[Georgia 03] Fallen

Amanda was your senior officer when you were investigating Evelyn?”
    “Yep.” He inhaled another doughnut.
    “Did you know this at the time?”
    He shook his head, keeping the doughnut in his cheek like a squirrel with a nut so that he could ask, “You know the stove isn’t on, right?”
    “Crap.” That explained why the eggs were still liquid. She clicked the dial until the flame whooshed up.
    He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “I like to let them sit for a while, too. Gives them a woodsy character.”
    “That’s E. coli. ” She checked the toaster, wondering why it hadn’t popped up. Probably because there was nothing in there. Will smiled as she got a loaf of bread out of the cabinet. She said, “I’m not much of a cook.”
    “Do you want me to take over?”
    “I want you to tell me about Evelyn.”
    He leaned back in the chair. “I liked her when I met her. I know that seems strange under the circumstances. I guess I was supposed to hate her, but you can’t look at it that way. This is government work. Sometimes investigations get started for the wrong reason, and you find yourself sitting opposite somebody who’s been jammed up for saying the wrong thing or ticking off the wrong politician.” He brushed the powdered sugar into a pile as he talked. “Evelyn was very polite. Respectful. Her record was spotless until then. She treated me like I was just doing my job, not like I was a pedophile, which is what you normally get.”
    “Maybe she knew she’d never be prosecuted.”
    “I think she was worried about it, but her primary concern was her daughter. She worked really hard to keep Faith out of it. I never even met her until Amanda paired us up.”
    “She’s a good mother at least.”
    “She’s a classy lady. But she’s also smart, strong, tough. I wouldn’t bet against her on this.”
    Sara had forgotten the eggs. She used the spatula to scrape them off the bottom of the pan.
    Will told her, “Evelyn was duct-taped to a chair while they searched her house. I found an arrowhead drawn underneath the seat. She used her own blood to do it.”
    “Where was it pointing?”
    “Into the room. At the couch. Into the backyard.” He shrugged. “Who knows? We didn’t find anything.”
    Sara thought about it. “Just the head of an arrow? That’s all?”
    He fanned out the powdered sugar again and drew the shape.
    Sara studied the symbol, silently debating how to proceed. She finally decided the truth was her only option. “It looks like a V to me. The letter V .”
    He was quiet in a way that changed the air in the room. She thought he was going to change the subject, or make a joke, but he told her, “It wasn’t perfect. It was smudged at the top.”
    “Like this?” She drew another line. “Like the letter A ?”
    He stared at the figure. “I guess Amanda wasn’t pretending when she said she didn’t know what I was talking about.”
    “She saw it, too?”
    He brushed the powdered sugar into his hand and dropped it into the bag with the last doughnut. “Yep.”
    She put the plate of eggs in front of him. The toaster popped up. The bread was almost black. “Oh, no,” she mumbled. “I’m so sorry. You don’t have to eat this. Do you want me to get the hot dogs out of the trash?”
    He took the burned toast from her and dropped it on the plate. It made a sound like a brick scraping concrete. “Some butter would be nice.”
    She had fake butter. Will dipped a knifeful out of the tub and coated the bread until it was soggy enough to fold in his hand. The eggs were closer to taupe than yellow, but he started in on them anyway.
    Sara told him, “The name ‘Amanda’ starts with an A. Almeja starts with an A . And now Evelyn might’ve drawn an A on the bottom of her chair.”
    He put down the fork. His plate was clean.
    She continued, “ Almeja sort of sounds like ‘Amanda.’ The same number of syllables. The same first and last letter.” He would’ve missed the alliterative. Most dyslexics couldn’t rhyme two words if you put a gun to their heads.
    He edged his plate away. “Amanda isn’t telling me everything. She’s not even admitting that the corruption case has anything to do with Evelyn’s situation.”
    “But she told you to go over all your case files.”
    “Either she needs the information or she’s trying to keep me busy. She knows this will take me all night.”
    “Not if I help you.”
    He picked up his plate and walked over to the