“Twin sister?”
“That’s exactly the way I said it.” He shook his head. “I really hate it when there are twins involved in something like this, especially as I can’t find the twin in question.”
Mary-Ann sighed. There was a part of her that really didn’t want to be standing on Kevin’s doorstep again, but the rest of her really wanted to know the truth. Breathing deeply she knocked on the door, wondering who might answer it, because she had no idea what had happened to Phoebe after she’d introduced her to Kevin’s dad. When the door opened Mr. Thompson was standing there, a look of shock on his face. “I take it D.I. O’Connor just called you.”
“He did.” Their eyes met. “You spoke to him about this.”
“I had to call him about Kevin’s secondary email account, and he asked if I knew about it. I had no idea.”
“Neither did I.” He shook his head. “Come in, Mary-Ann. This isn’t the sort of thing I want to be talking about on the doorstep.”
Doing as he asked was the easy thing to do. “You didn’t know your wife had a twin?”
“If I had I would have said something.” He sighed. “I can’t get my head around this. I can’t quite work out who I was married to, for a start, because I don’t know if I married the woman I thought I did, or if I married her twin.” They stepped into the kitchen, where Phoebe was staring into a cup of tea. “I just… I don’t know how she could have lied to everyone for that long. Why didn’t she ever mention the fact she had a twin?”
“Maybe she was trying to protect you.” Mary-Ann shrugged. “Or maybe she was trying to run away from her past, because I can’t imagine how difficult it must have been for her, and she saw a chance to begin again in Green Springs.”
“That’s a good point.” He sighed. “Do you want something to drink?”
“No, thank you. I just wanted to be here. Finding something like this out can’t be easy.”
“It’s not.” Their eyes met. “Phoebe and I have been talking about how there’s a chance I might not have buried my wife. She might still be out there somewhere.”
Phoebe nodded. “I know, without any doubt, Mom was definitely a drug addict. The woman who lived with the Thompson’s wasn’t, to begin with, which makes me think there’s a chance Mom took over her twin’s life.” She sighed. “Right now I think this is just making the whole case much more complicated than it needs to be.”
“Unless your mom’s twin was the one who killed her sister and Kevin was going to say something about it. That’s the issue with not knowing the full truth about everything.”
“You really think that’s possible?”
“Considering what we just found out I don’t know what’s possible right now. Kevin’s been keeping secrets from everyone, so it’s entirely possible he knew the truth, but I don’t know.”
“You said he had another email account.” Mr. Thompson sipped his own drink. “What did you find out from it?”
***
“I haven’t found her.”
“That’s not a surprise, Alex.” Mary-Ann walked into her shop for what felt like the first time in months. Getting her head around everything wasn’t an easy thing to do, even though she was doing her best, and she was beginning to wonder if the whole mess started far before any of them realised. “How would she have taken over her sister’s life so entirely if the sister was still alive?”
“You think this all started with a murder when Kevin’s mom claimed him as her child?”
“Like I said to Phoebe I don’t know what’s possible any more. What I do know is that Kevin was keeping secrets from everyone. There are messages in his email account from people who might have known his mom was a twin. If he found that out…”
She shook her head. “I keep going between two theories. The first is that Kevin was killed for finding out who killed his mom, which does make sense. The second is that he was killed by his mom’s twin for finding out the truth about her, but if she was around why didn’t she try to reclaim her family? Why did she stay away for as long as she did?”
“I’m going to keep looking. I have to find something, even if it is another murder, and I want you to try to stop thinking about this for a little while.”
“How can I? The deeper we go the more confusing it gets.” She shook her head. “I never imagined this would happen.”
“Neither did I.” He sighed. “In the end we will find out the truth. I promise you that. Make sure you let me know if you find anything out.”
“I will.”
***
Robert had papers spread out in front of him, going through what seemed to be articles from the local paper. “I’ve got everything I can about Kevin’s family, because the Thompson’s have done a lot for Green Springs, and it does seem as though his mom suddenly changed. One week she was her normal self. The next she was someone entirely different. From what I’ve heard people put it down to post-natal depression. Until she left everyone she loved behind they did everything that could to help her, but she was an addict who didn’t want help. What she seemed to want was a readymade family - and a son who wasn’t addicted to drugs.” He looked at her. “I found a report in one of the New York papers about a baby who was dumped at one of the hospitals. He was addicted to all sorts of things, so they had to carefully wean him off them, and then he was put into foster care.”
“You think he was the daughter of the twin.”
“It makes sense.” Their eyes met. “If he found out about Kevin there’s a chance he might be the murderer.”
“Oh, great, another suspect.” Mary-Ann shook her head. “I take it you have talked to Alex about this.”
