Page 14 of X-Ray in the Xanth (Lovely Lethal Gardens Rewind #3)
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A fter she got back home from Nan’s, Doreen sat down at her kitchen table and reviewed Solomon’s files a little more carefully to see if she had missed or forgotten about yet another file.
There were so many, far too many to remember, but she had that inkling of something in the back of her mind.
As she worked her way through the summary that she had done, slowly reading, trying to figure out if any other cases would fit, she came across a woman named Sandy.
Doreen pondered it, pulled the file, then sat down and read it from start to finish.
It wasn’t very big but concerned a young woman named Sandy Wayne.
Solomon had spoken to the family. They were from Vancouver, and the daughter had come up for a visit.
She had also mentioned that she would go see some friends and family in Manitoba.
Apparently she never arrived. The family wasn’t sure if she went that far or if she changed her plans.
They’d searched long and hard but found nothing.
Doreen stared at that for a long moment and then scanned it in and sent digital copies to both Elizabeth and Mack, texting, We should test the DNA of the body now ID’d as not the senator’s daughter against this case.
Almost immediately her phone rang. It was Elizabeth.
“Where did you get that from?” she cried out.
Doreen realized that Elizabeth probably didn’t know about Solomon and his research files, so Doreen gave the coroner a basic rundown and added, “I just went through the files, looking for a potential match.”
“I can’t believe somebody just gave you all those files.”
“It was his life’s work,” she explained. “He didn’t want it to be forgotten, and he didn’t want anybody thinking that all these people weren’t worth looking into,” she shared. “So, I made a promise to honor his work and to go through as much of it as I can.”
“That in itself is quite a life’s quest.”
“I know, much to Mack’s dismay, I’m sure.”
She laughed at that. “Good to know that you’re engaged to him, since it would be hard for the two of you to keep secrets from each other.”
“I do try to honor the very blurry lines between us,” she acknowledged. “And, yes, I absolutely cross them all the time.”
“I’m sure you cross them sometimes, but not so much because you’re not worried about it, but because you feel that you need to.”
“Exactly,” Doreen confirmed. “I think Mack understands that. If I cross these lines, he at least understands why I’m doing it and then maybe finds it easier to accept.”
“Maybe, although I can’t say I would take it very kindly if you got involved in any of my cases,” Elizabeth Harley stated, almost with a note of warning.
“And I wouldn’t,” Doreen replied. “I mean, I can only pass over information and hope that people pick it up and move with it.”
“I will take a look at this one,” she said, “and see if there’s anything to pursue.”
“I do have Solomon’s file on the woman who was identified as the senator’s daughter,” she added, “and they are definitely about the right age.”
“Good, and that would explain why this case was never triggered because, as far as everybody was concerned, the other body belonged to the senator’s daughter.”
“Exactly,” Doreen confirmed.
“Will you tell Mack about this one?”
“Yes, I already sent him a copy of the file.”
“Good,” she replied distractedly. “Then I will get to work on it right now.” And, with that, she ended the call.
Moments later, Mack called. “Don’t tell me. More from Solomon’s files?”
“Yep,” she replied. “One of Solomon’s files and another family who’s still looking for their daughter.”
“Which in this case never got checked,” Mack pointed out, “because the body had already been identified as somebody else.”
“Exactly,” she said. “And I can’t guarantee that the body is Sandy’s either.”
“No, but it is a good guess,” he noted, “and we appreciate it.”
She frowned at her phone. “You’re being awfully nice these days.”
After a moment of silence, he asked, “Am I often not nice?”
“Sometimes, yes,” she stated, with a laugh. “I’m used to that Mack.”
He laughed. “Do you want me to go back to being not nice ? Not that I ever thought I was not nice, by the way.”
“You weren’t this polite. You weren’t this… it feels as if you’re being careful.”
“And is careful not good?” he asked.
“Sometimes, no. Sometimes it feels… off maybe?”
He laughed. “I think you worry too much.”
“Maybe,” she muttered. “And, if I do, I know who to blame.” Mack chortled, and she ended the call herself.
She also wasn’t sure if the police had the budget for all these cases with DNA testing and whatnot involved. She didn’t even know how that worked. If they had cases, did they have to deal with them? Could they turn them down, deciding they didn’t have any budget money to investigate further?
