by David Archer
“I was an accident?” Carrie asked. “You never told me I was an accident.”
Grace turned and looked at her, patting her hand. “You are one of the most wonderful accidents that could ever happen,” she said. “But yes, you were sort of an accident. We were using birth control, but sometimes it isn’t completely effective. When the morning sickness started, I knew instantly what it was. From then on, all I could do was pray that you would be okay, and God answered that prayer.” She turned back to Sam. “I always felt like he was alive, Sam. I just didn’t let myself really believe it.”
Sam nodded. “I understand, Mom,” he said. “The problem is, it’s the only possible explanation for what’s going on right now. My brother, my identical twin brother, is out there somewhere and he’s a psychopathic serial killer.”
Sam reached into his pocket and took out the envelope Denny had given him earlier, then extracted the photograph. He looked at it for a moment, then handed it to his mother.
“Mom, that’s a picture of a man who was picked up for questioning when one of the murders took place.”
Grace took it and stared at it for several moments while Carrie, Kim and Indie looked over her shoulder.
“Oh my goodness,” Kim said. “Sam, I would think that was you if I didn’t know better.”
“I do know better,” Carrie said, “and I still think it’s him. Where is he, Sam?”
Grace’s mouth was hanging open as she took in what she was seeing, and then she looked at Sam. “Oh my God,” she said. “Sam, that’s him. That’s your brother Cameron, it has to be.”
Sam nodded sadly. “Yeah, Mom,” he said. “I think it probably is.”
Indie moved over and sat on the arm of his recliner to put her arms around him, and Sam leaned his head against her shoulder. There were a couple of tears on his own cheeks, and he tried to hold them back as his mother wept openly. Kim, who was sitting on the couch beside Grace, wrapped her arms around her friend while Carrie did the same from the other side.
“All right,” Grace said after a moment. “Now what do we do?”
“Mom, I’m going to do what I have to do. I’m going to find him, and I’m going to bring him in. He’s a serial killer, Mom, and he has to be stopped.”
“But how could this happen?” Grace shouted at him suddenly. “How could he still be out there, still be alive and we didn’t know it?”
“I don’t know yet,” Sam said. “There has to be an explanation, and we’ll find out what it is, but at this point, all I know is that he somehow survived. The baby you buried was not my brother, that’s obvious now.”
“They were switched,” Kim said suddenly. “Beauregard says somebody switched babies. Another baby died suddenly, and someone at the hospital thought it was unfair that you had two babies while someone else lost the only one they had. It was probably a nurse, he says, but someone working in the nursery switched the one that died with one of yours.”
Grace stared at Kim, and her pain and tears were suddenly replaced with a look of anger.
“Who would do that?” she demanded. “Are you telling me that somebody who worked at the hospital did this? They played God and decided to give one of my children to somebody else?”
Kim nodded. “He says that’s exactly what happened. Maybe it was a friend of the mother whose baby died, or something like that, but he says that’s exactly what really happened. Someone at the hospital felt it was unfair that the other woman’s baby died while you had two of them, so they switched them out. You still had Sam, but his brother went with somebody else.”
Sam shook his head. “As much as I want to say that’s impossible, it’s really the only explanation. It’s the only way I can imagine that my twin brother could still be alive. Mom, you and Dad buried what you thought was Cameron, but it wasn’t. It was somebody else’s child, and that’s the person who ended up with my twin brother.”
“Then how do we find that person? I know you have to find Cameron and stop him, but how do we find the person who did this to us? Sam, God only knows what kind of life Cameron must have led, if he turned out this way. Whoever switched those babies is responsible for what he’s doing right now. If he had stayed with us, you would have grown up with your brother and I’m sure he never would have done anything like this.”
“You may be right, Mom, but we will never know. I’m going to have to give all of this information to the police, but I’m going to get the team working on it right away. They may have some questions for you.”
“That’s fine, Sam,” Grace said. “I’ll do whatever it takes to help, you know I will. I only ask one thing, though. I want you to bring him in alive, Sam. No matter what he’s done, he’s still one of my sons. I can’t change the past, but he at least deserves to know who his family really is.”
“I’ll do my best, Mom. I can’t promise anything, though. He has to be stopped, and we have no idea who might actually be the one to end up confronting him. We know now what kind of vehicle he’s driving, so we can get a description out on it. We have to hope that we can find him before anybody else gets hurt.”
Kim shook her head. “Beauregard says it’s too late for that,” she said. “He says this time there were two victims, and they will be found this afternoon.”
Sam suddenly looked sick. “Does he have any idea where? If we knew where to look, it might help us find him.”
“I’m afraid not,” she said. “He doesn’t know.”
“Oh, come on,” Carrie said. “That spook in your head has to know more than that!”
Kim shook her head sadly. “He just says there are two victims, and they’ll be found sometime in the next few hours. He doesn’t know where or any other details.”
