Six weeks went by. Mostly they were busy weeks; the Ford proposal was going along well, and while it wasn’t a done deal yet it was beginning to look pretty close. It had taken up a great deal of his time, but at least it felt productive.

In some respects, though, it seemed quiet. There had been no hysterical phone calls from Brittany, no snotty phone calls from Blue. If there had been a detective following him, he hadn’t noticed any sign of it, not that there would be much to find out if there was. Mostly, Adam went to work and went back to the apartment, where he watched TV and read books, mostly about sailing; he was finding he was enjoying them, and sometimes he could put his mind a little way into what Matt must have experienced.

About once a week Adam and Deke had a phone conversation, but the content mostly ranged around the fact that nothing seemed to be happening – which, considering Brittany’s obsession, seemed unlikely. There was, of course, the speculation that Brittany might be back in Brookview, but if she was, there hadn’t been any indication of it and Adam wasn’t really interested in finding out. It wasn’t his business, after all, not anymore.

But still, both of them were waiting for the shoe to drop. It had to be coming, but where and when?

The issue was far from his mind as he worked in his office on the Ford proposal one afternoon in the first part of March when he had a call from Marcia. “Adam,” she said. “There’s a woman here named Diane Balch who says she needs to talk to you. She’s from Children’s Protective Services.”

“Isn’t this something HR can handle?”

“She says she wants to talk to you directly.”

“Oh, hell,” he sighed, realizing that there was a good chance he knew what this was all about. It was something he and Deke thought Brittany might try. “Send her in,” he said as he touched the “record” button on his computer.

Adam was not impressed at his first sight of the social worker. She was wearing a business suit, and carried an attitude with her that seemed to say that she was in charge of everything. Even the people he had to deal with from Ford were a lot more personable, even though they swung a hell of a lot bigger stick. Even if he had intended to be helpful, one look at her talked him out of it.

“Mr. Caldwell,” she said in a snotty voice. “I’m here to talk to you about Matthew Caldwell.”

“You sure took your time about it,” he said, sounding as perturbed as he felt. “Matt died last summer.”

“Last summer?” she said, his response having thrown her off her track. She recovered quickly, though. “Oh, I don’t mean that Matthew Caldwell. The Matthew Caldwell I’m talking about was only born in November.”

“I know who you’re talking about,” Adam replied, not wanting to give her any more than he could.

“Mr. Caldwell, our department has received a complaint that the child is being abused, and it’s my duty to get to the bottom of this.”

“Frankly, it’s none of your business,” he said sharply.

“Mr. Caldwell, it’s our job to investigate all complaints of child abuse and take action if necessary. Now, I need some information about what you know about him.”

“Like I said, it’s none of your business. What do you actually know of the facts of the matter?”

“Not much, other than there’s a been a complaint, so we have to investigate it.”

“As I thought, it’s none of your business. Let me inform you of a few facts of the matter. The first, and most important, is that the child is not in your jurisdiction. He is not in this state, and he is not in this country.”

“Do you know when he will be back in the area?”

“Not for at least seventeen years and eight months,” Adam replied with a smile. “After that, no promises. His mother is aware of the unfounded accusations being made against her, and does not intend to let him into your jurisdiction until he is of age. Miss, uh, Balch, there are a few other facts you should be aware of. The Caldwell boy, who happens to be my grandson, is the son of a woman who is a Canadian citizen. He was born on Canadian soil, and therefore he is a Canadian citizen himself. And he is a Canadian resident. Therefore, you have no jurisdiction. Good day.”

“Wait a minute, sir. If there are accusations, it’s our duty to pass them along to the appropriate local authorities. We need your help in locating the child.”

“Not a chance,” he said. “I don’t know where he is myself, and if I did, I wouldn’t tell you. Do you know anything about the complaint?”

“Only that there was a report of abuse. I couldn’t say anything more than that if I wanted to.”

“Right, hide behind your rules and ignore the facts. I happen to know that the boy is being well cared for by an incredibly loving woman. I know the complaint you received was from a woman who is a recent mental patient and probably should still be one. Her only intent is to take the child away from his mother by any means possible. On the only two occasions she met the boy’s mother she was extremely rude and insulting to her, so the mother does not want the complainant to have any contact with her son. I do not blame her in the slightest. Those, miss, are the facts. If you have any more questions for me, you will have to direct them through my attorney.”

“Mr. Caldwell, I can get a subpoena to force you to give up his location.”

