Deadly Image (14 page)

“I didn’t think so.” Lexi summoned her courage. Now or never. “There’s one more thing I need to ask you and I need you to be totally honest with me.”

“We’ve always been honest with you.”

“Am I adopted?”

The color drained from Peter’s face. “Why would you ask something like that?”

Lexi gripped the rail on her father’s bed. “I tried to donate blood for Mom’s surgery. I wasn’t a match.”

“That doesn’t mean you’re–”“

Lexi cut him off. “My blood type doesn’t match up with yours either assuming you’ve been faithful to Mom. The lab ran the test several times. Dr. Phillips said there is no possible way you and Mom are my biological parents. At least not together. So I’m going to ask you again and I want the truth. Am I adopted?”

Peter closed his eyes. “I wish Mom was here to explain.”

“So it’s true?” Lexi’s mouth went dry. How could they have kept this from her?

“Lexi, honey, it’s not that simple.” Agitation roughened his tone. “I really wish your mom was here. She could explain this so much better than I can.”

“She’s not, so you’ll have to do it.”

Ace appeared at the bedside. “Mr. Carlisle, someone has taken your granddaughter and there is a very good chance it was that same someone who cut your brakes. Lexi could be next. If Lexi is not your biological daughter, then we need to know who her parents are and why there isn’t an adoption paper in her dossier.”

“Because she wasn’t adopted. We … we just took her in.”

A strangled cry escaped Lexi’s lips. “What are you saying? You kidnapped me?”

“No!” Shock flittered across her father’s features as the word exploded from him. “Nothing like that. We were your godparents. Your parents died when you were three years old. We raised you as our own. You were so little and had been through so much.” Peter shook his head. “We meant to tell you when you were older. We really did. But you kept having those anxiety attacks, and we were afraid telling you might do you more harm than good. We thought it didn’t matter.” Peter’s blue eyes pleaded for her to understand. “We loved you like our own child anyway.”

“What happened to her parents?” Ace’s jaw tightened.

“They perished in the fire.”

“Fire?” Fear chilled her bones. Was this why she was a pyrophobe?

“One night your house caught on fire. You were trapped in your room and your parents tried to reach you, but they couldn’t. The roof collapsed on their end of the house before they could get to you and they died. Thankfully, one of the firemen was able to get you out.”

“My nightmares,” Lexi whispered hoarsely. “All this time, they were real. That’s why I’ve always been terrified of fire.” An image of another little girl crying in the flames seeped into her mind. A little girl calling her name over and over again. She hadn’t been alone in her room. Lexi trembled. “Who else was in the house?”

Peter’s eyes brightened with unshed tears. “Lexi, don’t–”

“Who, Dad? Who else was in the room with me?” Lexi choked on a sob as the images flashed before her. The screams. The flames. The smoke.

Peter closed his eyes and rasped, “Your sister, Laura.”

CHAPTER TEN

“My sister?” Blood pounded in Lexi’s temples as the room began to swirl. She fought to maintain consciousness. “I have a sister? Where is she? Did she die in the fire too?”

Peter shook his head. “By the time the firemen could get to her, though, she’d suffered third degree burns on her legs as well as carbon monoxide poisoning.”

“Then where is she? Weren’t you her godparents too?”

Peter looked away. “Laura’s injuries were extensive. We were told recovery would require years of surgeries and physical therapy. No one even knew the extent of her brain damage from lack of oxygen at the time.” Peter’s shoulders drooped. “Of course, we wanted to take her in as well, but the doctors convinced us she would be better off in a facility where she could get the care she needed.”

Lexi gasped. “So you just left her there? In an institution?”

Peter jerked his head around, pain and remorse, topped with trauma from the past few days, made him appear older and more fragile. He barely resembled the strong protective man she’d grown up with. “We didn’t have a choice. Your mother and I couldn’t provide the kind of care Laura needed. Not emotionally or physically. The best we could do for her was set up a discretionary trust fund to help with expenses.”

“Then she’s still there?”

Peter nodded. “The carbon monoxide was too much for her little body to handle. She’s not mentally stable enough to function outside the facility. Actually, it’s more of a group home.”

“Why didn’t you tell us this earlier?” Ace demanded, steel lacing his voice. “This information could have been useful in the investigation.”

“We wanted to, but we didn’t want Lexi to find out she wasn’t our flesh and blood. It happened so long ago, we didn’t see how it could be relevant to Anna’s disappearance. I tried to convince Victoria to at least tell the FBI, but she was afraid if we said anything, the whole horrible tragedy would come out and it would trigger another one of Lexi’s attacks.” Peter looked at his daughter. “Like Carl’s accident did. You were in such a dark place for so long we thought we’d lost you then.” He shook his head. “Victoria couldn’t bear the thought of risking it again, so she begged me not to say anything. Neither of us thought for one minute that Laura could be responsible for this. I still don’t. She’s under supervision in the group home and she’s never passed her mental evaluations. Besides, Lexi has a different last name and there aren’t any adoption papers to trace her. How would Laura ever find out she has a sister, much less be able to track her down?”

“What group home is she in?” Ace pulled his notepad and pen from his pocket.

“Shady Grove Care Facility in Ohio.”

“Ohio?” Lexi tightened her lips. “Why Ohio?”

“That’s where your parents lived. Where you lived.”

“I grew up in Dallas. If my parents were from Ohio, how did you know them?”