“Yes, I have, and he’s looking into the young man in question. He disappeared after he was put into foster care, which might mean he was one of the few people who managed to come through it without being damaged or it might mean he’s been able to keep himself hidden.” Robert sighed. “I don’t know what name he was given or anything, so it will be much easier for Alex to find out everything we need to know.”
“We?” She sat down opposite him. “The only reason I’ve been trying to find out the truth is because Kevin and I were close. I’m not going to be doing this again. I want my life back, Rob. I don’t want to keep spending my free time hunting murderers. That’s Alex’s job, not mine.”
“I know.” He reached out and took her hand. “Normally I wouldn’t be this involved, but finding out Kevin’s mom was a twin… it’s fascinating. I’m surprised they weren’t both addicts, because that’s normally what happens, but then maybe they were more different than most twins.”
“Finding out more about them would be interesting, but it seems like they’ve done everything they can to keep themselves separate. Maybe they grew up with different parents.” She shrugged. “There’s a chance they didn’t know they were twins. It’s entirely possible Kevin’s real mom, if that is the case, had a nasty shock when she found herself staring at a doppleganger.”
“Anything, sadly, is possible.”
“Yes, it is.”
She stood. “I was going to make some coffee.”
“That sounds lovely.” He smiled at her. “Then I’m going to ring Alex. He must have found something out by now. This is the only case he’s been working on recently, because no one likes the thought of there being a murderer on the loose in Green Springs.”
“Of course they don’t. This is a small town. When you know everyone the thought of there being a murderer around isn’t nice, as it’s more than likely you know who they are, and everyone’s going to be looking over their shoulders until Alex finds out the truth.”
“I think it’s unlikely whoever it is will be a serial killer.”
“You can be logical about this. No one else will be. They’re going to want to know who did this as soon as possible, so they can stop worrying they might be the next victim, especially as it was Kevin. We know more about him now, but to the rest of the town he’s still the same person he
always was. He’s the nice guy who shouldn’t have been poisoned.”
“Has anyone said it was you?”
“No, they haven’t, because they know me. I think there are a number of people who were still hoping there was a chance the two of us might end up getting married. Until I left for New York everyone thought it was going to happen and when I came back they thought things would go back to the way they were before.”
***
“I don’t know anything yet, Robert. You are incredibly impatient.”
“I want to know the truth.”
“Everyone wants to know the truth. That doesn’t mean we will find out what happened to Kevin. All we are certain of right now is the fact he was killed by poison in a slice of cake.” Alex sighed. “There is so much to this case I need to do things one step at a time, otherwise I’m going to end up arresting the wrong person, and none of us want that to happen. For now you’re just going to have to accept this is as fast as I can work.”
“Is there anything I can do to help?”
“You’ve already helped. I wouldn’t have had the time to go through all those reports. We know there was a baby who was dumped in New York, who might well have found out who his mother was. If he found out who his mother was he’d have found out about Phoebe, and then, possibly, he would have found Kevin through her.”
Mary-Ann sipped her coffee. Phoebe’s arrival in Green Springs made it seem less likely she was involved in the murder, but maybe that was the whole reason she’d turned up. Sighing, Mary-Ann brushed a hand through her hair, trying to work out if she thought Phoebe did have something to do with the murder of her brother or not. The news did seem to have come as a shock, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t told her true brother all about Kevin, because Kevin wasn’t her brother… the whole thing was far more confusing that Mary-Ann wanted it to be and she got her notebook out of her bag.
There were twin women. One had come to Green Springs, married Kevin’s dad, and then disappeared when her twin sister took over her life. Was she dead? Was she alive and hiding somewhere? Was she the one who’d killed Kevin? Then there was the other twin, who definitely was dead. She was the mother of Phoebe, and two sons who’d both died in an accident. There was a chance she was also the mother of another son, who was born an addict. Was Phoebe born an addict? That was a question that needed asking. If the addict twin was able to have a child who wasn’t addicted then maybe the baby who was found had nothing to do with her. Sighing, Mary-Ann shook her head. Did it really matter? There was a chance no one involved had anything to do with the murder and it was someone else entirely.
“Your theory means we need to talk to Phoebe, and hope she tells us the truth, because she might make the decision to lie to us.”
“Kevin’s memorial service is tomorrow. I’ll talk to her.” Mary-Ann scribbled down a couple more notes in her notebook. “It would be better for me to do it than anyone else.”
“Thank you for coming, Mare.” Mr. Thompson smiled at her. “He would have wanted you here.”
“No, he wouldn’t, because he would have wanted to be alive, but I know what you mean.” Their eyes met. “Is Phoebe around?”
“She’s inside.”
