Page 14 of The Grave Artist

“What about the tiny letters in the lower-right corner?”

“They’re Greek. But they don’t mean anything to me.”

“Me either.”

Selina sucked in a breath. “It sounds crazy, but could he have been giving us a message?”

“About his death, a clue?”

“Yes.”

“It’s possible,” Carmen said, reading the note again. “I was hoping you and Dad might have had some conversations that’d shed light on it.”

“No,” Selina said. “But you’ll find out. Where are you going to start?”

Carmen was silent for a moment. “I will, honey, of course. But I can’t do anything now.”

Silence pulsed from the other end of the line. “What do you mean?”

“Lina, I’m working a big case.” She added “Homicide” and felt bad about including the troubling detail. She realized she’d done it to justify her decision not to drop everything to follow up immediately on Roberto’s murder.

“What’re you talking about? This is our father!”

“Lina, we’ve got an active serial killer in LA. We have to stop him. Dad’s is what we call a cold case.”

“Did you really fucking say that?”

Carmen was taken aback. “It’s just a term we use.”

“I know what it means. I watch TV. A cold case is still a case. And you’re saying you don’t care enough to look into it.”

Now Carmen was angry. “Of course I do. And I’ll make sure it gets investigated, but I have to be careful. I don’t have jurisdiction, the state-federal thing.”

“That hasn’t stopped you before.”

Heron and Carmen first combined their efforts while she undertook a case that did not technically fall within the boundaries of DHS’s remit. Some even thought it was wrong for them to handle the investigation.

Deputy Director Stan Reynolds, for instance.

“I’ll call some people.”

“When you find the time.”

“Lina, you don’t under—”

“I can call people too. Just as easily. Like Ryan.”

Ryan Hall was a detective both sisters had met on that recent case. Carmen found him a competent investigator, if young.

Selina had found him considerably more.

And the feelings were mutual.

But Carmen pointed out, “He’s Riverside County. The murder was in Orange. He doesn’t have jurisdiction either.”

“Another excuse ... Is there some reason you don’t want to get to the bottom of it?”

“What?” Carmen sputtered. “It’s about priorities.”