“Your father and I were best friends in college – UCLA. We remained friends even after we graduated. I took a job in Dallas and he went to work for a company in Ohio, but we would get together a few times a year. When you and Laura were born, your parents asked us to be your godparents. Victoria and I agreed, but never dreamed something like this would happen.”

“Who were my real parents? What were their names?”

Peter flinched as she stressed the word real. “Steven and Diane Duncan.”

“So Laura’s last name is Duncan?” Ace scribbled on the notepad.

“Yes. Laura Elaine Duncan.”

Ace fixed Peter with a hard stare. “If you didn’t adopt Lexi how did she legally get your last name?”

A flush spread over Peter’s face. “A good friend of mine worked for the FBI at the time this happened. He was in the witness protection program division so he was able to get Lexi’s birth certificate changed and make her past disappear.” Peter reached for Lexi’s hand. “We never meant to hurt you or to deceive you. We just did what we thought was best at the time.”

“What about grandparents or aunts and uncles? Didn’t I – we – have any?”

Peter shook his head. “Both of your parents were only children. Your mother’s – Diane’s – parents were killed in a plane crash years before you and Laura were born. Your father, Steven, and his dad didn’t see eye to eye. They were estranged and hadn’t spoken in years. I tried to contact him after the accident, but he never returned my calls or even came to the funeral. He was a proud man, your grandfather. Apparently, he couldn’t bring himself to forgive your father for whatever falling out they’d had. Steven’s mother had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s while he was in college. She passed away a few years after Steven’s death. There weren’t any relatives to take you. That’s why Victoria and I agreed to be your godparents. If we hadn’t taken you, you’d have ended up in foster care. No way were we going to let that happen.”

Ace shifted his weight to his left foot and continued to take notes. “How old is Laura now?”

“Twenty-three.”

Lexi’s hand flew to her mouth with a choked gasped. “Then she’s not just my sister … she’s my twin.”

* * *

Ace slammed his fist into the steering wheel of his SUV as he sat in the parking lot waiting for Lexi to finish her visit with her father. This latest piece of information would have been helpful
days
ago. How in the world could Lexi’s parents
not
think the fact she had a twin sister in a psychiatric hospital be relevant?

His cell phone shrilled in his shirt pocket. Ace pulled it out and flipped it open. “Valdez.”

“Laura Elaine Duncan disappeared from Shady Grove Care Facility about a year ago,” Sheriff Dawson told him in a quick breath. “No one has seen her since. Looks like she might be our kidnapper after all.”

That’s what he was afraid of. “Anything else?”

“Yes. Seems there was a warden at the home who was sweet on her. Flirted with her, made her feel special. The works. The nurse recalls overhearing him tell Laura about her trust fund once as well. She remembers because she said she fussed at him for it. Didn’t want him putting any ideas in her head.”

“Sounds like it was her trust fund the warden was sweet on. But with Laura’s impaired mental capacity, she wouldn’t be allowed to touch it. Who is the trustee, and do we know how much of the trust fund has been used since she left?”

“The Carlisles’ attorney. He’s the one who handles her expenses. Apparently no one bothered to inform the attorney that she was missing. He’s still been making payments to Shady Grove for the past year.”

“Somebody didn’t want the money train to end. We need to get someone out there to interview the warden.”

“Can’t. We aren’t sure where he is either. He left Shady Grove almost a year ago. Got a job out of town or something.”

“You think he and Laura are together?”

“Possibly, and if she knows about the trust fund, then there’s a good chance she would have found out who set it up for her and why. The warden probably had access to her file and told her everything.”

Ace gritted his teeth. “The trust fund can be traced back to Peter and Victoria Carlisle, which means Laura could have easily found out she had a sister. Especially if the warden is helping her put the pieces together.”

“Looks that way. We’ll keep trying to track them down.”

“What do we know about the warden?”

“Not much. One of our guys in Ohio is on the way to talk to the staff at the hospital. Maybe he can find someone who knows something.”

“Keep me posted.” Ace snapped the phone shut and slipped it back into his pocket. If the warden really was helping Laura track down her sister, then why? What could they possibly gain if they weren’t after money? No ransom calls had come in. No letters demanding cash. Nothing. So if it wasn’t money, then what was it Laura wanted?

Assuming it
was
Laura who’d taken the child.

Ace looked up to see Lexi waiting for the sliding glass doors to open. He started the SUV as she exited the building. She reached the vehicle, opened the door and climbed into the passenger seat. He heard her seatbelt click into place.

“You okay?” Ace shifted into reverse and backed out.

“No. But I’ll give the appropriate response of yes.”

Dark gray bags under her eyes attested to the stress and shock of the past few days. In all honesty, Ace didn’t know why she hadn’t snapped by now with everything that had been going on. She had more strength than he’d originally thought. Good thing too. Because she was going to need it.

“There’s nothing wrong with telling the truth. Nobody expects you to be the rock of Gibraltar through all of this.”

“I know. I just can’t let myself fall completely apart. I’m afraid if I do, then I’ll never pick up the pieces again.”

Keeping his eyes on the road, Ace took her hand in his. “You don’t have to face this alone. You have me, you know. If you fall apart, I’ll be there to help pick up the pieces.”

Surprise registered in her eyes. “I’m very grateful for that too. You’ve gone above and beyond the call of duty on this case.”