Cold Target

by Potter, Patricia;

  Gage would have liked to explore the matter more, but Meredith was more important at the moment. He called Meredith’s cell phone. He was invited to leave a message.

  Frustrated, he found Sarah’s phone number and called.

  “Are you all right?” Sarah asked.

  He wished everyone would stop asking that question. He wasn’t sure of the answer and he didn’t like that feeling. Not at all. “Perfectly,” he replied. “I’m looking for Ms. Rawson.”

  “She’ll be gone for the next few days. She said she had to get away.”

  “Dammit! Did she say exactly where she was going?”

  “If she didn’t tell you …”

  “She might believe she’s no longer in danger. I don’t agree.”

  “Then you don’t think Rick Fuller was involved in the other …”

  “If he was, I don’t think he was the only one. I knew Fuller. He wasn’t that complicated a man.”

  Sarah hesitated.

  “She told me about Memphis,” he finally said. “Where in Memphis did she go?”

  He waited patiently, letting her reach her own conclusions in her own time.

  “I don’t know. Just Memphis. She went to look for anyone who might have known her great-aunt.”

  “The address?”

  Again she hesitated.

  “Sarah, her life might depend on it.”

  Sarah gave it to him.

  BISBEE

  The steaks were wonderful.

  Holly hadn’t realized men could be such good cooks. Doug had grilled the steaks outside on the grill along with corn on the cob and kabobs of fresh vegetables. He had prepared tamales as an appetizer.

  Harry was enthralled. He helped at the grill, occasionally squirting water on the fire.

  “It’s nice having another male in the house,” Doug said as they all sat down at the table.

  She couldn’t remember tasting a better steak. But it might have been the company, and the knowledge that he had been cooking for her.

  Jenny showed Harry her collection of stuffed bears, then took him out to see a garden where Doug grew a number of vegetables, including the corn they were eating.

  Doug poured a glass of wine for himself and for Holly and they watched as dusk approached and shadows shaded the land with different hues. She felt more relaxed than she had in years. Perhaps more than she ever had.

  She had been popular as a child, mainly, she knew, because of her looks. In turn, she had envied the studious girls who made good grades and served as president of the Latin club. At the urging of her mother, she’d tried out for the drama club but she’d been abysmal. Even she understood that. Her one talent had been her hands. And a whimsy that no one recognized.

  Now she relaxed. She had merely run a brush through her hair and added a dab of lipstick. Her only concession to a “date” was a pair of slacks and a checkered short-sleeve shirt rather than shorts and a T-shirt.

  Doug was relaxed as well. He stretched out in a pair of jeans and a blue cotton shirt with the sleeves rolled up. He looked masculine and confident and … sexy.

  He took a sip of wine. She noticed he was very careful about how much he drank. He’d probably had a total of two small glasses. But then he was the driver.

  “We had better go,” he said reluctantly. “The movie’s at eight.”

  It was going to be a late night for Harry, but this was a special treat. For both of them.

  When they arrived at the movie, Doug spoke to nearly everyone. She knew several of the crowd and everyone eyed her curiously. Apparently, he was a prized bachelor.

  The movie was excellent. Jenny sat on the outside with Harry next to her and Doug sat on Holly’s other side. She was uncomfortably aware of his proximity, of his hand resting on the arm of the seat. She kept her hands clasped in her lap but at some time during the movie, his left hand inched over to take her right one.

  Their fingers intertwined.

  In a particularly scary part, Harry took her other hand.

  She felt loved and secure and safe.

  She wanted tonight to last forever.

  MEMPHIS

  Not one of the immediate neighbors of her late great-aunt had lived in the community more than fifteen years. Certainly none for thirty years.

  Several remembered her great-aunt, who had been killed in a brutal robbery several years ago. But none knew of a young girl who might have lived there briefly decades ago. Neither did they remember her great-aunt mentioning one.

  All of them had been horrified by her death. Apparently, they had truly liked her.

  A brutal robbery.

  Another violent death. There were a lot of them around. Coincidence?

  The fact that murder may have been continuing for years was chilling. What secret was so desperate that it drove someone to kill again and again?

  She couldn’t even begin to answer that question.

  Instead she asked the neighbors about doctors in the area, particularly obstetricans. She gathered a list of three that she would call first thing in the morning.

  That evening she checked the yellow pages for local hospitals and used her laptop to find websites. Most included the hospital’s history. She immediately discarded those that were less than thirty years old. The list was narrowing.

  But that was a long shot and she knew it. Hospitals didn’t keep medical records that old. Her only hope was to find someone who might have remembered a heartbroken teenager who gave up a child.

  She had to eat, yet she had no appetite. She took a notebook with her and doodled as she waited for the ultimate comfort food she’d ordered. Hamburger and fries.

  She noted every event that had happened since she learned of her sister, making a chart of them. Other than speaking with Mrs. Laxton and locating Mrs. Starnes, who was now dead, she had not gone further in searching for school friends, nor had she located the man in the photo.

