Читать книгу A Father's Vow - Tina Leonard - Страница 11

CHAPTER THREE

SUPPRESSING ANY lingering reservations, Carolyn called Dylan Garrett on his cell phone the following morning. “There’s a case which has been brought to Finders Keepers,” she told him. “Ben Mulholland wants us to see if there’s any chance he had a twin who was taken from his mother at birth. His mother became suspicious because of the Austin baby ring which was broken. She was also convinced she heard two children crying when she gave birth.”

“She’s waited all this time to mention that?”

“Ben believes medication may have jogged his mother’s memory. She was dying of breast cancer and heavily medicated, which he believes helped unlock her memory of Ben’s birth.”

“Or it could be the confused dream of a seriously ill woman.”

“Right. But I knew Eileen Mulholland, and she was firmly based in reality. I tend to believe the story’s credible, mainly because of that.”

“And Mr. Mulholland wants this twin found to make his mother rest easier on her deathbed.”

“Actually, his mother has already passed away,” she said with a lump in her throat. “It’s his daughter he’s concerned about now.”

“Because?”

She sighed. “She has leukemia, and she needs a donor match.”

“There’s no guarantee the twin could provide one.”

“Right.”

“But a missing twin might provide what the bone marrow database hasn’t been able to,” he mused. “Hope.”

“Ben gave his mother’s story some credence once the shock wore off,” Carolyn said. “If I didn’t know the people involved, I wouldn’t think it very likely. It’s your agency, and your decision to accept or refuse the case—”

“This is what Finders Keepers does,” Dylan interrupted. “Find the impossible. Start the preliminary search, and let me know what you find out. Lily’s pretty swamped with wedding details, but this is more my area anyway. The first thing I’d do is get on the phone with Jennifer Rodriguez, and pick her brain as to what kinds of files are best and most available for this kind of search. Bounce it off her, and keep in touch.”

“Thanks, Dylan,” Carolyn said softly.

“No need to thank me. I know you can handle it, or I wouldn’t have hired you to oversee the office.”

That wasn’t what she meant. She was grateful he wanted Finders Keepers to take the case. But there was no need to correct his assumption. It meant a lot that he had that kind of faith in her abilities.

“Don’t worry. You’ll do fine. You’re tenacious when you get into something, Carolyn.”

“That’s the same word someone else used to describe me.”

“Well, it’s a good trait in our business. Best of luck. Call me if you hit a pothole.”

“I will.” She hung up the phone, jumping when the door swung open. Ben walked inside, his little daughter at his side. Lucy headed straight for the candy dish, and Ben headed straight for Carolyn.

Her heart seemed to plummet downward like a fainting bird as his hazel eyes met hers.

“I’m glad you stopped by, Ben,” Carolyn said, her voice friendly yet not more than that. “I just talked to Dylan Garrett about your case, and he believes Finders Keepers should try to obtain as much information for you as we can.”

With those words, she steered them onto a business-like track. Immediately Ben realized Carolyn wasn’t comfortable with what he’d asked of her. Taking this case went against her wishes to keep him at arm’s length, which is what she’d tried to do from the moment he’d walked into the office. He’d insisted she be the one to help him, but he also respected the wall she’d erected to protect herself.

Okay. He didn’t want to upset her. The fact was, she was doing him a hell of a favor, and he wouldn’t have come to Carolyn if his mother hadn’t insisted. But Eileen had been correct. Carolyn of the soft heart would put her utmost into finding the truth of a twin, for Lucy’s sake.

It had nothing to do with Ben.

“I appreciate that,” he said briskly. “I feel better knowing that Lucy and I are in capable hands.”

Carolyn looked at him evenly. “I’ll need preliminary information, such as your place of birth. Also, I think we should be prepared for the consequences of what happens should we succeed with our search.”

“Hopefully there’s a match and…” His voice trailed off.

“There’s always the possibility this twin won’t want to have his or her life changed by the revelation of an unknown family.”

Ben considered her. “I’ve thought of that. Selfish as it may seem, I’m not focusing on that right now.”

“Donor matches are generally done anonymously,” Carolyn said crisply. “In this case, we’re counting on the family tie to secure the compliance of this person. But we have to be prepared that if you do have a missing twin, he may not be all that welcoming. It’s a bridge we can cross when we come to it, but I feel we should take it into consideration at this point.”

Ben bowed his head. “It must seem cold-blooded of me, but I’d be willing to turn someone else’s life upside down to save my daughter’s.”

She shook her head. “We just need to be prepared for the fact that this search is going to be very emotional. For everyone involved.”

He looked at her narrowly. “I’d sell my soul to save my child. I swear I would.”

“You can discuss the retainer with us later,” she said dryly. “I doubt Finders Keepers wants your soul, exactly. However, we don’t come cheaply, so let’s get to work. Is Lucy going to be all right while we talk? There’s a small TV in the reception area, and we could turn on ‘Sesame Street,’ or whatever it is kids watch these days.”

