“If he has a negative disposition, his retained knowledge and exceptional strength could be dangerous to anyone who tried to outsmart him or overpower him. Just speculation on my part, Doctor.”

“Are you going to be able to keep him in a safe area, just in case?” Stanley asked as his mind relived a retained image of Michelle’s face.

“I can assure you that my facility will retain the child until it becomes impossible to do so. If that day comes, I have a private lodge up North to which I could make some renovations and keep the child up there. I’m looking at this as a full-term endeavor. I’m not going to give up on this child until I find out everything there is to find out, or, God forbid, he passes on.”

“Some of us may want to visit Alexander from time to time. Can that be arranged?” Mark asked while staring directly at Stanley, asking with his eyes if he thought Henry would benefit from a visit with Alexander.

“I was going to invite you all up myself,” the pride filled voice of William Straus answered back. “Come anytime. By the time you come, I’m sure that we will have more information for you. Then, we can discuss Alexander face to face, doctors to doctors. There is truly nothing I would enjoy more than to have all of you visit my Center. Come anytime.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

2014

Derek stared blankly into his client’s eyes. Searching to see a hint of something that would let Derek know that either the story he had just heard was the ramblings of an insane person, a joke organized by some members of a police force somewhere in the country or was actually a very bizarre and nearly impossible to understand truth.

“You’re telling me that your twin brother and you were born joined together and that the only heart you two were using is inside of your chest right now?”

“Yes, I swear that’s the truth,” Thomas said.

“And you’re also expecting me to believe that your twin brother, the one that got the short end of the surgery stick, is not only still alive after twenty-two years, but that he killed three people and can’t be located by the local police?”

“Look,” Thomas said, his impatience growing. “I know this sounds like I am making it all up or that I’m crazy, but as God as my witness, it’s all true. Doesn’t the fact that I paid you over three grand already prove anything?”

“Only that you may have some spare money lying around.”

“If I am agreeing to pay you your full fee, which I am, does it really matter to you if you are chasing a figment of my imagination or not? I mean, all I ask is that you help me find my brother and keep my parents and me safe. If you discover that I am making this whole story up, then you just walk away with my money and no damage done. Hell, I’ll even advance you another ten grand if you need more proof that I’m serious.”

Derek kept staring deeply into Thomas’s eyes. He sensed something that told him that the story was true, but he also sensed he wasn’t getting the whole story.

“Where are your parents now?”

“Probably still in the air. They are flying to the Bahamas.”

“So unless your brother is on that plane, sounds to me like they are nice and safe right where they are.”

“For now, yes. But not if we don’t stop my brother. Eventually, he will find them.”

“Curious about one thing. Actually, I’m curious about a whole lot of things, but one in particular. Why aren’t you not looking over your shoulder every three seconds?”

“What do you mean?”

“You told me that you felt you needed me to provide protection for you and for your parents, but here you are, sitting in a public park and the only thing you seem concerned about is getting me to believe your story. Curious.”

Thomas shook his head and readjusted his body on the park bench. “I hired you for your protection. If I don’t feel safe when I am two feet from you, then I may have made a poor hiring decision.”

“Okay. Good answer. I’ll accept that,” Derek said, his response mixed with embarrassment and lingering doubt.

“Well?” Thomas asked. “Will you help me or not? Just say the word and I’ll arrange the money to be transferred today.”

“Where was the murder scene? I guess I should start there.”

“Piseco Lake, up in the Adirondack Mountains of New York.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

Police Chief Ralph Fox arrived at the crime scene a full seven hours after the bodies were discovered. Officer Wayne White called him from the scene and told him that he had better cut his vacation short and get back to Piseco Lake. Ralph was in the middle of a lobster dinner that he had bought fresh from the Maine Seafood Market when the telephone in his rented beach house sounded. He had been in Ogunquit for only two of his seven-day vacation and let Ken White know about it.

“You better be calling me for something damn right important, officer,” he barked in his displaced Texas drawl. “I ain’t had no vacation in five years, and I ain’t ready to call this one off, yet. So, what you got to say better be damn important.”

“Chief, we got a murder. Actually, three. Single crime scene.”

The stress in Wayne White’s voice was abundantly obvious. Ralph had only been the Chief of Police for the town of Arietta New York for six months and didn’t know his officers all that well yet. But the stress and fear, mixed with some dark excitement, was clearly coming through Wayne’s voice.

“Murder?” Ralph questioned, forcing a butter-soaked piece of lobster tail down to his stomach. “Are you breaking my balls?”

“Three bodies, laying right here in the same room I’m talking to you from.”

“Y’all got the killer in the next room, or do we have to go chasing him through those damn woods?”