She looked around for Danny again, then slid the report from the envelope. “Sample number one: from the head area of an adult female, probably Caucasian. Brunette in color, shoulder length, chemical analysis indicates the presence of a colorant. A few of the hairs still had intact roots, so serology was able to get a DNA sample.”

“Good. What did the profile show?”

“Nothing. There’s no connection between this hair and the bodies we’ve recovered so far—at least through the maternal line. C’mon, Nick, tell me—whose hair is this, anyway?”

“Victoria Braden’s. I took it from a hairbrush in her husband’s bathroom.”

Kegan’s mouth dropped open. “Victoria Braden colors her hair?”

“Would you try to focus here?”

“Then the other sample—that’s from Senator Braden?”

Nick nodded.

“Why don’t you want Danny to know about this?”

“Are you kidding? Danny had a cow when I stopped by to see the Bradens—what would he do if he knew I was having their DNA tested?”

“But you asked the Bradens about this place, and they said they knew nothing about it. You told me you believed them.”

“I do. But there could be some connection in their pasts that they don’t even know about—or they could be very good liars. Hey, they’re politicians— they’ve had a lot of practice. What did the senator’s test show?”

“The same thing—no connection, at least along maternal lines.”

“What about the other test I asked for—the one to determine their haplogroup?”

“Why did you order that test? How does it help us to know the Bradens’ ethnic backgrounds?”

“I’m not sure yet. What did the tests show?”

She checked the report. “They tested for the four major historical population groups: Indo-European, Sub-Saharan African, East Asian, and Native American. According to his DNA, Senator Braden’s ancestors were pure Indo-European. Isn’t that what you’d expect? Wasn’t his family at Jamestown?”

“What about Mrs. Braden?”

Kegan looked. “This is interesting: Markers on Mrs. Braden’s DNA show a mix of Indo-European, African, and Native American ancestry.”

Nick arched one eyebrow. “That is interesting.”

Kegan slipped the reports back into the envelope and looked at him. “Nick, you know that haplogrouping is controversial—it borders on ethnic profiling. Why do you care about this?”

“I don’t. Personally, I come from a long line of horse thieves and swindlers; the Polchaks don’t have a genealogy, we have a rap sheet. I don’t give a rip about ethnic background, Kegan—but the Bradens do. Victoria Braden said something that I found very interesting: She said that good breeding is all about appearance. That’s all I’m trying to do here—separate appearance from reality.”

“You need to be very careful with this,” Kegan said. “Ancestry may not matter to you, but it does to some people.”

“It’ll be our little secret.”

“What about Danny?”