“Any problems or issues? I only wanted to check in. I have to make sure you guys are all right.”
“I don’t know why we wouldn’t be all right. Your father got a new set of golf clubs and had one of the worst scores ever this weekend. He’s been a little down about that, otherwise we’re fine.”
“Okay, so…” Maddy looked at me, then turned away again, “I didn’t tell you guys this, but I did one of those ancestry trackerthings. The ones where you send in a swab of spit and they give you a whole list of things about your DNA? Do you remember anything more about my birth parents?”
My eyebrows shot up in surprise. I hadn’t realized Maddy was adopted. We hadn’t checked on things like that when we looked into her. Could her birth parents be into something? That didn’t make a lot of sense, though. You couldn’t use someone as leverage if you’d never met them. It would be pointless for Javi to try and kill her if he had a feud or something with her birth parents. They didn’t know her. It would be almost the same as killing a stranger.
As if she could hear my thoughts, Maddy looked at me and flashed a bashful smile.
Her mom sighed sadly. “We told you everything when we broke the news when you were fourteen, honey. There isn’t a lot to tell. By the way, sweetie, are you taking your medicine?”
“I’m fine, Mom, seriously. Anyway, like I was saying. It was just weird. Abi did it and she had like three dozen matches. I did it and only got some random guy from, like, three hundred years ago.”
I frowned. That was weird. But I’d never done one of the tests, so maybe it was more typical than she thought.
They went back and forth about the test and how much it cost and how long it took. I could already tell by her mother’s tone of voice and verbiage that she wasn’t involved. No one was that good of an actor. Her dad wasn’t on the call, but it was unlikely it was him, either. Even if he’d lied or tried to keep things from his wife, anything serious enough to cause the death of his daughter would have been impossible to hide.
“I wish I knew more, Maddy, but we don’t,” Maddy’s mother said. “I’m sorry. I’m sure that test stirred up a bunch of stuff. Are you okay?”
Maddy nodded and ran a hand through her hair. “I’m good, Mom. It’s really not that big a deal, seriously. I was just intrigued. That’s all.”
“Are you sure? You know I’m here to talk anytime.”
“Yes, Mom.” Maddy smiled despite herself. “I’m good. I need to get going anyway.”
“All right, sweetie. I’ll tell your dad you called. Don’t forget your medicine, either.”
“Oh my God, yes, I won’t forget. Thanks. Love you, bye.”
“Love you.”
Maddy hung up the call and handed the phone back to me. “Satisfied?”
I nodded and tucked my cell back into my pocket. “Yeah, I could hear the whole thing. She doesn’t sound like someone hiding anything.”
“Does that mean we’re back at square one?” she asked.
“Well, we’ve been at square one for a couple days. There’s no goingbackwhen we haven’t been able toleavesquare one.” I rubbed at the stubble on my cheek and decided to ask the question that had been percolating in my head from the moment I heard her mention it. “So, you really have no information on your parents? Your birth parents, I mean.”
She shook her head. “Never met them, never heard from them. They gave me up when I was a baby, so I don’t even have a connection from before.”
“All right, we can probably rule them out then. There has to be a different reason,” I said, then finished my beer. “What about other relationships? Ex-boyfriends? Friends you’ve cut ties with? Uh…current boyfriend? You know, stuff like that.” I hoped she hadn’t noticed the awkward way I tried to add that last bit.
“Nothing I can think of. I don’t have a lot of friends. Abi is my closest friend, but she seemed totally shocked about whathappened to me. I haven’t had a boyfriend in almost a year. I honestly can’t think of anything else.” She slung her hair over her back. “Nico, I can’t get it out of my head. What that guy said before he stabbed me.”
Her face changed, and she clenched her hands together. Her eyes went dark, and she started trembling. I thought she was going to make herself bleed, she was biting her lower lip so hard.
Moving over, I put my hand over hers. “It’s okay. You’re safe. Can you remember exactly what he said? You told me before, but I’d like to hear it again.”
A wavering breath breezed out between her lips, and she nodded. “He said I shouldn’t exist and that my bloodline was supposed to be dead.”
“See,” I said, starting to get frustrated, “that still makes me think it has something to do with your family. Those phrases sound exactly like someone talking about family.Bloodlines? What else would that be about? It has to be something massive, too, if it’s worth your life.”
I leaned back in the lounge chair and thought about it for a few minutes. Maddy was beside me, nursing her beer, staring off into the lawn and scrub pines beyond. I went over a hundred other questions and leads I could try with her, but each one seemed more tenuous than the last.
Once I was totally out of ideas, I tapped her on the thigh to get her attention. “You said you had a match on that DNA test? Who was it?”
She put the empty beer can down on a side table and grinned at me. “You think they’re trying to kill me because some ancient ancestor of mine pissed off one of their ancestors? That’s a hellacious grudge to hold.”
