King and Maxwell (Sean King & Michelle Maxwell 6)

“First of all, he’s a minor and he can’t hire us because he can’t legally enter into a service agreement with us. It would be unenforceable by us.”

She gave him a disappointed look. “That’s just legal mumbo jumbo. You’re not an attorney anymore.”

“Once an attorney always an attorney. And it’s not just mumbo jumbo. It’s how we get paid.”

“I’m sure he’ll pay us.”

“I’m glad you’re confident. But I’m also not going to take money from a grieving teenager when there is no investigative work for us to do. His dad is KIA. It’s a moot point. The Pentagon is really good at identifying remains. And soldiers carry dog tags and they keep DNA samples now and everything. If they say he’s dead, then he’s dead.”

“I don’t know if Tyler is disputing that his father is dead. He has another reason he wants to hire us.”

“What?”

“He wants to know how he died.”

“Didn’t the Army tell him and his stepmom? That’s part of what they do when they notify next of kin.”

“Apparently, Tyler was not satisfied with their explanation.”

“This is crazy, Michelle. The kid is obviously not thinking clearly.”

“It might be crazy,” she agreed. “But there’s something to be said for helping grieving teenagers get through a really bad situation.”

“And you think we can do that?”

“We’ve done it lots of times before for lots of different people, some even younger than Tyler.”

“That’s true,” said Sean halfheartedly. “So if not at his home, where does he want to meet?”

“At his high school.”

“His high school? He just found out his dad was killed yesterday and he went to school today?”

“Yeah, I thought that was odd too. But then again, if he and his stepmother don’t get along, he might not want to be there with her. And maybe he thinks if he sticks to his routine, he won’t have to think too much about his dad never coming back.”

“I guess everybody handles grief differently,” said Sean.

“I guess they do. And he’s just a kid.”

“Exactly when does he want to meet?”

“He gets out at three fifteen. He has swim practice starting at four thirty. He can meet with us in between.”

Sean chuckled.

Michelle pulled her car keys from her fanny pack. “What’s so funny?”

“Oh, I was just afraid we were going to have to do a confidential client meeting on the playground during recess.”

“He’s in high school, not kindergarten. And they don’t do recess anymore.”

“My apologies. But I just don’t see this going anywhere.”

“At the very least we can return his gun, although it’s probably not a good idea to pass him a weapon while he’s on school grounds. Maybe we can meet him someplace else.”

“Which high school?” he asked. She told him.

“We drove past there last night. There’s a strip mall across the street with a Panera café. Call him back and tell him we’ll meet him there.”