Cut and Run(74)

She left, crossing quickly to her car and sliding behind the wheel. She was rattled, unsure, and nervous. But she was also exhilarated. She looked at the DNA test kit and then glanced up to find Maggie still staring. She waved and drove off. At her first stoplight, she called Hayden.

He answered on the first ring. “Faith, are you all right?”

“I’ve just visited Josie Jones’s sister.”

If he heard the tremor in her voice, he ignored it. “Does Nancy Drew ever go to school?”

A nervous smile tugged at her lips. “When it suits. Where are you?”

“At the forensic lab,” he said. “I also have a DNA sample that needs testing.”

“Who does it belong to?”

“PJ Slater.”

“PJ? Did he give you a sample?”

“He left a cup behind,” Hayden said.

“That’s not going to be admissible in court.”

“I’m looking for confirmation that he’s the product of one of those girls, not court evidence.”

“Why PJ?”

“He’s the right age, has your coloring, and his father was at the epicenter of all this.”

“But he wasn’t adopted.”

“So I’ve been told. Would you give me a DNA sample?”

“Sure.”

“Good. Then we’ll know soon enough, won’t we?”

“Why would Margaret and Peter lie about their son not being adopted?”

“I don’t know,” Hayden said.

“I’ll be there in a few minutes,” she said.

Faith drove straight to the state forensic lab, and before she went into the building, she pulled a second test from her purse and swabbed her own cheek. Inside, she turned in Maggie Stapleton’s DNA sample, as well as her own. She gave orders for her sample to be compared to Stapleton’s and any one that Captain Hayden had dropped off today.

Rounding the corner, she saw Hayden standing at the end of the hallway. He was leaning against the wall, hat in hand, his right boot resting on the wall as his head tipped forward, cell phone to his ear.

She didn’t know what exactly she had with him or even where it would go. But she was so glad to see him.

Straightening her shoulders, she moved toward him, and as her heels clicked on the tiled floor, he looked up, pushed away from the wall, and ended his call. He looked tired, but a small grin appeared as she approached.

“Everything turned in to the lab?” Hayden asked.

“Yes.”

“Great. We could use some good news.” He nodded toward the evidence-testing lab down the hallway. “The forensic tech has examined the two magazines,” he said. “She said she’d like to go over some of the results. Thought you would like to hear.”

“Thanks. I would.”

“What did Mrs. Stapleton say about her sister?”

“She said Josie had a line on a nanny job and she was set to interview with both parents the day she vanished.”

“When was that?”

“September of 1987. Nine months before I was born.”

She felt his hand on the small of her back as they walked toward the lab room. They crossed the large room filled with workstations to a tech with salt-and-pepper hair wearing thick dark-rimmed glasses. His name was Doug Turner, and they’d met before. Turner looked up from his microscope. “Dr. McIntyre, I wasn’t expecting you.”

“I wanted to hear what you had to say,” she said.

“Sure.” He rose and crossed the room to a large computer screen. He pressed a couple of buttons, and the title page of one of the magazines appeared. “To save possible evidence and the integrity of the pages, I have photographed the magazine, and it’s now in storage.” He selected another file on his computer, and the next page in the magazine appeared, along with a fingerprint highlighted by black powder. “I pulled several prints from the magazine’s cover as well as the interior. The large thumbprint you see on the right came from the magazine’s cover.”

“It’s too big to be a young girl’s,” Faith said.

“Correct,” the technician said. “I’ve already run the fingerprints against the AFIS database, and it’s a match for Danny Garnet.”

Hayden shook his head. “I’ve been on the phone the last half hour trying to light a fire under the judge. His clerk promises I’ll have a warrant for Second Chances in the hour.”

“This fingerprint should seal the deal,” Turner said.

“Brogan and I were at Second Chances earlier, and from what we could determine from the outside, there was no one at the bar.”

“I was also there last night,” Faith said. And when she looked up at his hardening features, she said, “I can make all your logical arguments, Captain Hayden, so save the lectures. I wanted to see the place for myself. Unlike you, I went during business hours and got in.”

“And?”

“The bar was packed, and Garnet was working hard to fill drink orders.”

“When did you see him?” Hayden asked.

“About seven thirty last night.”

A muscle pulsed in Hayden’s jaw. “That was an unnecessary risk.”

“Maybe.” She deflected his ire back to the technician. “Garnet was taken aback when he saw me. I think he thought I was Macy at first. What else did you find, Mr. Turner?”