"That sounds like an even better idea." Austin paused to think of the best way to ask the next question. "When I asked Jackie to take the case, she sounded distracted, and then said she couldn't. Is something wrong?"

"You got a minute?"

"Of course."

Michael lifted his right foot and rested it on top of his left knee. "It's no secret, but I suppose there are only a few people who know the story. Jackie was married once to a jerk. I guess he wasn't a jerk when she married him. Anyway, she loved him with all her heart. He was a PI, the best there was at the time, and they were a crack team until their son came along."

"Jackie has a son?"

"Well, that's debatable. When he was two, someone took him right out of his bed. Jackie and her husband did everything they knew how to do, but they couldn't find him. Naturally, the police suspected one of them killed Brian, but there was no proof. I think that haunts Jackie as much as not being able to find her son."

"How awful. What happened to her husband?"

"She says he drank himself to death. That was before she hired me, but her and Carl go way back. Carl got her to help him trick his ex-wife into taking a worthless drug company in their divorce settlement, and let him have the air crane."

"That was smart."

"Smarter than you think. Carl gave Jackie a reason to go on. Now she helps other people find their missing loved ones. We retired for several years, but all of us missed the intrigue, so we've been back at it for five or six months now."

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"I take it she hasn't stopped looking for her son?"

"Nope, and every time we get a lead, we drop everything and follow it. That's why her DNA is registered in every lab in the country. Someday, they might just get a match."

"Yes, but only if he turns out to be a criminal or he is dead."

"That's the truth. Still, she needs to know one way or the other so she can stop looking."

"Well then, maybe a ball is just what she needs right now."

"Good idea." Michael stood up. "She won't marry again. Some people just can't take the chance."

"What about you?"

"Oh, I'm content enough the way things are, but if you tell them that, I'll hunt you down."

Austin chuckled, grabbed the invitations off his desk and handed them to Michael. "See you Saturday, if not sooner."

*

Doctors' appointments bored her, but Laura's doctor insisted she come in once a week to make sure her blood pressure medicine was working properly. She could have cared less. At least there was a bar downstairs, and that's exactly where she headed when she left his office.




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