Mac sat on the couch in his living room, his hands supporting his chin. This day did not go anywhere close to how he had imagined. He was supposed to come home from work and have a quiet evening to himself. Bozer was working late, so he wouldn't be back for hours. Mac pulled out his cell phone and scrolled through his contacts. He stopped on one of the names and pressed the call button. The phone rang for a few seconds.
"Mac?" came Jack's voice from the other end.
"Hey. Are you free? I need to talk to you about something."
"Sure thing, buddy. What is this about?"
"It's too complicated to explain over the phone."
"Alright, I can be there in 30 minutes."
Mac contemplated for a second. "Bring Riley if you can."
"Kay, I'll pick her up and head over."
"Thanks, man," Mac hung up and tossed his phone on the couch next to him. He was still trying to digest all the information he had received earlier. The minutes passed by painfully slow as he waited for his friends to get to the house. He grabbed one of the paper clips lying on his desk and began fiddling with it.
He felt a mixture of emotions. He was already angry, but now he was livid, mainly at his father. Another part of him was angry at the woman who showed up on his doorstep. He didn't want to blame her for what happened — it wasn't her fault, but he couldn't help it. She made things so much more complicated with her appearance. There was already so much he had to deal with. On the other hand, he felt terrible for her. Her story was horrifying, and he did want to help her. That cult sounded extremely vicious and dangerous. They had been hunting her down for over a decade, which meant that they would stop at nothing to get to her. Of course, there was a chance that she was lying about everything. He thought back to when she was sitting across from him on the couch, telling him her story. When he looked into her eyes, they seemed genuine and somehow, strangely familiar. He wanted to believe her.
Finally, the front door opened, and Jack and Riley walked in. Mac placed the paperclip, which now resembled a two-barred cross with a ring around it, on the kitchen counter.
"Hey," Mac greeted them. He was relieved to see their faces, but he dreaded explaining the situation.
"What's up?" Jack asked. Mac gestured for them to sit as he took a seat on the couch.
Jack sat across from him, and Riley plopped down in the chair next to him, looking concerned.
"Uhh," he began and paused, pinching the bridge of his nose. "So, something unexpected happened today."
Jack and Riley exchanged worried glances, then looked back at him. He decided to get straight to it. There was no point in dragging it out.
"This girl showed up on my doorstep earlier today, claiming that she is my half-sister," he stated bluntly.
"Say what?" Jack's eyebrows shot up.
"Huh?" Riley's mouth hung open.
"Well, initially she came here looking for my dad. When I asked her who she was, she said that she was his daughter," Jack and Riley looked dumbfounded, and he cleared his throat. "She said she was born 25 years ago. That my dad had an affair with her mom after I was born."
"And you believed her?!" Jack exclaimed.
"Yeah, I mean, did she have any proof?" Riley asked with a doubtful look on her face.
"She had a polaroid of my dad and her mom from when they dated in high school."
"That's it?" Riley scoffed.
"They dated in high school? So what? I dated lots of girls in high school, doesn't mean I had kids with every one of them!" Jack argued, receiving a pointed look from Riley.
"True," Mac agreed. "But I still want to look into it."
"We can ask her to do a DNA test?" Riley offered. "She won't say no if she's telling the truth."
"She better say yes." Jack turned to Mac. "What else did she say?"
Mac exhaled through his nose and contemplated for a few moments, while Jack and Riley stared at him expectedly.
"Come on, man, spill it," Jack demanded, losing his patience.
"She was looking for my dad because she's in trouble," he revealed.
"What kind of trouble? Money trouble?" Jack guessed, and Mac shook his head.
"No," he looked between them and continued. "She said that someone dangerous had been after her for many years now. This man murdered her mom when she was a kid and he's been chasing her ever since."
"Okay, not what I was expecting," Jack responded, shaking his head.
"Who's the guy?" Riley questioned.
"Vincent Lloyd. She said that he's a leader of some religious cult," he said, picking up her drawing from the coffee table. "This is the symbol they use. Apparently, they all have it tattooed on them."
Jack took the paper and raised an eyebrow.
"Seems culty enough," he concluded after analyzing it and passed it to Riley, who nodded in agreement.
"We can look it up?" she suggested, reaching into her bag to retrieve her laptop.
"Hold up," Jack raised his hands in protest. "Let's figure out who this girl is first and if she's even who she says she is."
"Good point," Riley agreed. "What's her name?"
"Phoebe Reed," Mac responded.
"I can run her through the foster care system," Riley said, beginning to type on her laptop.
While she was busy researching, Jack turned to Mac.
"You okay, man?"
"No, not really," Mac confessed. "I mean, my dad disappearing was already a lot to deal with. Now I find out that he potentially cheated on my mom and had another child."
"We don't know this for sure yet," Jack reassured him. "She could be lying."
