FORGET ME NOT (Mark Kane Mysteries Book One) (5 page)

We stood enjoying the sun and the silence,
the only sounds coming from the gentle rustling of leaves and the
occasional chirrup of the birds. We walked back up the sloping lawn
and Philips suggested that we sat outside on the deck which ran the
full width of the house. It was a hardwood deck, silky with the oil
that had been applied to keep the moisture out. There was a small
dark-green wrought iron table and four matching chairs, under a
slightly darker green canvas umbrella. He persuaded me, with no
difficulty at all, to share a bottle of pinot grigio with him.
Although I’m not usually a wine drinker it was a bit like asking a
dog if it wants to go for a walk. He wasn’t much of a drinker at
all, he told me, and never drank alone, so it was an opportunity
for him to ‘enjoy the grape’ as he put it. He fetched a couple of
glasses from the kitchen, and wine from the cooling-cabinet. He
poured the wine into the two glasses and then placed the bottle in
an ice bucket and deftly wrapped a white linen napkin around the
neck of the bottle. It was done with all the aplomb of an
accomplished wine waiter and I forgot where I was for a moment or
two; it was like being on a rather pleasant vacation. I decided to
broach the subject of my visit again.

“What you said about Susan on Sunday was
somewhat cryptic,” I said. “Perhaps you would elaborate for
me.”

He swirled the wine in his glass, tasted and
then swallowed it and grunted his approval.

“I’m not entirely convinced that Susan is who
she says she is.”

“Is there any particular reason for your
doubt?”

“There’s nothing tangible, nothing concrete.
I was here when she first appeared a year or so ago. There was no
physical likeness between them. Of course I know that doesn’t
really mean anything. In fact curiously enough when our boys were
small people often said how alike we were, although of course we
were not in fact related at all. Perhaps that’s just something
people say to be kind. And then of course Susan was already past
forty, she’d had a different diet, different environment; plus
Gloria was always so well turned out. She didn’t dress
ostentatiously; she just had that innate ability to always know
what to wear, what went with what, whereas Susan’s dress was
rather…drab. So perhaps that was another reason that they looked so
different from one another.

“But Susan’s reaction when she first came to
the house was slightly off-key to my eyes. Gloria had been so
excited before she came and was really quite emotional; almost
effusive. Susan didn’t have that kind of reaction. She seemed more
distracted by the house and her surroundings than meeting her birth
mother, and yet it was she who apparently had spent months or
perhaps even longer, tracking Gloria down. All those things were
matters which exercised my mind at the time. But I’ve left the main
reason until last.”

Greg paused to pour us fresh glasses of wine,
as if to emphasize by the pause that he was coming to the important
part. He took a sip and then set his glass down on the table. He
looked both at me and through me simultaneously with his blue-grey
eyes.

“After Gloria died, and when the contents of
the will became known, I spoke to Susan at some length. I don’t
want to give you the impression that I was cross-examining her or
anything like that. I was really doing no more than showing an
interest in the person I believed to be the daughter of my late
wife. During the course of several conversations with her though I
became increasingly uncomfortable because it seemed she was being
unusually evasive about her childhood and early adulthood. She
avoided answering questions about her adoptive parents, where she
grew up, where she went to school and so on. She increasingly gave
me the impression that she was being evasive because she didn’t
know the answers.

“I’m certainly not prejudiced in any way; if
Susan is who she says she is and Gloria wanted her to have a large
part of her estate then so be it. I don’t give a damn about the
money, although it has caused some friction with my sons. The point
is that I am wearing two hats, so to speak. I’m not just the
husband and a beneficiary in Gloria’s will, I’m also one of the
executors, and I have to protect the interests of my own children.
I want you to make some discreet enquiries, or investigate the
matter in whatever way you think fit. I mean I can’t very well ask
Susan outright to prove she’s Gloria’s daughter and to produce
documents and so on. Well, I could I suppose, but it would make me
very uncomfortable. I haven’t said anything to Susan about my
concern; I’ve kept it to myself so far. But it’s necessary for this
matter to be properly looked into before the grant of probate.”

