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Amalie had just ended her appointment and walked her client to the door. She was on her way back to the desk when her cell phone rang. When she saw it was Sean, she started smiling.
“Hello, love. How’s it going?”
“Good. Mom’s bringing me into town this afternoon for a checkup and hopefully to get staples out. I was wondering if it would be okay if she dropped me off at the office with you while she hits the supermarket.”
“Yes! Absolutely,” Amalie said. “I can’t wait. I miss youso much. Dad’s bringing lunch here around noon. It’ll be our last visit for a while. He’s flying out at three.”
“Give him my best and wish him safe travels from me.”
“I will,” she said.
“You sure I’m not going to bother your work?” Sean asked.
“You can bother me all you want. I can always lock the door and pull the shades.”
He chuckled. “You don’t have shades in the front window.”
“Well, yes, there’s that…and I need you one hundred percent well first, too. See you later. Love you.”
“Love you more,” he said, and disconnected.
A short while later, she began hearing sirens and then saw a patrol car go flying past her window with lights flashing. Then people were running out of buildings, and she panicked, thinking of the plane crash from before and ran outside.
It took a few moments for her to realize there was a pileup at a stoplight, and all three drivers were in the street now, fighting with each other as another police car rolled up.
She recognized Wiley bailing out of the cruiser, with his partner on the run beside him, and before the men knew what was happening, the fight had ended. Wiley had one man on the ground and handcuffed and a second one face down on the back of his cruiser, while his partner dealt with the third.
Amalie shook her head and went back into the office.Disaster averted. Nothing had fallen from the sky, and all three men were fit enough to fight and probably heading to jail. If she’d been a betting woman, she would have bet all three of them had been on their cell phones when it happened, and she was glad it wasn’t her.
They were still working the scene when Wolf arrived with their lunch.
“Hey, sweetheart. What’s going on down the street?”
“Three-car fender bender. You should have seen the drivers. They were all out in the street having a free-for-all when the police arrived. Wiley Pope was involved in their arrests.”
Wolf smiled. “Sorry I missed that. Are you at a stopping point?”
“Yes! I brought folding chairs to the long table and cleared some space so we could eat.”
He set the bag on the table and then looked around, admiring the efficiency of the setup and the style of the decor. And then he saw the painting. “Is that Pope Mountain?”
“Yes. Isn’t it magnificent?”
“You have a good eye for style,” he said, and then began pulling containers from the sack. “Chicken salad sandwiches, a little potato au gratin, and macaroons. What do you think?”
“Yum! Do we have forks?”
He pulled them out of the bag. “And bottles of soda, napkins, salt and pepper, and the chef’s best wishes. Bon appétit.”
As they sat, Wolf began talking as they ate, asking her about her clients and the range of her services. When there was finally a lull in the conversation, Amalie remembered the file and jumped up to get it.
“All of these are copies. You can keep them. I even made copies of the photos in my case file.”
Wolf wiped his hands and opened the file, casually leafing through eighteen years of his daughter’s life.
“Have you read it?”
“Sort of… Years ago. But honestly, I asked for it because all of my immunization records and school records are in it. Even a birth certificate that says Amalie Lincoln.”
