Cut and Run(44)

Kat set down her sandwich and wiped her fingers with the paper towel. “That reminds me. That lady from the adoption group called again. She wants to meet. But I keep putting it off.”

“You can’t do that,” Faith said.

“I know. Will you come with me?”

“Yes. In fact, I can call her and set up the meeting, if that works for you?”

“Okay. Sure. Whatever,” Kat said.

She took that as high endorsement and was gratified that the girl trusted her with something so important.

“Consider it done. Eat up.”

Kat finished her sandwich and settled back in her chair. “When’s the last time you checked the genealogy site?”

“I haven’t.” When she caught Kat’s quizzical gaze, she sipped her own glass of water. “You aren’t the only one who doesn’t want to deal with adoption.”

“Maybe that’s why we have each other,” Kat said. “You help me, and I help you.”

“How’s that?” Faith asked.

“You have a hit on your page.”

She set her glass down carefully. “What do you mean I have a hit?”

“A half sibling.”

“What?” A week ago she would have discounted the news as suspect, but with the arrival of Macy she knew anything was now possible. “Let’s backtrack. How did you even know I registered for the site?”

“You strike me as the type. It’s a very scientific and technical approach. And then I pictured you getting superbusy and forgetting to follow up. I watched you at the fundraiser and wondered if you even have time to sleep. But then I realized you aren’t ready for the truth. I’m also a master of avoidance, if you haven’t noticed.”

The spot-on assessment was disconcerting. “And so you searched the most recognizable sites and hacked into them?”

Kat picked off a piece of bread crust and popped it into her mouth. “Hack is such a harsh word.”

“What would you call it?”

Now that they’d shifted from the topic of the baby to computers and hacking, the girl came back into her own. “I had a look around on a few sites.”

“And found me.” She’d thought twice about sending her DNA into the site. She’d felt as if she was opening herself up to a world she wasn’t sure she’d really wanted to know about.

“And a half sibling. She left you two messages in your account’s inbox.” Kat removed her laptop from her backpack, opened it, and pulled up the genealogy site. With no hint of apology, she logged into Faith’s account. “You have a new password by the way. Can’t be too careful these days.”

“Do I?”

“Faith plus Kat equals exclamation point.”

“Thanks for sharing.”

“Next time make a password that doesn’t just include the year of your birth and your initials. Very amateur.”

“Good to know.”

Kat tapped on the screen. “Her name is Marissa Lewis. She is a twenty-nine-year-old lawyer living in San Antonio. Less than an hour south of here.” The girl folded her arms over her pregnant belly, looking pleased with herself. “You must come from very smart stock.”

Memories of the country graves jabbed at her, and she wondered if she and Marissa Lewis were connected to any of them in some way. Her fingers trembled slightly, and she wasn’t sure she could bring herself to reply to Marissa.

Could she really be biologically connected to this woman? And if they were half siblings, did they share a mother or father? It was possible that Josie could have had more children.

Again she thought about the three gravestones. Another darker possibility came to her, and her first thought was to reject it because it was so horrible. But if working in the medical examiner’s office had taught her anything, it was that humans did unspeakably cruel things to each other.

“Do you want me to message her?” Kat asked.

One way or another, she had to find out if she was related to this woman. “Sure. Message her. What do I have to lose?”

Kat’s fingers tapped quickly, and before Faith could even consider changing her mind, the girl hit “Return” and said, “Done.”

“Thanks. I think.”

“You don’t sound very happy about it.” Kat peered at her over the edge of her laptop.

“It’s all a little much.”

“But you want to know the truth, right?” Kat said. “You want to know your birth family?”

She heard the girl’s fear. She was afraid of being forgotten by her own child. “I do. I want to know everything I can about them.” They both were silent for a moment, and then she said, “Let me call the shelter and tell them you’re spending the night here. We both could use a good night’s sleep.”

“We will find the truth, Faith.”

The truth. Whether she wanted to know it or not, the truth was barreling toward her, and she had no choice but to meet it head-on.





CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Wednesday, June 27, 1:00 a.m.

Hayden had spent the better part of the evening on the phone, arranging for the state forensic team to inspect the land out in the country. When he’d told them he wanted a team in the field in the morning, there’d been some grumbles until he explained it was the case Macy Crow had been working.