Chapter 2 - Investigating

Saturday evening
Schonke residence
"Harmon, welcome. Good to see you," Mr Schonke welcomed him warmly. From out of the kitchen Mrs. Schonke appeared, a smile on her face. She carried a tray with coffee and cookies.
Mr. Schonke showed Harm into the living and his wife poured coffee.
The first fifteen minutes were spent catching up, but then the older man asked "Well, Harmon, you must have a reason to ask for us to meet you."
"I have. I told you about Mac but I left one thing out: Mac and Diane look very much alike. In fact, so much they could have been identical twins."
The older couple gasped.
"She does?"
"Yes."
There was silence for a moment
"Do you have pictures?" Mrs Schonke asked. There was a longing sound in her voice Harm didn't understand.
"Yes." He took his briefcase, produced tree pictures of Mac and handed them to the woman She studied them intensely, stroking them with a forefinger.
"This is how she might have looked now, our Diane," she sighed. Her man was emotional, too and Harm gave them time to recover.
Finally she gave the photos back to Harm who put them in his briefcase again.
"Right," Mr. Schonke resumed. "I guess this is important, your Mac and our Diane looking like twin sisters. But I don't understand …"
"About six weeks ago Mac had a visitor, a young woman, about 19 years old. Her name was Lacey McKinneck. She told us she was adopted as a baby and claimed to be Mac's daughter. She had several documents and photo's with her to 'proof' her claim."
Mrs Schonke paled and grabbed her husband's hand, holding on for dear life. The older man's face was tensed, like he was facing a blow he couldn't avoid.
"Mac assured her she never had a child but the Lacey refused to believe her. So there was a DNA test which proved clearly Lacey is not related to Mac. Nevertheless they could be mother and daughter. Mac has moved a lot and not many mementoes of her youth survived but she has some pictures, taken at the same age Lacey is now. They look very much alike and it's easy to understand why Lacey thought Mac is her birthmother. Lacey has gone through a tough time. Her adoptive mum died three years ago of cancer and she and her father don't get along. Apparently it was always more her mother's wish to adopt. Now her investigation hits a dead end she is devastated."
"So since Diane and Mac look the same as well you are here now to ask …"
"Yes. I'm here to ask if it's possible that this young lady is related to your family."
Abruptly Mrs. Schonke stood up and walked out of the room. Her husband hesitated whether to follow her, then thought different and turned to Harm.
"You're right. That young lady could very well be our grandchild." He leaned back in his chair, taking a moment.
"Diane was fifteen. It was rape, a date rape. The Pachners were friends of ours and their son seventeen year old Jeffrey a friend of Diane. Diane had a crush on him and they had dated a few times. Just innocent things, like going out for a movie and ice-cream or roller-skating. It happened after a birthday party of one of their friends." He stood and walked over to the side table and poured himself a drink. Questioning he held the bottle up to Harm but Harm shook his head in refusal.
"In the days after that party Diane became alternating moody and withdrawn. We asked her what was wrong, but she told us nothing was. To be honest, we thought adolescent behaviour and since we ourselves were going through a tough time ourselves we … I think you can say we chose to believe her and closed our eyes for the truth. It was only four months later when she started to show we found out."
"Did you go to court?" Harm wanted to know.
"No. Diane didn't want to. She became hysteric when we suggested going to the police. She was terrified everyone would blame her and call her a slut." He took another gulp.
"I have to say the Pachners couldn't have reacted more understanding and cooperative. They believed us and as soon as we told, they asked what they could do. Jeffrey was sent into counselling. He honestly had thought Diane wanted it, too. As I said, they dated. I don't want to trivialize of excuse his behaviour but he had one drink too many and misread the signals. He was devastated when he realised what he had done. He came over and begged for forgiveness, but Diane didn't want to see him."
"What happened next?"
"We discussed abortion but 'luckily', I have to say, it was too late for that. Neither we nor the Pachners were in favour of abortion, although had Diane wanted to abort the baby, we would have allowed. Instead she decided she wanted to give it up for adoption. We offered to keep the baby and take care of him or her - after all, it was our grandchild - and the Pachners did the same. But she was determined to give up the baby, preferably to a family in another state. She didn't want to …"
"To run into the baby and its new family?"
"Exactly. The adoption was arranged by a small lawyers office. All legal. The Pachners paid for it all. As I said, we were struggling at that time and one of the reasons was that my business was doing poorly. I was at risk to go bankrupt and the stress had its effects on our marriage. I don't know whether I would have been able to pay for the medical care and counselling Diane needed. They also paid the legal fees, only demanding their son's name would be on the birth certificate so the baby would be able to find them, would she or he go and look for his birth family." He ran his hand over his face.
"In hindsight, the care for our daughter saved our marriage. It made us get our priorities straight again. After the baby was born, it was adopted right away. We never saw it, only knew it was a girl."
"Do the Pachners still live here?"
"No, they moved to Missouri a few months later. A cousin of hers is still living in the neighbourhood, though. I guess I can get their address."
