An Act of Persuasion - By Stephanie Doyle Page 0,91
about them at all. Now that I’ve made the decision to do this I can’t seem to stop thinking about them. Or maybe it’s the baby thing.”
“I promise I’ll let you know when I have something. So, I take it that means Ben hasn’t found anything, either? That’s surprising considering I’ve given him a massive head start.”
A fact not entirely lost on Anna. “Nope. He says everything has led to dead ends but...”
“What?”
She hesitated in answering. Really, all she had was a gut feeling, and lately her gut was so messed up between Ben and the baby she didn’t know if she was coming or going. The other night she’d spent two hours folding and refolding Onesies in different drawers to see which one of them she liked better for the purpose of storing Onesies. It was a little insane.
At one point she’d thought she was losing her mind until Ben came in and showed her the chapter on nesting and explained what she felt was a biological imperative and that her behavior was perfectly natural.
Right. So now biology was running her brain. No doubt she was completely wrong about her suspicions.
“I don’t know.” She struggled to verbalize what she actually thought. “It’s like he’s holding back something. I know he was an operative and that should have made him skilled at being sneaky—”
“Ben wasn’t trained in sneaky. Not his particular specialty.”
“It’s just that any time I bring up the subject he gives a terse reply and changes the topic. Maybe sneaky is the wrong word but evasive fits.”
“Well, I can assure you, I am excellent at my job and I haven’t turned up anything yet. The names are a dead end. The play on combination of names is a dead end. I’ll head out to the hospital where you were born and see what I can find there and let you know how that turns out.”
“I appreciate it.”
“You’re welcome. So should we get back to work?”
Their lunch hour had become more of a lunch afternoon. She probably should accomplish something for him, given that he was tracking down her parents for free.
“There are some payables I can process.”
“That’s sounds so assistant of you. I love it!”
“But—”
“What?”
Anna’s stomach grumbled. “I think I would rather get some dessert first. Ice cream breaks?”
Mark’s jaw dropped. “You can’t be serious. This kid is going to weigh fifty pounds on the way out.”
“It’s just that I—”
“Need it. Yes. Ice cream. Go. Then come back and get those payable things...done, filed, whatever.”
Anna pushed herself out of her chair belly first. She leaned down and brushed his cheek with a light kiss. “Thanks for everything, boss. I mean it.”
“Sure you don’t want to ditch Ben and make me the new object of your affections?”
“I’m sure. But you do make an excellent sounding board. Make sure Sophie knows that about you. It could change a lot.”
Having stalled on a lead in the Anderson case, Mark decided to make good on his promise to Anna to track her parents more aggressively. The truth was, once he knew Ben was pursuing the matter, he didn’t see much point. After all, Ben had more at stake. Finding Anna’s parents would be one more way for him to impress her and win the girl.
Except that he hadn’t. At least not yet.
Mark went to the Holy Mercy hospital and found the administration floor in the basement. The single person working behind the counter was a girl who appeared as though she was barely out of high school. She put down her nail file as soon as he approached her desk.
“Can I help you?”
“Yes, I’m looking for help with a birth certificate that was filed from this hospital. The names on the certificate were actually falsified and I’m trying to find out how that could have happened.”
“I didn’t do it. I mean, I’m really careful when I do those things because they are super important.”
Mark decided this particular interview would be a struggle. “Yes, of course. I know you weren’t involved. I should have been clearer, this certificate was filed more than twenty years ago. Do you have a supervisor or someone who is in charge down here?”
“Yeah. She’s getting coffee. I’ll let her help you because I wouldn’t know about anything more than a week ago. I’m new.”
“Go figure.”
Mark found a chair in the corner of the office and sat to wait. Not two minutes later a middle-aged woman with a square frame and a matching square face entered the room.