Alone (Bone Secrets, #4)(45)

Michael’s hawk-like gaze turned to Victoria. “Tell me again what happened at your break-in.”

“All three skulls were taken. I was in the middle of inventorying everything when this occurred, and now I’ll have to go through it again and make certain nothing else is missing.”

“Lacey mentioned the remains had been mixed together. How can you tell what belongs to who?”

“Skeletal remains are immediately printed with their case number. Every piece. Sadly they used pencil back then, so some of the numbers are nearly illegible or completely missing. I’d touched up several but not all. I’m making an educated guess at the rest.”

“So they may not be completely right,” he stated.

“I’m getting it as close as I can.” The question didn’t bother her. No one else would be able to solve the puzzle of the missing pieces better than her. She had faith in her abilities. She may not be perfectly accurate, but show her someone who could do better.

“If anyone can figure it out, Tori can,” Seth added. He reached out and squeezed her hand. He’d tensed slightly during Michael’s questioning, a defensive tone now in his voice.

Michael turned his probing gaze Seth’s way. He met it with utter calm. “You’ve worked with her for less than a week.”

“I know her reputation. She’s one of the best in the country. And I know her character.” His spine straightened another inch, his molars clenched.

His hand tightened around Victoria’s. When he’d taken it, she’d felt a calming warmth flow from his touch. It’d felt normal. It hadn’t felt like he’d been absent for nearly eighteen years. It’d seemed completely natural for him to touch her in reassurance, and for it to work.

Victoria struggled to remember sitting next to Rory and holding his hand, but the memories were surprisingly far away for a marriage of five years. She’d filed Rory and their life together into a mental box and firmly closed the lid. She’d thought she’d done the same with Seth, but suddenly it was all back at the surface. How had eighteen years vanished?

She blinked and realized Michael was looking at her expectantly, the echo of a question lingering in the room. She’d heard nothing.

“I’m sorry, what?”

His lips turned up in amusement. “How long were you out of the room?”

“It couldn’t have been more than thirty minutes. I’d taken a break and got something to eat, and I was on my way back to the lab when the alarm went off.”

“Which was caused by the door opening. Could he have heard you coming back and decided to leave?”

“He could have easily heard my shoes. Everything echoes in those hallways.”

“I wonder if he’d planned to do more damage or if you interrupted him.” Seth rubbed at his chin, a thoughtful look in his eye.

Victoria nodded.

“I still can’t believe no one else has come forward during these years to claim the other women. They must have parents or even children who wondered what happened to them,” said Seth. “How can a family member simply accept that a sister or mother vanished? Maybe the children were told their mothers had died.”

“I was adopted,” said Victoria. “If I hadn’t grown up knowing my mother was dead, I would have searched.”

“Maybe a trusted parent told them their mother was dead,” speculated Michael. “Have you seen your mother’s death certificate?”

Her brain shot into jet speed as she froze. She’d never seen a death certificate. She’d never doubted her adoptive parents’ word. Victoria couldn’t speak.

Awareness flowed in Michael’s gaze as he took in her silence. “I’m sorry. My nature is to question everything. Doesn’t matter the source. If I hear it from one person, I need to have it verified by two other people or sources.”

“My parents wouldn’t lie to me,” Victoria choked out. But her mind was racing in circles. Would her parents lie to her? Parents lie to children all the time.

“I know what you mean,” said Trinity. “My mother and grandmother told me my birth father was dead. When I was placed with Katy, I had her look into it. He wasn’t dead. He was in prison and had signed off all rights. After a lot of time with my therapist, I made the decision not to get to know him. He didn’t seem like the type of person I wanted influencing my life.”

Katy wrapped an arm around the girl and gave her a warm hug. Trinity rested her head on Katy’s shoulder for a brief second, her eyes sad.

Trinity may have made her decision, Victoria thought, but obviously it was a hard one. It must haunt her daily.

Now will I always wonder? Did my parents lie to me? Could my birth parents still be alive?

Her thoughts must have been plain on her face, because Seth spoke.

“We’ll help you find out.”

“Thank you,” Victoria said. A bit of guilt prickled at her, because she doubted the people who’d raised her. Both had passed away more than a decade ago, but she still thanked them every day for giving her a good upbringing.

“It’s okay to wonder,” Trinity said. “You’re human.”

“It’s not that,” said Victoria. “It’s making me doubt everything my adoptive parents told me. And that doesn’t sit well with me. They were good people.” She felt a tear run from the corner of her eye. She wiped at it. Her defenses were crumbling. And she couldn’t blame it on a single slow glass of wine. “Oregon has a law that anyone over twenty-one can request their original birth certificate with their birth parents’ names on it. In adoptions, the original birth certificates are sealed. I requested mine a few years back.” She took a long shaky breath. “But the state said they have no record of mine. My parents had died by then, so I had no one to ask about it. I’ve just gone on with the identity they built for me. All I know is my adoption was arranged through a tiny church that my parents attended for a while in Seaport, near the coast.”