"Yeah, I know."
"Okay, we have a hit," Riley turned the laptop so that Mac could see the screen. "Is this her?"
A slightly younger version of the same girl he'd met earlier, with long brown hair and grey eyes, was staring back at him.
"Yeah, that's her," he confirmed.
"It says that she was placed in foster care at 13 after her mother, Evie Reed, had committed suicide," she read and cocked an eyebrow at Mac.
"She told me that the cops ruled it as suicide, but she's sure that it was Vincent," Mac explained, receiving skeptical looks from both of them.
"How did she die?" Jack questioned.
"It says she shot herself in the head."
"Okay. Could be murder," Jack rationalized. "What else does it say?"
"She's gone through a bunch of foster homes," Riley continued. "She ran away a lot."
"She said she ran away because she was trying to stay off the radar," Mac recalled.
"Makes sense," Jack shrugged. "Anything else?"
Riley read through the record and hesitated. "Uhh…"
"What?" Mac demanded.
"I don't think that we should—" she began, but Jack snatched the laptop from her.
"Lemme see."
"Hey, hands off my stuff!" Riley protested, attempting to take it back, but Jack moved it out of her reach. He quickly searched the document for the info that Riley didn't want to read out loud.
"She was admitted to a psych ward!" Jack exclaimed. "There you go, the chick's looney tunes," He concluded.
"Keep reading, genius," Riley bit back.
Jack turned his gaze back to the text.
"Oh," he faltered.
What is it?" Mac questioned, growing impatient. Riley got up and grabbed her laptop from Jack, who suddenly looked uncomfortable.
"Causes for admission: Severe depression, self-harm, and attempted suicide."
The three of them fell silent for a few moments.
"She didn't mention that part," Mac sighed, rubbing the back of his head.
"Yeah, because it's private information," Riley retorted, glaring at Jack.
"I'm sorry, okay?" Jack apologized, feeling guilty. "It's just that we don't know anything about this girl, and she's making all kinds of wild claims. We need to figure out exactly who she is and if she's telling the truth."
"Everything seems to add up with what she'd said so far," Mac stated. "Let's look up the police report on her mom's death."
Riley sat back down and started typing again.
"Huh," she piped up, and the two turned to look at her.
"What?" Jack asked.
"The crime scene photos show that her mom had the same cross tattoo on her arm," she said, holding up Phoebe's drawing. She turned the laptop to face them, and they walked up to look at the screen.
The image showed a closeup of a woman's forearm, with a tattoo of a double-barred cross surrounded by a ring of fire.
"Does what's-her-name have it too?" Jack asked, turning to Mac.
"No," he shook his head, "she got it removed."
"Okay, so they had matching tattoos. That still doesn't prove anything," Jack argued.
Mac thought back to what Phoebe had told him earlier.
"She said that someone tried to break into her apartment and she was convinced they were part of the cult," he recalled.
"Did she call the police?" Jack asked.
"Yeah, he was arrested, but he wouldn't speak to them. He ended up hanging himself in his cell that night."
"If she filed a police report, I should be able to find it," Riley stated. "Where was this?"
"Colorado."
"Alright," she said and started typing away again. After some time, Riley was able to find what they were looking for. The autopsy photos confirmed that the man had the cross tattoo on his arm. Riley ran his picture through the system, but he had no previous criminal record.
"It looks like he was a middle school teacher 10 years prior to this. His wife died, and he went off the grid after that."
"If he joined the cult, that would explain why there are no other records of him," Mac rationalized.
Suddenly, the front door opened, and they turned their heads.
Hey gang, what's going on?" Bozer greeted them.
"Just work stuff," Mac said quickly. "We can finish this tomorrow," he said, turning to Riley and Jack.
"I'll do more research and see if I can find anything else." Riley packed her laptop into her backpack and stood up.
"You guys leaving already?" Bozer asked, looking disappointed.
"Sorry Boze, we have an early day tomorrow," Riley said, apologetically.
"I'll see you guys later," Mac said, walking them to the door. "Thanks for helping me with... the thing."
Jack paused, putting his hand on Mac's shoulder. "Hang in there, okay? We'll get to the bottom of this," he reassured him before they exited the house.
"What's that about?" Bozer asked once they were gone. Mac wished that he could tell him, but there was no way to explain the situation without compromising his cover.
"Just having some troubles at the Think Tank," he forced a small smile. "Nothing crazy though."
"Okay then." Bozer looked confused but didn't press further.
Mac lay in bed for hours, thinking about the events that took place that day. He needed to call Phoebe tomorrow and ask her to come in again, provide more information about the cult, and take the DNA test to confirm that she was, in fact, his sister. He felt awkward asking her to do this, but there was no way around it. He couldn't rest until he knew the truth about everything.