Page 21 of Deception

She has a right to know.

And he would tell her. He was just relieved he didn’t have to tell her tonight. It wasn’t like he hadn’t wanted to in the past, but because of his daughter, he hadn’t felt the freedom to share Madison’s beginnings with her. Now, with Sharon gone, he had no excuse to wait.

Sharon. With her it was too little, too late. If he’d shown her the report from the private investigator, would his daughter still be alive? Or would it have pushed her over the edge? Now he had to decide what to do with the evidence of infidelity the PI had brought him.

His lips curled in a tight smile at Gregory’s reaction when he’d confronted him. After Gregory’s initial bluster, he’d owned up to his infidelity, his tone practically groveling.

Had Gregory killed Sharon after that? Thinking she might divorce him if she found out? Gregory would get a lot more fromSharon’s estate than he would have from a divorce settlement. But of course, there’d been no divorce.

And then there was the problem ofwhatto tell Madison. Anderson stood and poured himself another glass of bourbon. Corbett hadn’t been the only reason he’d been late to dinner. He’d been looking over copies of her adoption papers, papers he’d wanted to discuss with her tonight.

Even though there was nothing illegal in the papers, he’d never told his daughter the details of the adoption. Not just how he’d arranged it, but what it had cost. And that had allowed Judith Winslow to get her hooks into him. He quickly downed the drink and poured the last of the whiskey. Madison being called away had only prolonged the inevitable. This morning’s meetings had made that plain.

He drained the glass and set it down. The alcohol had done nothing to blunt the dread in his stomach.

The floor outside his study creaked. “Nadine?”

No answer.

With a start, he realized he’d forgotten to reset the alarm after Madison left and opened the desk drawer on his left, where he kept a Smith & Wesson .38 Special.

14

Clayton disconnected from the call from the woman claiming to be Madison Thorn and stepped outside the ICU room as the deputy assigned to guard the victim’s room returned from the cafeteria.

“I was about to call you,” Clayton said. “I’ll be right back.”

And he would be, as soon as he dispatched the imposter claiming to be Madison Thorn. She had to be playing some kind of sick joke because the person Clayton had given a warning ticket to this morning was the same person he’d been holding a vigil over for the last half hour.

Clayton stepped through the double steel doors as the woman entered the waiting room. He blinked and then stared with his mouth gaped.

The woman strode across the room while he gathered his thoughts. How was this possible? He examined the credentials she held out, the same ones that had identified her as Madison Thorn this morning. “You didn’t tell me you had a twin sister,” he blurted.

She frowned. “That’s because I don’t.”

“Really? Follow me.” He turned and walked back inside the unit.

“Wait.”

He turned around, and her blue eyes held him.

“Exactly what am I walking into?”

They had stopped near the nurses’ station. He probably needed to prepare her. “I’m not sure. I have a gunshot victim with no identification but who looks just like you.”

“You say there’s no ID?”

“None. Did you eat at the Guest House tonight?”

Madison shot him a confused look before she shook her head. “I met someone for lunch then went straight to my grandfather’s house. Judge William Anderson. I never left until now.”

Surprise made him take a step back. This was the judge’s granddaughter? He stared at her, trying to see a resemblance to the girl with pigtails. He should have recognized those blazing blue eyes and the stubborn tilt of her chin this morning when he pulled her over.

To her credit, Madison had not tried to use the toughest and most well-respected judge in Adams County to get out of her ticket.

“So,” she said, “you finally recognize me.”

Heat flashed in his face. “You knew who I was when I pulled you over?”

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