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"Meet Camden Cole"
Crista moved closer to the table, her eyes locked on the picture of the stern older man Hazel eyes stared back with cool detachment in a face as unemotional as a robot
"I know him" She was shocked that she did know him "He worked for the electric company He was at the house just after my parents died Alex had requested a new ent Cranston beah she had answered a particularly difficult question "That was just a few years ago, wasn’t it?"
Crista nodded slowly as Dawg stared at her in surprise He had been unaware that she had been in town at that time, she had made certain of it
"Alex asked s while he was out of the country"
"So, yesterday, while Miss Jansen was supposedly on her way to Virginia, she shows up at the detention center" Another picture slapped down in front of her, causing Crista to freeze in shock
"That’s not me!" But it looked like her The hair, the profile, even the clothes
"So Natches spent a considerable aent lost in the mountains this afternoon"
Crista stared back at hi to build inside her "I ith Dawg yesterday All day"
"And Natches was in town spreading tales of your desertion" He shook his head sadly and cast Natches a chiding look filled with et to the truth" Natches’s smile lacked any humor
"We were in the office after we found the atte reported "I kept her up there until well after closing"
"Yeah, Natches was telling the customers about that one, too" Cranston nodded "He hinted you blarunted as Crista stepped back and stared at the three men
"Who is in the picture?" she asked
"Looks like you" Cranston gazed back at her blandly
The patently false look of innocence would have been a at any other time
"Crista, look closely at the rest of the photos," Natches said softly
Crista lossy color and black-and-white photos There were none that showed the woman’s face clearly Most were in profile, and all looked remarkably like her
"I have clothes just like these," she whispered shakily, feeling Dawg ly at her back
The neat, al in her bedrooent Dane checked your ho in your closet" Cranston nodded
"You were in my home?" She stared back at him in shock "Without a warrant?"
"Honey, it’s a criation; of course we searched the house arrant in hand The clothes are now in custody and on their way to the lab for tests"
"What kind of tests?" Shock filled her voice now, not just her irl" Cranston frowned "We’re looking for DNA other than yours Criminals don’t always think about the many ways DNA can be found A stray hair, sweat, so as innocent as a scratch We’re hoping our boy here left so latched onto that word before Crista could ht it" Tiht here"
He pulled one of the pictures free and handed it to Dawg
Crista stared at the picture It was a full frontal shot, though whoever was posing as her had turned their head to the side, allowing hair identical to Crista’s to cover their face
It took aclearly The breasts were covered in the soft, chocolate brown silk of the blouse the other wo, draped over the mounds that were approximately the size of Crista’s But with one difference In this picture the soft aped where a button had come undone and revealed a very hairy portion of flesh beneath the breast
Crista blinked and looked again Male chest hair?
"We went over the other pictures once Natches caught that" Cranston said "And he found a few other anomalies Such as this"
The next picture had a red-marked circle around a dark spot on a smooth, creamy, hairless arm that appeared feent in France, where our young person here aurrd, the ain, there were no facial features, but Crista focused on the red circle that pointed out a ble muttered, his voice suddenly heavy, bitter "I can’t believe it"
"He disappeared just after the missiles were stolen," Natches said then "Reone? He also knew Cole, he worked for Cole’s father for a while on their faration here because the connections were all superficial Hell, Cole had a lot of acquaintances here in Somerset"
Crista stared hard at the picture, certain she wasThen she saw it, remembered it A small blemish, more a birth the familiarity in the curve of his face then, in the way he stood, even dressed as he was in her clothes "It’s Johnny Grace"
"He visited the detention center deliberately," Natches said then "To implicate Crista Every move he’s , and possibly me as well He had to cover hiht you and Crista had argued, and she was heading to Virginia The detention center is on the way, a short little detour that she could have reasonably uys thinks she has the ood; those fucking ht he was a she They would have killed Crista first chance they had to arrange it"