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“Stop fucking looking at him,” I growl. “And tell me what in the hell is going on.”
“Niko,” Captain warns.
I turn away from him and face my friend. The look in his eyes can be described as nothing other than regret.
“Her DNA was swapped with the DNA we took from the body from the woods.”
The body from the woods. Aislin’s body. He makes it sound so… impersonal, as if he never knew Aislin and what she meant to me, what she still means to me.
“You mean Aislin’s body,” I tell him with narrowed eyes.
He pulls in a deep breath and takes a step toward me. “It’s not her, Niko. Somehow, the results from the body from the woods and Doe’s were switched. The body from the woods is Rebecca.”
A buzzing starts in my ears, and my stomach bottoms out. My vision becomes hazy, and I have to grab the back of the couch to steady myself. “No,” I say hoarsely. “That can’t be true.”
“We don’t know how it happened, but the forensic team from the lab must have mislabeled the samples,” Captain says behind me.
“So who is Doe?” I force the question out. “And why did her results come back as matching Rebecca’s?”
“They must have run Rebecca’s DNA twice, thinking one was Doe’s. That’s the only explanation.”
“Which then brings up the question why he would say she was his niece when he knew she wasn’t, and why he took her. Who is she to him if Rebecca is the girl from the woods?”
I don’t give them time to answer before I straighten. With determined steps, I walk around the couch, snap up my phone, and then go to the bar for my holster. Both men watch as I grab my gun and slip it inside the leather before clipping it to my side.
“Fuck!” I shout. “I haven’t heard from her since last night. I’ve sent her several messages with no responses.” I stop and face Tavers. “He put those fucking marks on her. It was him the whole time.”
He nods, already coming to the same conclusion.
“A rookie found the fax buried underneath a stack of papers at the precinct,” Captain tells me as I grab my keys. “He phoned me as soon as he found it. We tried to call you, but you weren’t answering.” Rage and guilt simultaneously hit my chest, knowing time was wasted because I didn’t answer my phone. “I called Tavers, and we booked it over here to get you.”
“Let’s go.”
We walk out my door, and I don’t take the time to lock up as my need to get to Doe drives me. We’re back to square one with her. We have no idea who she is, and what relation she is to Clem Stewart, but I know in my gut she’s in trouble, and he’s at the root of it.
Heaven help him if he’s laid one finger on her.
