Inevitably, the primary topic of conversation over lunch centred around my allegation regarding the Katki template. I could see that my companions believed me, and with a daughter that fell into the Katki category, Seren and Peter made it clear that they were even more determined to support my investigation and help in any way they could.

As we were finishing and starting to tidy away the crockery, we heard a knock on their front door. Clearly not expecting anyone, our hosts gave each other a perplexed look.

"I'll get it," Peter stated, standing up and pulling the dining room door so that it was left ajar.

Resuming our task, we continued transferring the used cutlery and serving spoons into the kitchen. Shortly afterwards, we could hear male voices and laughter emanating from the lounge.

"That sounds like Dominic's voice," Seren whispered nodding towards the door. "I don't know how long he'll stay for. What do you want to do? I'm sure we could pass Tobi off as a civilian if you like?"

I shook my head.

"The fewer people that recognise him in any given situation, the better," I replied in equally hushed tones. "We'll wait out here for a while, and if he doesn't show signs of leaving, we'll just slip out the back and go home."

"Are you sure, Matty?" Seren asked.

It was nice that she wanted to ensure we were all right, but Tobi and I had already monopolised the couple's time that morning, and I wasn't intending to stay for the whole afternoon anyway.

"Yes of course," I smiled back.

Meanwhile, it appeared that Tobi's curiosity had already piqued, as he'd been peering with one eye through the tiny gap that had been left in the slightly open door. His concerned expression told me that something was on his mind.

"Tobi, what's up?" I asked, touching his arm gently to try to offer some comfort, as Seren resumed clearing away lunch.

"That man," he replied softly, visibly shaken. "He's the one I was telling you about. The one that was watching when Doug and I did the gardening at the Kinnisvara."

"Dominic?" I asked quietly, squeezing in next to Tobi so that I could join him.

Peeking through the aperture, I observed the eldest son of the Andekas family standing in the lounge, happily chatting to Peter.

And then, as I studied Dominic's behaviour more closely, I saw it. The way the smaller man looked at the more muscular one – it was the same way I'd seen Tobi look at me.

Desire had been right there in Dominic's hazel eyes, right in front of us all this time, and we'd all missed it. The reason the eldest son of the great house was so enamoured with Peter was now staring at me so obviously that I wondered how I could have been so unaware of it before.

Blood drained from my face and my heart hammered faster in my chest as I breathed out my realisation.

"He's Katki."

The porcelain angel snapped his head round to face me, evidently shocked at my implication.

"He can't be Katki," he whispered back. "He'd be given the Ravim and taken to the Mart if he was."

But the more I looked at Dominic – the longing in his gaze and way he tilted his head and smiled whenever my burly blond friend spoke – the clearer it became, along with the reason a member of the Andekas family would make the effort to watch a stalwart Katki doing something as mundane as gardening.

I shook my head.

"You said that Doug was quite muscular?" I probed. "Like Peter?" I added, nodding in Peter's direction.

"That's right," Tobi confirmed.

"Dominic's Katki," I repeated, more confidently this time.

"Then how is he walking around freely?" demanded the platinum blond.

"Good question," I acknowledged. "Maybe he's close to the borderline, like me."

"You can look that up on your computer, can't you?" Tobi probed softly.

"I could," I confirmed. "But given that he's a member of the Andekas family, and assuming my theory about all of this is correct, then it's possible we can't rely on the information held in the laboratory when it comes to one of their own."

"Then how do we find out for sure whether you're right?" asked Tobi.

"We need proof," I mused. "All we have right now is speculation. Circumstantial evidence. I'd be very interested in testing his genetic sequence against the Katki template."

"I remember you taking my blood to test mine," Tobi recollected. "But we can't just ask Dominic Andekas for a blood sample."

"You're right," I concurred. "Blood is the easiest thing to test, but I can use anything that contains his DNA. It would be more difficult, but I can always use a fingernail or an eyelash ... or a hair."

My speech slowed down as my eyes drifted to the tip of the comb that was poking out of the top of the brunette's pocket. Those coarse, wiry curls on top of his head were likely to be difficult to brush through, and some residual loose hairs were bound to have been deposited on its teeth.

I couldn't let this opportunity pass, especially since I didn't know when I might get another.

I turned to my pregnant friend.

"Seren," I hissed across to her, getting her attention so that she strolled over to us. "Dominic carries a comb in his pocket," I continued quietly, indicating what I meant through the gap in the door before stepping back so that she could see what I was referring to.

"I see it," she nodded, looking up at me. "So what?"

"Do you think you can get it for me?" I asked her with a wide grin.

"Why on earth would you want Dominic's comb?" she whispered, looking bewildered.

"Testing a theory," I replied, still smiling broadly. "Do you think you can do it? Pretty please?"

Seren rolled her eyes amiably.

"Sometimes I wonder what goes on inside that head of yours," she chastised in a hushed voice, before turning her attention back to the men standing in her lounge. "All right. Wish me luck," she added, slipping through the door and striding confidently up to her husband and their unexpected guest.

