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her.
    â€œHow did you get this?”
    â€œIt’s a long story.” I wasn’t in the mood to dazzle her with tales of my brilliance.
    â€œSo have you found Doug?” she asked as she tried to hand the photo back to me. She didn’t seem to know what to think now. On the one hand, here I was showing her concrete evidence of progress; on the other hand, I was wearing my surly mood on my sleeve.
    I didn’t take the picture back. “Why don’t you look a little more closely.”
    She did as I instructed, her brow furrowing as she inspected the photo, but she didn’t catch on to what was bothering me.
    â€œLook at his hand on your hip,” I told her with thinly veiled annoyance.
    A soft little “oh” escaped her lips when she finally understood. She licked her lips and averted her gaze. This time, when she handed the photo back, I took it.
    â€œYou told me he wasn’t wearing a ring,” I said, just to hammer home the point.
    She winced and flashed me a look that was half guilty, half sheepish. But there was something else behind it, something that looked like alarm, maybe even fear.
    â€œI’m sorry,” she said. “I was ashamed of myself for hooking up with a married man. I didn’t want you to know.” Her hands were still folded in her lap, but I could see the tension in her fingers. Her knuckles were turning white with how hard she was clenching those fingers together.
    I’ll admit, I can see why someone might want to conceal the fact that she’d had a one-night stand with a man she knew was married. But this same woman had admitted she’d had a one-night stand with some guy she’d met in a bar when she was drunk, and she’d admitted she was pregnant. Something about this whole scenario wasn’t right, and I was determined to find out what it was.
    â€œI don’t work for clients who lie to me,” I lied, just to see how she would respond. “Good luck finding someone else to take this case.” I started to rise, and Heather leapt to her feet so fast she practically knocked the coffee table over. Her face had drained of color, and her eyes were wide with what looked an awful lot like fear.
    â€œOh, please don’t quit,” she begged, grabbing hold of my arm. Even through the fabric of my sleeve, I could feel how cold her hand was. “I’m sorry I lied to you. I was afraid you’d turn me down if you knew, and I didn’t think it would hurt to keep that one little detail to myself.”
    One little detail, my ass. Her face was still a bloodless white, and there was a sheen of perspiration on her upper lip. If Doug’s marital status was the only little detail she’d left out, I was Captain Kangaroo.
    â€œWhat are you so afraid of, Heather?” I asked. I was frankly mystified by her reactions, by her apparent desperation.
    Heather let go of my arm and forced a laugh that, rather than making her seem more at ease, as she wanted, made her seem that much more nervous. “You’re my best hope of finding Doug,” she said, talking a little too fast. “No one else would even take the case, and you not only took it but somehow found a photo of him. I couldn’t bear it if you dropped the case because of a stupid white lie.”
    If this was her bid to make me think she wasn’t afraid, it had exactly the opposite effect. She practically vibrated with fear and desperation. I didn’t know why she wanted to find Doug, but it wasn’t because she wanted to find the father of her child-to-be. It wasn’t even because she wanted a sugar daddy. I have to admit, as pissed as I was, I was also intrigued.
    â€œIf you want me to keep looking for Doug, then you’re going to have to tell me the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,” I warned her. “Whatever it is you’re hiding may be the one big clue I need to track him