“Good.” Mary-Ann stood on her toes and kissed his cheek. “I know D.I. O’Connor is doing everything he can to get Kevin’s body to you.”
“He said that. For now I’m happy with them keeping the body, because I’m hoping it will help them to find out what it was killed him, so we can find who it was.”
“Do you have any ideas?”
“Until I heard my son was dead I thought everyone loved him. Finding out I was wrong like that… it was a horrible shock.”
“I can imagine it was.” She stepped past him. “You know where I am if you need anything.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
As Mary-Ann stepped into the church she smiled. There had been weddings, christenings, funerals, and all sorts of things happening there, because it was a wonderful place for them. It didn’t matter if they were religious or not. The sun streamed in through the stained glass window onto where people would be standing to speak about Kevin. She’d thought about doing it herself, but she didn’t think she’d be able to keep going without letting her grief become more public than she wanted it to be. Phoebe was on the phone when Mary-Ann reached her.
“I don’t know when I’m coming back. I like it here.” Phoebe sighed. “Green Springs is the sort of place I’ve always wanted to live.” Her eyes met with Mary-Ann’s. “I know you can’t understand why I’d want to live in a tiny town, because you left one of the behind, but Kevin’s dad as offered me a place to stay. I have a possible job. The city is full of memories I don’t want, and it’s not as though Dad’s ever going to forgive me.” There was a moment of silence. “I’m sorry, Anna. I promise I will send you the money to cover my half of the rent until you find someone to take my place. I’ve got to go. I’ll talk to you soon.”
“Flat mate?”
Phoebe nodded. “She wants me to go home, and I feel like this is my home.”
“That makes me feel a little guilty for asking this, but did you know you had another brother.”
“Another brother?” She sounded confused. “This is the twin thing again, isn’t it?” Phoebe shook her head. “My mom might not have been Kevin’s mom, but she did have a child at the same time.”
“According to the records D.I. O’Connor found the two twins were pregnant at the same time.”
“You two are working together, aren’t you?”
“Can you keep a secret?”
“Of course.”
“Alex thinks it’s better for me to talk to everyone here, because I’m one of them, and he feels like an outsider, because he lived in the city for too long. That’s why I know what’s happening.”
“Makes sense. People feel comfortable around you.” Phoebe smiled. “Okay, I didn’t know I had another brother, but it’s not a surprise as such. Mom got pregnant a couple of times when I was helping her out, because she wasn’t careful enough, and I had to convince her to do the right thing. If someone hadn’t been there to tell her giving birth to another addict was a bad idea I’m certain she would have gone through with it.”
“You were born an addict?”
“We all were. Dad was lucky to keep us when I was born, because Mom, apparently, told the doctors she gave up the drugs when she got pregnant. Obviously that was a lie. If it hadn’t been for Dad being the man he was we would have all ended up in foster care.”
“He was a good man.”
“Yes, he was, and I can understand why he was so angry with me for choosing to look after Mom. Mom was an adult who should have been able to look after herself, but that was never going to happen. She was little more than a child in an adult’s body. I could forgive her for that in a way he couldn’t.” Phoebe shrugged. “Kevin might have found out about our brother.”
“Kevin might have been your cousin.”
“We were too alike to be cousins.”
***
“Thank you all for coming today. The death of my son came as a shock to everyone here, and the fact it was murder…” Mr. Thompson shook his head. “I hate that someone was willing to hurt such a wonderful young man, but it happened, and I know the police are doing everything they can to find who took the life of my son. For now I want the focus to be on what his life was like. I want good things said about him today, because that’s what he deserves.”
“Does he?” The voice came from the back of the church. “Personally I don’t think he deserves anything, considering the decisions he made after he found out about me. I would have thought ‘a wonderful young man’ would have been willing to listen to me when I told him about his mom, who just so happens to be my mom and not his, but he wasn’t, so I came here to talk to you instead.”
Before she could stop herself Mary-Ann stood. “There are people here who would be willing to list
en to you, but that’s not going to happen now.” She made her way towards him. “Kevin wasn’t perfect. He made mistakes and not listening to you was one of them. Everyone’s done the same thing at some point.” She took hold of his arm.
“Today is a ceremony to remember someone who died. Tomorrow will be your day. I promise you that.”
Everyone was silent. She waited for a reply from him, trying to ignore how alike he and Kevin were. It was like she was dealing with Kevin’s twin. Finally, after what felt like hours, he nodded. “As long as I will get a chance to talk about the man I was unlucky enough to know.”
“You will.” Mary-Ann studied him. “Do you have anywhere to stay?”
He shook his head. “I wasn’t thinking that far ahead.”
The Alpha Billionaire's Unexpected Baby: A Billionaire BWWM Pregnancy Romance Page 80