"Supernatural forces at work?"
"I was going to say 'abject stupidity.'"
Patrick rose and perched on the desk instead. "You have a point, though. A very good one. Why would he report it? He is married, by the way. And the hitchhiker was young and, as you say, presumably attractive. Any man with a lick of sense would make up some story about getting lost in the rain and leave it at that."
"Which only means he has not a lick of sense."
"He's a partner at one of the city's leading architectural firms. He has his master's in that plus an MBA to man
age the business end. Two post-grad degrees. Not a stupid man. His wife is a surgeon. Not a stupid woman, and not one who'd fail to miss the implications of his hitchhiker escapade. So we have a mystery. As for the client, that'd be me. This story has sparked a future book plot, and I'd like to hire you to help me with the research."
"Olivia is the investigator."
"Until you hired her, you did all your investigating yourself. You enjoy it."
"What I enjoy is having an actual client, which is about more than money. A case for me must pay well and foster my reputation."
"And interest you."
"That's hardly a factor--"
"Liar. You don't need the money. You don't need the rep boost. What you need is what has been lacking for nearly two weeks. Something you've grown very accustomed to having in your life."
Gabriel started leafing through the file. "Olivia will be back in a couple of days."
"Again, I wasn't talking about Liv. Interesting how your mind keeps going there." Patrick held up a hand against Gabriel's protest. "I was going to say that you've grown accustomed to having exciting cases. But, now that you mention it, there is someone who likes this type of case even more than you do."
Gabriel glanced up from the file.
"Ah, there we go," Patrick said. "I have your attention now."
"No, you have less than five minutes of my time now."
"Liv comes back in what, two, three days? I'm sure you know the hours, too, but we won't get into that. Point is, she'd love this case. You know she would. Investigating the report of an urban legend? It'd amuse the hell out of her."
"I really don't have time," Gabriel said, but even he could hear the lack of conviction in his voice. He thought of telling Olivia about this case.
Hitchhiking ghost? Seriously?
Yes, it's ridiculous. I know.
Ridiculously awesome. Let me at it.
Patrick hopped off the desk. "When do you finish work?"
"I--"
"Let me rephrase that. When do your office hours conclude, and you begin the portion of the day we call 'quitting time' and you call 'more-work time'?"
"Five, but--"
"Then I will return at five with details. I'll play Liv for you today. I'll gather everything I can find online, and we'll discuss it over dinner. This case isn't going away. I'll do the scut work, and you can have a package ready for Liv when she returns."
TWO
PATRICK
Liv was the key. Liv was always the key, and Patrick smacked himself upside the head for not realizing that would be the way to get his son on the case.