He Was Hidden
Previously: Jeannie & Paco visit Alexa’s room.
11:46 AM - Monday, November 3, 2014
Thomas Residence, 341 Infantry Terrace, The Presidio
“Mark, we have something.” Paco murmured into the phone. “It’s Alexa’s statement of what happened at Tahoe.”
“Wow. That was fast. What does it say?”
“Jeannie just read the heading and we bagged it. It’s all folded up in a small purse.” Paco’s eyes roved over the bulletin board again, seeing photos of Alexa with her friends mixed in with magazine clippings, bits of fabric, postcards of far-away places, images of art pieces from museums…it was all layered and messy but somehow everything was stacked to be seen.
“What? A purse?” Mark sounded impatient.
“Yeah - you’ll see. We’ll explain. Just thought it should be opened up at the lab.”
“Okay. Sure. Be sure to get the laptop too - it might still be on there.”
“Yeah, we’re looking now. We’ll take some more time here and then head back.” Paco rang off and kept perusing the wall.
Pictures of One Direction, Lady Gaga, David Bowie, Beyoncé, and other pop stars were mixed in with pictures of Keira Knightley in her costumes from Anna Karenina and The Duchess, along with other pictures of Carey Mulligan in her costumes from The Great Gatsby. There were also pictures of Elizabeth Banks in the orange butterfly dress in The Hunger Games movie, and another version of it on a fashion model, there were even close-ups of the neckline and back to show the pattern of the wings. Other famous film stills were mixed with pictures of New York, The Ramones, A Tribe Called Quest, Debbie Harry, Frida Kahlo, and a ton of others that were famous and familiar to Paco, but which he couldn’t identify. Here Alexa was posed in a group of swimmers poolside with their suits and caps on, another of her smiling with another swimmer with their large dryrobes shrouding them. Another showed a group of girls dressed up in nice dresses across from Radio City Music Hall, another, a selfie with Andrew Barrington on a beach. A group photo showed MJ, Zizi, Tally, Carolina and Alexa all laughing in a row, which Paco recognized as the wall at the top of the Lyon Street stairs. Dash Reilly was posed below them all, arms outstretched and flipping off the camera. Here, a picture of Alexa and Carolina in their soccer uniforms on a field laughing, and a picture of Alexa in a long gown with a corsage on her wrist. A hand went around her waist, but the person whose hand it belonged to wasn’t there. Paco realized the photo was folded to hide whoever it was and carefully removed the photo to open it. It showed Seb Podesta, standing tall and smiling in a dark suit with “Xavier Junior Prom 2014” written across the bottom in the photo lab’s script. “Jeannie - look.” Paco held the photo up for her.
Jeannie had been bagging the butterflies and other trims from the table, and had been glancing through Alexa’s other vintage pieces to see if anything else was hidden. She moved next to Paco to look at the image.
“Hmmm. She looks happy.”
“She does, but he looks thrilled. She had it bent back so he was hidden.” Paco showed the folded crease line in the photo.
“I don’t blame her — after a break-up? Yeah, you don’t want to see the guy. But she probably liked the dress, and she looks fabulous, so probably wanted to keep that.” Jeannie began looking over the wall with him as Paco replaced the photo where he found it. “Look at that.” Jeannie pointed to a small black-and-white picture that looked like it was from an old Photo Booth. It was Charlie Dagonet wearing dark sunglasses, his arms folded with a faux-serious expression. The photo had a sort of aged patina; Paco thought he looked like a sixties folk singer, like a young Bob Dylan or Jim Morrison. With the glasses on, he could have been anyone.
“I mean, Carolina said they were friends.” Paco suggested.
“Yeah…and it does look like something for an art class maybe.” Paco looked over the board and saw another photo of Charlie with the hillside of Presidio Heights behind him. “This looks like it was taken from Inspiration Point.” Charlie stood with a slight smile, his finger pointing upward to align with a house on the distant hillside beyond — his house.
“It was. His house is visible from the trail and Inspiration Point. But - but I’m not sure it means anything, he admitted they were friends.”
“And that he showed her the trails. He probably was pointing out landmarks or something.” Jeannie nodded slowly. They moved on to the other side of the room where a Puerto Rican flag covered most of the short wall. Jeannie checked behind it to see if anything was there, but the wall was blank.
“I’m going to check her bathroom and see if I can find the prescription. Will you check her nightstand?” Jeannie disappeared through the hallway door to the bathroom while Paco re-traced his steps back to the bedroom. The nightstand was small but had two shallow drawers. The top one held hand lotion, lip balm, a pen and pencil, a prayer card in Spanish with the Lady of Guadalupe on the front, a prescription bottle, and a lavender sachet. Paco photographed the drawer and lifted the prescription out, bagging it. The second drawer was slightly deeper to hold a box of tissues. Paco lifted the box out to discover a strip of condoms in their wrappers. He photographed them, bagged them, and went to find Jeannie in the bathroom. She was going through the medicine cabinet examining jars, quickly opening lids and replacing them.
“Jean —” Her head spun to him. “I found the prescription in her nightstand. And these.” He held up the bag with condoms. Jeannie’s face got more serious and she looked at him, shoulders falling slightly. “Maybe check the waste basket?” He nodded at the small trash can below the sink. Jeannie immediately knelt down and started to pull out discarded bits of tissue, cotton pads with faded makeup, Q-tips, wrappers…at the bottom, she pulled out another wad of tissue, which bloomed open in her hand to reveal a used condom and its ripped wrapper.
“I’d say find the boyfriend.” Jeannie said ruefully; she sighed and looked at Paco who was pulling out a fresh bag for her to deposit it all.
“What?”
“Nothing - my family asked me about the case last night at dinner, so I told them very high-level what it was, no names or anything specific, but the first thing my sister-in-law said was “‘I’d say find the boyfriend.’”
“But we know she didn’t have one.” Paco said simply, sealing the bag. Their eyes met but they said nothing, neither one seeming to want to venture a guess as to who had been wearing the condom.
“Let’s find her computer.” Jeannie said softly.