Page 10 of Deadly Lies

“She had been arrested for prostitution. She had been asked her to wear a wire to talk to Joaquín about his possible involvement with a drug cartel. I wasn’t her handler because I too was deep undercover. But Joaquín disabled the wire before he killed her.”

“If he killed her.” A lump grew in my throat, and my lips burned impossibly hot, and it wasn’t from the hot sauce.

What had she said to Joaquín? What did he know? Did he kill her? If not, who did?

There was so much more to this story, but as usual, I couldn’t even think straight.

“What was she like?”

“She was very smart. Really nice girl. I was heartbroken when she died.”

It shocked me to even realize that Ash had a heart.

“Well, I’m going to ask Joaquín about this. He better tell me the truth.”

She laughed at me. “Sure, he will. He’s so forthcoming and honest.”

I didn’t argue back with her. Because, dammit, she was right, as much as I hated to admit it.

I reclined my seat and dozed off for the rest of the long drive. Ash was driving on this leg of the trip.

After the longest stretch of road, we finally crossed the Richmond bridge into my hometown of Marin County. I winced when I saw the bay. I had so many happy memories here, to think they had all been replaced by confusion and horror. And even worse, that my brother was languishing away here in a jail cell.

We checked into a decent hotel and prepared to visit Joaquín. After all the times I had seen him, this time would be different. This time I was armed with a truth he couldn’t deny—he had not left the base the night I had been raped. He didn’t rape me.

Then who did?

We drove to the prison and went through the gates. San Quentin had million-dollar views. At least my brother had something to look at when he was let out daily into the exercise yard.

Ash and I filed into the waiting room. I knew the drill, though my visits had become infrequent, mostly because Grant didn’t like me seeing Joaquín.

When we filled out the paperwork, the guard checked his record. “Sorry, ma’am, you are going to have to come back tomorrow.”

“Why is that?”

“Because Joaquín already has a scheduled visitor.”

I rolled my eyes. “Oh, really? Who?”

“I’m not at liberty to say, ma’am. But you cannot seem him today.”

I turned to Ashley. “That’s weird. Who else would visit him?”

“His lawyer?”

“Nah, he’s not even doing any appeals.” Another thing that was odd. I had begged him to do appeals, but he refused. As if he had another plan for his time here. One thing I knew about my brother is that he would not spend the rest of his life in prison, like an animal. I worried every night that I would wake up to a call that Joaquín had taken his own life.

“Well, the person could be here now, since this is visiting hours.”

I scanned the room, hoping to find someone that I recognized, but of course, I knew no one. Which wasn’t shocking, I knew nothing about Joaquín’s daily life. I hadn’t even written to him that I was going to come visit. At least, I was happy that someone was visiting since I had abandoned him. I should’ve moved closer to him. But he had insisted that I go on with my life, focus on Grant, concentrate on my Julián. He was right, but I still struggled with the guilt.

I turned back to Ashley, her face now pale.

“What? What is it? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“I did.”

I wrinkled my face. “What are you talking about?”