Imagine my surprise then when that wasn’t the case with Christine. She had a social media page, but it was set to private. That complicated matters for me. Unfortunately, only a tiny snippet of information was available for me to see.

  Before I got off the internet, I performed one more search. This time on a social media service that was based around making work connections. I was able to find a little more information there. Most notably, Christine’s current workplace.

  My plan was to drive to Oak Canyon and pay her a visit at her workplace.

  Chapter Four

  As I hit the road, my mind began to wander. That wasn’t surprising. My thoughts always seem to drift off on car trips. Although, sometimes the scenery provided me with a sufficient distraction.

  Not this time.

  With an investigation like this, it was almost impossible not to make comparisons to my own family. Jim had experienced some profound loss in his life, but so had I. Losing my father was devastating. That was why my heart went out to Jim so much. Having one parent die on me was a punch to the gut. If I didn’t have my father or my mother, I would be inconsolable.

  In Jim’s case, the fact that he was adopted provided him with a unique opportunity. If he was able to reconnect with his birth mother, it might fill the terrible void that was in his life. The man was desperate for any sense of connection.

  Typically, desperation led to some poor decision making. That could lead to even more heartbreak. There was an inherent risk in an action like this.

  He knew that. And he decided to take this course of action anyway. I sure hoped that it worked out for him.

  Rather than imagining worst-case scenarios, I decided to focus on the positive. I had a really good track record with these types of cases. I wanted to keep my streak going.

  ***

  The next hour breezed on by. Before I knew it, I had arrived in the town of Oak Canyon. I parked in front of Oak Canyon Bank. That was where Christine Aldridge worked.

  From there, I could begin a stakeout. Or, I could head straight into the bank. With most cases, I liked to hang back and observe. If I could get away with going through the entire case without speaking to the person I was investigating, I would do that.

  For whatever reason, my gut was telling me to take a different approach this time around. I felt compelled to speak with Christine in person. To get to know her a little.

  Christine’s job made meeting her pretty easy. It was part of her job description to speak with members of the public. I would use that to my advantage.

  ***

  After taking a few moments to compose myself, I got out of my car and walked into the bank. When I entered the lobby, I immediately asked to speak with Christine.

  A few minutes later, a tall woman in her early forties approached me. This was definitely Christine. I could tell just by looking at her that she was Jim’s birth mother. She didn’t even have to introduce herself. It was incredible how much Jim and Christine looked alike.

  Granted, parents and kids often had a close resemblance, but this time, it was striking. After all, a kid normally inherited certain traits from each of their parents. In Jim’s case, it appeared that every physical aspect of his appearance had come directly from his mother. It was as if none of his birth father’s genes had been passed on.

  While I was taken aback by Christine’s uncanny resemblance to Jim, Christine addressed me.

  “Can I help you?” she asked.

  “I sure hope so. Are you Christine?”

  She nodded. “Yes. And you are?”

  “My name is Melody Clue.”

  “Wow. What an interesting name.”

  “I hear that a lot.”

  “I’ll bet. Anyway, what can I do for you?”

  “I hear you’re the loan officer at this bank.”

  “I am. Are you here to apply for a loan?”

  “Currently, I’m just shopping around. I want to get as much information as possible before I settle on anything.”

  “I certainly understand. Applying for a loan is a big step. You want to be as prepared as possible before taking any huge steps.”

  “I couldn’t agree more.”

  Christine pointed to the left. “Why don’t you step into my office?”

  I followed her into a sparsely-decorated office. It was actually pretty incredible what few items were inside. There was a desk, a few chairs, a computer, a phone, and not much else.

  For example, I didn’t see any picture frames. To me, that was odd. Did she prefer to keep her professional life and her private life completely separate? Or did this bank branch just not allow its employees to display frames? Either way, there were no pictures in sight.

  In addition, even though her smart phone was in front of her on her desk, it was on sleep mode. That meant that I couldn’t see the home screen. What a shame. What if she had a family photo there?

  Another interesting detail was the fact that she wasn’t wearing a ring on her finger. Did that mean she was single? If so, I was confused. After all, her maiden name was Dunbar. Yet, in her online profile, her name was listed as Christine Dunbar-Aldridge. Maybe she was married, but she was in the process of getting a divorce. Or, perhaps I was jumping to wild conclusions. There was one way to find out.

  I needed to ask her some questions. Unfortunately, while my mind was drifting off into the clouds, she seemed to be in a hurry to go over loan information with me.

  “Are you interested in a home loan, a business loan, or a personal loan?”

  “A home loan.”

  “Good. You’re in luck.”

  “Oh yeah?”

  She nodded.

  “Why?”

  “We’re currently offering a 3.65% fixed rate on our thirty-year mortgage. That is incredibly low.”

  “I’ll take your word for it.”

  “Trust me. I’ve been in this business a long time. Rates this good don’t come around very often.”

  “That’s good to know.”

