Page 230 of The Billion Heirs Boxed Set
“I have to go. Someone just walked into my office. I’ll give you a call right back.”
“But the lab in Billings—”
The call drops.
Great. Just great. He’d better call me back pronto. Who could have walked into his office more important than an active case?
My phone rings while it’s still in my hand. Hmm. Not a number I recognize. “Marsh,” I say.
“Agent Marsh, it’s Dr. Nolan Hayes.”
I stop my jaw from dropping because I thought he had someone to tend to. “Hi. Where are you calling from?”
“I need you to call me back in five minutes.”
“But—” Then it dawns on me. “Of course. Thanks.”
He wants me to call from a burner. Not a problem. Jarvis and I keep several available at all times. Some of them McGuinness knows about. Others, he doesn’t.
I rise. “I’ll be back in a few,” I tell my partner, who gives me a questioning look, but stays quiet. He knows I’ll fill him in if it’s case related. I head out to the rental car, unlock it, and pull out one of the burners from the safe in the trunk. Then I take a little walk across the parking lot. When I’m a safe distance away from the sheriff’s office, I return Dr. Hayes’s call.
“Agent Marsh?” he says into my ear.
“Yeah, it’s me, Dr. Hayes.”
“I’m going to text a number to this phone,” he says. “It’s a colleague of mine in Billings who runs a lab. He’s the best in the business and he can usually get results back within a day. It’s still early. If you hurry, he can probably take care of you by the end of the day.”
This is a surprise. “Really? How?”
“I don’t ask, but I can vouch for the accuracy of his results. The problem is that it will cost you.”
In this case, when it comes to clearing Chance, it doesn’t matter. I tell him so. “I don’t care. I’ll pay him.”
“You sure? It’s ten grand a pop.”
I nearly drop the phone. “You’re serious?”
“Yeah. But if this is official business, just run it through the bureau. But it’ll take the regular twenty-four to forty-eight hours.”
Official business? Getting my son’s DNA to prove or disprove his biological father’s guilt? I suppose it’s business, but…
“That’s what I’ll do then. Thanks for the offer, though, Hayes.”
“You sure?”
I sigh, debating whether my savings account can take such a hit. “Maybe. I don’t know. Let me see if something comes up through the database first.”
“This is a one-time offer, Marsh. And I don’t give this guy’s info out freely.”
“Then why’d you offer it to me?” The sun gets in my eyes so I turn and face the other way.
“Something in your voice,” he says. “What’s going on?”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you. Thanks for trusting me, though.”
I end the call quickly, replace the burner in the car, and hightail it back into the office.
Just in time to see something pop up from the database.
