Page 5 of The System

“I’m not sure what you know about familial DNA searches being used to locate people who commit crimes,” Dylan began. “In particular, it’s been incredibly useful for cold cases, which I run for us.”

“DNA for–” Kieran shook her head. “What?”

“Kieran, your DNA matched a cold case I’ve been working on for a few years now.”

“My DNA did what?! How did you even get my–”

“You submitted it to DNAdiscovery.com recently,” Dylan explained. “The results popped up on our radar yesterday.”

“I haven’t even gotten the results yet. How did you?”

“I happened to log in yesterday and was looking into this case. I do that every day, and your results appeared for the first time.”

Kieran sat down and said, “I work for DNAdiscovery. I sent in my sample a few weeks ago just to see if I had any blood relatives out there. Who popped up? What did they do?”

“Well, Kieran, that’s the thing…” Dylan opened the file folder. “I’m looking into the unsolved murder of a man who was shot in the back of his head before his house burned around him. We’ve long since believed that his wife was the killer, but she disappeared right after the murder. We found her DNA at the scene in what was left of the house, but being his wife, she would have left that there at any time, obviously. Although, there was some DNA in an interesting spot related to the crime, and it finally matched.”

“Someone I’m related to killed someone?”

“Kieran, the problem is that the person’s DNA isn’t a partial match to yours.” Dylan picked up what looked like a photo, turned it around, and slid it over to Kieran on the table. “It’s an exact match. Well, as close to it as you can get in DNA since experts never say it’s one-hundred-percent.”

Kieran looked down at the photo in shock. It was her. No, it wasn’t her. It was a mug shot, and she’d never been arrested. The woman in the photo also had shorter hair that was dyed black, and she looked like she was a mess. Kieran hadn’t ever had black hair in her life. What was going on here?

“So, you see my problem?” Dylan asked.

CHAPTER 3

“This isn’t me,” Kieran said, pointing to the picture.

“It sure looks like you,” Dylan noted. “And the DNA you put into DNAdiscovery.com is a match for the DNA found at the scene.”

“You said it was a husband that was killed? I’ve been married once. And I just left my ex-husband at his house, the one we used to share, which is very much not burned down. He’s thinking of adding a gym, for crying out loud.”

“Kieran, I’ve got a dead man and a missing woman who has your DNA. If you’re saying it’s not you, that’s fine. We can fingerprint you to compare with what’s on file. We have those, too. That’ll clear things up.”

“Wait… You want to take my fingerprints? I’m not a criminal. I’m a software engineer. I’ve gotten one speeding ticket in my entire life when I was seventeen, and I paid it. Like I told you on the phone: no more speeding tickets in the past several years.”

“Fingerprints could exclude you if–”

“Oh, my God…” Kieran interrupted the woman and covered her mouth.

“What?”

“I’m adopted,” she revealed. “It’s why I did the DNA thing to begin with. My parents told me about six years ago. Well, maybe seven by now. I don’t know any of my blood relatives. I only did this to see if there were any out there. Like I said, I haven’t even gotten the results myself yet. Oh, wait… It would’ve gone to my personal email, and I haven’t checked that one for a few days.” Kieran pulled her phone out of her pocket and opened the app. “Shit. It’s right here that my results are in. I’ve got sixteen connections. Jesus! Sixteen?”

“You were adopted?” Dylan asked.

“Yes, as a baby.”

“Well, even a sibling wouldn’t be a near-one-hundred-percent match. That still doesn’t–” Dylan paused. “Unless you were a twin.”

“A what?” Kieran asked.

“Identical twins share DNA,” Dylan explained. “Fingerprints are different, though.”

“So, you’re saying that you think I have a, what, an evil twin out there somewhere?”

“Unless you knew Nicholas May,” Dylan stated. “And had spent time in his home.”

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