  She probably should have done the latter before she left. But she’d had to get away from New Orleans and the reporters and phone calls and sympathy. And her growing reliance on Gage. That reliance had cost him dearly.

  If only she could find a clue here. One tiny thread. She knew how to pursue threads.

  The comfort food was not at all comforting when it came. Usually she didn’t mind eating by herself, but tonight she felt terribly alone. Terribly vulnerable.

  Don’t do that! Don’t think of that! Think of your sister out there, possibly in danger.

  She went back to her chart.

  BISBEE

  Holly paused at the door of the office of Daniel McIntyre, Esq., Attorney at Law. She looked at her watch. She had changed the appointment to a day when the local church had a “Mother’s Day Out.”

  She didn’t want her son to hear the conversation. He was much too bright. He would remember bits and pieces and pop up with a question about them at unexpected times.

  She opened the door. A middle-aged woman with a quick smile sat at the desk. “You must be Liz Baker,” she said. “You can go on in.” She gestured to a door and Holly opened it.

  A pleasant-looking man in his fifties stood up and came over to her. He reached out his hand and she took it. It was a grip meant to convey confidence. She liked the way his eyes met hers directly.

  He sat down, inviting her to do the same. “What can I do for you, Mrs. Baker?”

  “I would like to retain you first. What is your fee?”

  “I take it you want the client-attorney relationship from the beginning?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then fifty dollars will do for the initial interview. I charge a hundred dollars an hour.”

  Holly gave him the money. She sought assurance. “You can’t say anything to anyone now?”

  “Unless I know a crime is to be committed.”

  She nodded. “Two things. One is my son. I want to make provisions in case anything happens to me. I want a will naming a guardian for my son. Marty Miller, who owns Special Things.”
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  He looked surprised. “No relatives?”

  “No.”

  “That’s easy enough. I’ll draw up the papers and you both will come in and sign them. What else?”

  She took the envelope containing the letter she’d written. “I want you to hold this. If anything happens to me, there are instructions inside.”

  His eyes sharpened. “Do you expect anything to happen to you?”

  “No. But it’s a letter to my son,” she lied. “I would feel better if it were in a safe.”

  “I can do that as well.”

  “How much?”

  He shrugged. “You’ve paid me fifty. I would say a total of two hundred would cover the will and guardianship.”

  It was less than she’d expected.

  “Thank you.”

  She spent the next few minutes giving him lies about her son, and his name and birth date.

  Then it was over.

  She thanked him.

  A small protection.

  twenty-three

  MEMPHIS

  Meredith exhausted every possibility over the next three days.

  She double-checked with the bureau of public records. No adoption records under her mother’s name.

  Next were local hospitals. None had records that reached thirty-three years back. A check of obstetricians proved equally as fruitless. The hospitals refused to—or couldn’t—release lists of obstetricians on duty at the time.

  She accessed the American Bar Association’s Internet listing of Memphis-area attorneys. There were more than 2,800 listings. She narrowed it to Germantown. No downtown attorneys; those involved wouldn’t risk large corporate practices for something like a black market adoption.

  And that, she knew, was what must have happened.

  It was the longest of long shots. She discovered that when she came up with forty candidates. She researched each firm. Three had been in practice thirty-three years ago in the general area of Germantown. One specialized in taxation, one in family law and the third was a general practice, which usually meant wills, estates and the like.

  She called the latter office Monday morning, identified herself as an attorney in New Orleans and said she was looking for someone in a large inheritance case and there would be a substantial finder’s fee. She said she would be in town only today—could they possibly squeeze her in?

  A male attorney came on the line. She said she couldn’t explain on the phone.

  He finally agreed to an appointment at five P.M.

  She hung up. It would be an amazing coincidence if that particular attorney had been involved, but then it would be amazing if she found the right attorney, regardless. At the very most, he might remember other attorneys active in the field of adoption.

  Of course, there might not have been an attorney involved at all, though most people adopting a child would want some legal security.

  The visit proved more fruitful than she’d imagined. It was a father-son practice, and while the older man was clearly just coming into the office, he’d been very active in the local bar association and never threw anything away.

  William Hartley was in his seventies but had a spring to his movements that would put to shame most men decades younger. His gray eyes sparkled with curiosity and interest, and he obviously was a raconteur of stories about his profession. He wasn’t shy about his assessments.

  “I’m old enough not to give a damn about being politically correct, young lady.”

  “And I’m not old enough,” she countered.

  He sat back and laughed at that, and his son, William Junior, smiled. “Attorneys weren’t as pretty as you when I first went into practice.”

  “I imagine you find plenty of them elsewhere,” she said.

  “Ah, but there was only one for me.” The laughter left his eyes. “She died two years ago and I came back here to bedevil my son. Was going crazy by myself.”

  She was moved by the emotion behind the words. So there were happy unions. She knew that, of course, but her own personal experience and being an attorney who specialized in marital disasters sometimes made her forget that.

