The Professor - Ch. 38.2

In another suite across town at a cheaper hotel, Murray Underwood, the private investigator who’d followed Aurelia from the states hung up the phone with a tired sigh. He’d just had the last of four intense conversations with his current clientele.

Client #1 was overjoyed about Aurelia’s nuptials. Client #2 was relieved because as the wife of a wealthy man, Aurelia now posed no financial threat to him. Thus he could devote his remaining funds to his physical and financial recoveries.

Client #3 was sad and disappointed that Aurelia was off the dating market. Yet he saw her marriage as a clear sign for him to just step aside. Client #4 was piping hot mad about those nuptials. He even planned to physically stop the wedding, but was delayed in London due to the bad weather currently swirling in the Atlantic Ocean.

The end result was the same for Murray – loss of income. Only Client #1 felt the need to keep the P.I. on retainer for future updates about Aurelia’s life, but still only on a quarterly basis. Client #4 wanted to pay him a one-time fee to investigate Baron’s background now. Clients #2 & 3 released Murray from his assignment altogether.

How did the private investigator feel about this sudden loss in income?

Not good. Murray still had a sickly wife to provide around the clock care for. He almost wanted to invent something new about Aurelia just to keep the defecting clients on board. Surely Dr. William Johansson (aka Client #3) and Oliver Jean-Baptiste (Client #2) could be persuaded to put him back on retainer somehow.

No, Murray couldn’t do that. That would go against his number one P.I. principle – be honest with all clients.

The only alternative was to look up his illegitimate daughter and ask for help. She had money now. Lots of money. The fact that her mother was dead meant that Murray wouldn’t have any resistance to revealing his daughter’s true paternity. The fact that his wife could barely remember his name, much less her own, meant that she wouldn’t be hurt by the knowledge that he’d cheated on her twenty-eight years and nine months ago. That he actually had a child in this world. A living child!

But would Murray’s long lost daughter be grateful for his sudden appearance in her life? Especially since it was primarily motivated by his need for money. Or would she reject him for taking so long to look her up, spew venom because of his wrong motives, and resent him for snatching her from under the protective umbrella of her high society Bel Air family?

“Hmmm…” Murray uttered aloud. “This is going to require a lot more thinking than I expected,” he said, reaching for the phone again. It was time to check on his beloved wife.

© 2009 by Mi’Chelle Dodson/Suprina Frazier