“Any chance you have a picture of it from back then?” Hawes asked.

Gianna took a deep breath. “I can’t remember. Maybe at my uncle’s house. He kept ninety percent of all the photos that belonged to my parents. He boxed them up and put them in storage, but he’d put together two nice albums of pictures for me, so I always had pictures of the three of us to look at.” Tears threatened, creating burning sensations in her eyes.

Her parents had died over twenty-five years ago. Why does it still hurt?

It wasn’t their deaths that ached today; it was what her parents had missed. Primarily it hurt that they’d never known Violet or seen the major accomplishments of Gianna’s life. Her memories were so old, she often wasn’t certain that they were accurate. When she looked through the albums, she believed she remembered the circumstances of each photo. Or were the photos creating the memories? Would she still remember riding the pony at the fair if her mother hadn’t taken the photo?

Chris put an arm around her shoulders and gently pulled her against his side. “Pictures are important,” he said. “When I look at old photos of Michael and me, it’s like they’re from someone else’s life. That time period ended, and I went for a long time with nothing to remind me of that life. Michael and my mother put together some albums for me about a year ago. One is of the four of us Brodys together, and I have another one of their lives after I was gone. They weren’t sure that they should do it, but I wanted to see how they’d lived without me, because every single day I ask what my life would have been like if one event hadn’t shifted everything to a new course.”

He’d nailed it.

Gianna understood perfectly. One event had changed her life and it still guided her current course. But what if . . . ?

She couldn’t make an album that showed what could have been if her parents had lived. She had to rely on imagination.

The photos were both a curse and a blessing.

“You can’t be certain this medallion is yours,” Hawes stated.

“That’s correct,” admitted Gianna. “It could be one that simply looks like it and happens to have my initials. But I’m telling you, I remember that pattern. I remember tracing the swirls on the other side and wishing they formed a flower or a tiara instead of nothing. I remember—”

What did she remember?

Her teeth ached with a memory.

“I remember biting it as a child,” she said slowly. “I’d seen people in cartoons bite gold coins to see if they were real. I bit it and it made marks. I was terrified my mother would notice and I’d get in trouble for damaging it, but she never said anything.”

A childish recollection of fear swept through her. She’d been terrified for days that she’d be in trouble for ruining the precious present. She leaned closer to the medallion. Dr. Rutledge picked it up with his tweezers and peered closely.

Gianna saw two small dents on one side. So tiny. Barely remarkable within the pattern of swirls. He turned it over and she saw four more in an arc.

“I’m not an odontologist, but I’d say those are bite marks. Someone bit it at some point. No way to tell who did, but it lends some credence to your story,” said Dr. Rutledge. He grinned at Gianna.

I knew it.

She wondered when her uncle Saul would arrive. She remembered discussing the lost jewelry with him after she’d moved into his home. He’d had his people search through all the belongings from her parents, but the necklace hadn’t been found. She’d missed it, but not because she loved it. She’d missed it because it was a link to her maternal grandmother and it’d been created expressly for her. She truly hadn’t thought about the piece since junior high.

“Did you find anything else at the cabin?” Chris asked. “Any trace of the shooter?”

Hawes smiled. “We found some interesting things that I’d like to ask both of you about.” She glanced at Dr. Rutledge. “Are we done here for now?”

“Yes. I’m going to examine the forest ranger a little later. Did you want to observe?”

Hawes glanced at her watch. “Why don’t you call me afterward with a briefing? Francisco Green’s supervisor is in the waiting room with another of the ranger’s coworkers. Why don’t you let them know when you start? I don’t think they want to come in, but they wanted to be here. I’m going to find a quiet place to talk with Chris and Gianna.”

Her smile was kind. Gianna felt Detective Hawes genuinely cared about the case and would be ruthless in the hunt to find her answers. Her job in New York had required Gianna to interact with a lot of detectives, and Hawes was the exact type she wanted pursuing her case.

“How about we grab a bite of lunch?” Hawes suggested.

“I’m starved,” agreed Gianna. Working at the examiner’s office had never affected her appetite.

Chris gave a rueful shake of his head and touched his stomach. “I don’t mind watching the two of you eat.”

He ate three pieces of barbecued chicken pizza. After smelling the autopsy suite, Chris had believed he wouldn’t eat for a few days. That idea had dissolved as soon as the three of them had stepped through the restaurant doors and the good food odors pushed away the memory of the burn victim’s scent. The lunch rush had already cleared out and the restaurant was quiet. Hawes’s partner, Henry Becker, had appeared within moments of their being seated.

Chris had never been inside a medical examiner’s suite. He hoped he never had reason to go back. He’d never forget the sight of the victim under the bright autopsy lights. He didn’t understand how Gianna and Seth Rutledge got up every morning and happily drove to do that job.