Birthright

deal with patients who can’t conceive, or can’t carry a pregnancy to term. And I’m in contact with other doctors in my field.”
    He picked up the glass of lemonade Barbara served. “I heard good things about Carlyle. I met him shortly after at a patient’s home during a dinner party. He was well spoken, amusing, compassionate and appeared to be committed to helping families form. I recall that’s exactly how he put it. Forming families. He impressed me, and when Elliot and I were discussing his concerns, I gave him the recommendation.”
    “Did you recommend him to others?”
    “Yes. Three or four other patients, as I recall. He called to thank me at one point. We discovered a mutual passion for golf and played together often after that.” He hesitated. “We became what you could call professional friends. I can’t help but think there’s some mistake, Callie. The man I knew could not possibly be involved in kidnapping.”
    “Maybe you could just tell me about him.”
    “Dynamic.” Simpson paused, nodded to himself. “Yes, that would be my first description. A dynamic man. One with a fine mind, exquisite taste, distinguished bearing. He took a great deal of pride in his work. He felt, as I recall him saying, that he was contributing something with the emphasis he’d placed on adoptions in his practice.”
    “What about his own family,” Callie pressed. “People he was close to—personally, professionally.”
    “Professionally, I couldn’t really say. Socially, we knew or came to know dozens of the same people. His wife was a lovely woman, a bit vague. That doesn’t sound right,” Simpson said with an apologetic nod. “She was quiet, devoted to him and their son. But she seemed . . . I suppose I’d say insubstantial in her own right. Not, now that I think ofit, the sort of woman you’d put with a man of his potency. Of course, it did become common knowledge that he enjoyed the company of other women.”
    “He cheated on his wife.” Callie’s voice went cold.
    “There were other women.” Simpson cleared his throat, shifted uncomfortably. “He was a handsome man, and again, dynamic. Apparently his wife elected to look the other way when it came to his indiscretions. Though they did eventually divorce.”
    Simpson leaned forward, laid a hand on Callie’s knee. “Infidelity may make a man weak, but it doesn’t make him a monster. And if you’ll indulge me. This child who was stolen was taken from Maryland. You were placed in Boston.” He gave her knee an avuncular pat, then sat back again. “I don’t see how the two events could be connected.”
    He shook his head, gently rattled the ice in his glass. “How could he know, how could anyone, that there would be an opportunity to steal an infant at that time and place, just when an infant was desired in another place?”
    “That’s something I intend to find out.”
    “Are you still in contact with Carlyle?” Jake asked him.
    Simpson shook his head, leaned back. “No, not in several years. He moved out of Boston. We lost touch. The fact is, Marcus was considerably older than I. He may very well be dead.”
    “Oh, Hank, how morbid.” Looking distressed, Barbara lifted the cake plate to press one of the petits fours on Callie.
    “Realistic,” he countered. “He’d be ninety by this time, or close to it. He certainly wouldn’t be practicing law. I retired myself fifteen years ago and we moved here. I wanted to escape the New England winters.”
    “And play more golf,” Barbara added with an indulgent smile.
    “Definitely a factor.”
    “This woman, the one in Maryland,” Barbara began. “She’s been through a terrible ordeal. I don’t have any children, but I think anyone can imagine how she must feel. Wouldn’t you think, in that sort of situation, she’d grasp at any straw?”
    “I do,” Callie agreed. “But sometimes when you’re grasping at straws, you get ahold of the right one.”
    C allie leaned back against the seat in Jake’s car and shut her eyes. She was glad he’d insisted on driving now. She just didn’t have the energy.
    “He doesn’t want to believe it. He still thinks of Carlyle as a friend. The brilliant, dynamic adulterer.”
    Jake shoved into reverse. “And you were thinking that description sounds familiar.”
    So he hadn’t missed that, she thought, and felt the threat of a headache coming on. “Let’s just step away from that area.”
    “Fine.” He shot backward out of