Page 161 of Only Be Mine

I leaned forward slightly, elbows on my knees, my mind working to piece things together.

“Digging where?”

“Ten years back,” he said. “To a case that was closed shortly after John disappeared.”

I stared at him. “Wait… what?”

My pulse picked up, slow but insistent.

“Apparently, there was a body found back then,” Seth said. “Unrecognizable. Dental records were useless, his face was destroyed. The only thing tying that body to an identity was what they found in his pocket.”

I swallowed. “An ID.”

“Yes.”

The room felt very still.

“That ID belonged to someone else,” Seth continued. “A transient. Someone with no next of kin. No one around to ask questions.”

My hands curled into fists, nails digging into my palms.

“They cremated him,” Seth said, “Then quietly closed the file.”

I breathed in. Out.

“Then why… now?” I asked.

“Because the man who helped make that happen didn’t disappear,” Seth said. “He lived with it.”

My eyes snapped to his.

“The man who had John’s ID when he died?” I asked.

Seth nodded once. “Marshal thinks he kept it. On purpose.”

“Why?”

“Guilt,” Seth said. “Or leverage. Or a conscience that finally cracked.”

My throat burned.

“He died recently,” Seth added. “Violently. And when they found John’s things on him, Marshal realized it couldn’t be a coincidence. It was a thread.”

I shook my head slowly. “But how do they know it was John? The body was cremated.”

Seth hesitated, then, “Marshal pulled everything that still existed. Photos. Intake notes. Coroner records. Anything the old file hadn’t bothered to destroy.”

I went very still.

“He asked me to look,” Seth said. “Not as family, but as someone who might know.”

My voice came out barely above a whisper. “And?”

Seth met my eyes.

“There was a birthmark,” he said. “Just below his collarbone on the left side. He used to joke that it looked like a continent.”

Africa.