Life after Goodbye novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: Hairbrush

The studio over the bakery had one window, one bed and an oven that heated the whole floor.

The owner had given me the key without asking a single question.

She had only pressed a paper bag of rolls into my arms and said, "You're eating for someone."

I hadn't told her.

She had known anyway, and she had asked nothing else.

On Saturday morning I took the bus to the Kellner Building with two sealed envelopes in my bag.

Dr. Hagan met me in the empty waiting room, in jeans and a grey sweater.

It was the first time I had seen him without the white coat.

"You look tired," he said.

"I moved out yesterday."

"Good." He took the envelopes and held them to the light. "Tell me what's in these."

"A cheek swab from me. And hair from Chelsea's brush. I took it from the guest bathroom before I left."

"With the roots?"

"I pulled four from the bristles with tweezers."

The corner of his mouth moved.

"You'd make a decent evidence tech."

"I've watched a lot of crime shows on a bakery shift."

"The lab downstairs does sibling tests," he said. "It isn't as exact as a father test, but it's good enough to say whether two women share a parent. Five days."

"Five days," I said.

"Do you want me to say what I think?"

"No. I want to see the result and say it myself."

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