“‘Sesame Street’ would be perfect, but I warn you, she won’t let me far out of her sight.”

“I had noticed that.” They stood, and the three of them walked into the reception area outside Carolyn’s office. It contained a sofa, two chairs, walls of books, a TV and a gum ball machine. “This is sort of the lounge.” She flipped on the TV, and Lucy bounced onto the sofa.

“Sit by me, Daddy,” she commanded.

“I can’t right now. I have to talk to Miss Carolyn.” He glanced at Carolyn with his brows knit. “Miss Carolyn?”

The blush that stole over her features was endearing, he thought. At twenty-seven, not many woman blushed. But Carolyn was not like any other woman he knew.

She would not get on a plane to go to a fashion shoot if her daughter was ill. Of course, he couldn’t totally blame Marissa for running away. Sometimes he wanted to run as fast and as far as he could to get away from Lucy’s illness.

The trouble was, his little girl had to be the one to outrun it. He couldn’t do it for her.

“It is ‘Miss,’“ Carolyn said, her tone almost frosty to remind him to stay on his side of the wall.

“Miss St. Clair and I will be over here in her office,” he said in the same crisp tone so she’d know he’d got the message. “Call me if you need anything, Lucy.”

“Miss Carolyn is fine,” she told Ben as they walked behind the stone half wall that separated Carolyn’s office from the reception area. “Actually Carolyn is fine with me, if you don’t mind Lucy calling me that.” She motioned Ben to take a seat across from her.

“We prefer Miss or Mrs. or Mr.,” Ben said firmly. “Lucy is a handful, and we’re trying to teach her proper manners from the start. It’s easier than undoing bad ones, and believe me, she appears angelic, but she’ll try the patience of the saints. Once we found out she was ill, it was more difficult to be strict, but—“ He stopped, realizing he sounded as if he were lecturing. As if he’d gone into teacher mode, stressing the explanation to a rebellious student.

Carolyn didn’t seem to notice. She sat down at her desk and pulled out a folder marked with his name and inserted a new tape into her ever present recorder. “Let’s start with your birth certificate, of course. You were born on the outskirts of Austin, correct? A record of birth would have had to be filed at the county courthouse, and one with the state. We’ll need to compare them.”

He stared at her, realizing she was asking for more than the rote repetition of what was on his insurance.

“Whatever you can’t remember, we need to make notes so that we can look up this information.”

“Jeez, I wish Mom was alive,” he said slowly. “I’m not sure I can remember all of it, and she could rattle family details like a professor.”

“Well, we’ll have to do this without her,” Carolyn said, her voice gentle. “Ben, we have to determine the best way to begin searching for the existence of this person. We’ve got a good start but these are the things we have to know. Whatever you can remember will be crucial in saving us time.”

He let her crisp, straightforward manner wash over him. She was right, of course. He had to rely upon himself now.

And Carolyn. She had evidently gone to her superiors and asked for permission to handle his case. He wasn’t totally alone and defenseless in the world as long as he had her on his side.

* * *

“IT SEEMS TO ME that the first person we should speak to is this Dr. Benton.” Carolyn looked at Ben to see if he agreed. “Everything we’ve discussed leads back to the fact that the doctor is more than likely the only person who knows what really happened when your mother gave birth.”

He nodded. “How do we proceed on a matter like this? Do you think this falls under physician-patient privilege, even though Mom is gone?”

Caroline tightened her lips thoughtfully. “A patient’s records would still be confidential after death. However, talking to the doctor is a logical first step. I, for one, would be quite interested to hear what he has to say. First of all, he’s going to be quite surprised to have us show up out of the blue asking questions about the delivery.”

“What compelling excuse can we use to get him to pull Mom’s records from the file? After all these years, there’s a good possibility the records no longer even exist. How long are doctors obligated to keep a patient’s records?”

“Even after a patient is deceased, most doctors keep the files in what is known as a dead file or something along that line. Patients change doctors, and those histories have to be moved from an active file into another system. They’re somewhere. The question is, would he still have Eileen’s files in his office or would he have moved them into a storage facility?”

“I’ll go to Mom’s lockbox at the bank,” Ben suggested. “I know that’s where she kept my original birth certificate. It’s probably a good idea to look at that before we see Dr. Benton.”

Carolyn nodded, opening an appointment book. “I’ll call and schedule an appointment with Dr. Benton.”

Ben put his hand over hers, surprising her. The contact sent warmth shimmering through her, and she found it difficult to meet his eyes.

“Maybe an unannounced visit would be best.”

Carolyn held her breath until Ben removed his hand from hers. She exhaled, forcing herself to think about the words and not the man. “The element of surprise can’t hurt, but we shouldn’t assume Dr. Benton would be unhelpful,” she reminded him.

