The DNA Matched My Cousin, Not Me, So They Kept Me Anyway novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: Counselor

The next morning Conor Pascoe came into the diner at seven with his glasses on his head.

He sat at the end of the counter as if he had every right.

I put a cup of coffee in front of him.

He looked at me.

I looked at him.

I had slept three hours, and my mouth still remembered his.

"Counselor," I said, very low. "You had a rule."

"I did."

"I believe it was a big one."

"It had a hole in it," Conor said gravely. "Five feet five, auburn, a little bossy."

"Eat your eggs," I said.

"I haven't ordered."

"You'll have eggs over easy, and I'll bring the rye."

He opened his mouth and closed it again.

Down the counter, the old man put his fork down and said, to nobody, "She's got him."

Conor had the grace to go red.

At nine, Sabina pushed in through the front door.

Her hair was flat on one side from a hospital chair, and she held a manila envelope.

She hadn't taken her coat off.

"Can we talk," she said. "Upstairs. Please."

I took her up.

She sat on my couch and held the envelope in both hands and didn't open it.

"A courier brought it to the flower shop last night," she said. "No return address. My boss gave it to me this morning when I went in to get my things."

"What is it?"

"A police file."

She finally slid it out.

It was old, a stack of photocopies with the corners soft from handling.

The top page said STATE POLICE.

Under it, in a typewriter font: Harrowgate, infant female, age two months, taken from private nursery. Suspect: temporary night nurse.

The nurse had a name.

Underneath it somebody had handwritten, in red, the name of a town I knew.

New Britain.

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