“He doesn’t sound anything like me!”
“Little one, no one is like you!”
Haze was staring ahead now, chewing on her lip. “What did we say about secrets? We shouldn’t have any!”
“I know! I agree. Absolutely. But this was only a temporary secret until I knew he was worth knowing.” I took our turn off the highway and looked over at her. “Are you telling me you don’t have a single secret from me?”
Haze was silent.
“Haze?”
She sighed. “Bibi saw me covered in blood in the utility room after I’d killed Clark.”
My mouth dropped open.
“And she was drawing pictures of me covered in blood at school. Her teacher was worried. But I’ve sorted it. Told him it was about my period. I’ve talked to Bibi, and she’s not traumatized—and she’s not drawing any more pictures. Everything is fine.”
I was struggling to hold it together. Our precious Bibi had seen Haze post-kill? How much therapy was she going to need?
“Don’t you think—”
Haze cut me off. “Isn’t stealing someone’s DNA a crime?”
I felt we were going to call a truce on the being upfront with each other issue.
We drove the rest of the way home in silence.
—
The next morning, Haze seemed calm. I wasn’t sure she wasn’t in shock. She’d texted Mike when we’d got home yesterday, and had arranged to meet him at 10 a.m. on the high street. We’d decided she would go alone, but that Jenny and I would be at home waiting for her to get back, ready to jump in the car for moral support if needed.
I sent her off with two coffees and a hug. She looked a bit of a mess, for her. Perhaps she hadn’t slept well.
Jenny arrived just as she was leaving. Another hug and more wishes of good luck, and Haze was on her way.
“This is a big moment!” Jenny said, turning to me. “I can’t believe you found him! And that she actually wanted to meet him.”
I was feeling good. It was like I knew what Haze needed better than she did. She never would’ve tried to find her father. She hadn’t wanted to even think about him. But I’d done it for her. I’d taken the decision away from her.
Jenny took a sip of tea as we settled down to wait for Haze. “What checks did you do on him?”
“Online ones. Enough to confirm he was who he said he was.”
“Great. Always good to be careful. What kinds of things?”
“His Facebook profile. Google searches. And then there’s the emails and texts. He gave me a lot of detail on his life. I verified it with company websites.”
“Reverse image search?”
“Yes! I did that. Didn’t turn up anything I hadn’t found already.”
“And the fake photo doctor?”
“The what?”
“You know, that software that checks if an image has been manipulated using AI or by distorting existing images to show what you want?”
“I…I hadn’t heard of that.”
