Part 15
"There is a message on the SP032 line, Captain." Officer Rand declared from
Harry's door.
"Thank you, Rand." Harry signaled to the officer and he left.
"Let's see what we have here." Harry dialed the number and turned on the
speaker phone.
"This call is for Patrick and Georgia Birch. This is Rebecca from Dr.
Reed's office. He would like to meet with the two of you at your earliest
convenience. Please call and make an appointment as soon as possible."
Harry hung up the phone. "Well, Children, it would appear you made
quite an impression on Dr. Reed yesterday."
"What else would you expect from the best?" Tom asked.
"A little modesty would be nice," Cassy retorted.
"I'm just telling it like it is."
"Save the ego stroking until you close the case. And now that you have an
in with Dr. Reed, hopefully it won't be much longer."
"I'm hoping for that too, Harry." Tom looked directly at Cassy. "Closing
this case is very important to us, right Cassy?"
"Sure thing." Cassy gave Tom a strong warning look. He was practically
egging Harry to ask.
Harry smiled at his two detectives. "I just love dedication."
"What did you think you were doing back there?" Cassy demanded as Tom drove
towards the clinic.
"I don't know what you mean." Tom stopped at a red light and began playing
with the radio looking for a good song.
"You know exactly what I mean. 'Closing this case is very important to us.'
What possessed you to say that? Were you hoping he would ask?"
"Of course not. I don't know why I said it. I'm a complete idiot,
satisfied?"
"No." Cassy frowned as Tom selected a slow country song. She turned the
dial until a Rolling Stone tune filled the car.
"Too bad. Now we need to stop fighting and pretend to be happily married
for Dr. Reed."
"Except for the Dr. Reed part, you could be describing the last month of
our marriage."
"Hi, I'm Rebecca, we spoke on the phone." Rebecca extended her hand to Tom
and he took it. "Dr. Reed is waiting for you." She walked them to his
office and left.
Tom opened the door and found Dr. Reed sitting behind his desk. He stood
up.
"Come in, come in. I'm so glad the two of you could come so quickly."
Cassy took the chair closest to the door. "We are eager to have a baby.
Your time is our time." And our money is your money, Cassy thought to
herself.
Dr. Reed cleared his throat. "Of course. Now, I have conducted a background
check on you..."
"So quickly?" Tom interrupted. "It was only yesterday we gave you our
application."
"True, but with technology the way it is today, we can have vital
information in one-tenth of the time it use to take."
Tom and Cassy looked at each other and wondered how many laws he broke to
obtain this 'vital information'.
Dr. Reed glanced down at the file and smiled. They looked perfect on paper.
They were the right age, the right financial status; even the background he ordered on them came back with no surprises. The Birch's were exactly what they appeared to be: ripe for the picking.
They even looked like an ideal couple. But a closer look told more. One
could see that they weren't all roses and poetry. Georgia Birch looked
sweet and devoted but he'd bet big that she could be a pill at times. 'I
bet Patrick has a tough time keeping her in line,' he thought to himself.
"Like I said, everything looks good so far. As I said before, adopting a
newborn is not cheap."
"And as I said before, doctor, money is not a problem," Tom explained. "We
want a baby, and if we can't get one here, we'll try somewhere else." Tom
stood up, indicating that the meeting was over.
"Mr. Birch, please sit down. You didn't let me finish. As I was saying,
adopting a newborn is not cheap, but with your financial standing, I don't
see this being a problem."
Cassy's face lit up. "Really? Are you sure? Patrick, did you hear that?"
Tom patted her arm. "I heard, Sweetie. Dr. Reed, now that we have
established that we qualify, what will it take to make my wife happy all
the time?"
Dr. Reed was surprised at Patrick's change of attitude. He was not the
pushover he originally thought. Even better, he thought to himself. They
could disregard the emotions and settle down to business.
"I'll tell you what, Mr. Birch. Let me see what we have available and I'll
call you in for another meeting."
Tom stood up and offered his hand to Dr. Reed. "I hope to hear from you
real soon with some good news, or I'll be looking else where. The little
lady here wants a baby, doctor. We hope you can come through for us."
Tom got into the driver seat and started the car. He placed the gear into
drive and realized that Cassy was not in the car, but standing beside it
with her arms folded across her chest.
He reached over and opened the already unlocked door. "Come on Cass.
Get in."
"I don't think so. We are not leaving until I share a few things with you."
Tom exhaled a deep sigh. He knew he performance would not go unnoticed by
Cassy but he was hoping that he could at least leave the parking lot before
she struck.
"Cassy, please get in the car. If Reed sees us fighting then he'll think
that...."
"We are like any ordinary couple? Probably."
"Just get in the car, you can yell at me all the way back to headquarters."
Cassy opened the door and slid in. She slammed the door, which made Tom
cringe. "I have no plans to yell at you Tom. I am a mature adult who can
speak her mind without raising her voice."
"Since when?" he asked as he pulled into traffic.
"Quiet, Ryan. Now, I would just like to know what you hoped to gain by
becoming Clint Eastwood back there. You practically threatened Dr. Reed not
to mention the way you treated me. I kept waiting for you to call me 'the
little woman'.
Tom chuckled. "My mother didn't raise an idiot. I knew full well what would
happen if I called you that."
Tom patted Cassy on the head. She swatted his hand away.
"Come on Cass, don't be like that. I was only playing a part. That is the
goal, isn't it? To persuade Dr. Reed to sell us one of his illegal babies."
"Yes, but what was wrong with the earlier approach of being a nice couple?"
"He still thinks of us as a nice couple but now he also knows we're no
pushovers. Chances are he probably was going to string us along for awhile
while he saw how much he could take us for. By forcing the issue, he has to
be up front or lose a perspective couple."
"And we catch the bad guy before he strikes again. You did good and I
forgive you."
"You never could stay mad at me, especially when I'm buying lunch."
"Nope, never. Drive. I'm starved."
Dr. Brian Reed watched the bickering Birch's until they left and then
picked up the phone and dialed a number.
"Hello?" A woman answered.
"Ashley, it's me."
"Hi, Sweetheart. How did it go with the Birch's today?"
"So far so good. They are the most unusual pair. One second they are all
lovey dovey and the next they are scraping like terriers."
"Does this concern you?"
"Hell no. I don't care what they do as long as the check clears." Brian
smiled to himself.
"Brian, we can't take any chances. We don't know what, if anything, Greer
Richards said before she died."
Brian ran his hand through his hair. "I can't believe we didn't realize how
much she knew."
"She was a smart girl. She knew something was wrong. All those questions
she asked and volunteering to work overtime. Like a Garnett ever needed
money."
Brian stared out his window toward the water. "All because you forgot to
destroy those files in the basement."
"Me? No, Sweetheart, you forgot to destroy those files. But let's not
rehash this again. The point is mistakes were made, and Greer Richards
learned the truth. But we took care of that. Mrs. Richards isn't talking to
anyone, right?"
"Right. I'm just being paranoid. I doubt the Birch's are cops but I'd
better check again, just to be safe."
"Yeah, just to be safe."
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