  She explained that she had a client who had just died and left a very large inheritance for a daughter she’d given up at birth. There were no records. She was trying to find the attorney who might have handled it. As she’d said on the phone, there would be a substantial finder’s fee.

  It was the son who asked the amount.

  “Fifty thousand dollars,” she said. She’d already arrived at that sum. Any larger would be suspicious. Any lesser may not bring the cooperation she needed.

  The father raised his eyebrows. “How much is the inheritance?”

  “Several million.”

  That was a guess on her part. Her trust fund that had come from her grandmother through her mother was worth approximately a million. She assumed she would inherit most of her father’s assets, including the house.

  She was very prepared to spend whatever it took to find her sister, then to divide whatever was left. Part of what was hers would go to the women’s shelter.

  The son perked up at the sum. He looked at his father.

  “I’ll go through my lists. I have a pretty good idea of who might be involved in adoptions,” the senior Hartley said. “If you like, I can hire an investigator to follow up on it. Or would you prefer to do that?”

  “That would be extra, of course,” the son said.

  “Of course,” she said, knowing that she didn’t have much time. She had talked to the funeral home about plans for her mother’s funeral, but some decisions had to be made in person. “How much?”

  “The investigator we use on occasion charges a hundred an hour.”

  She nodded. “Go ahead. I’ll keep in touch.” She took out a checkbook. “Would a retainer for five thousand be sufficient?”

  “Quite,” the older man said. “I enjoy mysteries. How much information do you have?”

  “Her name was Marguerite Thibadeau. She would have been seventeen at the time and the birth would have taken place sometime in February of 1970. We don’t know who the father was.”

  “Anything else?”

  “She was staying with an aunt.” She took out a notepad with the name and address on it. “The aunt died in a robbery three years ago. I looked for a birth certificate for the daughter but couldn’t find one.”

  “I’ll see what we can do.”

  She left the office, feeling that at last she might be making headway.

  She looked at her watch. She would have a good supper tonight, then leave early in the morning.

  She stopped in the office of the hotel and asked for the name of a good restaurant.

  “If you’re in Memphis, you need barbecue,” the desk clerk said. “One of the best is a mile away.” She gave detailed directions.

  As she went to her room to wash up and put on her more comfortable driving clothes, she noticed a familiar car in the parking lot. A long, lanky figure lounged comfortably against it. A large dog sat obediently at his feet. It greeted her with a short excited bark.

  As her gaze met Gage’s, her breath caught in her lungs. Her heart skipped a beat, maybe three or four.

  She had never been so glad to see anyone in her life.

  Meredith’s blue eyes widened in astonishment, and then a smile crossed her lips. Pleasure ran through him at her obvious pleasure at seeing him.

  He had expected surprise. Anger. Defiance. He’d hoped for acceptance. He’d been braced for anything but the momentary delight in her expression.

  “I would ask you how you found me, but you would probably say you’re a detective.”

  “I probably would,” he said as her smile awoke something bright and warm in him. “You keep running off on your own.”

  “And if you found me, someone else could?”

  “Will you stop reading my mind?”

  “Why?”

  “It might get you in trouble.”

  “I think I’m
already in trouble.” Her voice was husky, and the underlying sensuality of her words made it clear she didn’t mean just the recent violent events.

  She looked exhausted, as well she should be. But there was an indomitable quality about her, and she was still forging ahead. Alone.

  That scared the hell out of him.

  “Find out anything?” he asked.

  “I might have a lead. An older lawyer who apparently knows everyone who ever practiced law in Memphis. He’s going through lists for names of shady lawyers who might have been involved in black market adoptions.”

  “It’s going to be a rather long list.”

  “That was a cruel blow.”

  “Present company excluded.”

  He found himself relaxing after the long, anxious drive. He’d imagined any number of scenarios, none of them good. He’d particularly worried about the fact that she hadn’t talked to him before leaving.

  “You brought Beast.”

  “You’re also observant.”

  She grinned. “He’s hard to miss. Where are you going to stay tonight?”

  “Here. I bribed the clerk. I take it they’re not too particular.”

  “How did you find the motel? I didn’t tell Sarah where I was staying.” Her eyes narrowed. “That is where you got the information?”

  “Don’t be angry at her. I wheedled it out of her only by saying you could be in danger.”

  “But she didn’t know about this motel.”

  “She gave me the information about your great-aunt. I simply put myself in your shoes. I’m glad your mind works logically.”

  “You mean yours does?”

  He gave her what he hoped was an indignant look.

  “I think we’re both in a heap of trouble.” Her voice gentled. “How are you?”

  “That’s my question. I didn’t just bury my father, lose my mother and get shot.”

  “I’m numb. What did the shooting board say?”

  “They’re still investigating. I’m the departmental bad boy. I also suspect that another player is stalling a ruling.”

  “Need a good lawyer?”

  “I think your plate is full already. But there’s no way they can go against four eyewitnesses. They just want to string it out awhile … tie my hands so I won’t get involved in something they disapprove of.” His expression mocked such thinking.