Page 95 of Forged in Steele

Interesting.“It’s quite the building. Not what I expected from a lab.”

“Our toxicology expert, Maya Lane, inherited the building from her grandfather, and that’s when we started the lab.”

“Hunters wife, right?” he asked.

“Right,” she said.

The doors opened, and she led him to the back of the floor where hallway windows overlooked a large trace evidence lab filled with state-of-the-art equipment. She unlocked the door using the fingerprint reader and stepped in. He followed.

“Now this is what I was expecting to see here.” He turned to take in the large room noting four lab techs working at stainless steel tables. “You work round the clock?”

“We do when a baby is missing.” Her urgent tone spoke to her desire to help find this child.

“And we appreciate it.”

“It’s the least we can do.” She crossed the room to a computer sitting on a cabinet on the back wall.

Finally, they were getting to the point of the visit. “So what do I need to see?”

“Prints on Reya Isaacs’s phone had been wiped clean. Odd, don’t you think? But they didn’t do a thorough enough job. I kept at it, and after fuming and other procedures I know, I finally recovered enough of a print to run through AFIS.”

“And?” He blinked at her.

“And it returned a match, which is why I called you down here.” She rested her hand on the computer mouse. “I don’t think Reya Isaacs is your victim.”

What in the world?Bristol and most of the law enforcement world vouched for the abilities these Veritas experts possessed, but the lack of sleep must have impacted Sierra.

He eyed her. “That’s impossible.”

“It’s quite possible.” She lifted her shoulders and woke up the computer. “Meet Valerie Zupan, the woman I believe is Reya’s twin.”

“Twin? But…” He stared at the picture on the screen of a woman who lived in Southeast Portland. A woman who was a dead-ringer for Reya Isaacs. “This is wild. They must be identical twins.”

Sierra switched websites. “While I waited for you to get here, I researched Reya. With all the press on her daughter’s abduction, there’s tons of information about her on the internet. I confirmed that she was adopted as an infant. I didn’t find anything to suggest she had a twin. But I think it’s a good possibility that the baby went to another home.”

Jared gritted his teeth and gave the new development some thought. “If this is true, how did we miss it?”

Sierra shrugged. “They must have somehow kept it quiet, but I don’t know how with all the investigating surrounding the disappearance of Reya’s daughter.”

Jared’s mind whirled with possibilities and landed on one of them. “Maybe they didn’t know about each other. Which again I think would be nearly impossible with all the pictures of Reya on the news.”

“I didn’t find much national news coverage until after the baby was located. Valerie lived all her life in Arizona and only moved here a few months ago. Could mean she didn’t see a picture of Reya until recently.”

“Could be,” Jared said. “Maybe Valerie doesn’t watch the news on a regular basis. More and more people don’t these days.”

“Do you blame them?”

Jared shook his head, but horrific news or not, he believed people needed to keep up with what was happening in the world. “You think the twin is the one who died?”

“Evidence would suggest that.”

“Not the blood on Luna’s blanket. That belongs to Reya.”

“True, but my gut says the woman is Valerie. I can’t be sure unless we fingerprint the victim or we wait for the DNA samples Emory is running.” Sierra’s shoulders relaxed. “Fingerprinting would be faster for sure.”

“Agreed.” Jared took a moment to ponder the development. “If this is indeed Reya’s twin, why weren’t there other prints recovered at Reya’s house?”

“I can’t answer that other than to say there was no evidence of someone trying to erase prints anywhere else in the house. The only logical answer is Valerie had never been there, or if she had, she wore gloves.”

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