Chapter 89

He led us back to the waiting area to collect Gran and Grace. After we introduced him to them, he led us to a small nursery, which currently had only two occupants but appeared to have room for several. I looked at the two little creatures in their bassinets for a moment. They were looking back at me, but I knew from reading up on babies that they couldn’t really see much, if anything, at the moment. I had a momentary flashback to my late wife’s pregnancy—I’d agreed to her insemination with my sperm because it would get her family off her case, so to speak. She’d been six weeks pregnant when she was murdered, but the pregnancy really hadn’t seemed real. This, however, was very real indeed.

Charles said, “Which one is which?”

Gran said, “The one on the left is Mark. He looks just like you did as a baby.”

Dr. Blinn turned the babies’ armbands so that they could be seen and said, “Right you are, Mrs. Barnett. The one on the left is Mark and the other one is Steven.”