might have been in her forties, but her heavily lined face made it hard to tell. Her hair was dyed a hard black, and she looked at them with suspicion. This had to be Rose, Ashley’s mother.

Gil introduced himself to Rose and asked her to join him at the table. She looked like she might say no but took a seat. Once the three of them were sitting, with Joe standing restlessly to the side, Gil turned to Ashley and said, “Look, I know you’ve a rocky history with us, and I’m not here to pretend that you haven’t, but we both want the same thing: to find out what happened. I know all of this has been incredibly hard on you all, but whatever has happened in the past is in the past. You and me are starting from a clean slate. Okay?”

“Okay,” Ashley said slowly, warily.

“Thank you,” Gil said. He took a deep breath and said evenly, “There have been some new developments today that we think could be related to Brianna’s case. I just wanted to come sit with you in person and talk about them, okay?”

“Okay,” she said again, less wary. Gil nodded. By repeatedly asking her permission to talk about the subject, he was trying to get her to feel like she was in control of the conversation. He knew she needed that control right now.

“Now, you’re going to hear things over the next few days, and those things may or may not be true, but I will always tell you the truth. I may not be able to tell you everything, but I will tell you as much as I can. Does that sound all right?”

She nodded.

“So, all of this means you’re going to have to trust me just a little bit. Do you think you can do that?”

She nodded again, looking scared. Gil took a deep breath to collect his thoughts. He could see Joe standing behind Ashley. His face was surprisingly tight with anger.

Gil turned his attention back to Ashley and watched her closely as he said, “This morning, we found a skull.”

He watched her for a moment as she tried to hold it together, looking anxious but okay, considering the situation, so he continued, “Now, it was in the ashes from Zozobra, and it was the skull of a child.” She nodded her head as she started to cry quietly, but she didn’t fidget. Mrs. Rodriguez looked down at her hands. Gil couldn’t tell them everything. The newspapers would be calling the family shortly, looking for a comment. He would only reveal to them the basic facts that the newspaper would already know: that they found a skull in Zozobra. Period. End of story.

“You think it’s Brianna?” Ashley said, biting her lip to keep from crying.

“It’s possible,” Gil said. A few tears fell on Ashley’s cheek. “We won’t know until we can do a DNA—”

“But she drowned in the arroyo. How did she get there?” Ashley asked, clearly fighting to keep composed.

“I don’t—”

“Where’s the rest of her?” Ashley asked, looking at her mom, who got up from her chair with tears in her own eyes and went to hold her daughter. As they twined their arms around each other, Gil noticed a few faint scars on Ashley’s wrists.

“Did she get burned alive?” Ashley asked, as her tears, now freed, started to overwhelm her.

“No, we don’t think—”

“Oh my God, oh my God . . .” she said, looking wildly at her mom.

“Ashley—” Gil said.

“Who would put her there? Oh my baby, oh my sweet baby.” Her face was pressed hard into her mom’s shoulder, and she started to sob as if she were gasping for air. She popped her head up suddenly and said, “I think I’m going to be sick.” Gil jumped up to help pull her and her pregnant belly off the chair. Her mom escorted her to the bathroom down the hall.

As soon as the two men were left alone, Joe turned to face Gil and said, “What the fuck was that—”

The sounds of retching come from down the hall. Then running water.

“Okay, that’s gross,” Joe said, before turning back to Gil and saying, without lowering his voice, “What was all that shit about ‘whatever the cops did in the past I’m better than that’?”

“That’s not what I said.”

“That’s sure as hell what I heard,” Joe said.

“Joe, I never meant to insult you or Detective Fisher—”

“That’s a load of crap—”

“I was just trying to establish a rapport with her.”

Mrs.