Page 16 of Fatal Witness

A groan escaped her lips, and Lizi padded over and put her head on Dani’s thigh. “Why are you telling me this?” She forced the words through her lips.

“The grandmother, Mae Richmond, is a friend of mine. A few days ago, she showed me a magazine with your photo in it. She’d brought it to the sheriff’s office along with a photo of the nine-year-old girl and asked us—my boss, Alex Stone and me—for help. We submitted the photos to a facial recognition company in Chattanooga.”

Dani’s head felt like there was a spinning gyroscope inside it. “The results?” she whispered into the phone.

“There’s a 95 percent chance you’re my friend’s granddaughter, Danielle Bennett.”

8

Friday night, Mae removed the last piece of bisque from the kiln and reloaded it with glazed pieces. It would take twelve hours for the pieces to fire and another twelve for the kiln to cool. She checked her watch. Nine thirty. No wonder she was tired. So much for glazing the bisqueware tonight. She could push through, but her favorite glaze was running low, and she definitely needed to be fresh to accurately weigh and measure the ingredients for a new batch.

She’d intended to take the weekend off but got behind on her orders when she drove into Pearl Springs Wednesday afternoon. With the craft market coming up, Mae needed to work in the shop tomorrow.

With one last look around the studio, she locked the door and walked the familiar path to her house. Her cell phone rang just as she reached the back steps. Her heart fluttered when Mark’s name came up, and she slid the answer button. “Did you talk to Dani Collins?”

He chuckled. “Hello to you too.”

“Mark!”

“Okay. Yes, I talked with her, and she’s actually in Cincinnati.Not only is she willing to take a DNA test, but she’s driving to Pearl Springs. She’ll be here Sunday.”

Driving. Here Sunday.Mae almost dropped her phone.Thank you, Lord.She took a big breath. “Did she say why she never came home to Pearl Springs?”

“From what I understand, she has no memory of living here and didn’t know she had any relatives other than her uncle and his wife who raised her. And she’d never heard of Pearl Springs or Russell County, Tennessee, before tonight.”

“Why doesn’t she have any memory?”

“You’ll have to ask her that. She was stunned by my call, so we discussed the most important things.”

It was hard to believe that if Keith took Danielle, he’d kept information about her Tennessee family secret, but he had to be the uncle who raised her. She would get her answers when Danielle arrived. “Thank you so much for believing me and not letting this go,” Mae said. “Do you know what time she’ll get here?”

“No. Like I said, my call kind of overwhelmed her, and she wasn’t certain when she’d leave. Something about a breakfast with a professor in the morning, and she may have other things she has to do. Who knows, she could be taking two days to drive from Cincinnati. At any rate, she’s supposed to call me before she gets here Sunday, and I’ll call you.”

After she hung up, it hit Mae—she would see Danielle in two days. It was more than she could wrap her mind around. She went inside the house to her office and picked up the spiral notebook on her desk. Every year, she started a new one and wrote something every day, usually about the prayers God answered. She couldn’t wait until morning to write about how her granddaughter would actually arrive in Pearl Springs in two days.

Tension eased from her shoulders as she poured her heart out on paper. Mae wasn’t worried that the DNA test would come backwith a different result than the facial recognition. Her heart told her this was her granddaughter.

Just as she finished her entry with a prayer of thanksgiving, her phone rang. Morgan’s name showed up on the ID. She would probably be almost as excited as Mae.

She answered, and Morgan said, “I hope I’m not calling too late, but Ben and I were talking, and he agreed to bring me up on the ridge Sunday afternoon.”

Mae’s heart sank. She’d love to spend time with Morgan, but not that afternoon. “Could you come tomorrow?”

“Let me see.” A minute later she came back on the line. “Ben said he has appointments to show houses all day. Sunday isn’t good?” Morgan sounded disappointed.

“Danielle is coming home,” Mae blurted.

“What? Oh, Aunt Mae, that’s so exciting! Of course you don’t want anyone there when you first see her! We’ll do this another time.”

“Thanks for understanding. I can’t believe it’s happening after all these years.”

“So, she was the one in the magazine. How did you get in touch with her?”

“It’s complicated, and I’m too excited to talk about it tonight.”

“Okay, I understand. Well, I hope to see you soon so I can hear all about it.”

Mae agreed.

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