“Ask for all the subpoenas you want. The final fact of the matter is that I do not know his location. And, considering the fact that there are people like you running around and being paid by the idiot legislature of this state, I don’t want to know where he is and won’t attempt to find out. Now, my attorney is Dennis Hampton. You can find his number in the phone book. Now, good day.”

“Mr. Caldwell, I don’t intend to leave until I get to the bottom of this.”

“You are at the bottom of it,” he said, and turned to the intercom. He touched a button and said, “Marcia, call Security, pronto.”

“Yes sir.”

“Now, as I said, good day, Miss Balch. Go find some drug dealer to harass about the way he’s treating his kids.”

The social worker stomped out of his office before Security arrived, but if Marcia was on the ball at all the guards would be escorting her out of the plant. He had no doubt Marcia was on the ball; she always was. Not for the first time he reflected that he’d have liked to have met Marcia before she married John and before he married Brittany.

Within a minute Adam was on the phone to Deke, and playing back the recording from his computer. “I’m not surprised it took them so long,” Deke’s first comment was. “In fact, showing up this soon is quick work for them. But Adam, you could have been a little nicer to her. Not that everything you said wasn’t right down the line, but you probably pissed her off.”

“Hell, she pissed me off with that attitude of hers, like she owned the goddamn building,” he replied, still feeling a little hot.

“Be that as it may, this is probably going to cause trouble.”

“So it causes trouble. I’ve had to deal with those bastards before, especially when I was working in HR. They want to know everything but won’t tell you anything about their sources, even when the story is total bullshit. You know goddamn well that if I said anything the first thing they’d do is blab Matty’s location to Brittany. Let them get their damn subpoenas, I can’t tell them anything I don’t know.”

“I’ll try to cool them off,” Deke sighed. “I know the supervisor there. I can file a complaint about unprofessional conduct, especially since you have the recording. She should have shut up as soon as you told her to contact me, but she chose to make a threat instead. It won’t wash, but it will counter her complaint if we move quickly enough. That ought to be the end of it, but don’t lose the recording.”

“I’ll e-mail you the file right away,” Adam told him.

“Good. That may send the message that this will be more trouble than it’s worth. They don’t like tough ones. They prefer to attack people who can’t or won’t defend themselves.”

“Too well I know from my days in HR. I could tell stories but you’ve probably heard better ones.”

“Probably true. I’ll keep you informed about what happens.”

For the next several days Adam expected to be met by a process server at almost any point, but none ever showed up. Apparently either Deke made his point, or they decided it was too tough a nut to crack, considering the fact that Matty was out of the country. After several days, Adam quit worrying about it very much. Maybe if he was lucky, he thought, they’d be a few weeks before reporting back to Brittany, which meant that she’d then probably try something else.

Another month went by. Caldwell-Deerfield wound up getting the Ford job, which was a relief. Adam was informed somewhat off the record that it had been very close, with the final decision hinging more on the company’s good quality control record, rather than price. It just showed that the efforts they’d put into quality control the last few years were paying off.

It was going to mean a busy couple months of getting things rearranged to put the job into the Meridian plant and moving a couple smaller jobs elsewhere. While the real work was going to have to be done at lower levels in the company there was still plenty of work for Adam in the process. Since it was going to involve new machinery and new hiring in Meridian, there was a local property tax exemption that had to be applied for, and more hoops to jump through, although worthwhile ones to the Caldwell-Deerfield bottom line.

The tax exemption procedure was more complicated and more political than it needed to be, and Adam had just finished a phone call with the Meridian city manager when Marcia buzzed him. “Mr. Hampton called for you, but I told him you were tied up on an important phone call. He wants you to call him back as soon as possible but he doesn’t think it’s an emergency.”

“Well, that’s good news anyway. I’ll get back with him as soon as I get done batting out a memo on this.”

It took several minutes before Adam was able to call Deke. “So what’s up?” he asked.

“That’s what I’d like to know. I had a call from Howard Blue a little while ago. He’d like to talk to you directly. He swears it doesn’t have anything to do with the divorce or Matty.”

“I don’t see any harm in talking with him under those restrictions. But it could slide into those areas real quickly,” Adam said, wondering a little himself about what was going on. “I guess I’d have to say I’d be willing to meet with him if you were present.”

“That’s roughly what I told him, but I said I’d have to run it past you. Would you like me to set up an appointment with him?”

Right at the moment Adam was extremely busy, but could make time if he had to; after all, working evenings to catch up was more interesting than sitting in the apartment and watching the trash on TV. “Sure,” he said. “Work out the timing with Marcia. I’ll let her know what’s up.”

A couple of days later Adam was at the meeting in Deke’s tastefully and expensively appointed office, which smelled of leather and law books. “So, Mr. Blue,” Deke started off the meeting. “What’s this all about?”

