Chapter Sixty-Six
Sixty-Six
On the phone that afternoon, Quaddra had told Mary that unfortunately, he would have to stay in LA for at least another day.
He’d explained that the meetings were going well, but he expected it all to take another day or so before a deal was finalized.
But none of that was actually true. There had been no business meetings…
no deal to finalize… no new company to acquire.
That was not the reason why Quaddra had flown to Los Angeles.
Days ago, when he’d asked Mary if she would like to come on this trip with him, he knew that she would say no.
The truth was, he hadn’t forgotten about the exhibitions that Mary had worked so hard to organize, like he’d pretended he had, but inviting her and having Mary say that she couldn’t come made the whole trip seem a lot more legit.
Quaddra was due to meet someone that evening, but this was no business meeting. On the contrary, tonight, it was all about pleasure… at least for him.
In his room, he checked the contents of his briefcase, yet again. He had everything he needed, including the brand-new Polaroid camera, bought and paid in cash that afternoon at a small pawnshop in South LA.
Quaddra didn’t really like to use digital images.
They were way too easy to alter – filters, retouching apps, deep fake programs – the market was completely saturated with them.
Polaroids, on the other hand, were old school.
One click and boom, seconds later he had a hard copy of a photo right in his hands – no filters, no alterations, no photoshopping and no second copies.
Every photo was real and unique – developed and printed right there and then, giving him a tangible and very personal piece of history – a moment frozen in time.
But better still, Polaroids left no trail behind…
no digital signature of any kind. The images didn’t get stored on a hard drive where others could find them, or sat on the cloud where they could be accessed over the Internet.
You either physically had them, or you didn’t.
To Quaddra, that was their biggest appeal.
He locked his briefcase before retrieving his cellphone from his coat pocket and placing it on the table.
Rule number one was if you were planning on doing something in secrecy – leave your phone behind.
Quaddra had always said that, in reality, a cellphone wasn’t actually a phone – it was a tracking and listening device, with a phone capability.
He knew that only too well because one of his companies was amongst the market leaders in GPS and satellite tracking systems.
In the bathroom, Quaddra checked his reflection in the mirror one last time. The fake beard, the long hair and the light color contact lenses didn’t actually look too bad and, right then, he wondered what Mary would think of that look.
‘She would probably like it,’ he decided, glancing at his watch. It was time to get going.
‘Everyone has a past… a history’. He remembered saying those words to Mary at the restaurant, on their first-ever night out.
What he didn’t say, but it was just as true, was that ‘Everyone also has secrets, and for some, those secrets are as dark as they come’.
Quaddra was sure that Mary had hers; whatever they might be… and he no doubt had his own.