*big group hug for all the reviewers* Thank you :)

And today, John is determined to find out more about Clara's mysterious twin...

Chapter 19

The dial tone resounded in his ear and it seemed like an eternity passed before someone on the other end picked up at last. John Smith had never been the most patient person, especially not when the news he was going to deliver would be bad. And this time, they were incredibly bad and he would like to get it over with. Then there was a click on the other end of the line, followed by a careful, male voice.

"Hello? David Oswald speaking?"

John cleared his throat. "Good morning," he said. "This is Detective Inspector John Smith from the Police Department in Kirkwall."

"Did something happen to Clara?!" The panic was immediately audible in his voice and he knew that even though they might not be in frequent contact, David Oswald cared about his daughter. "Is she alright?"

"Miss Oswald is perfectly fine, no worries," John reassured him. "I'm not calling about her, but I'm afraid I don't exactly have good news."

Clara's father hesitated on the other end and he sounded cautious when he proceeded. "Um, what is it about? She's not in any kind of trouble, is she?"

"It's not about Clara," he repeated. "It's about your other daughter."

Another pause. John waited as patiently as he could for David Oswald to continued.

"Does Clara know about her?" he wanted to know, a weariness in his voice that told John he had seen it coming. And he must have. Another daughter was a secret you could only keep for so long.

"I told her yesterday," John confirmed in a calm manner. "I had to tell her. We found the body of a young woman washed up on the coast. I'm afraid there is no doubt that it's Clara's sister. Your daughter."

At first, all John could hear was how David Oswald exhaled sharply as if he didn't know what to say.

"I'm sorry," he said sincerely. "I know it's probably not what you expected to hear."

"I, uh, I thought about her occasionally. I suppose that's natural," Clara's father replied gravely. "Even after three decades, you wonder what she's up to, how she's doing, if she's happy. But I didn't expect this, no."

"We need your help, Mr Oswald," John said. He knew that the timing was bad, that the father would need his time to grieve, but the police department had a job to do. "I know it's a shock, but it would help if you could answer some questions."

It was audible when David Oswald sucked his breath in between his teeth. "Of course, anything you want, but I also have questions. How did she-"

"We don't know how she died, not exactly. That's what we're trying to figure out with your help. It could have been an accident or not, but so far, we don't even know her name. What happened after she and Clara were born?"

Again, it took Clara's father a while to respond. "Ellie and I were very young when we met, too young, but we loved each other. When she got pregnant, we knew it would be tough. My job wasn't paying that well at the time and Ellie was still at university, but we were determined to keep the baby and make it work. Then they told us that it was twins."

"And you decided to give one up for adoption?" John enquired.

"We discussed it for a long time," David Oswald admitted. "We wanted to keep both, but we figured that one was already more than we could handle. When we met with a social worker for an informal talk, she reassured us that she understood and that they would make sure the baby was given to a good family. It seemed like the most sensible choice for everyone."

"Don't worry, Mr Oswald, it does sound like you made the reasonable decision."

"Does it?" he barked. "Maybe if we had kept her, she'd still be alive."

John sighed and hoped that David Oswald couldn't hear. People blaming themselves for a tragedy was something he was very familiar with, something he himself had gone through once. "You shouldn't think like that," he said instead. "It can happen to anyone at any given time, but we need to find out what happened to her after you gave her up to understand why she died. Do you still have the papers for the adoption?"

"Of course," David Oswald replied immediately. "It was a church thing, I think. We followed the recommendation of Ellie's doctor and he put us in contact with a Catholic charity in Blackpool. I can fax you all the papers if you think that would help."

"That would be very helpful. Thank you, Mr Oswald," John said sincerely.

After the phone call ended, John stared at the fax machine that had gathered some dust under his predecessor in this office as he waited for the documents to arrive. There was one thing that eased his worry, however, because at last, he seemed to have found a reasonable explanation for the note in Jane Doe's pocket. It was a theory, of course, but a good one. What if Jane Doe had known or found out about the adoption and started looking into her biological family? It seemed like a natural thing to seek out a twin sister after learning of her existence. What if Jane Doe had come to Scotland, Clara's address in her pocket, in the hopes of connecting with her birth family and her sister? It made sense and it explained her presence as well as the note without incriminating Clara, who hadn't even known about the twin until yesterday.

Yet what had led to her death? If Jane Doe had come here to find her sister, Kate's theory of a suicide made a little less sense because why would she end her own life before getting what she had come here for? An accident seemed likely, but that didn't explain the other strange goings-on with the journalist and the break-in at Clara's house. Was it nothing but a weird coincidence? Or were the events connected in a way John could not yet comprehend?

Suddenly, the fax machine sprang into life and started spitting out page after page that John hurried to gather up in the right order which was proving a little difficult because he was quite eager to read them as they arrived. When the machine finally stopped, he had the chance to take a look and it confirmed what David Oswald had already told him: that a Catholic charity had overseen the adoption and a priest named Douglas Henley had handled the process. If he was still alive, that man would be able to tell John what had happened to Jane Doe after leaving Blackpool, but even if not, the charity would still have the remaining paperwork and her secrets would be uncovered. Somehow, John was going to figure it out, he was certain of it. He was ready to reach for the phone and inquire about Douglas Henley until he remembered that there was something else he needed to do first. Kate Stewart was still his boss and he guessed that she would want to be informed about the developments.