“Actually, I suppose I’m stepping over the line to be doing this,” the young attorney said. “This is a little out of my experience, and I’m really looking for advice more than anything else. I’m getting a little concerned about Mrs. Caldwell. Well, more than a little concerned.”

“How’s that?” Deke asked.

“She seems totally focused on her search for the boy . . .”

“I told you we’re not going to get into that,” Deke interrupted.

“This isn’t about that. The point is, that she’s put so much of her attention into her search that she doesn’t seem to have any interest in anything else, but the other day she complained to me that the power company is getting set to turn off the power for non-payment. After a little investigation, it turns out that isn’t the only bill she hasn’t been paying.”

“She’s receiving her checks on the schedule we agreed to.” Deke said.

“I don’t doubt it, but she says she doesn’t have any money. Just between us, I think it’s getting funneled into a private detective agency, but she says they’re not telling her anything either.”

“Interesting,” Deke smiled. “Adam, have you seen any evidence of detectives snooping around you?”

“Not that I’m aware of,” Adam replied. “I suppose I could have been followed without my noticing, or a tap placed on my phone or something. But I haven’t been contacted, and I don’t think my secretary has. If someone had been snooping around and contacted her, she would have let me know. But that would settle the question of why Brittany doesn’t have any money.”

“I suspect you’re right,” Blue said. “I don’t want to call myself the suspicious type, but it could well be that she’s working with some fly-by-night agency that’s glad to take her money and not do anything substantive.”

“Do you have any idea what agency?” Deke asked. “I know there are some around that have that kind of reputation.”

“No, I don’t,” Blue told them. “I’m just inferring that from some things she’s said. Totally off the record, Mr. Caldwell, but your wife is a hard woman to deal with.”

“You’re not telling me anything I haven’t known for a good many years,” Adam nodded. “When we set up the settlement, we purposely designed it to make her affairs as simple for her to handle as possible. Once a month she has to sit down and write a few checks for utilities and things like that. Apparently she hasn’t been doing it.”

“I’d guess not,” Blue agreed. “The question is, should we do anything? If so, what?”

“To tell the truth, I don’t want to see her getting into that kind of trouble,” Adam told him. “But I don’t know if there’s anything we could do.”

“I had an idea,” Blue said. “I thought maybe you would be willing to take over those routine functions.”

“Irrespective of the legal angle, I did that for twenty-five years and I’m not interested in doing it anymore. That’s part of what the divorce was all about, after all.”

“I agree it would be unwise,” Deke nodded. “And I’m thinking of it from a legal standpoint, especially considering that the divorce hasn’t been finalized. It would be a very touchy area with too much potential for conflict. Have you given consideration to finding a conservator?”

“Well, yes,” Blue said. “But I thought it might be less expensive if Mr. Caldwell were willing to take on the role. But yes, I could see how it could cause problems. Mr. Caldwell, if I were to find a conservator to handle those affairs, would you be willing to work with him to get them going on the right track?”

“I suppose I could do that,” Adam agreed. “But only in an unofficial and advisory capacity.”

“That strikes me as a good idea,” Deke said. “Mr. Blue, I know of several attorneys who would be willing to take that chore on for a reasonable fee. I shouldn’t be involved with that, of course, other than giving you a list of names.”

“I’d appreciate the assistance,” Blue said. “This is something I haven’t yet encountered.”

“It won’t be the last time,” Deke smiled. “And you might find that this case is relatively easy compared to some you may run into.”

“I suspect you’re right,” the young attorney sighed. “I’m not sure how I’d get her to agree to a conservatorship, though. I don’t think I should be the one to start an action. Mr. Caldwell, you’d be the likely person to do that.”

“Under some circumstances, perhaps,” Deke said. “But not until the divorce is final. It would very inappropriate, and I would advise against it very strongly. But, Mr. Blue, if you play to her obsession, you could get her to request a court-appointed conservator.”

“I don’t know how I’d do that.”

“If you handled it right it ought to be pretty simple. We all agree that she has a very strong obsession about finding the boy. In fact, it’s such a strong obsession that under other circumstances I’d think a commitment action ought to be considered, but again it would be inappropriate for Mr. Caldwell to be the one to seek it.”

“That was one thing I thought about,” Blue sighed. “But yes, I can see why you would object. I’d object to it myself if it were to come up, not that someone couldn’t make a pretty good case for it. But I don’t see how I could get her to request a conservatorship.”

Deke got a smile on his face. “Adam, you have more experience with her than I have. I think I know what I’d say, but let’s see what you suggest.”

