Epilogue
Philadelphia, 2004
"When I look back on everything now, I think I should have known all along that it was her. All the time."
- Gabriel Jarvis, "Underneath" (1972)
Lilly put the book down and looked out of the window into the traffic chaos of Philadelphia. Nick Vera and Will Jeffries were talking nearby about the World Series, and Scotty Valens, Lilly's new partner, was having lunch with his girlfriend, Elisa. Lilly had decided to stay in the office during her lunch break and finish Gabriel Jarvis's novel. Although the case had been solved and closed almost a year ago, Lilly often thought of the Outer Four and their community. Ever since she had met Gabriel, she had kept coming across his novels in the several bookshops of Philadelphia. Two weeks ago, she had, on impulse, entered one of the shops and carefully read the summaries of each of Gabe's novels. Underneath, the one she had just finished, was his first one.
When Lilly had read the fist few pages, she had been hooked on the story. But it also occurred to her that maybe she would have solved the case much earlier if she had read the book before. Although the plot was different from Natalya's story, the book was full of clues. The first line, for instance, which was repeated in the end, thus also being the last line: When I look back on everything now, I think I should have known all along that it was her. To this day, Lilly doubted that Gabriel really had not known about what Jordan had done, and the opening line in his first novel, written five years after Natalya's disappearance, only supported her theory.
But it was over. Jordan was in jail; Gabriel had just finished his latest novel, Blinded by Justice; Graham Webster had attended a seminar in criminology and was now better prepared for another case like this; Dylan was still working in the bank and having spare ribs for lunch; and Alex Jarvis had graduated from high school second best and was currently waiting for his test results for Harvard. His uncle Jamie had helped him prepare for it.
Lilly reached into her drawer and fetched an envelope that contained a card. Better Late Than Never was printed on one side, and on the other side there was a hand-written note:
Dear Detective Rush:
We thought you would like to know that we are getting married in September. Although there has been much trouble and pain in our community because of your intervention, there have also been some positive results, and we are never going to forget that. Jamie would not have returned and I would not have learned the truth about him if it had not been for you. Therefore we would like to send you and Detective Lassing only the best wishes, hoping that you will keep your quick thinking and your sympathy for those under suspicion. I do not think we will meet again, Detective, so this probably means farewell.
Kindest regards,
Sunday McLaren Jarvis
James Jarvis
Lilly had read the note many times, but she still kept it in her drawer, so that from time to time, she could look at it. She liked this pleasant "All's well that ends well" feeling the short note gave her.
Sometimes she missed Chris. Scotty was a good partner, no doubt, and Lilly knew that in time they would surely become good friends, but still it was different. Scotty was different. And although she and Chris stayed in touch, this slight feeling of loss remained.
Lilly sighed inaudibly and took Gabriel's book again. The summary announced a "gripping and compelling story of secrets and revelations and of things that lie Underneath," and Lilly agreed. This novel had convinced her to spend more time reading.
She pushed back her chair and got up. Her lunch break was not over until one thirty, and a glance at her watch told her that she had twenty more minutes.
Just enough to go down to the bookshop and get another Jarvis novel.
XXX
About one week later, a surprise was waiting for Lilly when she reached the office this morning. Or rather, there were two surprises.
The first one was that Chris was sitting on her desk, flipping through the pages of her current case file, talking to Nick, Will and Scotty. So familiar was this scene that it took Lilly a moment to remember that Chris actually no longer belonged in it.
She went over to the little group and hugged her ex partner.
"Hi there," she said. "Been missing us?"
"Yeah, that as well," said Chris. "But the main reason I'm here is something else."
He pointed his head at a large parcel on Lilly's desk. "You've got mail, Lil," he said.
"And that's something so extraordinary that it made you come over instantly?" Lilly smiled.
"Take a look who sent it."
Lilly went to her desk and stared for a moment, confused.
"But that's from…"
"From Jordan Jarvis," said Chris. "Sent from prison. Checked by the guards and deemed harmless."
"Why on earth would Jordan send me a parcel?" said Lilly.
"I guess you've got to open it if you wanna find out." Chris handed her a pair of scissors. "We're all eager to see what's in it."
Lilly was skeptic. "But what if…"
"Don't worry," Chris interrupted. ""As I said, the guards checked it."
