Page 41 of Maddy's Justice

“I don’t know what’s going on,” Marc told her. “Cliff Spenser wants to take me to lunch at Minikahda.”

“Really? Why just you?”

“Don’t know. He said to keep it just the guys today,” Marc answered.

“Maybe they’re hard up for new members,” Connie said.

Marc laughed and said, “I told him I adhered to the Groucho Marx theory of club memberships.”

Connie smiled and said, “He had it right.”

She pointed at the stack of papers on his desk and asked, “You haven’t touched this, have you?”

“Well,” Marc hesitated, “um, I did push it out of the way. Does that count as touching it?”

Connie shook her head, stood up and picked up the documents with her empty hand.

“I’ll give it to Jeff. He and the new girl can go through it when she starts and see if they can find any useful little nuggets.”

“You sure you want to lay that on the new clerk? She may leave,” Marc said.

As Connie was leaving Marc’s office, Carolyn yelled through the open door.

“Maddy’s on line two. She’s gonna yell at you for having your phone turned off. She’s been trying to call.”

“Oops,” Marc quietly said. “I got it!” he yelled back.

“Hi,” he said answering Maddy’s call.

“Turn your phone on,” Maddy said.

“Call the office number…”

“I finally did.”

“…they like talking to you more than they like talking to me anyway.”

“I’m on my way to meet with Phillip Hayden, Faye Hayden’s ex,” Maddy said.

“Have you talked to him? Did you tell him what you want?” Marc asked.

“I was a little vague. I did mention it was about Faye. He didn’t seem really anxious to talk,” Maddy answered.

“Where are you meeting him?”

“Fuddruckers, the one in Bloomington on France off 494. I’ll buy him lunch. He’s a financial advisor for Ameriprise. His office is close to it, he says. I’ll drop by your office after.”

Marc almost told her he might not be back from lunch with the Stafford, Hughes lawyers. Instead he let it go. Maddy could always interrupt everyone anyway.

Maddy made her way through the semi-crowded restaurant. She had looked up Phillip Hayden’s professional, Ameriprise online entry and found his photo. Spotting him at a table by himself she quickly joined him.

“Hi,” she said to the man, “are you Phillip?”

“Yes, and you must be Maddy Rivers,” he replied.

Maddy took a chair across from him and waited for the inevitable question. It came very quickly.

“You’re a private investigator?” he asked.

---