Stolen Goods: A Secret Baby Romance by Lola White Page B

and glared at the clock, silently condemning it for
not moving faster. It had been a hellish day, and though there was precious
little to go home to in his apartment, he’d like to at least get the fuck out
of the stale air of the dismal office the FBI had assigned him to.
    Why Buffalo,
anyway? Why couldn’t he have scored big with a transfer to Florida? Jesus, he
couldn’t take another winter like the one he’d just lived through.
    “And now it’s
gone, Agent Findley. We’re so sorry, but we do assure you that every measure is
being taken to increase security.”
    “Whoa!” Nolan
shook his head, realizing he’d missed something extremely important in Sarah
Long’s rambling explanation. “What did you just say?”
    “Your semen sample
is gone. We have contacted the police, of course, but, quite frankly, we don’t
expect them to contact you , considering the…sensitivity of
the…donation. I wouldn’t think they’d contact you, at least—”
    “Stop. Go back.”
Nolan rubbed his eyes, hoping if he did it hard enough his brain would
jump-start to the appropriate focal point. “What the hell are you talking
about?”
    “The missing
samples.” Sarah’s sweetly regretful voice took on the bite of annoyance. “Agent
Findley, I just told you—”
    “Are you reporting
a crime? This is the Buffalo office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation,
ma’am. If you’re trying to report a theft in Vermont—”
    “We did .”
Sarah was definitely getting snappy. “And we took measures to solve that crime,
only to end up with another one!”
    Nolan worked his
jaw, counted to ten—though he should have counted much slower—and breathed
deeply. “Look, Miss Long, it’s the end of a very long day. Exactly what is the
problem?”
    “It is the end of
a very long day for me, too, Agent Findley. As I’ve just explained, we’ve spent
a lot of time going over our video surveillance footage of an illegal in-vitro
fertilization attempt of an unknown woman. Yours is one of the samples that’s
missing, therefore—”
    “See, and that’s
where you keep losing me, Miss Long. I don’t have a sample in storage at
your clinic.”
    “Not anymore,” she
agreed. “We believe your deposit was used to potentially impregnate our little
criminal.”
    “But that’s
impossible.” Nolan felt as if his head were about to float away from his
shoulders. “I’ve never donated a sample to your clinic, Miss Long. The only
reason I was ever even in your clinic was to get a sperm count done to satisfy
my ex-wife’s need to blame anything other than her own medical issues for our
lack of children.”
    “Please, sir,
there is no need to…exaggerate. Please don’t feel embarrassed, we have many
donors on record and I assure you, your name is never associated with your
sample except in a password-protected file on Doctor Trentham’s computer. Until
this…event, we have guaranteed anonymity and efficient practices and I assure
you that, in future, we will be increasing our security measures.”
    “I have never—”
    “Sir. I am looking
at your paperwork as we speak. Really, you should have informed us when you
changed address, but your old office gave us the number for your current place
of employment. You have signed all the necessary documents for storage of your
semen sample, as well as permission for your spouse to use it at a later date
should she so desire.”
    Nolan grew dizzy.
“Permission?”
    “She has
permission to use your sample, yes,” Sarah Long said brusquely. “It is, of
course, the only reason I’m contacting you directly. Your sample is gone. Would
you care to replace it?”
    “No.” Nolan shook
his head. His throat closed around the rising sickness and his heart did its
best to kick through his ribs. His fingers ached with the grip he used on the
phone and he shot to his feet on shaking legs. “You tell Director Trentham I
want to speak to her. Right now.”
    “She’s busy with
the police chief.