Lilly cast him one last glance, then she shrugged and started opening the parcel. Nick, Will, Scotty and Chris gathered close around her and watched her every move. Even Stillman noticed what was going on and came over to the little group.
"What's going on?" he asked.
Nick informed him, and Stillman jostled past him and Will. "I want to catch a look, too," he said.
Lilly had meanwhile opened the parcel and was holding in her hands a large, rectangular thing that was wrapped in brown paper. A plain white card was attached to it, and Lilly put the present down on the desk and read the card first:
Detective Rush:
I've been thinking a lot about our last conversation before I was arrested (I've got enough time here, as you can probably imagine). I still remember what you said about art, and how much it tells us about what was going on inside the artist. It was my art that finally gave me away.
I'm going to use this medium one more time. Fortunately, I'm allowed to paint here. I finished another work, and this is what I'm going to send you. Maybe you'll be able to tell my feelings from it as well, just as you interpreted the other two.
I won't tell you the title of this one, but when you have looked at it and drawn your conclusions, I'd be glad if you came by to visit me. I promise I'll answer your questions.
Regards,
Jordan Jarvis
Some of her confusion must have shown on her face, because Chris looked at her. "What does she write?" he asked.
Lilly did not answer. She reached for the present and tore the brown paper in which it was wrapped. She half expected what she was going to see, and she was right.
The painting showed the same coast that was depicted in The Tempest-Tossed and Relief. This time, the coastline was hardly recognizable, for the whole top of the cliff was covered in broom. The bushes grew everywhere; their roots even grew over the precipice, wriggling over and through the moss. They were all in bloom, yellow and bright. The sky was blue and covered in little white clouds that reflected the light of the setting sun. The whole picture seemed peaceful and cheerful at the same time.
Lilly's eyes automatically scanned the precipice for another hidden message, but this time, the moss covered everything. The fissures were completely covered by the green plants. The clouds and the bushed did not form any letters, either. But Lilly noticed something else:
Right in the middle of this sea of broom, one bush was missing. Instead, there was something else, but no matter how close Lilly looked, she could not tell. It was simply too small. It looked like a bunch of flowers, but Lilly was not sure.
"Lil?" Lilly jumped. Chris, who had spoken, raised his hands.
"Sorry," he said, smiling, "But I know this expression. I thought I'd get you back here before we lost you completely."
"Ha, ha." Lilly made an effort to look away from the painting. "Jordan sent me a painting," she stated, most superfluously.
"Why?" Stillman asked, thus summing up everyone's thoughts.
"I have no idea." Lilly sighed. "She wants to tell me something, but she wants me to find out myself."
"Then why don't you withdraw together with your present and unriddle the riddle?" Nick asked.
Lilly glared at him. "Don't you make fun of me, Vera," she said.
Nick grinned. "But you must admit, Rush, that it's actually quite funny," he said. "I mean, this woman got some galls, don't you think? A convict, and still she sends you a present, but she doesn't say why…"
"That's got something to do with the way she and Lilly used to talk," Chris said, protecting his ex partner. "That's how Lilly found out it was her – she interpreted Jordan's paintings."
"At least sort of," Lilly amended. "And I, for my part, don't hold it against Jordan that she sent me such a message."
Nick mumbled something unintelligible.
"Would you now please leave me alone?" Lilly asked. "I've got a riddle to solve."
XXX
Lilly sat down at the table and waited for the warden to return with Jordan. It had been three days since she had received the parcel from Jordan. Lilly did not know whether she had understood the message Jordan had sent her, but she had decided, quite spontaneously, to visit her today. And now she was here in the small, windowless room that was usually reserved for the convicts and their lawyers.
Lilly had not seen Jordan Jarvis for almost a year, so she turned around as soon as the door was opened, eager to see whether Jordan would look any different.
She did, indeed. She had lost some weight, her hair showed more gray strands, and there were wrinkles around her eyes that had not been there last year, either. But she kept her head held high, and her dark eyes were still full of life. The warden went behind her, and her hand lay only loosely on Jordan's arm.
Jordan walked into the room, nodded, and smiled.
"Detective Rush. I'm glad you came."
Lilly, who had risen when Jordan had entered, sat down again. "How are you doing, Jordan?" she asked.
Jordan shrugged. "What do you think? I'm in jail."
"You know what I mean." Lilly did not avert her eyes from the other woman.
