Chapter 5 - THE OTHER MARK
The twin’s birth certificate listed him as Matthew Carter.
He was declared dead six hours after birth.
No hospital death record existed.
Charles raised Mark publicly while placing Matthew inside Blue Harbor under another identity.
The brothers met secretly throughout childhood.
Mark received praise and opportunity.
Matthew received discipline and training.
Charles compared them constantly.
One became the heir.
One became the backup.
Laura recognized Matthew from photographs. He worked at Blue Harbor as a transport officer and occasionally impersonated Mark when alibis were needed.
The man entering my house while Mark attended night shifts may have been Matthew.
That explained arguments Mark denied.
Messages he claimed never to send.
Nights when his voice sounded different.
I had been married to one brother while another entered my life wearing the same face.
Hayes traced Matthew to a police safe house.
It was empty.
Inside were photographs of me taken during the previous week.
One showed Charles dragging me across the patio from an angle none of our cameras captured.
Matthew had been at the party.
The guest count was sixty-eight.
The invitation list contained sixty-seven names.
He had blended among the officers.
A handwritten plan on the wall described three possible outcomes.
If Internal Affairs failed to arrive, Charles would stage my overdose.
If Charles was arrested, Matthew would remove Rebecca Hale.
If Mark was arrested, Matthew would become the cooperating son and claim his brother’s identity.
The twins had been trained as interchangeable defenses.
Then a call came from Rebecca Hale’s missing phone.
I answered.
A man with Mark’s voice said, “Your mother wants to see you.”
“Matthew?”
A pause.
“Mark told you about me?”
“No. Laura did.”
He laughed quietly.
“Laura sees monsters everywhere.”
“Where is my mother?”
“Safe.”
“From whom?”
“Everyone who used her.”
His words sounded almost compassionate.
That frightened me.
Matthew believed he had rescued Rebecca from both Charles and the government.
He wanted the Morgan-Hale property records in exchange for a meeting.
Rebecca’s freedom had become another negotiation.
I refused to transfer anything.
He sent a photograph of my mother seated beside a window.
She held today’s newspaper.
Alive.
Then I noticed the reflection in the glass.
A police shield lay on the table.
Detective Hayes’s shield.
May you like
Either Matthew had taken it—
or Hayes was standing in the room with him.