Whilst he was talking it occurred to me that
at the very least Susan’s timing had been excellent. She was absent
from her mother’s life for over forty years and then renewed
contact with her less than a year before she died. Now she stood to
inherit a substantial part of Gloria’s estate. Perhaps it was no
more than a coincidence.

Greg went off to the kitchen to make some
fresh coffee. He came back and placed it on the green metal table.
The wine wasn’t finished but I was being cautious Kane. I would
soon have to drive home. Like most drivers I was entirely confident
that I could drive competently no matter what my level of
inebriation was, but the police might take a different view. I
wasn’t usually a wine drinker and I hadn’t eaten breakfast.

“Gloria certainly would have known the name
of the adoptive parents,” I said, after Greg was seated, “so the
name Susan Granger would have been known to her. But of course she
wouldn’t have known whether the woman she met not long before her
death was in fact her own natural child.”

“No, I don’t see how she could have known
that for certain. She would simply have had to accept her word for
it.”

“And although you subsequently became
suspicious about Susan’s identity we can assume, because of the
will apart from anything else, that Gloria was satisfied that Susan
was who she claimed to be. Of course we don’t know what Susan told
Gloria about her background, or indeed whether Gloria ever asked
her about it. Was Gloria already sick before Susan got in touch
with her?”

“She was in the middle stages. The first sign
of the onset of dementia occurred when Gloria was in hospital with
a broken leg. Then there was about a year or so before Gloria
started to noticeably decline. Before that her problems with memory
and so on were intermittent. I think their first meeting was
perhaps three or four months before Gloria’s condition became
really serious. I can’t be sure of the exact time I’m afraid. The
problem is that I was scarcely ever with Gloria when she had visits
from Susan. She came a few times before Gloria was effectively
incapable of proper discourse, I mean after the fairly rapid
progression of her dementia, and on each occasion I left them alone
together. It really wasn’t any of my business and I felt that
Gloria would be more comfortable if I wasn’t around. So I don’t
really know what they talked about.”

“When did Gloria see her last?”

Greg funneled his lips and frowned, bringing
his dark eyebrows closer together separated by a single crease
between them.

“During Gloria’s last few weeks Susan came to
visit her quite regularly, even though by that time Gloria would
have had no idea who she was. I remember feeling rather sorry for
her; she found her mother and then soon after that she lost her
again. That’s before I started to have doubts about who she was, of
course.”

“I’ve always understood that Alzheimer’s is
not a fatal condition. What was the medical cause of death?”

“On her death certificate it says multiple
organ failure, respiratory disease and pneumonia. Naturally I asked
the doctor about this. He explained that such physical illness
frequently manifests itself as the dementia progresses, although he
expressed some surprise that it had occurred so quickly. He told me
that sometimes it occurs within a year or two of diagnosis, other
times patients can linger for many years in good physical health. I
know that towards the end she was having difficulty swallowing her
food. But in my opinion I think she simply lost the will to
live.”

“Was there an autopsy?”

“No. The doctor said there was nothing
unusual about her death to warrant such a course. As for me the
idea of an autopsy is somewhat abhorrent. I believe that there
should be some dignity in death and I didn’t want her body cut into
pieces.” He gazed down the garden wistfully and swallowed the last
drops of his second glass of wine.

“The obvious way to set your mind at rest one
way or the other would be a DNA test. Assuming Miss Granger is
willing to submit a sample.”

“Well I thought of that of course but there
are no blood relatives to compare with Susan’s DNA. Gloria was
cremated. I’m told that the intense heat of cremation would have
destroyed any trace of DNA. Anyway, I scattered her ashes in the
woods at the bottom of the garden so that she could be with her
feathered friends. It gives me some comfort to know that what’s
left of her is near the house and yard where we spent so many happy
times together. She was an only child and her parents passed away
several years ago. As a matter of fact her parents were cremated
too. I’m not aware of any living close relatives of Gloria, but I
haven’t researched that aspect.”