“Like Deke said, it ought to be easy,” Adam replied, trying to hide his grin. “We all know she has this obsession for getting custody of the boy, correct? You’re just tell her that if she doesn’t have a home to take the boy to if and when she gets custody, she’s not going to get custody when she finds him.”

“I see,” Blue smiled. “And then I suggest a way she can be sure of keeping her home by getting someone to handle those details for her.”

“She’ll jump all over it,” Adam agreed. “And I agree that making some kind of arrangement to handle this is necessary. I do not hate Mrs. Caldwell, counselor. I just don’t want to have anything more to do with her. I do not want to see her living as a bag lady out on the streets somewhere, and in spite of everything I have respect for her, which is why we proposed a settlement that is in some respects unfavorable to me. I could have forced through a settlement based on the prenuptial agreement, and we wouldn’t be having this conversation since she’d be a bag lady already. Even though I’m of the opinion that she probably ought to be committed for her own good, I would think it would be wise to have a conservatorship arrangement in place in case the need arises in the future for her to be committed again.”

“Well said, Adam,” Deke smiled. “That covered several points I thoroughly agree with. In fact, Mr. Blue, I ought to point out that if a conservatorship petition is properly worded, it would give the conservator the power to petition a court for commitment for her should he think it necessary. That would take the responsibility away from Mr. Caldwell and place it in the hands of an independent representative. That is not a responsibility he should have to bear, but I believe he’d be the only person available to do it, with the exception of her parents, whom as far as I understand are not in good shape and who do not have much contact with her.”

“Very little,” Adam said. “I mean, unless things have changed in the months since I’ve had any contact with Mrs. Caldwell.”

“I think you probably have a point on that,” Blue conceded. “I need to do a little research on this, but it seems like a good way to handle the whole situation. I’m glad I thought to ask you for advice on this.”

“Feel free to get hold of me on this at any time,” Deke smiled. “Of course, we can’t get into the question of the location of the boy, but I think Mr. Caldwell would be willing to cooperate in any way possible in this matter, in an unofficial and advisory capacity, of course.”

“Well, thank you for your time and assistance, and I’ll be in touch. If you’re right, this ought to turn out to be a simple answer to several problems.”

“Oh, I’m sure it will,” Adam replied. “Thank you for bringing it to our attention.”

“Like I said, call me if you need assistance,” Deke said. “Adam, stick around for a minute, there’s another matter I need to talk to you about as long as you’re here.”

Adam and Deke spent a couple minutes talking about golf until they were sure that Blue had left the building. “Boy,” Deke shook his head. “Don’t you just love it when things fall into your hands like that?”

“No fooling,” Adam smiled. “If there are detectives following me they haven’t learned anything about Matty.”

“Actually, I give Blue some points for caring about his client above and beyond what he had to do,” Adam replied thoughtfully. “He really is trying to help, and up to a point we’re on the same side. When we get through this, I’m going to have to do something nice for him sometime. He actually strikes me as fairly sharp. He’s just wet behind the ears, that’s all.”

“We got a little lucky on that.”

“More than a little. I figured detectives would get into the question sooner or later. Those guys are like anyone else, like those bozos from Children’s Protective Services. They can be hell on the easy ones but don’t like to get involved in the hard ones, especially if they can see there isn’t much chance they’re going to get anywhere. In any case, the threat from them is considerably reduced. Those guys like to be paid up front, and if this thing goes through, Brittany isn’t going to have much money to pay them with until a conservator gets her financial affairs straightened out. Then, her resources will still be limited. That couldn’t have worked out any better if I’d planned it that way.”

“I think so too,” Adam grinned. “Really, it’s to everybody’s advantage, especially hers.”

“No fooling, especially in case it comes down to a commitment hearing. I wouldn’t want to be in the middle on that one, and that’s right where we would be if it had to happen and the need wasn’t stunningly obvious. I just hope he can sell it to her.”

“If he approaches her the right way, she’ll be all over it so fast it won’t be funny, especially if he doesn’t go into the details.”

“He ought to be smart enough to figure that out. At least, I hope. This one is going to be out of our hands, and about all we can do is keep our fingers crossed. But I wouldn’t be surprised if it goes through fairly quickly.”

“Well, keep an ear to the ground and let me know what you find out.”

While it wasn’t a done deal – at least not yet – Adam left the building feeling like a considerable weight had been taken from his shoulders. He would still have to be careful, but he didn’t think he needed to be quite as paranoid as he had been about Brittany getting information that could lead her to Mary and Matty.

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