Big Lies in a Small Town - Diane Chamberlain Page 0,149

inaccurate and would have to be rewritten once again. I watched her face as she read, her pink lips moving ever so slightly. Suddenly she gasped. She turned to look at me, her eyes intent on my face.

“Oh, my dear,” she said, her voice barely audible. “Oh, my goodness.”

The three of us stared at her. “What?” I asked.

She licked her thin lips, her eyes riveted on mine. “I think I know why Jesse chose you to do this work,” she said.

Chapter 67

Judith pointed to the last line on the wall text: Restored by Morgan Christopher. “Is this your name?” she asked. “Not your married name, or … is this the name you were born with? Morgan Christopher?”

“Yes,” I said, frowning.

She turned back to the wall text and it was a long moment before she spoke again. “Perhaps it’s just a coincidence,” she said, “but…” She glanced toward Oliver. “May I sit down?”

“Of course,” he said, and slid one of the chairs over to where she was standing. She shifted the chair slightly so she was facing us and lowered herself into it with a soft groan, her eyes on me the whole time. There was the slightest tremor to her lips.

“My daughter Debra died four years ago,” she said.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“Terrible thing, to bury a child.” She looked away for the first time in what felt like minutes, but quickly returned her gaze to me. “Shortly before she died, she did one of those … DNA tests? You know the ones I mean?”

“Yes.” Oliver and I spoke at the same moment.

“Debra knew I’d given up a baby long ago and she was curious to see what might pop up on the test.”

“I don’t understand how those tests work,” Gloria said.

“I would have preferred she not tamper with the past, but I thought she had a right to know if she had cousins or whatever out there.” She pressed her lips together, her eyes on me again. She drew in a breath. “Well, what popped up was the surname ‘Christopher.’ Over and over and over again. Lots of second and third cousins and … I don’t know what else, but it was clear that name had significance in her family tree.”

A chill ran up my arms. I felt Oliver’s hand on my back. “It’s a pretty common name,” I said. Was Judith thinking I was somehow related to the baby she gave away? And how would Jesse have known that? And what possible difference could it make?

Oliver rummaged around on the information counter and found a small notepad and pencil. He set it on the counter near me. Patted my hand. I was sure it felt cold to him. My blood seemed to have stopped flowing.

“Let’s figure this out,” he said, beginning to write on the notepad. “Anna had a baby in 1940.”

“That’s right,” Judith said from her seat in front of the mural. Her gaze was still riveted on my face. I felt her studying me.

Anna had a baby in 1940 with Martin Drapple, I thought, repelled.

“Why haven’t you told me any of this?” Gloria asked Judith, and we all ignored her.

“The baby was given to neighbors of Jesse’s family,” Oliver said, jotting something on the notepad. “Let’s say, for the sake of argument, they had the surname Christopher.” He looked at me. “What do you know about your lineage on the Christopher side?”

I thought about it. “Not much. My parents aren’t exactly the type to hang on to old mementos and photographs. I know my father was born in Cary. My grandparents on that side lived in Cary, too. They died when I was pretty young.”

“Could your grandfather have been born here in Edenton?” Oliver asked.

“I don’t think so … I never heard my parents mention anything about Edenton. I’d never even heard of Edenton myself before I met Lisa. And besides, I never met Jesse. How could he have known who I was?”

“Jesse knew who the family was that took my son,” Judith said quietly. Now she was looking into the distance with an expression on her face that suggested she was lost in a memory. “He told me once … when was it?… Maybe 1980, when he moved back here? Yes.” She nodded. “That makes sense. I would have been in my early sixties. He told me that his sister Nellie knew the family and where they’d moved to long ago. My son—the baby I gave away—would have been about forty years old then. Jesse said