“Grant Hayes is my...was my...husband. He did work with the FBI as a profiler. He no longer works for the FBI. He works for the Brotherhood Protectors in Montana. When I woke, he was the only name and phone number I could immediately recall. They phoned him. He came and brought me here, since I no longer have a vehicle.”
Melissa’s brow dipped. “Should you even be working?”
Avery lifted her chin. “Absolutely.”
“If you had issues with memory, you’ve obviously had a head injury. Shouldn’t you be resting and still under the supervision of a doctor?”
“The doctor released me,” Avery said, not adding that the doctor had suggested she rest and take it easy. “We have a serial killer in the area. I’m here to do what I can to stop him.”
“As am I,” Bree Lansing said.
Melissa turned to Bree and pinned her with a glare. “Zip it. I’ll get to you soon enough.” She turned back to Avery. “I’m not convinced you’re up to this assignment.”
Avery sat up straighter. “I’m well enough to pursue the murderer. And we need all hands on deck to find him and bring him in.”
“I agree with Agent Hart,” Bree said.
Melissa held up one finger, her lips pressing together in a straight line. Her eyes narrowed as she focused on Avery. “You were in the office after this one left this morning, weren’t you?”
The sheriff leaned forward. “I thought you were acting funny when you came back in after just leaving.” His brow furrowed. “And you left wearing a ball cap and came back in with your hair down. The Agent Hart we’d been working with wore a ball cap every day.” He shook his head and gave Bree Lansing the stink eye. “You had us all fooled.”
Bree shrugged. “I was only going along with what you thought. I want to catch the killer as much as you do.”
“Okay, Ms. Lansing, was it?” Melissa started. “Spill it. Who are you? Why the hell are you here? Who sent you?”
“Bree Lansing. Detective for the Omaha Police Department. I came to Shadow Valley to pursue a DNA match I found on an ancestry database.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me. That’s no reason to assume the identity of an FBI agent.” Melissa smacked her hands onto the table. “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t arrest you for impersonating a federal officer?”
Bree met Melissa’s gaze and held it. “Because I believe the DNA match I found was a setup to bring me to this area by the serial killer.”
“Why do you think the serial killer would lure you here with a DNA challenge?” Avery asked.
Bree sighed. “It’s a long story.”
“We don’t have much time,” Avery said. “Could you give us the short version?”
The woman nodded. “I didn’t know I was adopted until last year, when my mother was diagnosed with stage four cancer. She didn’t want to die without me knowing how much she loved me and that I was adopted. Her type of cancer could be hereditary. She didn’t want me to think I could get it because she’d passed the gene down to me. As a final birthday present, she gave me one of those DNA tests that taps into ancestry databases and told me I could look for my biological mother...or not. She hadn’t told me about being adopted because she never wanted me to know I’d been abandoned. She and my father had loved me from the day they brought me home at what child services estimated was one month old.”
“And what did your DNA testing result show?” Avery asked.
“I found a match with what the registry considers close enough to be a parent. Someone who lived in Shadow Valley, Texas.”
“How old are you, Ms. Lansing?” Avery asked, suddenly feeling lightheaded.
“Thirty-four,” Bree said.
An intense ache spread through Avery’s chest. “I was adopted as well, but my mother let me know as soon as I turned eighteen. She said she’d always love me as much as any mother who’d given birth to her children. But she’d understand if I needed to search for any blood relatives. I didn’t look for relatives because I had everything I wanted and needed in my adoptive mother and father. Still, I always wondered if I had siblings somewhere. It was like I was...” Avery shook her head, the right words escaping her.
Bree touched her arm. “As if you were missing a part of you?”
Avery’s world tilted, the blur of her life coming into sharp focus as if for the first time. She let out a shaky breath. “Yes.”
“So, you never went back and checked your adoption file?” Bree asked.
“No.” Avery’s eyes narrowed. “But now I’m curious.” She turned to Grant. “Do you think your man, Swede, can hack into an adoption database and search for my records?”
Grant nodded. “If it’s stored online, he can find his way in.”
