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.” Reaching into my jacket pocket, I pull out the nondisclosure agreement and hand it to Katkin.Nodding to himself, Katkin fights a grin.“There it is—the one that got away.”“Excuse me?”“He was brilliant, but he was a real character.Purebred entrepreneur.I mean, we were once at the airport on a moving walkway and I jokingly said, ‘How long do you think it would take to walk around the world on something like this?’ He thinks about it for a second, then turns to me and says, ‘2,633.3 hours—assuming you’re using the Earth’s polar diameter and not the equatorial one.’”Gillian wants to laugh, but can’t go through with it.“So you remember dealing with him?” Charlie asks.“How could I forget? He was a cold call, I tell ya.Just found our name in the phonebook.To be honest, they opened this office to cast lines to Latin America.Who would’ve ever thought someone like him would stumble in?”Leaning forward, Gillian crosses her arms and holds her own stomach.“What did he say?” she asks, sounding pained.“He just walked in.Laptop under one hand, rusty old clipboard in the other.We sent an intern to talk to him—we don’t take unsolicited submissions in the office.Ten minutes later, they took him to the commercialization folks.Ten minutes after that, they brought him straight to me.” Waving the NDA in front of him, Katkin added, “We used to joke that he downloaded this off some law firm’s website.But to his credit, he wouldn’t show us how it worked until we signed it.”“It was that good?”“Y’know how many NDAs we signed last year?” Katkin asks.“Two,” he answers.“And the other one was for the guy from—” He cuts himself off.“Let’s just say.it’s someone you’ve heard of.”Charlie sits up straight, knowing we’re close.“So you signed it?”“He left the paperwork with us.We hemmed.we hawed.eventually, we signed.But after the first few appointments—I’m guessing it was about eight months ago—we never heard from him again.”“Wha?” Charlie and I say simultaneously.“That’s exactly what we thought.We were all set to go—we had our team.it was in the budget—we even flew in our financial crimes expert from New York.”The instant he mentions our hometown, a sharp pain swoops in between my shoulders.It’s like a vulture gnawing at the back of my neck.“New York?” I ask.“We actually have some friends in the New York office,” Charlie adds.“What’s his name?”Gillian scowls, but it does the trick.“Oh, he’s one of our best,” Katkin says as the vulture’s claws dig deeper.I stare blankly through the glass desk while his feet rest easily on the carpet.“Really nice guy,” Katkin explains.“His name’s Jim Gallo.”53Everything okay?” Katkin asks, confused by our silence.“Of course,” Charlie insists as we try to pull it together.“That’s just.Jim Gallo isn’t the guy we know.”“It’s a big office,” Katkin admits.“So my dad took the idea with him when he left?” Gillian asks, anxious to get back to the invention.“Happens all the time,” Katkin answers.“Entrepreneurs come in, they talk it up, and when a better offer gets slapped in front of them, we never hear from them again.That’s the business.And with a moneymaker like this—I mean, some of those things he was working on.I don’t know how he pulled it off, but—I just assumed he found a new partner and moved on.”“See, that’s what we’re hoping you could help us with,” I interrupt.“With the lack of documentation in Mr.Duckworth’s estate, we’re having a hard time putting a valuation on his inventions.”“We just want to know what he made,” Gillian jumps in.Charlie twists in his seat.Goodbye patience; hello desperation, he glares.“I’m sorry,” Katkin begins.“I’m not permitted to give out that information.”“But she’s Mr.Duckworth’s only heir,” I insist.“And that’s a nondisclosure agreement,” Katkin shoots back.“We’re not asking for schematics.”“No, you’re asking me to violate a binding legal contract—and in the process, open our company up to a mess of liability.”“Can you at least tell us what it has to do with the photos?” Gillian pleads.“The what?”“These.” From my jacket pocket, I pull out the strip with the four side-by-side headshots
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