“Well, there may be another way to test for
DNA which I think we should explore before moving on. After all, if
a comparison can be done it will save a considerable amount of time
and it would put this whole matter to bed once and for all.”

“I agree a definitive DNA test would be
wonderful. If nothing else it would save me the embarrassment of
having to broach the subject with Susan, either directly or
indirectly. The thing is that I don’t want to ask Susan for a
sample of her DNA if there’s another way of finding out. I’d rather
your investigation was conducted discreetly. In any event, given
the circumstances I don’t see how…”

“When Gloria died were any items kept
relating to her personal grooming? I mean like a toothbrush,
hairbrush, that kind of thing?”

“I’ll have to check, but I don’t think so.
Gloria’s clothes were all donated because I know that’s what she
would have wanted. My daughter-in-law, Sally, dealt with those
things − I’m afraid I found it all rather difficult.”

“Well I’d like you to check. I would be
particularly interested to find out whether any of Gloria’s hair
can be found because that could be tested for DNA. Even if Gloria’s
hairbrush was discarded some of her hair might be on the floor in
the room where she spent her last few weeks. You would be amazed
how many things lurk in carpet fibers even after thorough
vacuuming. As you might imagine I have accumulated quite a bit of
knowledge about forensic analysis over the years – not just DNA,
but fiber evidence, fingerprints, ballistics and so on. I don’t
want to get too technical, but in a nutshell a type of DNA called
mitochondrial DNA is abundant in human hair, and all people sharing
a common maternal bloodline will share an identical mitochondrial
DNA profile.
”

“Yes, now you mention it
I’ve seen TV programs about linking people to crimes by strands of
hair found at the
scene.”

“Well, I don’t want you to get your hopes
too high – analysis is not as straightforward as it may appear on
TV or in the movies. First it’s important to find a hair with a
follicle attached. Hair, like finger nails, isn’t living tissue
except at the point where it’s supplied with blood, at the root.
But let’s not rule anything out at this stage. I suggest that we at
least try to get a DNA profile of Gloria. We can consider the
question of obtaining a sample from Susan in due course. It may
turn out to be unnecessary. It may be possible to resolve the
matter without the need to rely on a DNA comparison.”

As I said all this I was uncomfortably aware
of double standards, like a lawyer looking forward to a long and
lucrative trial and hoping there wasn’t a last minute plea deal. A
DNA match might bring a promising enquiry to a premature end.
Still, that’s life. A suitable retainer would soften the blow in
any event.

“I’ll need to start with Susan of course, so
I’ll need her contact details. Is she living locally?”

“She’s in Concord. That’s Concord
Massachusetts. She works in a restaurant there apparently, although
I haven’t seen it. I’ll let you have her number.”

“I’ll begin my enquiries by speaking with
Susan and you can let me know if you have any success with the
hair. Incidentally, I plan to tell Susan that I have been retained
by the executors of Gloria’s estate rather than by you personally,
so perhaps you could clear that with your fellow executor or
executors…how many are there?”

“Just me and Gloria’s attorney. I see no
problem with that, and I understand why such an approach would be
more subtle.”

“Well please let me know as soon as you have
an answer. I’ll focus on Susan’s early life; see if I can uncover
any details. I anticipate that if she is not able or willing to
help it may prove difficult. You see although the birth certificate
will show where she was born it doesn’t follow that her adoptive
parents were local to that area. It may be possible to get their
address at the time of the adoption from the court records, but how
long they may have lived at that address would be unknown. I shall
have to see what information I can discover about the adoptive
parents. Granger isn’t an uncommon name, I’m afraid. As yet I have
no information about their first names, their ages or occupations.
We don’t know whether they’re still alive or not. I’ll know the
names when I see a copy of Susan’s birth certificate, but the rest
will depend on Susan’s co-operation. I don’t want to give you false
hopes as to my prospects.”