"That would be nice. We will have to do some DNA testing and I want that done before we tell Lacey. As I said, she was devastated when she found out Mac wasn't her birthmother and now we have to tell her her real birthmother has died. She is fragile; we have to proceed with care. If you can't get the Pachner's address, I think Bud can."
"Bud?"
"Bud Roberts is a co-worker and friend of ours, very skilled with computers and he has access to databases the general public hasn't."
Now Mrs. Schonke entered the room again. She had a folder in her hand and clearly had been crying.
"You told the whole story?" she asked her man, who nodded affirmatively.
"I'm sorry," she apologised to Harm. "It's still a raw spot in our hearts and I couldn't bring myself to listen to the story all over."
"Don't worry," Harm smiled. "I understand."
Mrs. Schonke handed him the folder. "These are the papers of the adoption," she told him. "Maybe they help you."
Harm took and quickly scanned them. Then he grabbed his own folder with the paperwork Lacey had provided them with and compared.
"They match," he declared "Except Lacey's copy with the names of the birth parents was altered. The names were blackened out. I guess her parents didn't want her to know or they never knew themselves. Although her father didn't want to adopt, Lacey told us he is not happy with her searching for her birthparents either."
"What's happening next?" Mr. Schonke wanted to know.
"I like you to give a DNA sample. Lacey is already tested so it shouldn't take long to find out whether she is your granddaughter. If you can find out where the Pachners live now I will contact them with the same question."
" I'll do that right away," Mr. Schonke decided, phone already in his hand. He talked with the man at the other side of the line for a few minutes before laying the receiver down again.
"He will go and find the address and will call back in a few minutes," he told Harm. "In the meantime, let's have a drink."
True to his word the cousin rang back within ten minutes and provided Mr. Schonke with the wanted address which Harm wrote down.
"This week I'll contact the Pachners. Do I have your permission to give them your contact details, in case they want to know more?"
"Off course."
"When do we have to give our DNA samples?" his wife wanted to know.
"You can do that now. I have cotton sticks."
"We will. When will the results be in?"
"That will take 2-3 weeks."

It took a bit more to convince Mr Pachner. Only when Harm told them they could contact Mr and Mrs Schonke, the man reluctantly agreed to a see Harm. Since Mr Pachner had to be in Washington a week later, they scheduled a meeting.
So a week later Harm walked into the café they had agreed on meeting in.
Sensing he had to be to the point Harm quickly gave him a summary of the events.
Mr Pachner nodded slowly. "You have to understand, it was a black period in our and Jeffrey's life. To learn your son is capable of raping his girlfriend. We did our best to make good on what he did but we understood Diane's point of view. For her sake we moved shortly after the baby was born and built up a new life somewhere else." The waiter approached with coffee and he went silent. The men drank their coffee and Harm waited for Mr Pachner to start talking again.
"You might know we offered to take the baby in?"
"Yes. And I also know you paid for Dianna's care and the legal costs."
"How is she now?"
"Sir, I'm sorry I have to tell you but Diane is dead."
The other man gasped. "Dead? Why? How? An accident? Or was she ill?"
"She was murdered, about five years ago."
The shock was clearly visible on the man's face. Harm beckoned the waiter for a second round of coffee and gave Mr Pachner time to recover.
"What happened? And what is your connection with Diane?"
"Diane and I met at the U.S. Naval Academy. We became good friends. Just friends. More intimate relations are not allowed at the Academy. Next to that, we were not sure about it; the chemistry didn't seem right. After we graduated we were sent to different places. But we stayed in touch, mostly by letters. In June 1996 her ship was due to be back in port and we had a date scheduled. We were to discuss whether to bring our relation to the next level or stay just friends, but it didn't happen. When I arrived she wasn't there and the next day her body was found."
"Did they find the killer?"
"Yes, eventually. At first I was the main suspect but I was able to prove my innocence. At that time the investigation hit a dead end. It wasn't until I reread her letters that I realised who the real killer was. I went to arrest him …" He waited a moment. 'Not really arrest him', he thought. At that time he had been ready to kill the man.
"Mac went after me and, having been soaked by the rain she borrowed a uniform from a friend. A Navy uniform instead of a Marine's. I told you Diane and Mac look very much alike. The murderer thought Diane's ghost had come back to haunt him and in his fear he backed off and fell between the quay and the ship. He was crushed to death."
The men were silent for a while until Mr Pachner asked "What's next?"
"Sir, I hope your son is willing to cooperate to a DNA-test. Just to be sure. Then we will tell Lacey about her birthparents. As careful as possible; she is in a fragile state."
"I already talked to Jeffrey; he is fully cooperating. But Lacey? Fragile, you said?"
Harm shared whatever he knew.
"If she wants, and is ready for it, we will be happy to welcome her into our family. But we won't put any pressure on her; it's all up to her."
He reached for his briefcase and handed Harm an envelope. When Harm opened it he found a tube with a cotton stick."
"My son's DNA," Mr Pachner stated simply.