Read Online Twin Targets by Marta Perry - Free Book Online Page A

beefy hand over his graying brush cut. “I’m too busy to deal with it.”
    A flicker of impatience went through him. There was no obvious reason why the woman should be funneled to him, but Mac was prickly about handling anything he considered a waste of his valuable time. Micah bit back a sharp rejoinder, reminding himself that Mac’s ill humor had its roots in the injury that had robbed him of an active career and consigned him to desk duty.
    “All right. Send her back.” He closed the file and leaned back in his chair, preparing to cope with another nervous citizen who thought her next-door neighbor was a Mafia hit man.
    But the woman who approached him didn’t fit the usual profile of the cranks who came in with odd complaints. Young, for one thing—probably in her early twenties, with soft hair curving around a gentle, sweet face. She hesitated for a moment, and then held out her hand as he rose.
    “Marshal McGraw? I’m Kristin Perry. Thank you for seeing me.”
    “Not at all.” He waved her to the chair next to his desk and sat down again, resolutely pushing thoughts of Jade to the back of his mind to be dealt with later. “What can we do for you, Ms. Perry?”
    She sat, clasping her hands in her lap like a well-trained child. “It’s a bit difficult to explain. You see, my parents died not long ago.”
    “I’m sorry for your loss.” If she declared they’d been killed by a Mafia hit man, he’d start banging his head on the desk.
    “Thank you. Well, it was very sudden, and I had to take care of all my parents’ papers and that sort of thing.” She paled slightly. “In my father’s safe I found documentation that I had been adopted. And that my…my birth mother had been a woman who was in the Witness Protection Program right here in Montana.”
    His attention sharpened, but he kept his face impassive.
    “I see. Could I have a look at these papers you found?”
    She removed a folder from her oversized handbag and handed it to him. “Those are photocopies of everything that seemed relevant. I prefer to keep the originals, as I’m sure you’ll understand.”
    She wasn’t as naive as she looked, evidently. He opened the folder, flipping through the documents she’d enclosed.
    “You’ll see that it was handled through an attorney, and that the birth mother’s name wasn’t disclosed.” She leaned forward, hands straining together in her lap. “But the notes made by the attorney indicate that the mother decided to give up her child because of the dangerous nature of her situation. There’s a short note from her asking that I be raised in a good Christian home.”
    He nodded, scanning quickly, and then looked up at her. “What exactly do you want from us, Ms. Perry?”
    She looked startled at the question. “I want to know who my mother was. Isn’t that obvious? I need to know what happened to her.”
    It was obvious, unfortunately. She’d just lost the only parents she’d ever known and was probably still struggling to make sense of that loss. Then she’d found this hint of another mother somewhere. Her response was sad but predictable.
    “Ms. Perry, I sympathize with you.” More than she could know. “But are you sure this is a good idea? Have you talked this over with any family friends, or your attorney, perhaps?”
    Her lips firmed. “You think I’m being irrational about this, don’t you? Well, I’m not. I have a right to know who my birth mother was.”
    He glanced down at the papers again. “Maybe your adoptive parents had the right idea in keeping it from you. Information about people who are in Witness Protection is highly classified, and even if it weren’t, twenty-two years is a long time.”
    “I have a right to know.” Her eyes pleaded with him.
    “You can check, can’t you? Even if you can’t tell me where she is, you could tell her that I’m looking for her?
    Can’t you at least do that much?”
    He ought to say no. To shut this off before she just