It seemed as if that would be completely wrong, and yet quite possible at times that they would have no options when it came to budget money.
None of these tests were cheap. She didn’t know how expensive DNA testing was, but it was something that she could see herself getting behind.
Particularly if a rape case were going dusty on the shelves.
She pondered that and was still pondering it when her attorney, Nick, called.
“Hey,” she greeted him in a distracted tone.
He asked, “What’s going on?”
“Do you know if a lot of untested rape kits are in town?”
There was silence on the other end of the phone for a moment. “I’m… not sure. How did we get on this topic? What’s bothering you?”
“It’s not so much that something is bothering me,” she replied in frustration.
“Well, yeah, obviously it is. We’re currently working on a mix of cases, and I was thinking about how the budget seems to affect everything.
Then I started worrying whether rape cases weren’t solved simply because no budget money was allocated to run the kits and… ”
“Hey, hey, easy,” Nick responded. “You need to pace yourself. Remember that we can’t solve everything in the world.”
“I know,” she muttered, taking a deep breath. “But a lot of money is coming my way, right?”
“Yes,” he agreed, “a lot of money is coming your way.”
“So, I don’t know how this works because I’ve never had any money. However, if I invested some of it—enough for me and the animals to live on, plus some extra for emergencies or whatnot—could I put some into getting these DNA kits tested?”
He responded, his words filled with warmth, “I’m pretty sure nobody would have a problem with you doing that.”
“Are you sure?” she asked anxiously. “Everybody tends to get upset with me when I step on toes.”
“They might get upset at you for stepping on toes, but I don’t think anybody will get upset for you wanting to help,” he clarified. “And, of course, we could set up something, and we’ll also need to get you set up with a financial adviser.”
“Or two or three,” she muttered, “like from different companies, to confirm nobody in the mix wants to cheat or to rip me off.”
“That’s not a bad idea,” he agreed. “We can get multiple advisors and have them on one team, and they all would have to agree on what to do with the money.”
“And the payouts for them is smaller,” she added, “although I don’t think they would agree to that.”
“We’ll explain right up front that they’ll be on a consultation fee basis and won’t get a percentage.”
“A percentage,” she repeated, aghast. “They’re supposed to get a percentage of the money?”
He laughed. “In most cases, yes,” he confirmed, “but, for financial advisers, we can set it up however you want to set it up.”
“I don’t want them to get a percentage.”
“But you’ve got to consider the idea behind that is, if they do get a percentage, then they’ll work harder to make good investment decisions, so that their percentage is higher.”
“Yes,” she conceded, “I guess there is that point. But then if the percentage is higher, they still get more. So how will I help people if everybody’s trying to take a chunk?”
“Let’s get the money, get you investing, see what dollar figures you’re looking at, and then you can think of helping others.”
“I don’t know if it’s even a viable idea because I don’t even know what it costs to do a DNA test,” she noted, with regret. “How sad is that?”
“I doubt if anybody knows the cost to run DNA, except people in the field,” he pointed out. “Stop knocking yourself down for not knowing things. Just call one of the local labs and ask them. Then we can figure out what’s the best way forward, if that’s something you want to do.”
“It is something I want to do,” she declared. “Obviously I need to know how many I can help. It might only be a few.”
“I don’t think it’s that bad,” he noted, “but again we’ll figure it out.”
She smiled. “Thank you for that.”
“For what?” he asked, with a chuckle. “For stopping you from going off on a tangent?”
“No, I do that anyway. Just for the… the common sense involved.”
“You can also talk to Mack about it. Remember that.”
“I know. I know,” she muttered. “Just,… until it’s set up, I don’t want to tell people what I might do, especially if it turns out to be something I can’t pull off. You know the finances more than I do.”
He laughed. “I do know that there will be an awful lot of money and that you’ll be a very wealthy woman. You were talking about doing some charities too.”
“Right,” she agreed, “so that’s got to be taken into account.”
“There’s a lot of money, enough for several charities.”
“Is there?” she asked anxiously. “And this will sound absolutely awful, and I don’t even know that I want to think about what I’m saying right now, but I need to confirm I don’t end up on the street.”
“You will not end up on the street.”
“Are you sure?” she asked, all bothered and anxious. “I want to help others, but I still have to live my life.”