Michael had managed to get Melissa to eat a quarter of one of his cheeseburgers, in addition to her yogurt. He considered that a win. She had then finished the filing while he discussed the case with her. He promised to bring her all the files related to the case from his office – and put the ones she had just organized for him in the cabinet – after his meeting with Mrs. Halloway. Which Devon had managed to arrange for that afternoon.
Michael knocked at the door to Devon's office, and then went in. There were two people, a man and a woman. The man was built like a bulldog; the woman was also short but slender rather than muscular. Both were in their 40s, Michael would guess.
"Ah, Michael, come in. Doris, Paul, may I introduce you to Michael Knight. Michael, this is Paul Halloway and his wife, Doris."
Michael drooped the files on the table, came over, and shook their hands. "Mr. Halloway, Mrs. Halloway. Please, just call me Michael."
"Pleased to meet you, Michael," said Mr. Halloway.
"Yes," added Mrs. Halloway. "Melissa has told us about you. It's nice to finally meet you."
"Uh, oh." Michael sat down.
She laughed, "All good, I assure you." She turned to Devon. "Though I was surprised to learn Wilton hadn't made you Melissa's guardian."
"It was a surprise to me and to Michael, as well," he said drily.
"Well, you didn't ask us here to talk about Melissa." Mrs. Halloway turned back to Michael. "I understand you have some questions about –"
"What Melissa refers to as the Halloway charity event? Yes, I do."
"May we ask why?" Mr. Halloway asked.
"I've been investigating a string of jewelry thefts over the past three months. All were of jewelry items due to be auctioned off, and the thieves only take some of the items. I found a flyer for your event at the scene of the last heist. If that means the thieves are planning to steal jewelry from your event, we can lay a trap and possibly catch them. With your help, of course."
"Were these all charity auctions?"
"No, ma'am. Charity, public, private. The only thing they have in common is that the thieves struck before the event started, and they clearly knew what items they wanted."
"Obviously they were able to get ahold of the auction brochure enough in advance to plan. And with so many different events at so many different venues, there's no way you can identify all the potential targets. Oh, and Michael, please call me Doris. And call my husband Paul."
"Not Mr. and Mrs. H?" Michael asked with a smile.
Paul replied in a serious tone, "Melissa only calls us that because she can't call Doris 'Mom' because she won't call me 'Dad' because that would be disloyal to Wilton."
"Back to the topic at hand. The more I think about it, Michael, the more I think it would be best for you to see the event venue in person. A floorplan only gets you so far. The auction items won't arrive until the morning of. However, I can go over any time. Does this coming Wednesday work for you?"
"Yes. What time?"
"Let's meet there around 2:00. And since I assume you'd like to keep the reason for your visit a secret, I'll just tell them you're helping me with the event set-up this year, and you need to know the layout in advance."
Michael was impressed. "That's a great idea."
Paul laughed. "Doris is the brains of the family. I'm just the breadwinner."
"And you do a lovely job, dear." Doris patted him on the knee. "Well, now that's all settled, could we visit with Melissa while we're here?"
"Of course," said Devon. "I'm sure she'd be delighted to see you both."
"Greg insisted," said Paul wryly.
"Why am I not surprised?" commented Devon.
"Who's Greg?" asked Michael.
"Our fourth child, our youngest son, and Melissa's boyfriend."
"Oh?" asked Devon. "Are they dating again?"
"I believe so," said Paul, who turned to Michael and added, "They've been dating – off and on – since they were seven."
"Sounds like I need to meet him, then," said Michel mildly.
"He'll be at the charity event, along with the rest of our children. I assume Melissa will be there. I think she's been at all of them since I became chairwoman of the organizing committee."
"Either Michael or I will bring her, as long as the doctor says she's up to it."
"Perhaps, Doris, Greg can come with you on Wednesday, when you meet Michael at the venue."
"Oh, what an excellent idea, Paul."
"I'm looking forward to it."