTER
5
2:40 A.M. LAKE COTTAGE