Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3 ...

Is this a long lost Hickmott relative?

Say it ain't so!

Needless to say, Clark and I were shocked when Jeff spilled the beans about there being possible Henri Petit blood coursing through his veins.

"My God!" Clark gushed, his face slowly flushing with want. You could see a slow burn developing behind Clark's eyes; he wanted to pick Jeff up right there and then and do this:

Typical ...

"Hold on! Hold on!" I pointed at Clark knowingly and he caught my gist. There would be no tossing of a fellow Unbelievable out a window. "They're just pictures, not proof of anything. You say your mum has no clue about those photos? Who they are? How they got there? For all we know this could be some Petit plot to undermine the good Hickmott name, the little rat bastard!"

Jeff shrugged. "Well ... it's got me thinking. We have to find out ..."

"Agreed. Let's head down to the Stiletto Flats Police Department. Remember Chad Brailley, the forensics guy down there? He can run some tests and get to the bottom of this. He owes me a favor or two, anyway ..."

Chad Brailley: Brilliant forensic scientist ... but nerdy as all get out

In a secure room with the four of us sitting around a table, we explained the situation to Chad.

"Simple. A little blood work from Jeff and we can do some comparisons. It's not like I don't have tons of Petit samples courtesy of Clark's proclivities to fling him out a window. We'll get to the bottom of this and I'll call you with the results. I should have some definitive answers shortly, maybe even as early as this afternoon ..." Chad disclosed. 

With nothing but time on our hands, we went to lunch. Back at the Unbelieva-Base a few hours later, Clark came up with a more direct method than just sitting around biding our time. "Why don't I just head over to Petit's and throttle some information out of the little twit? It has been a while since I've given him grief."

The phone rang and I got up to answer it. "Let's just hold tight and see what Chad comes up with first," I said while lifting the receiver. "Hello?"

It was Chad. "Michael? Put me on speaker ..." I punched a button on the phone so everyone could hear.

"Guys? I know how important this was so I put a priority on things. It's worse than I thought."

Jeff's eyes went wide. Clark and I exchanged looks. "What is it, Chad? Lay it on the line," Jeff said impatiently.

Chad hesitated briefly. "Listen, Jeff ... you better sit down* ..."

(... to be continued ...)

*It's not what you expect!