“I’ll take what I can get,” Sam said. He took out his phone and called Steve Beck. “Steve? Denny get back over there yet?” He listened for a moment, then continued. “Okay, yeah, long story, but it looks like the killer is my twin brother, the one we thought was dead. I need all of you to come over to the house as soon as you can, so we can start working on how to handle this information. The first priority has to be stopping him from killing anyone else, but old Beauregard says it’s too late. According to him, two more victims will be found today.”
The call ended and he put the phone away. “They’ll be here in about twenty minutes,” he said. “I need you to get ready, Mom. We have to handle this like any other case, so be prepared for the questions.”
“I’m ready, Sam,” Grace said. “As ready as I’m ever going to be, anyway. This is—it’s quite a shock, finding out that I was right all along. I used to tell your father that I felt Cameron was out there, somewhere, and he always told me I was imagining things.” She shook her head. “God, I wish he was alive to see this, but I’m certain it would also break his heart that Cameron went down such a path. I know it’s breaking mine.” She sniffled, and Kim handed her a tissue she pulled out of her purse.
Carrie looked at her brother. “Maybe we can use the twin thing against him. Can you feel him, Sam?”
Sam’s eyes went wide. “Feel him? What are you talking about?”
“She may be onto something, Sam,” Indie said. “Have you ever read anything about twins who were separated at birth?”
“I’ve seen some of the news stories,” Sam replied. “Why do you ask?”
“Because there’s an interesting phenomenon that almost always happens with separated twins,” Indie said, and Carrie nodded enthusiastically. “There will be many different things about their lives that are incredibly similar. There have been a lot of cases where identical twins separated at birth ended up marrying people with the same names, and they drive the same kind of car, they have the same taste in clothing, lots of stuff like that. There are even studies that have been done about how they think alike, and some people think they can actually communicate telepathically.”
“So, you mean that Cameron might be a lot like me in some ways?”
“Well, that’s the
theory,” Carrie said. “The point is, you might be able to actually think like him, or even get a sense of where he is or what he’s doing.”
Sam looked at her for a moment. “I wouldn’t have a clue how to even attempt that,” he said. “Are you being serious, or are you just joking?”
“I think she’s being serious, Sam,” Kim said. “I’ve known some twins, and they really can tell what each other’s thinking. Even twins who have been raised completely apart tend to say and do the same kind of things. It’s strange, but there are stranger things.”
“Yeah,” Carrie said. “Like people with old Civil War soldiers in their heads!”
“Ease up, Carrie,” Indie said, and then she turned back to her husband. “Just think about it, Sam. Maybe you’ll get some kind of insight into how he thinks.”
Sam looked into her eyes, then looked at their mothers. “The trouble is,” he said, “I’m not sure I want to know how he thinks. If twins are really all that much alike, then what you’re actually saying is that I could have turned out just like him.”
THIRTEEN
Steve, Walter, Summer, Jade, Darren and Denny arrived together twenty minutes later. They came inside and gathered in the living room, and Denny carried some of the dining chairs in to make sure they had enough places to sit. Sam introduced everyone to his sister, and Denny made a point of taking the chair closest to her. The two of them seemed to be eyeing each other as the hubbub died down.
“Okay,” Sam said, “so everybody is up to speed, right? What we are dealing with is a serial killer who happens to be my identical twin brother.”
“It has to be that way,” Walter said. “That’s the only explanation.”
“Yeah, I get it,” Jade said, “but what would be the odds against something like this? I mean, we’ve got twin brothers who were separated at birth, one of them grows up to be a cop and then a special investigator who has saved the whole world at times, but the other one turns out to be a psychopath. And then, to make it even crazier, we’ve got the two of you basically coming up against each other. Can anybody tell me what the odds would be against something like that?”
“About one in six trillion,” Walter said, “if we were talking about a chance meeting between separated identical twins who did not live near one another. In this case, however, the probability that Sam and his brother would eventually be in this position would approach certainty. Since his twin is involved in criminal activity that commonly results in DNA profiling, and since Sam’s DNA was on record, it’s actually surprising that this hasn’t happened sooner.”
“I guess I see your point,” Jade said, “but it still just seems really weird to me.”
“Right, right,” Denny said, “but what shall we do about this? What’s the next step, Sam?”
Sam shrugged and shook his head. “I’m still a little overwhelmed by all this,” he said. “Steve? Darren? You guys have any suggestions? The two of you have the most investigative experience. Where do we go from here?”
Steve and Darren looked at one another, then Steve turned back to Sam. “Well,” he said, “the very first thing we need to do is sit down with O’Rourke and bring him up to speed on all this. It might not hurt to include your old friend Karen, too, Sam. No matter what the motive for switching the babies, the person who did it still committed the crime of kidnapping, and I’m sure there would be other charges. There is no statute of limitations on kidnapping in Colorado, and that part of the crime took place here in Denver.” He turned and looked at Grace. “It was in Denver, right?”
Grace nodded. “Yes, St. Thomas’.”
Steve looked back at Sam. “I think that’s the most important thing at this moment. We have a copy of the Caldwell Laboratory report, complete with all of the dates and times you couldn’t possibly have been the killer. It’s not going to take either of the detectives long to realize that any jury would regard that report as reasonable doubt, and that since we can show that the actual killer in those cases was almost certainly your twin brother, that gives us every reason to believe he has to be the killer in this current case.”