  “If I were you, I would jump on this right now. There’s no telling how long it will last.”

  “Well, I’ll definitely give it some thought.”

  At that point, I really wanted to steer the conversation away from mortgage talk. I wanted to get some personal information out of her. The quicker I could change the subject, the better.

  What I failed to realize was how persistent Christine was.

  “Look. You’re already here. If I were you, I’d fill out an application.”

  I grimaced. “Yeah. I’m not really in the position to do that right now.”

  “Why not?”

  “Let me ask you something.”

  “Okay. What is it?”

  “Are you married?”

  “Yes.” She scrunched her nose at me. “Why do you ask?”

  “Are you happily married?”

  She tensed up. “That’s a really personal question.”

  “Sorry if that makes you uncomfortable.”

  “I’m not uncomfortable. I’m just confused. What does my personal life have to do with you applying for a loan?”

  I didn’t like lying during the course of an investigation, but sometimes that was the best way to get results.

  “I have a really strong marriage,” I said. “And I want things to stay that way.”

  She stared me down. “Okay. I’m still not following you.”

  “If my husband found out that I filled out a loan application without telling him, he’d freak out.”

  “Oh, I get it. Yeah, you’re right. It’s probably best to let your spouse know something like that ahead of time.”

  “That’s what I think. For example, imagine if you applied for a home loan without telling your husband. How would he react?”

  “He’d probably be very confused. After all, we already have a home.”

  “In that case, he probably would be scratching his head.”

  “Yeah, he’d think that I had gone crazy.”

  I opened my mouth to reply, but before I was able to get any words out, Christine continued speaking.

  “Now, enough about me. Back to you. Here’s an idea. You could always call your husband and tell him about how great the rates are right now.”

  Uh-oh. She had inadvertently put me in a tough position. I couldn’t very well call a husband that I didn’t have. I needed to change the subject. And fast.

  “I think this is something that I need to speak to him about in person.”

  “I get it.”

  I breathed a sigh of relief. “Good.”

  “Why don’t you tell him to come down here?”

  Unfortunately, I had to scramble to come up with another lie. “He’s at work,” I said.

  “What a shame.”

  “I’ll be happy to take the information and share it with him, though. We have plenty to talk about tonight.”

  “I’ll bet you do.”

  “I meant, more than just a mortgage.”

  Christine shrugged. “What else?”

  I had already told a bunch of different lies during that conversation. I figured it couldn’t hurt to go one step further.

  “I really want to have kids and I think now is the time to get serious about having a baby.”

  “Wow, that is a huge decision.”

  “I know. But I think we’re ready,” I said. “Do you have any kids?”

  Christine tensed up again. She really didn’t seem to like personal questions. I wasn’t sure why.

  Not that it really mattered. The important thing was that she gave me an answer.

  Just as Christine opened her mouth to give me a reply, a balding man in a business suit entered her office.

  “Christine, you’re needed in the conference room.” The man then spotted me. “Oh, sorry. I didn’t realize you were meeting with someone.”

  “That’s quite all right. I was just giving Mrs. Clue some information about our loan rates. I’ll just give her a packet featuring the paperwork and then I’ll head over to the conference room,” Christine said.

  “Great,” the man replied. The man then left her office.

  Christine grabbed a folder from her desk and handed it to me. “Here’s all of the loan info. If you and your husband decide that you want to fill out an application, be sure to come back in and see me.”

  “All right. Will do,” I said.

  She outstretched her hand. “It was nice meeting you. I hope you have a good rest of your day.”

  Chapter Five

  Talk about an abrupt end to a conversation. And not just because Christine was needed in the conference room. Her entire demeanor completely changed when I asked her if she had children. From that point on, she seemed like she was in a hurry to rush me out of her office. That was a stark contrast to how the conversation had begun. Honestly, for a while, I felt like she wasn’t about to let me leave her office without filling out a loan application.

  The question became, why did the question about children make her so uncomfortable? Did it make her think about the child that she had given up for adoption?

  Perhaps.

  Then again, maybe something else caused her discomfort. Unfortunately, I had no way of knowing. Not at the moment. That could certainly change. I would add it to the list of things that I wanted to figure out.

  Of course, I could have just let things go. Honestly, I could have packed up shop and headed back to Majestic Cove. Technically, Jim had just hired me to find his birth mother. Not only had I done that, but I had also spoken to her.

  If I felt like it, I could have called up Jim, given him all of the information I had, and then invoiced him for my time.

  I wasn’t about to do that, however. I wanted to be a little more thorough. It felt like the right thing to do. Not just for me, but also for my client. It definitely wouldn’t hurt to gather more information. Besides, this case was a little unique. It involved travel. Before I left Oak Canyon, I wanted to be sure that I wasn’t missing anything. An hour wasn’t too far to drive, but it was just far enough that I wouldn’t want to make a return trip here unless it was absolutely necessary.

