Free 3 The Braque Connection by Estelle Ryan Page B

know.” I didn’t like this feeling. “The second word, ‘hexahedron’, is a solid figure with six faces, and the next looks like the beginning of a phrase. It is in French, a language in which I would never write notes to myself. It could be the title of a painting or a book, or maybe I overheard someone say this.”
    “What’s ‘halo die’?” A small smile lifted the corners of Vinnie’s mouth. “It sounds like you’re predicting the death of an angel.”
    For a few seconds no one spoke. I didn’t have any theories to put forward on the last entry.
    “Yup, that email makes no sense.” Vinnie lifted both shoulders. “You are difficult enough to understand when you are not drugged, Jen-girl. Who knows what your mind was doing while high. What other emails did you send?”
    “The third email makes even less sense. I sent it on Friday just after six in the afternoon.” It was extremely frustrating that I couldn’t make sense of my reasoning when I had sent this to myself. I opened the second email.
    Manny chuckled. “‘Big boom’? Were you thinking about evolution, Doc?”
    “I keep telling you I have no idea what I was thinking. Clearly, my neurological paths were impaired by the drugs. Everything is pure speculation. It could be evolution, it could be a volcano.”
    “Or an explosion, a bomb.” There was no more laughter in Manny’s voice. “I hope we’re not going have a repeat of the last time. Bloody hell. What do the other emails say?”
    I was a bit embarrassed to open the next one. I looked at the words, finding it difficult to believe I had written it.
    “Oh, you were high, girl.” Francine laughed softly. “‘Frame… of reference. Hahahahahaha.’ How many ha’s did you write?”
    “Too many.”
    “Again this could be that you overheard a conversation,” Colin said. “You knew they were trying to set me up for that murder, to frame me.”
    “Which then leads me to ask if ‘reference’ has any relevance. Whether the written laughter has any relevance. Whether the ellipses have any relevance. Even worse, if these emails have any relevance.”
    “I’m sure it does, Jenny. You wouldn’t have gone through the trouble to send something to yourself if you didn’t think it would help.”
    “Is there more?” Manny asked.
    “Only one more and this one is the biggest mystery.” I opened the email. “I sent this photo at ten to five, Saturday morning.”
    Everyone leaned towards the monitor. I clicked on the photo to open it up in full screen.
    “What is that?” Vinnie squinted and walked closer. “Jen-girl, you need to work on your photography skills.”
    “What do you think that is, Doc?”
    “Blueprints,” Colin said softly. I looked at him in surprise. When I had opened my email account earlier and this photo had been there, I would never have guessed it to be a blueprint. I had stared at the monitor for a long time, trying to figure out what image I had attempted to capture. All I still saw were some out-of-focus lines on white. The confidence in his knowledge was clear on Colin’s face.
    “How can you be so sure?”
    “He’s a thief, Doc.” For once Manny didn’t look at Colin with intense dislike. “Of course he’s going to know what a blueprint looks like. He would need those to plan all his heists.”
    “Is this for a building?” I asked Colin.
    “There’s no way to tell. The photo is badly out of focus, which hides whatever detail there is to clue me in on what this plan is for.”
    “I’ll clean up the image,” Francine said. “Forward it to me. I promise I won’t go into your system to retrieve it.”
    I studied Francine’s nonverbal cues for a few seconds. My need for privacy was not borne out of a distrust of the people in this room. It was a simple desire to have something exclusively to myself. In this current situation, it would be unwise to cling on to that. “I think it is better if you get into my system and into this email. Not only to