FATAL BURN

would soon take. He’d worked so hard for his goal: to become a parish priest, to follow the calling, to devote his life to God. And he was so

was just plain stupid. Nonetheless she had the driving need to know where she’d come from. Who were her birth parents? Where, exactly, had she been born? What were the circumstances? Did she have any siblings, even half brothers and sisters? Were her mother and father married? Had they been? Were they even alive? In prison? Had she been the result of a one-night stand, or maybe even a rape? At that thought she withered inside, but she kept on jogging down the back alleys toward the river. It had taken nearly a year but finally someone in the chat rooms she visited had indicated there was hope of finding her birth parents, or at least learning who they were. That person was BJC27, a woman who claimed she had been adopted and had struggle d for years to find her birth parents, both of whom were alive and whom she’d finally, at the age of twenty-seven, met. Though her father still denied that he had sired this daughter, her mother had cried when they’d reconnected and introduced her to her two half brothers. It had been the most profound experience in Bethany Jane’s life and she’d since dedicated her free time to helping others do the same. She and Dani, under the guise of BorninSF0923, had started e-mailing. Bethany Jane was certain she would be able to help her and had been looking into private adoptions in the San Francisco area that took place thirteen years ago. Dani had been suspicious at first, wary of a fraud. She’d even gone so far as to check out BJC27 through her server where, in the user profiles, she’d found Bethany Jane was from Phoenix, single, was in her early forties and was a librarian at a small college. Though Bethany had given her nothing but her first and middle names, Dani had checked her out. She’d gone to the college’s Web site and seen that Bethany Jane Crandall did work at the library. Her picture was included. A Google search brought up several Bethany Jane Crandalls, but this one was linked to the library, a reader’s group, and an organization that was called Birth Writes and was dedicated to working for and with adoptive families. Good enough. The last message Bethany had left BorninSF0923 was to assure Dani that she’d found the names and addresses of her birth parents and was going to send documents of proof over the Internet. Dani couldn’t take a chance on having them sent to the house or even to her friends’ homes, so she’d decided on the cybercafe located on the north end of town. And she was almost there! The smell of the river, a deep, dank odor she’d grown to love, reached her and as she crossed the streets of the town, she caught glimpses of the Columbia rushing steadily westward. Sunlight spangled the ever-moving gray water, catching in the frigid current as it slashed a sharp, swift canyon between the states of Washington and Oregon. Over the years her dad had shown her how to respect the river. He’d taken Dani windsurfing, fishing and boating on the Columbia’s ever-changing surface. They’d ridden horses on the steep ridge overlooking the river’s chasm, they’d pitched a tent near the falls. She felt another sharp pang of guilt. Travis Settler had done everything he could to teach her about living in the wild, taking care of herself and preserving nature. She knew how to man a canoe, hunt with a bow and arrow, track and make a campfire. He’d shown her which plants and grubs were edible, and which were poisonous. All in all, he’d done everything in his power to make her strong and self-sufficient. And how was she repaying him? By lying to him through her teeth! Yet she’d come this far and wasn’t about to turn back. She was too close to the truth. As she passed by a Dumpster behind the Canyon Café, she scared a cat who had been sunning himself. Hissing, the tabby scurried off the top of the large green box and slunk into the adjoining parking lot, where it hid beneath a dirty white van with Arizona plates. Dani probably wouldn’t have noticed that the van was from out of state, except for the game she and her dad had played for years when they took road trips. Each would try to outdo the other, spotting new and different plates as they drove. Hadn’t she seen a van like this across from the school yesterday afternoon? With the cat glowering from beside a back tire, Dani slowed to a walk and shoved the sweat out of her eyes with the back of her wrist. She slipped into the shade of an awning covering an empty loading dock for the hardware store. Quickly, before anyone came through the open back door, she slid off her backpack, unzipped the main compartment, reached in and retrieved her disguise, which she felt she had to use just in case she came across anyone she knew. It wasn’t much, but at a passing glance no one would recognize her. Just in case she messed up and her dad started asking questions. Besides, though she’d never seen anyone spying on her, lately she’d had the weird feeling that she was being watched and followed. She worried that her dad had sensed something was wrong and was tailing her. Which was just stupid. Her guilt eating at her for deceiving him. Shoving those uncomfortable thoughts aside, she put on a tattered Yankees’ baseball cap and oversized gray sweatshirt she’d taken from the school’s lost and found. Next she withdrew a pair of cheap dark sunglasses she’d bought at the drugstore. She completed the outfit with a pair of blue sweatpants that someone had left in the locker room two days earlier. Her shoes would have to do. She wouldn’t change out of her favorite Nikes. Just in case she had to make a quick getaway. Beyond the obvious dishonesty, there was something about her scheme that made her nervous. Probably because she looked like a total dweeb. The fact that she did look so nerdy and overdressed for the hot day might cause someone to notice her more than if she’d just left well enough alone, but she was committed to her plan. She crammed her hair into the cap, drew the bill down over her eyes, slid the sunglasses onto the bridge of her nose and sweltered in the huge, stinky sweatshirt. Then, to make sure she wouldn’t attract attention should her cell phone ring, she turned it off and slipped it into her pocket. So it was now or never! A yellowjacket buzzed around her head and she swiped at it while glancing around to make certain that no one had witnessed her transformation. Her palms were sweating and she bit at her lip, her nerves showing, no doubt, because she’d been lying to everyone she knew. Even to her best friend, Allie Kramer, whom she was supposed to meet after school, right before they got onto their buses. If she made it. Hurry, hurry, hurry! And don’t get wet feet now. Just do it! But the paranoia, a feeling that she was being observed from some hidden window or crevice, remained with her. Dani had resorted to lying to her father on other occasions when she’d thought he was being ridiculously overprotective. Her cell phone had made it so convenient. She was able to call him and tell him she was somewhere she wasn’t, or diffuse any upcoming fight by calling him first and explaining before actually admitting anything face-to-face. Taking a deep breath, she slung the backpack onto one shoulder just as she heard the sound of voices emanating from the open door of the hardware store. And they were getting louder. Someone was definitely coming. Someone who probably knew her and her dad. Crap! She flew off the loading dock and tried not to think about how disappoint