for Sunday."
"Shit." His hopes sank again. "How can he? What sort of an alibi?"
"Watertight. He was at the Emmys in Los Angeles. There are photographs."
"He's in the movie business?"
"Nightclub owner. He's a minor celebrity."
Steve could see why she was so down. Her discovery of Wayne had been brilliant - but it had got them no further forward. But he was mystified as well as downcast. "Then who raped Lisa?"
"Do you remember what Sherlock Holmes says? 'When you have eliminated the impossible, what remains - no matter how improbable - must be the truth.' Or maybe it was Hercule Poirot."
His heart went cold. Surely she did not believe he had raped Lisa? "What's the truth?"
"There are four twins."
"Quadruplets? Jeannie, this is getting crazy."
"Not quadruplets. I can't believe this embryo divided into four by accident. It had to be deliberate, part of the experiment."
"Is that possible?"
"It is nowadays. You've heard of cloning. Back in the seventies it was just an idea. But Genetico seems to have been years ahead of the rest of the field - perhaps because they were working in secret and could experiment on humans."
"You're saying I'm a clone."
"You have to be. I'm sorry, Steve. I keep giving you shattering news. It's a good thing you have the parents you have."
"Yeah. What's he like, Wayne?"
"Creepy. He has a painting that shows Salina Jones being crucified naked. I couldn't wait to get out of his apartment."
Steve was silent. One of my clones is a murderer, the other is a sadist, and the hypothetical fourth is a rapist. Where does that leave me?
Jeannie said: "The clone idea also explains why you all have different birthdays. The embryos were kept in the laboratory for varying periods before being implanted in the women's wombs."
Why did this happen to me? Why couldn't I be like everyone else?
"They're closing the flight, I have to go."
"I want to see you. I'll drive to Baltimore."
"Okay. Bye."
Steve hung up the phone. "You got that," he said to his mother.
"Yeah. He looks just like you, but he's got an alibi, so she thinks there must be four of you, and you're clones."
"If we're clones, I must be like them."
"No. You're different, because you're mine."
"But I'm not." He saw the spasm of pain pass across his mother's face, but he was hurting too. "I'm the child of two complete strangers selected by research scientists employed by Genetico. That's my ancestry."
"You must be different from the others, you behave differently."
"But does that prove that my nature is different from theirs? Or just that I've learned to hide it, like a domesticated animal? Did you make me what I am? Or did Genetico?"
"I don't know, my son," said Mom. "I just don't know."
Chapter 45
JEANNIE TOOK A SHOWER AND WASHED HER HAIR, THEN MADE up her eyes carefully. She decided not to use lipstick or blush. She dressed in a V-neck purple sweater and skintight gray leggings, with no underwear or shoes. She put in her favorite nose jewel, a small sapphire in a silver mount. In the mirror she looked like sex on a stick. "Off to church, young lady?" she said aloud. Then she winked at herself and went into the living room.
Her father had gone again. He preferred to be at Patty's where he had his three grandchildren to keep him amused. Patty had come to pick him up while Jeannie was in New York.
She had nothing to do but wait for Steve. She tried not to think of the day's great disappointment. She had had enough. She felt hungry; she had kept going on coffee all day. She wondered whether to eat now or hang on until he got here. She smiled as she remembered his eating eight cinnamon buns for breakfast. Was that only yesterday? It seemed a week ago.
Suddenly she realized she did not have any food in the refrigerator. How awful if he arrived hungry and she could not feed him! She hurriedly pulled on a pair of Doc Marten boots and ran outside. She drove to the 7-Eleven on the corner of Falls Road and 36th Street and bought eggs, Canadian bacon, milk, a loaf of seven-grain bread, ready-washed salad, Dos Equis beer, Ben & Jerry's Rainforest Crunch ice cream, and four more packets of frozen cinnamon buns.
While she was standing at the checkout she realized he might arrive while she was out. He might even go away again!
She ran out of the store with her arms full and drove home like a maniac,