Luck Be a Lady - Cathie Linz [15]
“Did he say why?”
“I don’t care why.”
“His reasons might be helpful in your investigation. You really should talk to him. He’s probably worried about you and is looking for you at the hotel right now. You should call him.”
She pulled out her phone, which she’d set to go directly to voice mail during the drive to the restaurant. There were ten calls from her father. She didn’t bother listening to his voice messages, instead texting him a brief message. She used their secret code word, something the family had added after Faith had received a fake text from her father during an investigation into Caine’s father’s death.
“There.” She set her BlackBerry on the table. “I let him know I’m okay.” Which was a lie. She didn’t feel okay at all.
“What about your mom? What else do you know about her? Do you have a photograph of her?”
“I thought she died more than twenty-five years ago. So, no, I don’t travel with her photo. I have a framed picture of her at home.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to wait until you get home to investigate?”
“I can’t.”
“Why not? Like you said, you believed she’s been dead for over twenty-five years. What difference will a few more days make?”
“What if she dies or something before I find her?”
“Why jump to a worst-case scenario?”
“My cousin does that.” Megan’s voice was unsteady. “She’s the one who uses the worst-case scenario. Or she used to. I’m the optimist in the family. Or I used to be.”
“Then use that optimism now. Your family owns the biggest investigative firm in Chicago. Get them to find her for you.”
“Like I said, they’re the ones who hid her from me and lied about her being dead. I can’t trust anything they’d tell me about this. Faith would help me, but she’ll be on her honeymoon.” She looked at him with new eyes. “If you hadn’t barged into Faith’s wedding with the news about Buddy still being married, then my uncle wouldn’t have gotten drunk and let slip the news about my mom.”
He raised an eyebrow. “So now you’re trying to blame me? That’s not very logical.”
“You wouldn’t be logical either if the mom you thought had died when you were a child is really alive. My dead mother is alive. We’re not doing logical. Logical isn’t even on the menu!”
He gave her a minute to catch her breath after her outburst. “Feel better now?”
“Not really.” At least she hadn’t pounded her fist on the table.
Logan returned to his bossy cop ways as he said, “Give me your mother’s name, date of birth and Social Security number.”
She gave him a scathing look. “Do you know your mom’s Social Security number?”
“Yes.”
“You’re weird.”
“I don’t need to help you, you know.”
“Never mind. I’ll have Buddy help me. He’s a PI.”
“A PI pushing eighty. You are notdragging my grandfather into this mess. He’s got enough problems of his own to deal with right now. Come on, tell me what you know.” His voice lost the cop edge and became more conciliatory. “Start with her name.”
“Astrid West.”
“That was her married name. What about her maiden name?”
“Astrid Meyer. She was born in Germany. She came to this country with her parents when she was ten. They were killed in a car crash when she was eighteen.”
“What’s her date of birth?”
“4-4-51.”
“Okay, let’s see what we can find.” He got on the Internet and checked several databases. There were a couple of matches to Astrid Meyer with her date of birth, but he narrowed it down until he located her information. “I found her naturalization papers making her an American citizen, her marriage license and the divorce decree.”
Divorce? Megan’s psyche took another blow. Only a few hours ago, she and her dad had been on the dance floor, talking about her parent’s wedding and how he was a one-woman man. How Megan’s mother had been his soul mate. Had it all been a lie? Had all the stories she’d been told about her parents’ life