Jordan sat down, and the warden remained beside the door, leaning against the wall with her arms crossed in front of her body.
"I'm alright," said Jordan after a short break. "Really. I'll survive."
"Does your family visit you sometimes?"
"Gabe does," Jordan replied. "He comes by as often as he can. He finished his novel."
"I'm planning to read it," Lilly said with a smile.
"I thought you didn't read much?"
"I thought better of it."
Jordan nodded thoughtfully. "Jamie and Sunday visited me last week," she said. "They're getting married."
"I know."
The conversation stalled for a moment. Lilly tried to find a good point where to begin, but Jordan helped her out.
"So you got the painting," she said.
"Yes. Thank you. It's… I don't know. It's extraordinary."
"Well, it completes the trilogy," said Jordan. "And as far as I know, you have the other two pictures as well in your apartment."
"Your husband gave them to me," Lilly said.
"I know."
There was another pause. Then Jordan laughed silently. "So are you going to give me another interpretation of my works, Detective?" she asked. "I'm very keen to hear it."
"Correct me if I'm wrong," said Lilly, "but for me, the picture symbolizes the end of the whole story. The real end."
"So far so good," said Jordan with a smirk.
"It's peaceful," Lilly continued, "but not entirely. The missing bush disturbs the absolute perfection. Unfortunately, I couldn't find out what grows there instead."
"You'll find out," said Jordan.
"If the bush in Relief stood for the grave, then the missing bush here shows that the grave was found," Lilly ventured. "The missing bush shows that something has changed. The solution you found back then turned out to be a temporary one. That's why the bush is missing."
Jordan nodded.
"But all the other bushes show that everything else is alright. Everything else is perfect. And since there is something where the missing bush was, there's no gap left, either. Something belongs there as well. The grave is gone, but the result is positive."
"You got it," said Jordan. "Detective Rush, you're really good at this. You don't want to write some articles about my works, do you?"
Lilly declined. "I'm doing all of this off the top of my head," she said. "As soon as someone asks me to say why I think so, I'm lost. I still don't know anything about art."
"Intuition is the most important thing about art," said Jordan. "Not the theoretical knowledge about colors and techniques and canvas and the difference between oil and watercolor. Just intuition. Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Monet, Michelangelo… they all relied on their intuition. They would never have had so much success if they hadn't."
"But my intuition can't give me a hint as to the title of the work," Lilly said with a smile. "You wrote that you wanted me to find that out myself, but I can't."
"How do you know? Maybe you already found the title." Jordan looked expectantly at Lilly. "Tell me, what did you think of?"
"Harmony," said Lilly." "I would have called the painting Harmony."
"Well, that's quite a good approach," said Jordan. "Though it's not the title I had in mind."
"So which one did you have in mind?"
"The plainest one I could think of," said Jordan. "It expresses everything I feel about the whole thing. About you, about Gabe, about Jamie, even about her… about Natalya."
Lilly took a wild guess. "Redemption?"
"No."
"Rectification?"
"Neither."
"I resign." Lilly smiled. "Tell me the title."
Jordan fixed her beautiful eyes on Lilly. "It's quite simple," she said. "Forgiveness."
XXX
Lilly stood in her apartment, her gaze fixed on the three paintings that hung next to each other on the wall. Her mind wandered back to the conversations she had had with Jordan about the pictures. She had learned a lot from those works. Not only about the case, but also about Jordan as a person. About her character, her emotions, and her way to deal with those.
She slowly looked from one picture to the other. The hidden messages in the first two paintings were so clear, once you knew about them. Lilly could not believe that Jordan had not hidden anything in the third one, although Jordan had denied to have done so when Lilly had asked her. Still, knowing Jordan, Lilly wondered. It doesn't necessarily have to be letters, she thought. It could be anything.
Her gaze lingered on Forgiveness. The perfection that was created just because of this one missing bush. A bunch of flowers in its rightful place. The bush had never belonged there. The temporary solution gave way to a permanent one…
And then she knew. All of a sudden, Lilly had discovered the hidden message. This time, it was no declaration of love as in the other two. It was much simpler. It just showed that Jordan had accepted her fate and Lilly's own role in the whole game. The message referred to her, to her name – the whole secret message lay in that little bunch of white flowers that had replaced the bush that symbolized Natalya's death.
The flowers were lilies.
THE END