by Keene, Susan
“What will you do with my apartment?”
“I bought the building several years ago so I think I’ll keep it like it is for a while in case you want to come home once in a while. When you are certain you want to stay with me, I’ll rent it out.”
After we compiled a longer more detailed list, we showered and headed out to go house hunting.
We ate at a small outdoor café on the Loop, walked around the area and looked at the homes. Ryan waved his arms to encircle the area we were in. “How about living here?”
We stood in front of a two-story brick home with a huge yard and a privacy fence in the back yard. “It’s kind of far from home,” I joked.
“Come on, it’s an open house, let’s go in.” He headed in that direction without waiting for my answer.
It fit our list perfectly, four bedrooms, four baths, living room, great room, sunroom off the kitchen and a patio with an outdoor kitchen. It had more features than our list. We both loved it.
“Let’s make an offer.” Ryan sounded pumped.
“Shouldn’t we look at others so we can compare? No one buys the first house they see.”
He put his arms out and turned around twice, much like Julie Andrews in the Sound of Music. “And why not? It has everything we want and more. Why waste time? From here, we can walk to our favorite places for coffee, dinner, a movie, and shopping. Chili will be safe in the yard and the house is a one-of-a-kind. I’ll install a first class security system in case one of the people you pick as a client wants to hurt you. I will rig the fence to protect Chili.
My nerves betrayed me. He turned me square to him. “Kate, it’s a new beginning. Our lives will change for the better. It’ll work out. If it doesn’t, I’ll move back to the Meade Estate.”
“What do you mean you will move?”
“Well, since you’re giving up your apartment, if we don’t make it, this’ll be yours, or the Penthouse, your choice.” He made a sweeping arc with his arm.
I couldn’t think of anything to say. I was overwhelmed. When I settled down, I realized he was being Ryan. And Ryan loved me.
We were on a high as we walked around the block to explore our new neighborhood.
Sirens wailed. We looked at one another. It wasn’t a high crime area. The sound grew to ear bursting level as they roared our way from both directions.
Someone yelled through a bullhorn. “Get on your knees. Put your hands on your head.” We glanced around to see who they were talking to. Several armed officers exited the cars, guns drawn, and ran toward us.
I couldn’t follow or hear his directions due to the noise. Before I could object, I was on the ground on my stomach with my hands behind my back. A cop sat on me as he put handcuffs on my wrists. I looked up. Ryan had gotten the same treatment. Two officers bound his wrists.
“What’s going on here?” Ryan tried to raise his head off the concrete sidewalk.
“I’ll ask the questions.” The cop had his hand on the back of Ryan’s collar.
He let go. Ryan’s head bounced twice. Blood oozed from his cheek.
I’d been mistaken for Sophie. Wait until they found out they had Ryan Meade in handcuffs. This would not be good.
We lay as we were for about ten minutes. No one talked to us or looked in our direction. A young man walked up to Ryan. “Sorry, boss. I tried to tell them who you are, but no one’s listening. The other woman; the one who looks like your lady, was seen around here again. You know they have a warrant out for her because she’s a suspect in a murder investigation?”
“You tried to tell them, Ethan. I’m sure you did your best.”
Ethan was one of Ryan’s security men. I knew some of them were police officers who supplemented their income with an extra job. I didn’t know which ones.
“Yes, I did. That’s why we’re standing around. They don’t want to let her go if she’s the perp and they don’t know what to do about you. We’re waiting for a guy from downtown named Roger Simon.
He’s at a christening and we can’t get to him for another fifteen minutes or so.”
“Can we at least sit up?” Ryan looked my way.
Ethan walked off and called back over his shoulder. “Let me go see what I can do.”
Another minute or two passed and two patrol officers came over and helped Ryan to sit. They did the same for me. Blood trickled down Ryan’s face.
What a mess.
