He never should have gotten near her. Now, the memories of holding her were going to drive him crazy.
“Here to see what you have for me from the Barratts’ last night.” They’d had three or four men flee the scene. Dom was going to identify them as quickly as he could. Then he was going to find the sons-of-bitches.
“I got the initial DNA back…from what we gathered from Timothy Grundenman’s hotel room this morning. We’re still going through and labeling and processing the Barratts’ house now. Jake and Bryant Naylor took a call from the hotel clerk. He’d seen Timothy’s photo on the news, I think. I had Pete process the room already. He and Tom are back there now.”
She was whispering, even though no one was in the lab with them. He didn’t miss the way she looked around. Stepped closer. Dom hated that she didn’t feel safe in the place she worked most days. It shouldn’t be like thathere.
“And?” There was something that was upsetting her. No denying that. Dom stepped even closer. Close enough to smell her damned shampoo. Hell, it was the same shampoo he’d used that morning, too. “What did you find?”
She handed him a report. “I…expected to see confirmation with…Heather’s niece. Dr. Coleson. Samia. We know the little girl is her half-sister through their father. I wanted to confirm if the jacket is hers. This is a rapid-DNA test. It’s not admissible in court yet, but…it did give me confirmation.”
Dom looked at the evidence report, at the photos documenting a child’s small pink jacket.
Timothy Grundenman had multiple children—including a young child who was around the age of eight. A girl.
They had learned she existed several hours after the attack, through her half-sister. Timothy Grundenman’s eldest daughter—Brianna Claireson. A woman whose name had come up inseveralinvestigations in recent years. Imagine that.
Dom had a photo of Grundenman’s daughter on his phone now. She had big, dark brown eyes and curly brown hair and so many freckles. And a smile that was adorable. She looked a great deal like her older half-sister, a trauma physician at FCGH that Dom had met several times before. “Did you? Tell me what else you have.”
There was definitely something. Madison just had that look on her beautiful face.
“Here. This…I…someone is going to have to tell them. They have a right to know.”
Dom looked at the print-out. At the names listed there. “What does this mean? Spell it out for me.”
Although he was figuring it out himself really fast here. Interesting…connection.
“Timothy Grundenman’s daughter Angelina Anne-Marie Shannon—she’s…lookat her half-sisters, Dom.Allof them. Well, these are just the ones we have confirmed DNA profiles for.”
He read the list quickly. Well, that was surprising. And a very long list.
Samia Coleson, yes. That wasn’t a surprise. They knew the child and that doctor shared paternal DNA. But the rest of the names—surprising. Definitely surprising. And it complicated things a bit. The governor’s wife Ariella Deane, Murdoch Lake’s wife Zoey Daviess Lake, Crispin Daviess, Penelope Daviess, and Cashlyn Coleson. Names he recognized—on the child’s maternal side. Interesting. “How is this relevant?”
“I don’t have a clue, but it matters. This little girl…she’s not just Timothy Grundenman’s daughter. She’s aColeson,too. So how is this possible? There really is only one clear answer.”
And it complicated things. That kid—was Heather’s niece, too. Not just through her late sister’s husband, either. It made one thing clear. “Grundenman’s daughter is an Eastman baby. That ties Grundenman to what that bastard was doing around here, too. At least it’s another angle to go on.”
Everything they found lately was either connected to Colesons or what had been going on in Finley Creek for a very long time. He needed to figure outwhy. Maybe then he’d be able to find thewho.
“She’s not anangle,Dom. She’s Hope and Heather’s niece and Zoey’ssister, and I’m terrified that she’s out there all alone. Someone has to help her. Somehow.”
Zoey was one of her closest friends. Of course…and that was a helpless little girl, of course Madison would hurt for her. “I’m never going to stop looking for her, Madison. I promise. I am going to do whatever I can to find her.”
Finding Grundenman had just moved to the very top of Dom’s list. Finding that kid and getting her back to familywho would love and protect her far better than her own father apparently had.
“What about Hope and Heather—who is going to tell them? They deserve to know. Soon.”
He hesitated. “It’s an active investigation.”
“They are her family.”
He nodded. “I know.”
“Heather’s family, not just Zoey’s. Heather and Hope’s family deserve to know, too. Don’t let…don’t let them keep secrets from Hope’s family. They deserve better than that.”
Well, hell. She wasn’t wrong. But… “We’re going to do this right. Take our time. We are not going to mess this up.”
What in the hell this meant for the investigation he didn’t know. But by connecting that kid to the Eastman investigation, where Heather’s sister Bonnie had almost been killed—that was an angle he could go in now. He just had questions.
