���Uh-uh. She just sent me an email one time that said bingo, all in capital letters. I wrote back and asked if she’d gotten lucky and she wrote back that she was pretty sure she had, that she’d keep me posted but I didn’t hear from her again.���
���That was your last contact from her? Do you remember when you got that email?���
���I think it was after Christmas break from school.���
Emme thought for a moment before asking, ���How did she track her donor, Aaron?���
���Same way I tracked mine. I walked her through the process, but she was pretty much doing it on her own. Belle was one smart chick.���
���Can you walk me through it? I’m guessing she contacted you first via email and told you she wanted to search for her donor the way you had.���
���Right.���
���Then what?���
���Mostly, at first, she asked pretty general questions. Like, what lab did I use and how did I find it. Stuff like that.���
���How did you find the lab?���
���Online. That was the easy part.���
���So then she asked you to help her and you said yes. What steps did-���
���Well, actually, no. I told her I couldn’t help her.���
���Why wouldn’t you help someone who was trying to do the same thing you did?���
���I said I couldn’t help her, not that I wouldn’t.���
���I’m not following you, Aaron.���
���Belle wanted to find her donor the same way I found mine, but that wasn’t possible. I tracked my donor through my Y chromosome DNA.��� He paused to let that sink in.
���Which Belle, being a female, wouldn’t have.��� Emme gave herself a mental slap on the forehead. ���The Y chromosome is passed male to male, father to son.���
���Right. It’s sort of like the way the last name is passed on, you know? Boys get the X chromosome from their mom, and the Y from their dad. Girls get two X chromosomes, one from each parent. No Y chromosome, no Y chromosome-DNA test. No way to find the donor using the method I used.���
���But you just said that Belle later told you she found her donor.��� Emme frowned. ���How did she do that without the right DNA?���
���I didn’t ask her who she got it from. But she came back a few weeks later and told me she had the DNA goods. I walked her through it from there.���
���She didn’t say where the DNA came from?���
���Nope.���
One of the brothers, Emme thought. It had to have come from one of the brothers. Henry? The twins? Justin?
���Can you take me through the steps you went through with her?���
���Oh, sure. But������
���But what?���
���But I might not have the information she sent me about 1735 anymore. I don’t know if I kept all that.���
���What information?��� Emme frowned.
���Where he was born and when. Where he went to college. What his ethnic background was. All the stuff the clinic would have given to Belle’s mom.��� He paused. ���You know how I found my donor, right? I knew where he was born and the date and his ethnic background, which was Italian. After I had the DNA markers run through the online genealogy databases, I found a couple of guys with the same Italian last name. I went online and found one person who was born on the right date in the right city with that last name. So even if you had the DNA from the donor, without the rest of the information, you’re not going to find him.���
���Can you check to see if you still have Belle’s info and get back to me?���
���Sure. I’ll do that right now. Can you hold on?���
���I’ve got all day.���
It only took six minutes.
���Sorry,��� he told her. ���I must have deleted those emails.���
���And there’s no way to get them back?���
���I don’t think so.��� He grew quiet. ���Maybe��� I don’t know. I can ask my buddy. He’s like a super tech whiz.���
���Would you do that, Aaron? Please.���
He hesitated. ���I’m wondering if this is a cool thing to do or not.���
���What do you mean?���
���It was one thing to help Belle find her donor, but I don’t know about this. How do I know who you really are? How do I know this is really, like, kosher?���
She gave him the website address for the Mercy Street Foundation. ���Check it out. Check out Robert Magellan. Belle has been missing since January, Aaron. Her uncle came to us to help find her because the police had no luck. There’s a real good possibility that maybe she found her donor, maybe he knows where she is.��� She felt herself losing patience. ���And besides all that, we have no other leads.���
���I guess it’s okay,��� he said. ���I’ll call my friend and see what he can do.���
���Thank you, Aaron. If we find her-if she’s still alive-we’ll have you to thank.���
There was a long silence on the phone. ���You think maybe she’s not alive?��� he asked, his voice quivering.
She could have kicked herself for that slip.
���There’s always that chance when someone’s been missing for so long.���
���Shit.���
���That pretty much sums it up,��� she agreed. ���Call me after you talk to your buddy. I’ll be waiting to hear from you.���
She hung up and pondered her next step. She had the names of four of the male-donor siblings. Which one would Belle have contacted for a DNA swab?
Henry was the most likely. She tried calling him again, but had to leave another message. She didn’t have phone numbers for Justin or the twins. She went to the donor-sibling website and posted a general message.
It seems that Belle was pretty close to finding Donor 1735, but apparently she had help from one of you. The Y chromosome-DNA test that could provide information about the male line would have had to come from one of you guys-because girls don’t have Y chromosomes. You can email me privately if you like, but I’d like to confirm which one of you gave Belle your DNA.