We were a curiosity. People from all over the neighborhood had come out of their homes and speculated about what we might have done. Of course the news outlets followed the police scanners. Cameras clicked in every direction.
We waited, not too patiently.
I got Ryan’s attention. “Do you think Ethan would call Amy? Chili’s been alone a long time and I don’t see this situation coming to a resolution any time soon.”
He whistled and Ethan turned around. The young man made the call. I relaxed a little.
The concrete was cold, damp, and hard. For over two hours we sat there. Roger was nowhere in sight. The folks in the neighborhood lost interest. Two men watched us. The rest of them left the scene.
Roger arrived in a worse mood than we were. “Kate. Ryan.” He curtly nodded to each of us in turn. “Take those handcuffs off these people and let them go.” The two cops looked at one another, looked around the area. No one was there to tell them what to do. Roger kept his composure and told them again to let us go.
The older cop nodded toward me. “But, sir, the lady is wanted for murder.”
“I know it’s confusing, but trust me, you need to let them go. This gentleman is Ryan Meade and I assure you they did nothing wrong.” The color of Roger’s face and his clenched fists convinced them to listen. I was intimidated and I was innocent.
The young officer didn’t move a muscle. “I need to check on this, sir.”
Roger put his hands on his hips. “You do that, officer. We’ll wait.”
In a minute he came back, helped us to our feet, removed the handcuffs, and left the scene.
Roger walked toward the street. We fell into step next to him. “I think it’s time to take this seriously.”
Ryan stepped closer to me and put his hand on my elbow to escort me. I took a tissue out of my pocket and handed it to him to wipe, the now dried, blood off his cheek.
Roger turned and looked me in the eye. “Are you taking this seriously? Maybe she didn’t kill that man, but we won’t know if she doesn’t come in. Nobody goes to that much trouble to become a double and runs away. I’m not sure how, but you two are related. I watched her move in those videos. It was you, Kate. I worked with you for years and I can’t tell the difference. I’d follow that path and see where it leads you.”
Roger drove us back to the Loop.
Ryan walked toward Starbucks. “Got time for a cup of coffee, Roger?”
“Sure, why not?”
Roger had his cup to his lips but didn’t take a sip. “I don’t get it, Kate.”
“What don’t you get?” Everyone in the coffee shop stared at me. My face was on every television screen in the St. Louis metro area and that covered a massive amount of territory and included part of Illinois.
Roger shook his head. “We have a woman who looks like you, dresses like you, and drives an old BMW, like you. Why?”
Ryan patted my hand. “Good questions.”
I reached into my jacket pocket and took out my notepad. “I’ve been going over the reasons people are victims of identity theft. None of them comes close to what’s happening here. This is personal. She may not be running. I can’t get my mind around it. In my entire life, I have never seen anyone who resembles me. I don’t look like my mother.” I knew I sounded depressed, but I couldn’t help it.
“Could you have a twin you don’t know about? A child your mother gave away or something?”
I looked from one of them to the other. “My mom would never do anything like that.”
“Well, I say you ask her, just in case.”
Roger was serious.
“That’s ridiculous.” I tried to smile.
Roger stared at me. “Is it?”
“Here’s what we know so far.” Roger made his case. He touched each finger as if to keep track. “The car was between a 1980 and ’84 BMW. My guys found it in a parking garage on the east side. Someone stole everything out of it that was worth anything. There were no fingerprints or licenses plates. We got the serial number off it and it has a salvage title from Florida. It is registered to a T. Bell, last known address, 1000 Disney Way, Orlando. The films we have of her show she‘s left-handed, and someone has a healthy sense of humor. Other than that, there are no differences between you.
“I’ve been reading about identical twins and in most cases they’re mirror images of one another, so since you are right handed, it makes sense. I’ve watched the surveillance tapes about a hundred times. Whoever she is, on the first tape it looks like she shot someone. Once we had them enhanced and studied them from every direction, she looks terrified of something just out of camera range, behind her. She looks back when she hears the first shot. It looks like she’s clinging to a piece of jewelry, not a gun. It’s too small to be the kind of weapon used to shoot him. Our investigation shows the bullets came from a further distance and the angle makes the CSI team believe they came from somewhere up higher. There are four tall buildings around there. The men are searching for clues.”
