“Never mind,” he said, waving his words away.
Krys looked at him. “I think you should know that once I’m engaged in a puzzle, I don’t just back off. You were the one who started this,” she reminded him. “Just what did you mean by someone shooting at you figuratively?” she asked.
He blew out a breath. “Funny you should use the word ‘engaged,’” he commented.
Krys cocked her head, studying Morgan. “You were engaged and one of you broke it off?” she asked. She saw the startled expression on the detective’s face and knew that she’d guessed correctly, at least in part. “I’m fairly good at reading people,” she told him without any undue vanity. “Do you want to fill in the rest of it for me?”
Whether he was about to say anything further, or was just going to put her off, she wasn’t about to find out at that point, because Sean Cavanaugh picked that moment to push open the rear doors. Exiting the building, he quickly came down the back steps.
His first words, however, were not directed at Morgan.
“Nikki, what are you doing back from your honeymoon so soon?” he cried, holding out his arms to her. “I thought you and Finn were going to be gone for another week. Is everything all right?” Reaching the bottom of the stairs, Sean embraced the woman in front of him before she could say a word in response.
“That’s not Nikki, Uncle Sean,” Morgan tactfully informed the man.
Releasing Krys, Sean stepped back and then took a closer look at the young woman. The expression on his face clearly indicated that he didn’t think he had made a mistake. Looking at his nephew, he said, “You’re kidding me, right, Morgan?”
Krys pulled her shoulders back and raised her head so that the man could get a better look at her, although experience had taught her that people never saw a difference between them because she and Nikki looked eerily exactly alike.
“Actually, Chief Cavanaugh, he’s not,” she told him. “I’m Nik’s twin sister.” She put her hand out to him. “Krys Kowalski.”
Sean took the hand that was being offered to him, but he glanced rather uncertainly at his nephew as he shook it. “Really?”
“Really,” Morgan told his uncle. “Why don’t you show the chief the picture you showed me?” he prodded Krys. Morgan figured that was the fastest way to deal with his uncle’s disbelief and dispel it.
Krys inclined her head and took out her wallet. She pulled out the photograph she had shown Morgan earlier and handed it to the older Cavanaugh.
Taking the photograph in hand, Sean studied it at length in surprised silence, then handed it back to her. He was clearly caught off guard.
“I had no idea,” he confessed.
“Apparently nobody did,” Morgan commented to his uncle.
“That’s not entirely true,” Krys contradicted him. When the two men looked at her quizzically, she told them, “Nik told Finn she had a twin. But since I wasn’t going to be able to make the wedding, I told Nik to spare herself a lot of questions about why her only relative wasn’t at her wedding and just not mention me to anyone else until I was finally able to come to Aurora in person, and I could meet everyone then.” She glanced toward her vehicle. “It seems like my plan was pushed up a little.”
Sean put his hand out again for the photograph. Krys gave it to him, and he studied it even more closely this time.
“You look completely alike,” he marveled. “If you hadn’t said the photograph was genuine, I would have guessed that it was a gag, something artificially put together to fool people,” he said, giving the photograph back to Krys.
“No gag,” she assured him and tucked the photograph back into her wallet. “And for the record,” she told Sean, “I’m five minutes older and one inch shorter.”
The older man nodded, taking the information in. “Well, I’m sorry you missed the wedding, but welcome to the family.” His smile was warm and welcoming. She found it oddly similar to Morgan’s fleeting smile, although the two men really didn’t look that much alike. “Andrew is going to get a kick out of finding this out,” he told her. “Now.” The CSI chief turned toward Morgan. “I’m assuming that you didn’t call me out here to meet this young lady. What’s this all about, Morgan?”
“I’ve got a crime scene for you and your people to go over,” Morgan answered.
The expression on Sean’s face indicated that he thought this was a rather dramatic way for his nephew to proceed, but he played along. He scanned the parking lot.
“Where?” he asked.
“In part, here,” Morgan answered, gesturing toward Krys’s car.
Sean followed the two of them toward the vehicle. “I don’t understand—oh!” He stopped talking abruptly the second he saw the shattered window. “When did this happen?” he asked, immediately reaching for his gloves.
“Last night. Around eleven thirty,” Krys added, feeling like she had already repeated this information an endless amount of times.
“Where were you at the time?” Sean asked. Since she appeared to be unharmed, he assumed that Nik’s twin couldn’t have been too close to the vehicle.
It still seemed rather surreal to her as she repeated the information. “As a matter of fact, I had just bent down to pick up some papers I had dropped when whoever did this took a shot at me.”
Sean looked at her in awed surprise. “You were that close?”
Krys nodded. “I was that close,” she confirmed.
“You are one very lucky young lady,” Sean told her, shaking his head as he reviewed what was left of the driver’s side window.
“For now,” Krys agreed tentatively. “I’m hoping that your nephew can help me find the person responsible for this so that I can stay lucky,” she told the older Cavanaugh.
Sean was already taking out his cell phone to call some of his team to come out and join him.
“If there’s anything to find, we’ll find it,” he promised Krys.
