He looked at her. “What insight.”
He shook his head, “Don’t you think I’ve tried that route? What I need, Miss-Michelle-Talmadge-with-a-father-missing-for- twenty-three years is a wife. Someone who’d be there for Penny all the time, not just during the day. Someone who could cook decent meals so we don’t eat out so much at fast food places, and someone to keep clothes washed, hair trimmed. And someone who couldn’t quit at the first sign of trouble.” He glanced in the mirror, angled to see his daughter. She was talking to her teddy and seemed oblivious to the conversation in the front seat.
“Maybe you should consider that, then,” Michelle said.
“Nope, tried that once—it didn’t work.”
It seemed unfair that the traffic on the return was much lighter. Joshua drove calmly. Michelle wasn’t scared once. She was even a bit reluctant to say goodbye when he stopped near her car.
She shut the screeching door, and looked over the roof of the car when Joshua stood on his side.
“You’ll be all right?” he asked.
“I may call again about your locating my father.”
“First I need to locate someone to watch Penny. There’s a lot you can do on your own. Try your birth certificate first. Then the company where he used to work if you can find out which one it was, or call around to the ones still in business. No sense wasting your money if you can discover the answer on your own.”
“Thanks for the suggestions.” She hesitated, but there was really nothing else. “Goodbye,” Michelle said, wishing she didn’t have to leave. There was something about the man that continued to intrigue her.
Joshua’s words echoed that evening while Michelle prepared a light supper. Frustrated not to be able to hire anyone, she paced her small kitchen while she waited for the gumbo to heat. She was finding it much more difficult to hire a private investigator than she expected.
Either they weren’t interested, like Joshua, or they wanted half of Fort Knox as an up-front retainer—with no guarantee they could come up with anything.
It’d been four months since her older sister, Caroline, had discovered that their father had not abandoned them as children as they had been told all their lives by their grandmother, Eugenia Talmadge. He had, instead, been forced away from his wife and family by Eugenia’s machinations. She’d wanted a different alliance for her only daughter and had done her best to bring that about.
Michelle wondered what would have happened if her mother hadn’t died so soon after her father had been threatened with a bogus murder charge and driven from the family home in Baton Rouge. Would her mother have found the strength and courage to search for her husband, or would she have given in to the demands of her strong-willed mother and turned to the man whose family fortune and historical lineage had been so important to Eugenia Talmadge?
It didn’t matter. Her mother had died long ago—shortly after Michelle’s younger sister’s birth—leaving her three daughters to be raised by Eugenia.
Now her grandmother was dead and in dying had revealed the shameful situation to Michelle’s sister Caroline. When her sister had discovered proof of her grandmother’s interference, she’d been thrilled to learn that their father hadn’t abandoned them.
Of course, Caroline’s reconciliation with her husband, discovering she was pregnant, dealing with the estate and planning a new wedding had totally taken her focus off searching for their father.
Now living in the Garden District of New Orleans, renovating and restoring a huge old house she and Brandon had bought recently, and trying to get established in real estate in New Orleans, Caroline’s life was totally full.
And happy.
Michelle didn’t resent her sister’s delight in her husband and the longed-for soon to arrive baby, but she was a bit envious.
And her younger sister Abby had her new job. She’d branched into trauma nursing, taking additional courses, working in the emergency room of one of New Orleans’ busiest hospitals. She rarely spoke of the father who had left before she was born. And Michelle didn’t bring him up often.
She ached to know what had happened to the man she didn’t remember, but had missed all her life.
Giving the gumbo a stir, she vowed she wasn’t going to stop now. She’d try Joshua’s suggestions and see what she could find. And if needed, she’d approach him again. Or go back to the phone book and check out another agency. Maybe branch out to Baton Rouge or another city. She was determined to find someone willing to take on the assignment. Even if her father was dead, she wanted to know where Sam Williams had lived and what he’d done with his life.
Friday morning Joshua poured another cup of coffee and swallowed a mouthful. It burned all the way down. He didn’t notice. He’d been on the phone for hours over the last two days, trying to find a day care with an opening for Penny.
It looked as if he’d run out of options.
His operatives had called a dozen times. One client had called, tracking him down at home, because of an error in the billing. And of course, he had no secretary to look into it. Joyce had probably invoiced the wrong amount, but he’d have to go to the office to get it straightened out.
And what would he do with Penny?
The doorbell rang.
“I’ll get it!” Penny’s voice called out as he heard her racing for the door.
“No!” he yelled.
She loved to open the door, but caution made sure he always knew who was there before letting her. Most of his cases were innocuous, paper tracing, but one never knew these days when some nut would seek him out for an imagined slight.
He looked through the peephole and then leaned his head against the door.
He didn’t need this.
Opening it, he stared at Michelle Talmadge. Standing squarely in the center of the doorway, he wanted
