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Will walked down the hall, hands in his pockets. He stopped in front of the women's room door, pressing it open with his foot. He leaned in. Joelyn Zabel stood in front of the mirror. She had a lighted cigarette in her hand, and she startled when she saw Will.
"You can't be in here," she snapped, holding up her fist like she expected some kind of fight.
"No smoking is allowed in the building." Will walked into the room and put his back against the closed door, keeping his hands in his pockets.
"What are you doing in here?"
"I wanted to make sure you were okay."
She took a hard hit off the cigarette. "By barging into the ladies' room? This is off-limits, okay? It's not allowed."
Will glanced around. He had never been in a women's restroom before. There was a comfortable-looking couch with flowers in a vase on the table beside it. The air had the scent of perfume, the paper dispensers were stocked, and there was no water splashed around the basin so that you got the front of your pants wet when you washed your hands. It was no wonder women spent so much time in this place.
"Hello?" Joelyn asked. "Crazy man? Get out of the ladies' room."
"What aren't you telling me?"
"I told you everything I know."
He shook his head. "Cameras aren't rolling in here. No lawyers, no audience. Tell me what you're not telling me."
"Fuck off."
He felt the door being gently pressed against his back, then close just as quickly. He said, "You didn't like your sister."
"No shit, Sherlock." Her hand shook as she took another hit of smoke into her lungs.
"What did she do to you?"
"She was a bitch."
The same could be said for Joelyn, but Will kept that to himself. "Was there any specific way this manifested itself toward you, or is that just a general statement?"
She stared at him. "What the hell does that mean?"
"It means that I don't care what you're going to do after you leave here. Sue the state. Don't sue the state. Sue me personally. I don't care. Whoever killed your sister probably has someone else—some woman who's being tortured and raped right now as we speak—and your keeping something from me is just as good as saying that what's happening to this other woman is okay."
"Don't put that on me."
"Then tell me what you're hiding."
"I'm not hiding anything." She turned from the mirror, wiping under her eyes with her fingers so she wouldn't smudge her makeup. "It's Jackie who was hiding things."
Will kept silent.
"She was always secretive, always acting like she was better than me."
He nodded, like he got it.
"She got all the attention, all the boyfriends." She shook her head, turning to face Will. She leaned against the counter, hand beside the sink. "My weight went up and down when I was a kid. Jackie used to tease me about being beached whenever we'd go to lay out."
"You've obviously outgrown that problem."
She shook off the compliment, disbelieving. "Everything always came so easy to her. Money, men, success. People liked her."
"Not really," Will disagreed. "None of her neighbors seem too shaken up that she's missing. They didn't even notice until the cops knocked on their doors. I got the feeling they were relieved she's gone."
"I don't believe you."
"Your mother's neighbor, Candy, doesn't seem too broken up about it, either."
She was obviously unconvinced. "No, Jackie said Candy was like a toy poodle nipping at her heels, always wanting to hang out with her."
"That's not true," Will said. "Candy wasn't very fond of her. I'd even say she was less fond of your sister than you are."
She finished the cigarette, then went into one of the stalls to flush it down the toilet. Will could see her processing this new information about her sister, liking it. Joelyn went back to the sink, leaned against the counter again. "She was always a liar. Lied about little things, things that didn't even matter."
"Like what?"
"Like, that she was going to the store when she was going to the library. Like that she was dating one guy when she was really dating another one."
"Seems kind of devious."
"She was. That's a perfect word for her—devious. She drove our mother nuts."
"Did she get into much trouble?"
Joelyn snorted a laugh. "Jackie was always the teacher's pet, always sucking up to the right people. She had them all fooled."
"Not all of them," Will pointed out. "You said she drove your mother nuts. Your mom must've known what was going on."
"She did. Spent all kinds of money trying to get Jackie help. It ruined my fucking childhood. Everything was always about Jackie— how she was feeling, what she was out doing, whether she was happy. Nobody worried whether or not I was happy."
"Tell me about this adoption thing. What agency was she talking to?"
Joelyn looked down, guilt flashing in her eyes.
Will kept his tone neutral. "This is why I'm asking: If Jackie was trying to adopt a child, we're going to have to go to Florida and find the agency. If there's an overseas connection, we might have to go to Russia or China to see if their operations are legitimate. If Jackie was trying to contract with a surrogate at home, we'll have to talk to every woman who might have spoken to her. We'll have to dig into every agency down there until we find something, anything, that connects to your sister, because she met a very bad person who tortured and raped her for at least a week, and if we can find out how your sister met her abductor, then maybe we can find out who that man is." He let her consider his words for a few seconds. "Will we find a connection through an adoption agency, Joelyn?"
She looked down at her hands, not answering. Will counted the tiles on the wall behind her head. He was at thirty-six when she finally spoke. "I just said that—the stuff about getting a kid. Jackie was talking about it, but she wasn't going to do it. She liked the idea of being a mother, but she knew she would never be able to pull it off."
"Are you sure about that?"
"It's like when people are around well trained dogs, you know? They want a dog, but they want that dog, not a new one they'd have to work with and train on their own."
"Did she like your kids?"
Joelyn cleared her throat. "She never met them."
Will gave the woman some time. "She was picked up on a DUI before she died."
Joleyn was surprised. "Really?"
"Was she much of a drinker?"
She shook her head vehemently. "Jackie didn't like being out of control."
"The neighbor, Candy, says they smoked some grass together."
Her lips parted in surprise. She shook her head again. "I don't buy it. Jackie never did shit like that. She liked it when other people drank too much, got out of hand, but she never did it herself. You're talking about a woman who's weighed the same weight since she was sixteen years old. Her ass was so tight it squeaked when she walked." She thought about it some more, shook her head again. "No, not Jackie."