Smiling sweetly, she offered them both some herbal tea. Tobi and I watched in anticipation through the tiny crack as her hand slid deftly into the very tip of Dominic's pocket and plucked out his comb, while indicating with her other hand that he may be more comfortable if he took a seat. Although Dominic predictably refused the tea, the gesture towards the seat worked as desired, and Seren was able to manoeuvre the comb so that she could tuck it away out of his sight while his eyes were averted to the nearby chair.

Sauntering gracefully back towards the dining room, Seren drifted casually back through the door and pushed it closed behind her.

"Whatever it is you're up to, Matty, I hope it's good," she breathed, handing me the stolen implement.

"You're a star," I whispered to her when I saw the bristly hairs trapped between the teeth.

Wrapping it carefully in a napkin and pushing it deep into my own pocket, I kissed Seren on the cheek.

"Thank you," I told her sincerely. "I'll let you know if I find anything useful out from this."

Tobi and I disappeared out of the back door with a parting smile for my friend, and cycled home.

"You really think he's Katki?" asked Tobi as we stepped indoors and removed our shoes, Tiger meowing round our feet as always.

"Yeah," I nodded. "He definitely seems to be into Peter, so it's a good opportunity to find out whether my hypothesis about this whole thing is on the right track."

I used part of my lunch break on Monday morning to test the hair samples I'd picked out of Dominic's comb with a pair of tweezers. The process took up more time than it would have done if I'd been using a blood sample, but thankfully, it was manageable with the equipment I had available to me in the laboratory. Carefully sealing the leftover hair in a small vial, I labelled it 'D. A. sample' and pocketed it to take home and put in the same hidden compartment in my drawer that contained my journal.

Comparing the genetic sequence that I obtained from Dominic's hair sample with the Katki template revealed an eighty-nine percent correlation. Excitement mixed with trepidation inside me as I considered the implications of my discovery.

Regardless of what the template represented, I now had evidence that Dominic Andekas was Katki and had somehow escaped the same fate as many others like him. If I then incorporated everything that Tobi had recounted to me, in addition to my own observations about the way Dominic behaved around Peter, I felt there was further data to support my hypothesis about the type of people the Katki template was segregating. I made a mental note to journal my findings when I got home.

The next thing I needed to investigate was how Dominic had evaded the system, so I tidied up the pipettes and test tubes, cleaning them thoroughly before positioning myself in front of the computer. After logging myself in, I looked up the details of Dominic's Katki test, and found that he'd been recorded as having a twenty-two percent match to the template.

As I suspected might be the case, somebody must have falsified his results.

I made a note of the name of the person that had documented the outcome of the test – a Dr Harold Stone. I'd certainly never heard of him, but then the entry had been made over twenty years ago, so there was always going to be a high probability that the doctor that entered Dominic's result no longer worked here.

My mind started swimming in questions. Did Dominic know about any of this? Did Dr Stone falsify the test result because he didn't want to be seen to condemn one of the Andekas family to the life of a Katki, or was he under duress? I wanted to ask Dr Stone so many things, but how could I find this man? Was he even still alive?

Knowing that my father had worked in this laboratory since I was born, I suspected he might at least have heard of the doctor in question.

So, after our lunch break was over and we were alone for the afternoon, I decided to fish for information.

"Dr Harold Stone," I mused loudly as I stood next to the computer, ensuring I could be heard.

"There's a name I haven't heard for a very long time," my father turned and smiled at me. "Where did that come from?"

"I pushed the wrong button," I replied innocuously, waving nonchalantly towards the screen. "The name came up against a couple of old records and I didn't recognise it. You knew him?"

"He used to work here before you were born," my father reminisced. "He was nice. I remember I used to be a little bit intimidated by him because he was a bit older than me and was very knowledgeable. He got some kind of commendation from the Andekas and took early retirement, if I remember rightly."

"He must have been good at his job," I commented, pleased that he was opening up so unreservedly. "I hope he ended up retiring somewhere nice."

"I think he ended up living on one of the cliffs overlooking the ocean near Rannik," my father nodded. "Nice views over that way, so I suspect he's enjoying it, assuming he's still with us."

"Sounds like an ideal retirement to me," I smiled and returned to my work.

That evening I returned home to Tobi armed with much more information than I was expecting from a hair sample. The porcelain angel greeted me as I stepped inside, and, realising how much I'd missed him, I wrapped him in a tight embrace and kissed his lips gently.

"Something smells good," I noted, nodding towards the kitchen where the culinary aroma was no doubt originating.

"I made us a stew," he declared as my lips worked my way down his neck. "You're in a good mood," he added with a giggle as I worked my way back up to his ear. "I'm guessing you got some information on Dominic?"

"I did," I replied, coming up for air. "I'm feeling more confident about what the template represents after testing Dominic's genetic sequence. There's no doubt he's Katki, and the results logged in the computer system under his name are spurious."

"So, what next?" asked Tobi.

"Well, I'm hoping you'll sort out dinner," I teased, pulling him flush against me and pecking him on the lips.

Wriggling free but still smiling, he slapped me lightly across the arm and stepped back.

"I meant about the whole investigation thing," he clarified, although I was already aware of what he meant.

"I know," I grinned as we started heading towards the kitchen. "I'm going to write my findings up in my journal and put the remaining hair sample with it. And then ... how do you feel about a trip to Rannik this weekend?"