“Congressman.” Casey shook his hand with a respectful smile, setting the relaxed tone of the meeting. “Thank you so much for seeing us.” A quick glance at Lyle. “Hello, Mr. Fenton. Nice to see you again.”
“Ms. Woods.” He gave a curt nod. “Cliff, this is Casey Woods, Marc Devereaux and…” His brows drew together quizzically.
“Claire Hedgleigh,” Mercer supplied with a smile of his own. “Yes, she and I met, along with her bloodhound. Not an easy duo to forget.”
Claire leaned forward and shook his hand, making the most of the personal contact. “Again, I apologize for the near collision. I just wanted to get to you without alerting the media.”
“No problem. I appreciate your discretion—and your creativity.” He shook Marc’s hand, as well. “Mr. Devereaux.”
“Congressman,” Marc replied. “Good to meet you. I hope we didn’t scare your wife off.”
“Not at all.” Mercer didn’t miss a beat. “I had her escorted back to the car. The last thing she needs is to sit through another one of my meetings.”
“Understood,” Marc said with a nod.
“Why don’t we all have a seat?” Mercer suggested. “And let’s skip the formalities. It takes way too long to say Congressman Mercer every time you address me. It’s Cliff.”
Casey sank into a chair. “And we’re Casey, Marc and Claire. You also met Hero. We’re all part of Forensic Instincts.”
“Yes, the name I’ve seen on every TV crew monitor I’ve walked past today.”
That took care of ensuring Mercer had seen the YouTube video.
“Exactly,” Casey confirmed, the smile vanishing from her face. “I’m sure you can understand how unhappy that video made us. We’re trying very hard to fly under the radar.” Another quick glance at Fenton. “I don’t know how much you’ve filled Cliff in on.”
Fenton looked as stiff as he had last night, and even more aloof after the tension generated by their conversation. “About your hunt for Paul Everett? Little to nothing. Cliff and I have been discussing Amanda and her baby. We both saw the video. Frankly, I was surprised you’d given Amanda permission to use your company as a contact point.”
“Actually, we didn’t. We didn’t even know about the video until this morning. We were as surprised as you were.” Casey carefully watched Fenton’s expression. His gaze was still averted from hers, but he didn’t fidget or exhibit any increased signs of uneasiness. Fine. He hadn’t known Amanda was making that video. No shocker there. It wasn’t part of his agenda. Very little Amanda did was—except saving her son. On the other hand, if, thanks to the video, Paul should crawl out of the woodwork, Fenton would be all over it like white on rice. So, if anything, Amanda had aided her uncle without realizing it.
Which meant he’d be sticking close to his niece—and keeping closer tabs on Forensic Instincts.
“This whole situation with Amanda and her baby is tragic,” Cliff Mercer said. “She’s a wonderful young woman, and a very talented photojournalist. She covered my campaign when I ran for reelection. My heart goes out to her.”
Mercer was setting the stage, beginning by letting them know he had a good relationship with Amanda Gleason—a working relationship.
“What you did for her today was a kind and generous thing,” Casey continued. “Not many public servants show that much compassion for one of their constituents.”
A shrug. “As I said, I know Amanda. I consider her a valued colleague. Plus, I had very little to do. Giving blood is something I do regularly anyway. In this case, it was even more essential. It’s a long shot that I’ll be a match. Lyle and I both know that. But maybe it will set a precedent for others to do the same.”
“That’s what we’re hoping,” Fenton added. “I was about to offer a reward to the person who wound up being a donor match. But Amanda is convinced that person will be Paul. Besides, Cliff’s gesture is much warmer and more personal than writing a check. I think it will touch people and make them take action.”
Casey wondered if they’d run lines together. This certainly seemed like a scripted performance.
“What can I do to help counter the impact of that video?” Mercer asked. “I could have the calls routed to my office, to take some of the burden off you.”
Right. And to make sure any leads went first to Fenton.
“That won’t be necessary, although we appreciate the offer,” Marc put in. “We’ve already put a bank of receptionists into place and routed the overflow to a call center we’ve hired. This way, we won’t miss any leads, but we’ll take the burden off our office.”
“Then how can I help?”
“We were hoping you could continue to draw attention to the importance of being tested to see if there’s a match for J
ustin,” Claire said in that gentle, sensitive tone of hers. “Maybe make a statement about that to the press. Shift the emphasis off finding Paul Everett to saving an infant’s life. That will ease the pressure off our investigation and onto Justin, where it belongs.”
Mercer looked puzzled. “I have no problem doing that. But why would you want to downplay the search for Justin’s father? Isn’t he the best hope for a donor match?”
“Yes,” Casey replied. “But he’s also a controversial figure right now. The circumstances of his disappearance—or what was presumed to be his death—means that something criminal went on. We need to find out if that criminal activity happened to Everett or was made to happen by Everett. Either way, the last thing we need to do is to alert the wrong people to the fact that he’s being hunted down by a professional investigative team.”