I sat looking at my hands. “I read about identical twins also. You’re right. She and I fit all of the common traits. If you take a good look at her, she even has the same style slacks as I do.” I tried to keep my voice steady and strong, but I was unnerved and Ryan must have picked up on it.
He stood. “Let’s get you home.”
We thanked Roger for his help. Ryan ushered me out of the store and into the truck. I didn’t feel safe until I was in my apartment and the elevator door had closed behind me.
CHAPTER 10
W e sat in the living room and watched the news. I was the feature story. St.Louis’s own Kate Nash̶ who can forget the triple homicide her agency solved a couple of years ago? ̶ seems to have a look-a-like. They’re known as doppelgangers. Doppelganger, for those of you who aren’t familiar with the term, is someone who looks like you but isn’t you. Sounds like science fiction doesn’t it? We have Dr. Sara Dancing in the studio with us. Dr. Dancing is a professor of paranormal studies at one of our leading universities.
The good doctor spent five minutes showing pictures of look-alikes and sharing facts about these paranormal pairs. Paranormal entities rarely did anything on their own and out of character for the clone she represented. Most of them were seen out of the corner of the eye or stood behind the person as they looked in the mirror. On the other hand, Catherine the Great walked into the throne room one day and stood face to face with her doppelganger as it sat casually on the throne.
The night Lincoln became our President, he happened to catch a glimpse of himself in a mirror, but two honest Abes stared back at him.
She went on and I had to admit, it held my interest. I didn’t believe it and I could tell Ryan didn’t either. There had to be a real, solid, human out there who came to St. Louis and looked like me.
Ryan picked up the TV remote and pressed the mute button. “So much for not alerting the De Marcos there are two of you. Hopefully gangsters don’t watch TV. Tell me again about your father.”
I acted like I didn’t hear him. It didn’t deter him. “Tell me about your father?”
“There isn’t much to tell. He died before I was born. He stepped on a land mine in the Persian Gulf. Mom never married again.”
He took a pad out of his jacket pocket and took notes. “Where was your dad from?”
“Round Rock, Texas, I’ve racked my brain and I can’t think of how this all fits together. We need to come up with some kind of plan to find Sophie.”
“Only a couple of things can be happening here. Either she had plastic surgery or you indeed have a twin.” He turned to me. “Did you hear the name of the college where Dr. Dancing worked?”
“No. It was that old leading university thing.” I couldn’t keep the irritation out of my voice.
“We need to track her down or hire our own expert and find out what’s true and what isn’t about doppelgangers. This is the thing of movies and television. It seems far-fetched to me.”
I had to agree. “I don’t need to know anything more about them. According to what I have heard all of my life, if she is my twin, I will be able to sense it when I see her face to face.”
We sat in silence and watched the rest of the news. It featured a tape of us as we sat cross-legged on the sidewalk in University City with our hands cuffed behind our backs. It wasn’t a pretty picture. I wanted a hot shower, a good meal, and for the day to fade away.
I hugged Chili tighter. What did I do before I had her?
I changed the subject. “I have a case in St. Charles tomorrow. A woman is trying to get custody of her children. She’s using the fact that their father has numerous women in the house at all hours. She needs proof to have him declared an unfit parent. I’m meeting Amy at five a.m. at the Starbucks on Fifth Street. We’ll plan our strategy.”
He gave me a look I couldn’t read. “You can’t work a case. You sitting in a car outside a house could get you killed. People are afraid of you Kate. It’d be best if you stayed in and out of sight until we find Sophie.”
