Ферн Майклз - Truth and Justice

“My husband and I have a magnificent German shepherd that is the smartest dog on the planet. He can buckle his seat belt, answer the phone, fold towels, and make his own bed. I think I am capable of killing anyone who would even dare harm a hair on that dog’s body. His name is Cyrus.”

Nikki spoke so vehemently that Conover reared back. And then he grinned. “Okay, you sold me on getting another animal. Unfortunately, I can’t help you in regard to where Sara is or who she might know. Now when I think back to those days, I see how blind I was. I wish I could help you. If I think of anything, how can I get in touch with you?”

Maggie fished around in her backpack and pulled out a business card. She wrote her cell phone number as well as Nikki’s on the back. “Call day or night, we’ll always answer.”

Conover accepted the card, walked over to the refrigerator, and slipped the business card under a magnet of an alligator showing off its monster teeth. “Sara got this magnet, why I don’t know.” He looked at it, then tossed it in the trash can next to the sink. The business card went under a magnet of purple tulips with a yellow butterfly perched on one of the petals. He laughed out loud. Maggie and Nikki smiled. Steven Conover really was a nice guy.

“I’m sorry to hear about that guy, Major Nolan. I’d like to meet his wife someday if that’s possible.”

“Oh, I think it is. We’ll suggest it to her when we get back to town. I bet she shows up at your showroom one of these days. You’ll like her. She’s very down-to-earth. Nothing pretentious to her, and she is absolutely going to go over the moon when she sees this kitchen and all these dogs. She’s from Kansas. Who knows what will happen from that point on,” Maggie said, giggling.

“Thank you for your time, Mr. Conover. Please, if you think of anything, call one of us. We really need to find Sara Windsor. Maybe I should say Conover. I’m thinking the con in her would have her take back her maiden name, or she’d get a new name altogether. We’ll find out sooner or later. Thanks for the coffee,” Nikki said.

“My pleasure. I’m just sorry I wasn’t more help. Not to worry, I will call if I think of anything. I’ll show you out.”

In the van with the engine running, Maggie threw her hands in the air. “I was so hoping he’d be able to help us. Nice guy. That chick must be really nasty to steal from her brother, then clean out the husband like that. He’s well rid of her if you want my opinion.”

“Just drive, Maggie. I want to get home so I can think. I need to be around my stuff when I have serious thinking to do. People don’t just disappear. We need to find her.”

“Before you go all silent on me, we need to find out what Sara did to earn a living before she met Steven. I know he said she didn’t work when they were married, but she must have had a job of some kind unless she had a sugar daddy or something. Call Conover and ask. Knowing what she did to earn a living might help us find her more quickly. I’m thinking that, in the end, we’re going to have to turn this over to Avery Snowden. Finding the impossible person is his forte.”

Nikki worked her phone, talked quickly, grimaced as she listened, then ended the call. “Nothing much, Maggie. She sold cosmetics in a department store, worked as a cocktail waitress in some girly bar. She also sold time shares to condos, and that’s what she was doing when he met her. He also said she had expensive clothes and jewelry, drove a really nice Jaguar, and always seemed to have a lot of money. He said he was stupid and just thought she was really good at selling the time shares. Can I go silent now?”

“Okay,” Maggie said agreeably. She, too, needed to think.

Chapter 9

Annie scowled as she paced Myra’s spacious kitchen. She muttered to herself, then looked at Myra. “We have not accomplished one damn thing in the last four days. All we’ve been doing is running around like a bunch of wild chickens. We have absolutely nothing to show for ninety-six hours of our time. Multiply that by the seven of us and the number will blow your mind. And”—she paused dramatically, throwing her hands in the air—“that doesn’t count Avery Snowden and all his manpower. What’s wrong with this picture?” she screeched. Annie’s tirade was unlike anything the Sisters had ever seen. They stopped whatever they were doing and stopped speaking, not knowing what to do.

Myra flinched. She hated when Annie got like this. The only thing that would appease her was something positive in the way of news. And good news of any kind was the one thing they did not have. She looked around at the glum faces of the Sisters seated at the table. “Let’s do a recap of what we’ve done in the last four days. We might have missed something the first time around. By the way, Bella called this morning before you all got here. She was, as she put it, wondering why she hadn’t heard from any of us. She more or less implied that she was disappointed in us. Us as in the Vigilantes. I think she was expecting instant gratification. I could hear the disappointment in her voice. I told her Rome wasn’t built in a day, and these things take time and planning, and a healthy dose of luck doesn’t hurt. She didn’t sound to me like she was buying what I had to sell.”

“It is what it is,” Yoko said philosophically.

Nikki held up the coffee carafe. Everyone nodded that they wanted a refill. Nikki poured, as Annie finally stopped her frantic pacing. She sat down at the table, held up her cup, and waited.

“Who wants to go first?” Myra asked.

“Me and Yoko,” Kathryn said, raising her hand as though she was in a third-grade classroom. “There wasn’t one likable person in the bunch that we talked to at the clinic. Maintaining and running a fertility clinic like that must be stressful. Everyone seemed antsy and jittery. I didn’t see a smile on anyone. Yoko and I both agreed they’re a bunch of snooty women. But Dr. Peabody had a high snoot factor, too, and he’s a guy. As far as we could tell, he is the only male doctor, but there is one male nurse. The good doctors Donaldson, Petre, and Peabody are just what they are. The only thing we could tell that they’re guilty of is not checking more thoroughly when Major Nolan’s sister showed up. They showed us many requests that were on the books of women who transferred their eggs to another fertility clinic for a variety of reasons; relocation seemed to be the main one.

“Dr. Peabody said there is a procedure that has to be adhered to. One minute, they were there, then they were gone, all properly signed off on. As far as they were concerned, that was the end of the story. Until now. They are petrified of a lawsuit. It was written all over their faces. It would be a hot mess if it ever got to court. I can tell you that, and I’m not even a lawyer,” Kathryn said.

Yoko looked around at the faces of the other Sisters. “Kathryn and I opted to go in as ourselves. We simply said we represented Bella and hoped to resolve the case and absolve the clinic. I thought they were as forthright as they could be under the circumstances. All of them, in our opinion, realized they are looking down the wrong end of a lawsuit, and ignorance or negligence is no defense. They must have talked to their lawyers and been told that.”

“They are now aware of Major Nolan’s sperm donations but were not at the time when the sister did the transfer. It is not known for certain if the sister even knew about those donations. Dr. Peabody gave us the name of the clinic to which the eggs were transferred. It’s in Bethesda, Maryland. Yoko and I went there. Of course, we didn’t learn a thing—the privacy act and all that.”

“We waited outside at lunchtime and nailed the first person we could who looked bribable, and offered five hundred dollars if she could tell us about the major’s sister. She agreed; then we met up two hours later on her break. She said more than a dozen new clients made deposits during the time period in question. No one with the name Nolan, or Conover, or Windsor is on file. That doesn’t mean the sister used her real name, she could have used an alias, which I would be willing to bet is just what she did. It is certainly what I would have done in her shoes.