“I concur, Sam,” Darren said. “We have an official report from a laboratory that is certified to provide evidence to the courts in both civil and criminal cases, a report that essentially exonerates you. However, we also have two different levels of crime that need to be investigated and/or stopped.” He held up an index finger. “One, we’ve got to stop your brother from killing anyone else, and, two,” he popped another finger up beside it, “we need to determine who switched your brother with a dead baby.”
“You’re right,” Sam said. “Summer, you’ve got O’Rourke’s number. Can you give him a call and set up a time for us to come see him?”
“Sure. Right now?”
“Yes, but schedule it for later this afternoon. I’m going to call Karen and see if she can come over here right now.”
Summer stepped into the dining room while Sam took out his phone. He dialed Karen’s cell number from memory and put it on speaker.
“Detective Parks,” she said warily. “Sam? I heard you were out on bail.”
“I’m not only out on bail,” Sam said, “I’ve got everything I need to prove I didn’t commit this crime. Karen, the whole team from Windlass is out here at my house. Can you come over right away, to see the evidence for yourself?”
She hesitated. “Sam, I’m not the one you need to convince. Have you shown it to O’Rourke yet?”
“We’re setting that up now, but I really need you to see it for yourself. Can you come over?”
“Well, hell, Sam,” she said with a sigh. “Considering how often you saved my life, I guess I owe you at least that much. You honestly think you found a way to explain your DNA on the murder victim?”
“No,” Sam said. “I found a way to prove that it wasn’t my DNA in the first place. You come over and look at the lab report, and you’ll begin to understand.”
“Fine. Give me five minutes to finish up what I’m doing, and I’ll be there in about twenty.”
She hung up without another word and Sam put the phone in his pocket. Summer came out of the dining room a moment later and nodded at Sam.
“O’Rourke says he’s willing to listen, but he won’t take my word for anything. He’s found an eyewitness who he says can positively identify you at the scene. We’re supposed to meet him at his office around three thirty.”
“That’ll work,” Sam said. “And an identical twin explains what his witness saw, too, so he’s going to need to deal with watching his case fall apart around him. Now, let’s talk about the next step after this. There’s only one place to start. We need to determine who my brother is from a legal standpoint. That means we need to find out who else was giving birth the same time I was born. One of the babies who left that hospital went with the wrong family, and we need to find out who that family was.”
“Give me a minute,” Indie said. She left the room for a moment and returned with her computer, then opened it and started tapping the keyboard. “I’m telling Herman to get into the hospital database and see if he can find a record of births for your birthday, Sam. Assuming they have it all in their computer records, he should be able to find it.”
Everyone watched her for a moment, and then the computer went ding. Indie clicked the link, and several lines of information appeared on the screen.
“Well, we got lucky,” she said. “There were only five births that day, but two of them were girls. Sam, you and your brother were also two of them, so that only leaves one possibility. The parents were Charles and Vanessa Willis, and they gave birth to a baby boy. It doesn’t tell me what his name was, but the Willises were from a place called Jenksville, Florida.” Her fingers flew across the keys and a map appeared on the screen. “It’s a small town in north central Florida, just below the Georgia line. I’m checking their names now… Uh-oh, there’s a Charles Willis from Jenksville who died about eighteen years ago, some sort of accident on the job. He le
ft behind a wife and son, Vanessa and—Sam, their son’s name was C.J.”
Carrie’s eyes grew round. “Freaky,” she said. “That’s the initials he would have had anyway.”
“Can you find anything on him?” Sam asked.
“I’m already working on it,” Indie said. “He graduated from the high school there, went to college in Lake City—Sam, you remember we were talking about similarities between twins? He studied Criminal Justice, then joined the Army and became an MP, just like you did! He actually would have been at the MP School at the same time as you.” She clicked another link. “He was given a Dishonorable Discharge after a year and a half in the Army, over getting into a fight where he pulled a gun on someone. He went home for a while and then took a job with Power Innovations, they provide backup generators for hospitals and such, but he quit to become a private contractor.” She shook her head. “That’s just about the last thing I can find on him. He doesn’t have a current driver’s license, no address, no utilities in his name… There’s literally no trace of him at all.”
“But all that means is he’s got a good understanding of police procedures,” Sam said, and Steve nodded.
“Yeah,” he said. “That explains changing his name. He’s probably knocking off homeless guys like the original Boyd Benson, taking their identities. Nobody reports them missing, so we don’t know whose name he could be using now.”
“But how is he getting paid for his work?” Summer asked. “Even if he’s working as a private contractor, he’s got to get paid somehow.”
“Cash, probably,” Sam said, “or he’s got accounts in other names he can use.”
“What about the Willis widow?” Steve asked. “Anything on her?”
Indie went back to the computer. “According to Herman, she still lives in Jenksville. I’ve got an address and phone number.”
Steve looked at Sam, but Sam shook his head. “I don’t think a phone call would be a good idea,” he said. “This is something that needs to be handled face-to-face.”
