The Half Sister(24)

‘What?’ shrieks Kate, the idea too far-fetched for her to take it even remotely seriously.

‘I’m just saying,’ says Matt. ‘There are other ways that a match could have occurred, without her actually being related to you.’

‘But why would anyone go to those kind of lengths?’ asks Kate, her investigative mind beginning to whir at the possibility.

‘They wouldn’t,’ says Matt decisively, as if sensing the runaway train Kate’s just jumped on. ‘And certainly not where you’re concerned because, let’s face it, you’re not exactly an intriguing dynasty that someone would commit forgery to be a part of.’

Kate playfully slaps his arm.

‘I’m just saying that it’s a possibility,’ says Matt. ‘That’s all. You might not want to take this girl at face value.’

She had no intention of doing so. ‘So how come you’re a genealogy expert all of a sudden?’ teases Kate, keen to inject some light-heartedness to lift her mood.

‘Aha,’ says Matt, tapping a finger to his nose conspiratorially. ‘Funnily enough, I had an interesting pitch come through from a freelancer today.’

‘If you’re prepared to tell me about it, it can’t be that interesting,’ says Kate sarcastically.

Matt smiles. ‘Well, it was a feature about police forces uploading DNA from unsolved crimes to genealogy websites in the hope of finding a match to their suspect.’

‘Oh,’ says Kate. ‘Go on.’

‘Well, it got me thinking, what with you finding yourself in this rather unsettling position, and I decided to do a bit of digging.’

Kate looks at him expectantly.

‘It’s already bringing in results in the States, on cold cases from decades ago,’ Matt goes on.

Kate shakes her head. ‘How?’

‘Because despite DNA being left at almost every crime scene, unless the suspect was already on the police database, there was no way of tracking him down. Now, with the help of these websites, the police are able to trace relatives of the suspect and track him down by working backwards through the family tree.’

‘Wow,’ says Kate. ‘So from millions of suspects, they’re now able to narrow it down to one family.’

‘Yep, and some offenders have already been charged and are awaiting trial,’ says Matt as triumphantly as if he’d made the arrests himself.

‘So that means that anyone dead, alive or otherwise has the potential to be identified,’ says Kate.

Matt nods. ‘It’s a game-changer.’

Indeed it is, thinks Kate.

‘So now that Lauren has put herself in this position, what does she make of it?’ Matt asks.

‘She seems pretty set on this girl being the real deal, but that’s because it would suit her to have Dad’s name dragged through the mud.’

Matt pulls a disbelieving face. ‘I know her and your father were never close, but still . . . it’s a bit of a leap. I mean, why would she want that?’

‘Because she knows that it would hurt me, and he’s no longer here to defend himself.’

‘But that just doesn’t make sense,’ says Matt through a frown. ‘I know you don’t always see eye to eye, but no more than me and my brother. That’s how siblings are; you love each other, but don’t necessarily like each other all of the time.’

‘I don’t think she has the first clue as to what she might have unleashed,’ says Kate bitterly.

‘Woah, let’s not get ahead of ourselves,’ says Matt, holding his hands up. ‘This girl might be exactly who she says she is. And if that’s the case, it’s not exactly going to be rocket science to work out who’s child she is.’

Kate bites down on her lip. If only it were that simple.

‘But then again, maybe Lauren knows something you and I don’t?’

Kate’s hackles rise. ‘Like what?’

‘I just think she might know more than she’s letting on . . . about your dad, I mean.’

Kate had had a lifetime of defending her father to Lauren, but she didn’t ever envisage having to do it to Matt, who had so often teamed up with Harry whenever a family debate had ramped up unexpectedly. They had a middle-class background in common, both erred slightly to the right on the political spectrum and shared a love of football that was only eclipsed by their love for her.

As was always the case in the Alexander household, as soon as talk turned to politics, the gloves were off and it became a free-for-all. To an outsider looking in, it might have seemed stacked against Simon, but for everyone there, it was deemed good banter. Everyone that is, except Lauren, who would often end up in the kitchen crying over the Yorkshire puddings.

‘Why does Dad always have to do this?’ she’d sobbed one Sunday. ‘He winds Simon up just to get to me.’

‘Oh, don’t be ridiculous,’ Kate had said, coming to their father’s defence. ‘Why do you always think it’s about you?’

‘Because it always has been,’ said Lauren. ‘I can do no right in his eyes and now he’s just using Simon to get to me.’

‘Listen to yourself,’ said Kate. ‘You’re almost forty years old. Whatever you have against Dad, don’t you think it’s time to let bygones be bygones?’