The Truth About Rachel by Deanna Sletten (recommended reading .TXT) 📕

piece of vital information she’d kept to herself except for telling Gladys.

Avery sat back in his chair and stared at her, clearly surprised. “Wait? What?”

She glanced around to make sure no one was within hearing range. “The scratches on Keith’s face were made by me the night before I disappeared. Why he never explained that during the trial, or my father never mentioned it, is beyond me. Maybe his lawyer thought that would have made Keith look guiltier. Or they thought it wouldn’t help his case. Since the prosecution never had the samples of skin found under the girl’s nails tested, it was just assumed it was Keith’s skin. Which I find really strange. Because they could have tested it to compare blood types.”

“Maybe the DA, Robert Mitchell, didn’t want to know the truth,” Avery said.

It was Rachel’s turn to look surprised. “Why?”

Avery leaned across the table, closer to her. “Don’t you think it’s odd that Jeremy’s father was the prosecuting attorney for Keith’s case when his son was the chief witness?”

“I think this whole case is odd.”

“Well, maybe the DA didn’t want any evidence to mess up Jeremy’s testimony. I’m sure he thought he had a guilty verdict in the bag, so there was no sense in adding more evidence.”

Rachel thought about this. “Could be. But why would he have it out for Keith?”

Avery leaned back. “Who knows? Maybe he’d never liked Keith and didn’t want his son around him. Jeremy’s dad may have just thought he was the perfect target.”

“That’s terrible.” Rachel frowned. “I would hope he felt he had more evidence than just disliking Keith.”

Avery shrugged. “You never know in these small towns. They’ve put people behind bars with less evidence. It wouldn’t surprise me.”

She hated thinking that her brother—or half-brother—was railroaded just because someone hated him.

“Or maybe Robert Mitchell suspected Jeremy had killed the girl and didn’t want any evidence leading to his son,” Avery said.

This hit Rachel like a brick. “Jeremy? Do you think he could have done it?”

“If you can believe Keith was guilty, it’s just as easy to believe Jeremy could be. He was there, by his own admission. He hung out with Keith all the time. It’s a possibility.”

“And he’s been doing his best to keep the evidence under lock and key,” Rachel said. A chill ran down her spine. She didn’t know what to think. “So, what do we do now?”

Avery looked at his phone. “It’s one o’clock. I can drop you off at your motel so you can get some work done, and I’ll go back to the office and make a few calls. I’ll see if a lawyer friend of mine can help us.”

Rachel bit her lip. “I can’t afford a lawyer.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll call in a favor or two.”

Avery drove Rachel to the motel and made sure she was safely in her room. He offered to bring take-out food later for dinner, which she thought was a good idea. She didn’t really want to run into Jeremy at one of the restaurants tonight.

As Rachel worked, she couldn’t help but think of all the twists and turns she’d discovered since arriving. She’d thought it would be as simple as telling someone she was Rachel Parnell so they could figure out who the dead girl was. She hadn’t expected the Chief of Police to fight back or to learn that she and Keith weren’t full siblings. That really had thrown her for a loop. It pained her to discover her father wasn’t really her blood relative. Had her mother had an affair and ended up pregnant? Was that why her mother had always resented her? Yet, her father had treated her as his own daughter. Maybe he’d never known the truth.

About three-fifteen, her phone buzzed, and Rachel was surprised to see it was from City Hall.

“Hello?”

“Rachel? It’s Gladys.”

Rachel smiled. She liked the older woman. “Hi. What’s up?”

“Is there a chance you could stop by the office today? I need to show you something.”

Rachel frowned. Gladys’s voice sounded off, like she was nervous or anxious. “I can come right now,” she told her.

“Good. I’ll see you in a few minutes.”

Rachel hopped into her car and drove the short distance. The town was quiet, with hardly anyone on the street. She ran up the steps of City Hall and into the building. Gladys was waiting for her on the other side of the glass window.

“Just a minute, dear,” Gladys said. She went to her desk, lifted a file folder, and then headed out of the office door. “Come to the break room with me.”

Rachel followed her, and they sat at the small, coffee-stained table in the cramped break room.

“I did some more digging to see if there was a way to prove you are Rachel Parnell. But what I found was even more confusing,” Gladys said. She opened the file and pulled out a sheet of paper. “I wondered about the fact that your aunt and uncle took you, and I dug into information about your actual birth. I talked to some friends who worked in the records department of several area hospitals. There is no record of Judith Parnell giving birth to Rachel Parnell. I found that odd.”

Rachel’s brows shot up. “Maybe you didn’t find the right hospital.”

The older woman shook her head and slid the paper toward Rachel. “I did find the right hospital, but it was under the wrong name. There was a record of Julie Arden giving birth to a little girl on the same birthdate as yours. The father was Gordon Scott.”

Rachel stared at the birth certificate, unable to believe her eyes. “That can’t be. How could Aunt Julie have given birth to me and then given me up? For as long as I can remember, she wanted me to come live with her. It makes no sense.”

Gladys slid another sheet of paper toward Rachel. It was a copy of the birth certificate that stated Frank and Judith Parnell as her parents. “The birth date