  Finally, and most importantly, my gut was acting up on me. My instincts were telling me there was more to this story than there appeared to be. So, if Jim was determined to meet his birth mother, I wanted him to be as prepared as possible.

  On a personal note, I also was curious about why Christine had tried to avoid all of the personal questions I had thrown her way.

  There was a chance that I was just being overly suspicious. Then again, I was often spot-on. Ultimately, it wasn’t going to inconvenience me too much to do a little more investigating. After all, I had already driven all the way here.

  As I sat in my car, I knew that I’d probably be waiting a while before anything vaguely interesting happened. That didn’t bother me. I was used to stakeouts. They were probably the most common activity at my job.

  Since this was hardly my first time, I knew a bunch of ways to keep myself occupied. I started by going through some e-mail on my phone. After that, I scrolled through my social media newsfeed.

  That killed some time.

  In fact, I only made it halfway through those activities when I saw Christine exiting the bank. By that point, a number of hours had gone by. What can I say? I had been so busy lately that I had a lot of e-mails to catch up on.

  Enough about my inbox, though. Christine leaving the bank was infinitely more important. The loan officer headed out to the parking lot, got into her car, and drove east.

  I fired up the ignition of my car and followed her.

  She didn’t end up going very far. In total, she drove about five blocks before she stopped at a local sandwich shop.

  A question immediately popped into my mind. Was she meeting someone there? For example, her husband? Or a friend?

  It appeared that I had gotten ahead of myself. She just got in line by herself, ordered some food, and then grabbed her sandwich a few minutes later.

  After that, she headed for the exit.

  It was a good guess that she would head back to her car and return to work.

  Since I had already spoken to her once in her office, it would be difficult to justify a second visit. Especially if I didn’t have a man by my side. After all, I had told her that I needed to talk things over with my husband.

  With all of the lying that I had done in Christine’s office, I had no interest in going back there.

  I had a much different opinion about speaking to her outside of her workplace. What if I got out of my car, walked toward her, and just pretended that we were seeing each other completely by accident? Perhaps then she would be more open to talking to me. She might even be in a more candid mood.

  In my mind, it was worth a try. I quickly got out of my car and began approaching her.

  However, before I was able to reach her, the universe threw a curveball my way.

  Her phone rang. She immediately grabbed her phone from her purse and checked the caller identification screen. Christine then took the call.

  Much to my chagrin, it didn’t happen to be just any call. It was a special one.

  Christine spoke into her phone. “Mom, what an unexpected treat. What’s up?”

  So much for my plan of having a candid conversation with Christine. It wouldn’t do me any good to pretend that we were running into each other by chance.

  Honestly, with Christine engrossed in a phone call with her mother, she didn’t even see me walking toward her. The woman was completely distracted. To the point where my plan seemed like a big waste.

  Let’s suppose she did spot me. Was she really going to stop her conversation with her mother to have a chat with me, a woman she had only met a few hours before? That was doubtful. Even if she did say hello and say a few more words to me, we wouldn’t be able to talk extensively.

  With all of that in mind, it wasn’t worth going through with my plan. In a way, it was a good thing that Christine was distracted by her phone call. I was able to turn around and head back to my car without her noticing me. That meant my cover wasn’t blown.

  As Christine continued her phone conversation, she headed back to her car. From there, she drove back to the bank where she resumed her work day.

  “So much for catching a break,” I said to myself.

  Chapter Six

  The next few hours ended up being quite boring for me. I sat in the driver’s seat of my car, staked out in front of the bank.

  By the time that Christine’s work day came to an end, I was bored out of my mind. Even social media couldn’t distract me anymore. That was saying a lot.

  Shortly after five o’clock, Christine left work. I was curious to see if she was going to head straight home.

  I would certainly find out soon enough. I followed her every move. As I tailed her car, I began to wonder if all of this extra effort would amount to anything.

  Christine made a brief stop at the grocery store before heading to a residential stretch of Oak Canyon. She turned right onto a leafy street that was lined with ranch-style homes.

  Christine pulled her car into the driveway of a blue-colored home. She then got out of her car, grabbed her grocery bag and purse, and walked up to her doorway.

  At that point, I had a decision to make. I could have gotten out of my car and crept up to the front of her house and hid behind some bushes.

  That was a really risky move. Mostly because it was still daylight. There were a lot of other houses on the street. All it would take to blow my cover was for one of Christine’s neighbors to spot me. Then, I’d have some serious explaining to do.

  In addition, since Christine mentioned that she had a husband, there was a pretty good chance that he would be arriving home from work soon as well. Even if I was wrong about that, I still felt more comfortable waiting until nightfall to get out of my car.

  ***

  Just as I expected, my instincts were proven correct. Less than half an hour after Christine arrived home, a red sedan pulled into her driveway. A tall and athletic-looking man in his early forties got out of the car. The man went up the walkway, entered the home, and closed the door behind him.