Identical Stranger

by Alice Sharpe

  “How should I know? Stop going on about nothing and show this guy the door. Your fiancé will be here any moment. Isn’t that a lot more important than some girl you don’t know?”

  Jack thought he detected a little tic in Margaret’s left eye that suggested she wasn’t as nonplussed about the mention of a Sophie look-alike as she tried to appear.

  There was no way he was wading into this fray, however. He strove to make his six-foot-plus frame a little less obtrusive by standing far to the side, but it was a small room in a house with low ceilings.

  Sophie stood her ground. “No, Danny is not more important than getting to the bottom of this. Jack, will you please show my mother Sabrina’s wedding picture?”

  He pulled out his phone and found the photo. Walking to Margaret’s side, he turned the phone so she could see. He was standing close enough that he felt her body stiffen as Sabrina’s face filled the small screen.

  “Remarkable, isn’t it?” Sophie asked as she took Jack’s phone from his hand and looked at the picture again as if to reacquaint herself.

  “There is a surface resemblance,” her mother allowed.

  “Will you please tell me how this could happen?”

  Margaret shook her head. “I don’t have the slightest idea.” To Jack, her voice sounded sincere, as though she truly was flummoxed.

  Sophie perched on the edge of the small sofa next to her mother’s recliner. “Mom, just tell me. Am I adopted?”

  “Are you adopted? Stop being silly.”

  “Then how—”

  “I don’t know!” Margaret snapped.

  Sophie laid her free hand atop her mom’s arm. “I have a theory,” she said softly.

  This was news to Jack, who tried once again to disappear into the woodwork.

  “Honestly, this isn’t the time—” Margaret began, but Sophie cut through her protest.

  “If I am truly not adopted, then I think Dad talked you into having a baby. When you found out you were going to have twins, I think the idea of raising two kids when you didn’t even really want one was too much for you to handle. I think you gave my sister up for adoption. I don’t know how you talked Dad into that. Maybe he didn’t even know, maybe you kept it a secret—”

  “Listen to yourself,” her mother interrupted. “Do you realize how delusional you sound?”

  “Then you tell me what happened,” Sophie said. “Please, Mom. I need to know. I can’t pretend to understand how you might have felt—I’ve never been in a similar position—but surely you can see that I must know the truth.”

  Sophie might not think she was as brave as Sabrina, Jack thought, but broaching this subject in the middle of the Danny debacle wasn’t exactly an easy thing to do, not when deep inside her world pivoted on this key piece of missing information.

  “You want the truth?” Margaret said. “Well, here it is. I had one baby. You. Not two.” She stared hard at Sophie as if daring defiance.

  “You can’t sweep this under the rug,” Sophie said. “It’s important, damn it.”

  “How dare you swear at me!”

  “And how dare you lie to me,” Sophie said. “I’m not leaving here until you tell the truth.”

  “You want the truth? Come with me.”

  With that, the older woman waved away Sophie’s help and struggled to her feet. “I’ll show you the truth,” she muttered, and grabbed a cane. The two women exited the room through another doorway while Jack stood there wondering what he should do.

  A soft knock on the door answered that question. He opened it to find a clean-shaven man about his own age. “What can I do for you?” Jack asked the sandy-haired thirtysomething guy, who wore a very expensive Burberry coat. It had to be Danny, and face it, Jack was curious what Sophie had seen in him.

  “I’m looking for my fiancée, Sophia Sparrow,” he said. “My name is Daniel Privet.”

  “Come on in.” Jack scanned the street for white cars before he closed the door.

  The newcomer looked around the empty room. “Where is she?”

  Jack waved toward the back of the house. “She and her mother are...visiting.” He stared at the guy in the better light. Something about him seemed familiar.

  “What are you staring at?” Danny asked, his brows furled.

  “Sorry. I was just wondering if we’ve met.”

  “I don’t recall it if we did.”

  “You just look kind of familiar.”

  “I work up in Seattle at a law firm called Finder and Finch,” Danny said. “Well, I should say I used to work there. I’ve recently taken a position here in Portland with another firm. Sophie and I are getting married soon.”

  “That’s not what I heard,” Jack said, curious how Danny would react to direct confrontation.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Sophie never agreed to marry you.”

  “She most certainly did. Right here in this room, as a matter of fact. Who in the hell are you?”

  “Jack Travers. I’m a friend of Sophie’s. I’m curious about something. Why in the world did you propose in front of her mom?”

  “I don’t see how that’s any of your business,” Danny said as a red flush began to creep up his neck.

  “Was it because you needed her on your side? That’s all I can figure. You were unsure what Sophie would say so you used her mother to, well, gang up on her. That’s it, right?”

  His cheeks were bright pink by now. “I’m quite intimate with this family,” he said sternly. “Sophie’s never mentioned your name.”

  “We just met a day or so ago,” Jack said as he heard Sophie and her mother returning to the living room.

  “Now are you satisfied?” Margaret asked as she headed for her chair.

  “No,” Sophie said from right behind her.

  Danny rushed forward and threw his arms around Sophie. “Darling,” he gushed. “You’re back!” He caressed her hair, apparently oblivious to the way she tried to push herself free. “If you only knew how worried I’ve been about you.”