Thanks-Emme Caldwell
She sat back and rubbed her temples, berating herself. She certainly was no DNA expert, but she certainly should have figured out that you couldn’t trace Y chromosomes through a female offspring.
She got up and walked to the window and looked out on a perfect summer day. Which of your brothers came through for you, Belle, and what did you do with the results of his test?
What would I have done? Emme asked herself.
I’d have found the lab, just like Aaron said, and I would have sent the swab in. Then when I got the results back, I would have sent them in to the databases, just like Aaron did. But first, before I sent the report anywhere, I would have made a copy. Several copies. I would have kept at least one-maybe more than one, in different places, just for safety’s sake, since I wouldn’t take chances with something that precious. And I would have sent a copy to the brother who’d given me his DNA.
She walked back to her computer and checked her mail. Nothing yet. She wondered how long she’d have to wait before one of the boys owned up-if he’d own up at all. She sent out one more email to the four boys, an addendum, telling them it was okay if they didn’t want to own up to having given Belle their DNA, but in the alternative, a copy of the DNA profile Belle had sent back to them would be just fine. She typed the address of the foundation on the bottom of the email and hit send. There was nothing she could do now except wait.
EIGHTEEN
For the third time t
hat day, he sat at his desk, checking her new emails. It had become almost an obsession. At first, he’d only wanted to know what she knew, who she corresponded with on a regular basis, whom she’d told what. Once he had the answers to those questions, he wanted to know more, and so the game had begun. He’d studied the emails for her style, and thought he’d been doing a pretty damned good job mimicking her. He was clearly winning this round: He knew who, and he knew what. Now he had to figure out how best to resolve this particular mess.
This latest one was a bit of a mystery to him.
OMG, Lori, where the hell are you? Answer your phone! Call ASAP!!! Phone home and all that! Seriously, L, I’m worried.
The email wasn’t signed and he was certain it wasn’t anyone he knew. Lori’s roommate, maybe? He debated the wisdom of replying to a message from someone who might pick up right away that he wasn’t Lori. As much as he’d love to play with Pammiegirl22’s head right now, he really shouldn’t. He’d put that one on ice for a while and see what happened.
He reopened and reclosed emails that were months old. She and Belle had been busy little bees, hadn’t they? And so eager to share with their donor siblings.
He lingered over the photos that Belle had sent Lori of Belle, Will, and Wayne on a Georgia beach the year before. Once again he enlarged the photo to fill the screen. Belle was so perfect, with her pretty skin and that long beautiful hair. And her smile��� she really did have a beautiful smile. It made him happy just to look at her face and remember when one of her smiles had been for him.
The twins, well, they were a different story. It had been a source of irritation to find that they had the same hairline that he had. The same shape of the face. The same eyes. The resemblance, while not overly strong, was definitely there.
He heard a ping and returned to the screen. Ah, he’d been waiting for this one. He opened it quickly.
I appreciate your advice but I don’t know that I totally agree. I still don’t know what to do about the stuff Belle gave me. If I should tell EC or if maybe I should talk to my mom. On the one hand, my mom won’t be happy about me looking for Donor 1735-we’ve had that discussion before and she thinks it’s a bad idea, that the clinic gave him a guarantee of anonymity and that we should respect that. On the other hand, Belle worked really hard to find him-I hate to see all her work be for nothing. And she did trust me with the information. Why would she have done that if she hadn’t wanted me to finish what she started? Ali.
He growled deep in his throat. Sometimes it seemed he spent the majority of his time dealing with stupid people. Could she really be serious? Turn over Belle’s notes to the fucking investigator? Jesus give me strength. He began to type furiously.
I understand your dilemma totally. It is a hard decision to make. But I did have an idea. I might have told you that I was going to be working in a forensic lab over the summer, right? I start next week-I am so looking forward to it. Anyway, maybe I can get someone in the lab to help me run the DNA results through that website so we can see if 1735’s profile is on record somewhere. I think it would be so cool if we could find him-but I think we should be the ones to be looking. It isn’t any of that investigator’s business, you know? It’s ours. Are you still planning on driving to Bryn Mawr on Wednesday? I can maybe meet you someplace and you can give me the stuff and I’ll take it with me to work next week. Lori
He waited a few minutes. The sound of Lori’s cell phone ringing startled him and made him jump. He opened the bottom drawer of his desk and checked the caller. Of course, she’d want to talk. Well, she was just going to have to go back to her laptop and start typing, because no one was going to answer that phone, probably ever again. He only kept it to monitor who was missing Lori and Henry, to see which fires he could put out via email or text messages. The longer he could keep others from looking for them, the better off he’d be. He knew from his phone call with Henry that their mom had left after his graduation to spend some time in California, so he figured that gave him some time. He frowned, hoping Pammiegirl22 didn’t turn out to be the spoiler.
