Read Online The Day Before by Liana Brooks - Free Book Online Page B

He’d love a big case like that.”
    And he’d scoop it from me in a heartbeat, leaving me a case shy of getting out of here.
    â€œThere’s . . . there’s another option,” MacKenzie said in a quiet voice.
    â€œMmm?”
    â€œJane could have been replaced. She was muscular, real . . . real fit. A soldier, maybe. Or . . . or law enforcement. The muscles were”—­he moved his hands as if trying to twist something—­“were right. The wear on her bones was right.” He stopped, and Sam waited for his brain to catch up with his tongue. “She could have been killed and replaced with a clone.”
    Sam made a face. “That’s just disgusting. Wouldn’t someone notice?”
    â€œA well-­trained shadow? No. No . . . Jane could be . . . be the woman we have in the morgue and h-­have a shadow running around as . . . as her.”
    She arched an eyebrow. “Really? I think you’ve been reading too many science-­fiction books.”
    â€œIt’s happened.” He rubbed a hand across his face. “There was the Elendorf Securities case back in ’64, and at least two intelligence agents targeted . . .” Mac faltered as he looked up at her. “What?”
    â€œHow do you know this?”
    â€œThe Elendorf thing was all over the news. It sounded like a soap opera, ‘CEO’s son replaced him with clone to keep stepmother number four from getting near his trust fund.’ Someone threatened to make a movie about it. How did you not hear about it? ”
    â€œI meant, how did you know about the intelligence agents?”
    Mac shrugged. “I talk to ­people.”
    â€œIt’s still sounds far-­fetched.”
    He shrugged. “We tried to match Jane to a missing person, and we couldn’t. If a shadow stole her identity, we’re searching in the wrong pool for our fish.”
    â€œFine, let’s rule out the shadow theory. Run Jane’s profile through the census database. If she’s still alive, I’ll convince the judge to keep the case open and get a warrant for a DNA sample. And MacKenzie,” she said, as they pulled up in front of the morgue, “get off the pills.”
    He started guiltily and nodded.
    S am turned the ring, still in the bag, so it caught the light, and she could read the inscription again. “ Soyez fidèle à les petite choses, parce-­qu’il est dans lui que ta force restais .” Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies. A quote from Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
    She had the same ring with the inscription in English once upon a time. It had been a gift from her mother when she’d graduated from St. Catherine’s, probably the only gift her mother had bought for Sam herself. All her other birthday presents were bought by her mother’s personal secretary. There was a little Catholic bookstore across the street from St. Catherine’s imposing main gate where you could buy a ring like this with the quote in English, French, or Spanish. On their way to the graduation ceremony, they’d stopped to purchase a chapel veil to replace the one her mother had forgotten at home, and her mother had bought the ring at the same time. It was a trinket, really, but it meant her mother had thought of her.
    Sam clicked through the images on her computer screen. There was nothing about the ring that made it stand out from the millions of other rings that were the staple of the Chris­tian retail market. Still, part of her wanted to say this was a St. Catherine’s ring.
    â€œRose?” Marrins knocked on her doorframe as he walked in. “Just got off the line with Birmingham. Where’s their Jane?”
    â€œSir? I put a copy of the blood work report on your desk this morning before I pulled the data from Agent Anan’s case. Atlanta confirmed that Jane Doe