“Sorry.” He dipped his head somewhat sheepishly. “I don’t mean to sound combative. But Mom’s story has begun to be very real to me. That makes Dr. Benton a bad guy.”

Carolyn nodded slowly. “I can’t blame you for the way you feel.” Whether Douglas Benton was a bad guy or not remained to be seen, but she understood Ben’s need to hope that there was an enemy out there that could be defeated. It must be hellish to be fighting the enemy he was pitted against—his daughter’s disease—with no weapons to rely on.

The love for his daughter was strong in this father. She admired that he so desperately wanted to be able to ride up on a charger and save her. But it also broke her heart. What if he failed? “Leave Lucy with me, if you like, and see if you can locate your birth certificate. We can proceed from there.”

“You don’t mind Lucy staying?”

She shook her head. “Not at all.”

His eyes settled on her with some unidentifiable emotion. “Thanks, Carolyn. She could use a friend right now.”

Then he got up and walked out the door without saying another word, his shoulders stiff, his back straight. Carolyn bowed her head.

It wasn’t sympathy that made her see Ben in such a rose-colored light. She simply had never stopped loving him, and in the moment when he was suffering the most, she found herself tearing her own heart in two as she struggled not to let herself fall for him all over again.

Falling for Ben Mulholland had been the easiest thing she had ever done—getting over him had been impossible.

* * *

BEN’S BIRTH certificate appeared to be like any other she had seen. Carolyn wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting, but maybe she’d been hoping against hope that some clue would pop out from the stamped page and point her in the right direction.

But the slightly yellowed Texas state document lay on the desk before her, innocuous and ordinary. She blew out a breath.

“Nothing special there,” Ben said.

She smiled to herself at the tandem tracking of their minds and picked up her purse. “I’ll head to Dr. Benton’s now and see what I can find out.”

“I’m going with you.”

“You don’t need to do that, Ben. Investigating this case is what you’re paying Finders Keepers to do.”

“Trust me. I need to do this.”

Under the circumstances, she could understand how he felt—and she had to admit that she looked forward to his and Lucy’s company as well. “Will a long drive be too hard on Lucy?”

“I don’t think so. She can sleep in the car, and anyway, she enjoys small outings away from the house. She gets cabin fever.”

Carolyn smiled as Ben rose and went into the lounge, where Lucy was engrossed in a conversation with stuffed animals and a plastic tea set Carolyn had unearthed from the main house. She heard Lucy mildly protest at having to leave the new toys behind, before acquiescing to her father’s coaxing. Carolyn’s lungs seemed to squeeze tight inside her. Ben was the parent she’d known he would be. She’d made the right decision all those years ago, and if she’d paid for that choice with unimaginable emotional pain, then it had been the right thing to do. Ben and Lucy adored each other—Carolyn couldn’t imagine one without the other.

She started to call to Ben that Lucy was welcome to take the stuffed animals in the car with her, but then he appeared with Lucy riding on his back. “Someone had taken off their shoes and socks,” he said with a grin.

Carolyn smiled at Lucy. “That sounds like a good thing to do.”

“Mm-hm,” Lucy agreed. She squeezed her thin little arms around her daddy’s shoulders in a sweet hug.

It was like looking at a face full of sunshine. Those corners of Carolyn’s heart that had never known that sunshine absorbed the light wistfully. “Come on,” she said softly. “Let’s go see what we can find out.”

They drove approximately eighty miles north to the Austin address listed as Dr. Benton’s in the phone book. Parking the car, Carolyn didn’t allow herself to become apprehensive about the questions they would pose to Douglas Benton. Because of Lucy’s situation, she wouldn’t allow herself to feel anything but hope. She tapped on the front door of the house and gave Ben a smile that felt weak, though she meant it to be comforting.

The wooden inside door opened, and a woman peered through the screen door at them.

“Can I help you?”

“We’re looking for Douglas Benton,” Carolyn said.

“Why?” the woman asked, her tone suspicious.

Somewhat taken aback, Carolyn looked over the middle-aged woman more carefully. Her hair was unkempt, her figure rounded with lack of exercise. She wore orange polyester pants and a short-sleeved brown shirt. Somehow she didn’t look like the wife of a prominent local doctor. “I’m Carolyn St. Clair,” she said, forgoing introducing Ben for the moment, in case his name alerted the woman to the reason for their presence. “Would you be Mrs. Benton?”

The woman raised her eyebrows and studied the threesome, her gaze hovering on Lucy for a second before returning to Carolyn. “Luckily for me, no.”

Uncertain how to take that, Carolyn pressed forward. “This is the Benton home?”

“It is. But only Mrs. Benton lives here. Dr. Benton died the first week of August, so you’ve just missed him, you might say,” the woman said with a snort.