My eyes filled with tears. Jeez. I hated to cry. I turned my head away and was saved when my cell phone rang. I reached down to pick it up. The caller ID read restricted number. My stomach churned.
Now what? I turned the phone toward Ryan so he could read the screen before I answered it. “Kate Nash here.”
“I’m sorry about today, and last week and, well, all of it. If I could stop it I would.”
I pushed the button to turn on the speaker. Her voice was soft and her speech patterns halting as if she was uncertain what she wanted to say. She spoke with a heavy Eastern accent. “Who is this?”
“I’m sure I’m your sister. I can’t talk now. They’re following me. I didn’t want to bring you into this, so stay home for a few days until I can get out of here.”
“Tell me what’s going on. Who wants to harm you? Why would someone try to make it seem like you’re a criminal, like I am a criminal?”
“I saw your picture in the paper after your artist friend was found. I wanted to come to St. Louis and see you, perhaps talk. It seems my family obligations are getting in the way.” She sounded tired and beaten. “I’m going to go home. It’s the only thing that will stop all of this. In a few weeks, I’ll contact you and maybe we can meet. I’m truly sorry for the trouble this has caused you. If I stay here, things will only get worse.”
“Sophie, you can’t leave now. Let’s clear your name and confront your family. Whatever it is, I’m sure we can fix it.” I tried not to sound desperate. She seemed so sure, I needed to know what she knew that I didn’t. I’d gone over it a million times and it wasn’t possible.
“If by clear my name, you mean the man who was shot in front of me. I didn’t do that. It was a man my father sent to take me home. I’m sure a rival family shot him. I do know it saved me from being dragged home by the hair. I’m sorry, perhaps another time and place. I’m not trying to keep secrets. The more you know, the more danger you could be in. My family can be very unforgiving.” She hung up.
I turned to Ryan. “Did you hear what she said?”
“I did.”
I put my phone in my pocket and sat next to him on the couch. “What do you think?”
“That she’s either guessing because you look so much like her or that she found out an old family secret and used it to find you. Come here.”
He put his arms out and I slipped into them. “It’s not something I’m able to come to terms with. If I do it means I have to suspend what I know to be the truth of my childhood.”
Ryan hugged a little tighter
. I laid my head on his chest and tried to forget what I’d heard and relax a little. The force with which my heart beat against my chest, made it impossible.
CHAPTER 11
A t eight the next morning, the phone rang. I sat on the balcony with a cup of latte to enjoy the cool weather. Chili slept on my lap under a throw I had on my knees. Ryan was in the shower.
“This is Roger. Seems there was an incident with your friend. Witnesses saw her being chased. She looked back over her shoulder, knocked over an elderly couple and ran off through the Art Museum parking lot. She got into an older model dark green Impala and drove away. On the way out, she sideswiped a car. The men who were on her heels were arrested and detained by the Park Police. They’re transferring them over here. I expect them in about an hour. Would you like to come listen in?”
While he talked, I went into the house. “I don’t get it. At first, it looked as if she killed a man, then it turned out she didn’t have a gun but took the time to take some piece of jewelry out of his pocket, and the dead man was mixed up with the Mafia. The woman in the grocery store specifically called her Sophie. Now, more men chased her.”
Roger used his professional voice. “Are you coming to listen in or not? And how do you know her name is Sophie?”
“It’s the name the lady in the store called me when she thought I was her friend from some years ago. Last night Sophie called here. I used the name Sophie and she didn’t correct me. I’ll tell you about it when I see you.”
Ryan came into the kitchen to get coffee. He was dressed in dark slacks, a pale pink Polo shirt and a dark maroon sports coat. “Don’t you look spiffy?” I walked over and kissed him. “Roger called. There was an incident at the Art Museum this morning. Two men chased Sophie. The Park Police caught and arrested them. Roger invited me to come down to Central to listen while he interviews them. Do you have time to go?”
“Sure.” He headed toward the couch. “Are you going like that?”
