The P.I. Contest. C.J. Carmichael
recently Boeing 777s. But I’ve retired.”
“So you want to shift from flying planes to private investigating?”
He nodded, as if it were the most usual career path anyone could imagine. “And I hear you used to work for the NYPD?”
“That’s right.” He had to realize how unmatched their qualifications were, but he didn’t look worried in the least.
She had to admit, the guy had balls.
Lindsay flew back into the room then, with a young woman in tow.
“I’d like you to meet Hannah Young.” Lindsay made her way around the room with introductions, then pulled out a chair for Hannah.
Kate took careful stock of the new client, who looked to be in her mid-twenties. Hannah was an attractive woman, dressed in a cheaply tailored skirt and blazer. She was a little hesitant about making eye contact, but her smile was pleasant. Her jewelry was silver—modest studs in her ears and a collection of rings on various fingers. The one on her wedding finger had a tiny diamond.
“Hannah and her husband are hoping to start a family,” Lindsay began. She kept talking, but suddenly Kate couldn’t focus.
Hannah was at least five years younger than she was, and here she was, married and about to have babies. Kate couldn’t help but feel a deep, illogical jealousy.
If her relationship with Conner had worked out, if he had been the man she’d thought he was, she would have been in Hannah’s position soon. Trying to get pregnant. Planning her maternity leave.
Now her dream of children seemed totally out of reach. She’d always thought she would have her first baby at thirty and she was already thirty-two.
Worst of all, the very idea of dating someone new was enough to make her ill.
“So what do you think?” Hannah asked. “Can your firm help us?”
To her dismay, Kate realized she’d lost focus and had no clue what the client wanted from Fox & Fisher. Fortunately Lindsay stepped in with an answer that summarized the client’s needs.
“You want us to find your biological father so you can make sure there are no genetic problems in your family tree before you try to have a baby. No problem. We’ve handled this sort of case many times, haven’t we, Nathan?”
“Absolutely,” he said. “I assume you’ve never tried to find your real parents?”
“No. As far as I’m concerned, I already have real parents. My mom and dad are wonderful and if it wasn’t for Jeremy and his worries, I probably would never have been interested in tracing my biological mother and father.”
“Where is your husband right now?” Kate asked. If he was so concerned about his future baby’s DNA, then why wasn’t he at this meeting?
“He wanted to come,” Hannah said, as if reading her mind, “except his boss is a real jerk about giving time off.”
“What do you have to go on?” Kate asked. “Are your biological parents listed on your birth certificate? Have your adoptive parents given you the name of the adoption agency they used?”
Hannah seemed overwhelmed by the questions. She turned to Lindsay, who answered for her.
“Hannah’s already located her birth mother. They’ve met and everything checked out fine with that side of the family. The problem is locating the father.”
“My birth mom got pregnant in her first term at college. Her parents had been really strict and as soon as she was out of the house, she went kind of wild.” Hannah opened the big leather bag she’d been carrying and pulled out a yearbook from New England College. There were three yellow markers in the book and Hannah flipped pages to the first one.
“James Morgan was a guy Mom met during frosh week. He was studying business. She thinks.”
She flipped to the next yellow tab. “Gary Gifford was on the football team, and finally…” She flipped more pages, to the last picture, a slight boy with protruding ears. “Oliver Crane was in her English 101 class. My real dad could be any one of these guys.”
Three possibilities. Okay. “I’m assuming your mother didn’t keep in touch with any of them?”
“No. She didn’t see the point because she wasn’t keeping the baby. Plus she was worried one of them would try to talk her out of her decision. Which wasn’t very likely if you ask me. I mean, imagine you’re a young guy in his first year of college. If you made a girl pregnant after a one-night stand, wouldn’t you appreciate it if she handled the problem on her own?”
It wasn’t fair, Kate thought, but Hannah was probably right.
“So—” Lindsay patted the yearbook “—we know where these guys were twenty-four years ago, but after that—nada. We’re starting from scratch. First we need to locate these three men, then convince them to let us test their DNA for a match to Hannah’s.”
“We could get lucky and get a match on the first try,” Nathan said. “Or, we could end up spending weeks and weeks on this.”
“Which would add up to a bill that Hannah and Jeremy just can’t afford,” Lindsay said.
“We need to save our money for the baby.” Hannah tugged on her earlobe anxiously. “But there won’t be a baby until we’re sure there aren’t any genetic problems in my family tree.”
“Here’s the deal.” Lindsay flattened her hands on the table and leaned forward. “I told Hannah we’d take the case pro bono, if she’d let us assign two novice investigators to the file.”
Kate’s interest shifted up a notch. “I’m assuming you mean Jay and me?”
Lindsay nodded.
Kate strongly objected to being called a “novice investigator,” but for the moment she opted to keep quiet. Though she’d initially expected to be handed this job on a silver platter, now that she’d met the competition, the prospect of proving her skills on a specific case was intriguing.
“Pro bono, huh? That’s a very generous offer.” Nathan spoke quietly to his partner. “Are you sure you’ve thought this through?”
“You haven’t heard the whole plan yet,” Lindsay continued. “Before Hannah arrived, we were at an impasse. You wanted to hire Jay and I wanted to hire Kate. My idea is to have both of them work independently on this. The first one to locate Hannah’s biological father will, by definition, be the best investigator. That’s the person who will get the job.”
CHAPTER THREE
IT WAS AN OUTRAGEOUS proposition. But also…intriguing. There were few things Jay enjoyed more than healthy competition. Basketball and squash were his usual sports, but this sounded interesting. True, he didn’t have Kate’s training, but he was nothing if not resourceful.
If he found Hannah’s father and got the job, there’d be classes to take, a license to acquire. Nathan had assured him that none of this would be too onerous. Before he knew it, he’d be launched in his second career.
Jay checked out Kate from across the table. She gave him a small smile, her eyes sharp and confident. Then she raised her eyebrows and cocked her head slightly.
The challenge was obvious—she didn’t think he had a chance. And every nerve in his body ached to prove her wrong.
“This plan sounds crazy to me,” Nathan said. “But if Hannah, Kate and Jay all agree, then I have no objection. Hannah, are you sure you want to turn the search for your father into a competition?”
“If it means I don’t have to pay anything, then yeah. You bet I do. I really want a baby and as long as I can tell Jeremy who my real dad is, I don’t care who finds him.”
“Okay,”