  Sophie firmly detached herself from his grip. “Danny—”

  “Shush, sweetie, I have the most wonderful news! I changed our flight to Hawaii. We leave tomorrow! We can get married out there and have two whole weeks to get used to being Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Privet. I’m sure your mother will understand.”

  “Of course I do,” Margaret chirped from the recliner.

  Jack watched all of this as one might view a reality television show. It was downright surreal how the two attempted to cut Sophie out of her own life.

  “We’re not getting married in Hawaii or anywhere else,” she said softly.

  Margaret’s deep sigh sucked half the air out of the room. “I don’t know what’s gotten into you,” she lamented. Then she looked straight at Jack. “It has to be you. You put some kind of spell on her.”

  “Do you really think she’s that gullible?” Jack asked.

  Sophie reached into her jeans pocket and emerged with the diamond ring she’d stuffed there when they ate dinner. She held her hand toward Danny. “I’m sorry, I really am,” she said. “You must take this back. I have no intention of marrying anyone. I think it’s best if we stop seeing each other.”

  “You don’t mean that,” Danny said, refusing to take back the ring.

  “Yes, I do mean it.”

  He shook his head. “I know you love me. We’re going to get married just like I...we...planned. I’ll make you happy, I swear I will.”

  For the first time, he seemed to notice the phone Sophie still clutched in her left hand.

  “What’s that!” he demanded, turning his head to better see Sabrina’s picture. He grabbed the phone away and stared openmouthed at her image. “You got married!” he screeched, and then turned to Jack. “Is this you in the picture? Did you two... H
ow could you?” he demanded of Sophie. “After all the time I’ve invested.”

  “‘Time you’ve invested’?”

  He shook his head.

  She narrowed her eyes as she forced the ring into his hand. “This isn’t a photo of me.”

  “How is that possible?”

  “I don’t know how it’s possible. We could be twins we look so much alike.”

  Danny took a step back.

  “Do you know her?” Sophie asked. “Her name is Sabrina Cromwell.”

  He shook his head but the gesture looked as phony as just about every word that had come out of his mouth except for the line about investing time. To Jack that had been the one real thing the man had uttered.

  And Jack was positive Danny knew something about Sabrina. On a hunch, he reclaimed his phone and scrolled through the photos, pausing on the one of the guy in the sweatshirt jacket. He showed it to Danny, who retreated another step. “How about this guy. Do you recognize him?”

  “No. I’ve... No.”

  “I don’t know why I didn’t see it before,” Sophie said wonderingly, looking between the photo and Danny. “This guy bears a surface resemblance to you.”

  “No way,” Danny said, but a light went off in Jack’s head. That was the reason he’d thought he’d recognized Danny when he came through the door.

  “I used to be a cop,” Jack said slowly. “I’m a PI now. In today’s world that means I know my way around a computer. Give me an hour and I can trace your whole family tree back to the gleam in your great-great-grandpa’s eyes. You can save me the hour and make it easy on yourself by telling us what you know. Oh, and maybe it will jar your memory if I tell you he tried to kill Sophie.”

  “Twice,” Sophie added.

  Danny stared at her. “He tried to hurt you?”

  “He tried to kill me.”

  “Why would he do that?”

  “Apparently because he thinks I’m Sabrina. By the way, she’s missing. The police are looking for this guy in connection to her disappearance and the attacks on me. If you know something you’d better speak up.”

  Danny reminded Jack of a groundhog who peeks out of his hole and doesn’t like what he sees.

  “Mr. Privet, face it,” Jack said. “You’re stuck between a rock and a hard place. Keep in mind we’re going to tell the investigating police our suspicion that you have information. To stay silent now makes you an accessory after the fact...”

  “He’s my half brother,” Danny blurted out, “but you’re wrong, he couldn’t have had anything to do with hurting someone or trying to kill Sophie. That’s insane.”

  “What’s his name?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “You don’t know your brother’s name?”

  “We were never close, never. He ended up in prison a few years ago. I heard he’s out now and I heard he changed his name, you know, for a fresh start. I don’t know what he chose because I don’t have anything to do with him.”

  “I thought you just said he’d never hurt anyone,” Sophie said. “How do you know that if you’re alienated from him?”

  Danny bit at his lip and shook his head.

  “What about your mother?” she asked. “You said she works for a guy up in Seattle. I can’t remember who the guy is, but she’ll know your half brother’s new name.”

  “She quit that job. She’s...traveling.”

  “But you can get in touch with her.”

  It took him a moment to respond. “I doubt it,” he finally said.

  “How about your half brother’s old name?” Jack asked.

  “The guy’s a loose cannon,” Danny grumbled without making eye contact with anyone.

  “If your half brother has been in prison I can find his name in about five seconds.”

  “Then find it,” Danny said.

  Anger chilled Jack’s voice as he looked Danny in the eye. “Whether you like it or not, you’re in this up to your eyeballs. Do you know where Sabrina is? So help me if anything happens to her or to Sophie, I’ll wring your neck with my bare hands.”

