Table of Contents
Title Page
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Copyright
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Epilogue
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MICHELLE'S MARRIAGE DEAL
The Talmadge Sisters, Book Two
Barbara McMahon
www.barbaramcmahon.com
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Michelle's Marriage Deal
Copyright © 2020 Barbara McMahon
All Rights Reserved
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author's imagination and are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.
Chapter One
Michelle Talmadge hesitated at the office door. She should have called. But after so many refusals and fruitless appointments that she hoped would pan out, and hadn’t, she wanted a face-to-face confrontation instead of a phone call. Joshua O'Malley‘s reputations was one of reliability. The insurance company she worked for used him repeatedly. Of course she’d never met the man. She hoped hiring him for personal business didn’t constitute a conflict of interest with work.
Opening the door, she stepped into a small waiting area. There was no one behind the desk. Glancing at her watch, she saw it was just shy of five o’clock. She’d left work early to see the man. Had his secretary also left early?
“Hello, is anyone here?” she called.
The door to her right snapped open and a tall man filled the space, surveying her from head to toe.
“Looking for someone?” he asked.
She nodded, amazed at his height—easily several inches over six feet. When her gaze traveled up, she noticed he was topped by hair as black as midnight, with eyes as blue as the Irish sea. His face looked as if it had been hewn from the Irish cliffs themselves, all angles and planes. Not particularly handsome, but arresting.
Intriguing.
Fascinating.
Instantly, she wondered how he made a living as a private investigator. She couldn’t envision Joshua O’Malley creeping around incognito spying on cheating spouses or eavesdropping on criminal planning. He was too conspicuous.
Not to mention a bit intimidating.
Maybe a telephone call would’ve been better.
But she was already here, too late for would-have-been.
“I’m interested in hiring a private investigator to find someone,” she blurted out, already regretting she hadn’t made an appointment first.
He lifted a dark eyebrow. Glancing around the office, he frowned. “Where’s Joyce?”
“Who?”
“My secretary cum office manager.”
Scowling, he strode to the desk, snatched up a paper and read it quickly.
“Well, blast it all. She quit. She threatened it, but I didn’t think she meant it.”
Running his left hand through his hair, he left it messed and falling across his forehead.
Michelle tightened her grip on her purse to keep from giving in to the surprising urge to step closer and brush it back into place.
Had she lost her mind? She hadn’t come here to indulge in some sort of instant, unexpected attraction to a stranger. She needed a private investigator and he was the last one on her list.
She’d shied away from contacting him at first—because of his association with the insurance company she worked for. She didn’t think there would be a conflict of interest, but wasn’t sure.
After being refused by a half-dozen other agencies in New Orleans, she’d run out of names. Private investigators were supposed to be discreet. If he took her case, she'd rely on his keeping quiet as to the nature of her request. And it didn’t involve any kind of connection with her company. Not that she held much influence with the large firm.
“There was no one here when I came in,” she offered.
“I had a secretary. She stormed out a couple of hours ago. So it looks as if she wrote her note and walked out.”
He looked to the door along the wall to the left which stood partially ajar. There was no one in that office, though following his glance, Michelle saw it was larger than the reception area, with two desks and a bunch of computer equipment.
“Guess they're both out,” he said.
“Who?”
“The two operatives who work for me.”
“Oh.”
She tried to follow the conversation, but it wasn’t getting to the point of her visit.
“Mr. O’Malley,” she began. “I wish to retain your services to locate a missing person.”
She’d been through the drill now six times. She knew it by heart.
He looked at her. “File a report with the cops? They usually handle missing persons situations for free.”
She shook her head.
“Why not? ”
“Well, I’m not sure he’s precisely missing—I just don’t know where he is.”
He glanced at his watch. “I’d love to hear about a missing person who isn’t missing, but I have to pick up my daughter at day care and I need to leave now. If I’m not there by six, she's history with them.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“You don’t want to know, lady. Come back in the morning—but not before nine. There’ll be someone here then. I hope.”
He turned back into his office.
Dumbfounded, Michelle remained where she stood. He wasn’t even taking the time to listen to her. At least someone at each of the other agencies had listened.
One investigator had even agreed to help her. The proposed estimated expense had proved too prohibitive, however.
Would she find that the case here as well?
Joshua reappeared in only seconds, shrugging into a sports coat.
"Since neither of my operatives are here, I need to lock up,” he said, opening the outside door and clearly waiting for her to leave.
"But I want to discuss hiring you,” Michelle protested. It had taken a lot of planning to get here before five; she didn’t intend to be dismissed so easily. Normally quiet and shy, she was growing more and more frustrated with how difficult it was to hire an investigator and that made