He watched, and within minutes, another email appeared.
Just tried to call but you didn’t pick up. Yes, I am still planning on driving to Bryn Mawr but I’m leaving in about an hour. My field hockey workshop starts at eight tomorrow morning so I have to go today. I really want to play this fall! I can meet you on campus or off. Any idea of the time? It’s going to be hot so we might have a late afternoon or early evening practice. Ali
What time were you figuring on arriving today? We’re going to be driving to-here he had to stop and consult a map-Harrisburg for our cousin’s wedding -God, how lame was that?- so we’ll be leaving sometime today too! We could stop to see you on our way through the Philly area! Lori
Oh, wow-that would be so cool to see you both again! I should be there around seven if the traffic through the turnpike tunnels isn’t too bad. By the time I check in and everything, I guess I can get away by around eight. Is that too late? Ali
No, that would be perfect. How about eight thirty? Maybe we can find a coffeehouse or something and visit for a while. Lori
Oh, yay! I can’t wait! Ali
Neither can I! See you soon! Lori
He added, P.S. Don’t forget to bring Belle’s notes!
He sighed as he hit send. Dear God, this girl was such a loose cannon. To think she’d come this close to handing over all of Belle’s notes to the PI. Clearly, she had to go, and go soon.
He returned to the screen with the pictures and pulled up the ones Ali had sent Lori from the front of the art museum. Those were the ones that bothered him the most. He enlarged one of the frames and cursed under his breath. Granted, no one looking at the pictures would know it was him there in the background-why would anyone even notice?-but still, it was a mistake that should not have happened. This girl was clearly going to be the death of him.
Or actually, he reminded himself as he turned off Lori’s computer, it would be the other way around.
NINETEEN
Emme had always considered herself a patient woman, but by three in the afternoon, when she hadn’t heard from any of the boys, she’d just about exhausted what patience she had. She dialed Nick’s cell phone again and was prepared to leave a message when he picked up.
���Hey,��� he said. ���I was just about to call you. My client just left-finally. I say finally because he’s been here since eight fifteen this morning. And I say that with all fondness and gratitude, because he brought me one hell of a car.���
���What kind of car?���
���A very sweet 1949 Cadillac. There were less than eight thousand of this model made, less than fifty are registered.��� He sighed happily. ���Like I said. It’s one sweet car.���
���Well, good luck with it.��� She wasn’t exactly sure what one said under the circumstances, but figured that would suffice.
Nick laughed. ���So what good news did today bring? Aaron cough up the name of Donor 1735?���
���I wish it was going to be that easy.��� She related the gist of her conversation with Aaron that morning.
���So whatever DNA Belle used had to have come from one of her male donor siblings?���
���Right. I emailed the four of them but no one’s gotten back to me yet. Of course, there could be a lot of reasons for that. It’s summer, they could all be working today. Or the one who gave her the DNA could be reluctant to speak up.���
���Why?���
���I don’t know. I don’t know how kids that age think. But I do think there’s a high probability that Belle sent a copy of the DNA profile to whomever gave her their DNA. I did ask, but so far, nada.���
���Aaron is still going to try to retrieve Belle’s emails, though, right?���
���He’s going to consult with a buddy who apparently knows a lot about computers.���
�
��I thought you could retrieve just about anything from a hard drive.���
���I don’t think it’s quite that cut and dried. And Aaron didn’t know if email, once deleted, could be retrieved. But he said he’d do his best and I have to trust him to do that. In the meantime, though, I think we need to be prepared in case we can’t get the information from him.���
���So your thoughts for plan B would be������
���I think we need to go through all those boxes of Belinda’s. The more I think about it, the more I’m sure she’d have printed out copies of whatever information she had on her computer. She’d have wanted a hard copy. And besides, if she was successful in getting a DNA profile, she’d have sent it to one of these genealogy services that tracks DNA, right? She’d have kept a record of that, too.���
���You’re right. We need to go through her stuff. What are you doing tomorrow?���
���Well, I was hoping to start on that, but if you have this car to work on������
���The Caddy can wait. How early do you think you can get there?���
���I can drop Chloe off at eight.���
���It’ll take you about two hours to get to the farm. Get a pen and paper and I’ll give you directions.���
***
���I guess I didn’t put things back too neatly last time.��� Nick and Emme stood in the farmhouse’s foyer, surveying the pile of boxes, some half-opened, some with articles of clothing draped over the sides.
���Well, we’ll start with those, then, the ones that are already opened.��� She poked into the nearest carton, which appeared to contain mostly sweaters. ���We’ll go through every single item and when we’re done, we’ll pack the box up again and move it into the living room.���
���Okay.���
He’d already opened all the windows to let in some cool morning air. Now he opened the front door. ���It’s going to get pretty hot in here,��� he told her. ���By one, the sun is going to be coming right through those windows.���
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