  Danny collapsed on the small sofa as though his feet would no longer support his weight. “Oh, God,” he groaned, covering his head with his hands.

  “Stop badgering the poor boy,” Margaret Sparrow ordered. Was she really so blinded by Danny’s show of wealth that she couldn’t see what a complete waste of skin and bones he was? Jack fought an urgent desire to whisk Sophie away. How she had managed to mature into womanhood with even an ounce of self-esteem was a miracle to him.

  But the bigger fish that needed frying sat crumpled on the sofa. He obviously knew more than he’d told them so far and even their warnings about the police didn’t seem to get to him.

  “Tell us his name, new, old, whatever,” Jack insisted. “Is it Privet like yours?”

  “We’re so worried about Sabrina,” Sophie added. “If your half brother can help find her—”

  Danny slammed his fist against his thigh and shot to his feet. “I don’t have to talk to you two,” he said, glancing from Sophie to Jack. He stabbed a finger at Sophie. “You blew it, babe.” He strode to the door with an attempt at a swagger.

  “Danny, wait, where are you going?” Margaret pleaded.

  He opened the door and looked back at them all. “If I have to talk to the police, I’ll talk to the police, but I’d rather live out my life on a deserted island than spend one more second in this terrible house. You can all go to hell.” And at that, he left without closing the door.

  Jack glanced over at Sophie, who looked introspective as she watched Danny’s retreat. He bet she was wondering what she’d ever seen in the slimeball.

  “I’m going to go make a call,” Jack announced as he swung the door shut and walked into the kitchen for a little privacy.

  By the time he gave the Astoria police Danny’s name so they could start tracing his relatives and got caught up on what was happening at their end, he was ready to leave. He returned to the living room to find both women more or less as he had left them. He was desperate to drive to Seattle. He wasn’t sure if Sophie would come with him or elect to stay here and try to fix her small family.

  “I want you out of my house,” Margaret said as she glared at Jack.

  “If he goes, I go,” Sophie said.

  “Did I raise an idiot? We need to put our heads together and figure out a way to fix what’s happened with Danny. He’ll give you everything you want if you play your cards right.”

  Sophie looked at her mother as though she’d never seen her before. “You mean he’ll give me everything you want.”

  “It’s the same thing,” Margaret said.

  “No, Mom, it isn’t. And besides, that ship has sailed—for both of us.” She glanced down at the floor as she took a deep breath, then she leaned over and retrieved the diamond ring that must have rolled under the sofa when Danny stood so abruptly. She set it on her mother’s tray. “Maybe you can hock this,” she said. She picked up her purse from the chair where she’d flung it and without another word, opened the front door and exited the house.

  “She can’t just leave,” Margaret said.

  Jack stared at her a moment. “You’re lucky she stayed as long as she did,” he said, and left to join Sophie before a white car could appear out of nowhere and run her down.

  Chapter Seven

  The rain had stopped and the skies cleared to the point where a few stars actually glimmered in the sky. But the temperature had dropped and Sophie’s coat wasn’t really warm enough. Still, she ignored her own car and leaned against Jack’s. In retrospect, she wished she’d packed a bag before her big exit, as she was still wearing the clothes she’d dressed in Saturday morning and it was now ten o’clock Sunday night. No way was she going back inside.

  “You’re going with me?” Jack asked as he appro
ached.

  She smiled as she watched his easy gait. The past hour or so had been an exercise in humiliating chaos that was going to take a while to process. But there had been a constant: Jack. He alone stood out as a person without a selfish agenda. He’d defended her without acting like she couldn’t take care of herself, treated her like the intelligent, thoughtful human being she was beginning to hope she would become.

  That was not to say she’d banished all her insecurities, self-doubts or the persistent desire to hide under a rock, just that she also saw glimmers of confidence and self-worth. Somehow they made her feel stronger, more substantial, and she had Jack, in part, to thank. And, perversely, she also owed Danny. He’d held a mirror up to her face; seeing herself through his eyes was sobering.

  But that led to a giant question: What had been the purpose of his “investment” in her? It didn’t make any sense.

  “Sophie?” Jack asked and she shook her head.

  “Sorry, my thoughts wandered.”

  “I don’t doubt it.” He looked back at the house and raised his hand. “That whole, uh—”

  “Freak show?”

  He smiled. “Yeah. It was something else. Frankly, your mother and Danny are made for each other.”

  “I know. So, how about it, are you driving to Seattle to try to find Danny’s mother?”

  “It would make more sense to use the internet but if she’s as slippery as her son, a phone call would accomplish squat.”

  “Plus Danny said she was traveling, whatever that means.”

  “Do you believe him?”

  “I don’t know what to believe. I need to talk to her, too. It would save gas if we rode together.”

  “I guess it would,” he said as though he might not want the company. She knew he did. He looked up and down the street, no doubt for a white car, before unlocking the doors. The two of them sat in silence for a moment until Jack said, “I guess the only trouble is where do we start?”

  “Aha,” she said. She’d been waiting for him to ask. “Thanks to Danny’s big mouth, I was able to connect the dots. Remember how he said his half brother was a loose cannon? And then he said that whole thing about how he’d rather be stuck on a deserted island than in my house.”