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“A private investigator?”
“He had a card that said he was. Joel Rex Kingston.”
“And her name’s what? Raven?”
“I’ll start again,” her father said with forced patience. “This man and girl came to the house. He said he was a private investigator, name of Kingston, gave me his card, but the girl would hardly let him get a word in. She said she was your half sister and that she’s been looking for you, and then she asked for your address.”
Elizabeth’s hand hurt, she was gripping the phone so hard. “Did you? Give her my address?”
“Well, in the end she convinced me.”
“Dad!”
“It’s all right.”
“It’s not all right! You don’t know these people. You don’t know what they’re capable of! You can’t just hand out my address. They could be anybody . . . they could be—”
“What the hell are you afraid of, girl? You don’t like ’em, don’t talk to ’em. All I’m saying is, I believed her. You meet her, I bet you believe her, too. And it’s Ravinia. That’s what it is.”
“How is she my half sister? Who are her parents? Who were mine?” Elizabeth demanded, asking the questions she’d never had the courage to ask when she was younger.
“We adopted you from a lawyer in LA. You know that.”
“But I was from Oregon. Mom said so.”
“Yes . . .” Gaines sounded a little perturbed that she knew as much as she did, but then he bowled her over by adding, “This girl’s from Oregon, too.”
“You shouldn’t have given them my address,” she repeated. A private investigator. Oh, God, what did that mean? “Did you give them my phone number, too?” she challenged. His silence was answer enough. “Did you get their phone number?”
“I told you I got his card.”
“What’s the number?”
Her father rather reluctantly read off an office number and a mobile number.
“Joel Kingston, you said?” she asked tersely.
“That’s what it says on the card.”
“You shouldn’t have given out my address,” she told him again.
“Well, I’m sorry all over the place,” he said tightly. “Guess I’ll be talking to you later.”
Much later. Elizabeth was upset enough not to trust herself to speak. If she did, she might start screaming at him. It was amazing how quickly she’d fallen back into old, bad patterns with him.
A few moments later, he heaved a put-upon sigh and clattered down the phone.
A private investigator? And a girl who looked like her? Good God . . . what if she was the one who’d played the game of deadly tag that had gone so wrong on the freeway with Court? What if she was the one who’d been seen at the hotel in Rosarito Beach, Tres Brisas? What if she was the one who’d sideswiped Gil Dyne’s car and what if... what if... she was the reason all those people were dead?
What if all this was because of her?
Chapter 26
“Chloe,” Elizabeth said aloud, but her daughter was still tuned into the television program, which had back-to-back episodes. “Chloe!”
Chloe jerked to attention and turned to frown at her mother. “What?”
“You said some things the other day. About the old man who drove through the restaurant.”
