1. Chapter 1 #2
“What else do you know about him?” I asked. “Birthdate? Cell phone number? Employer? Friends?”
“Um,” she tapped on her phone and showed me a phone number. “This is all I have. I don’t know anything else. Sorry.”
She couldn’t name his friends? They must not have dated long.
Except he bought her an expensive dog. Oh well, who was I to judge?
I’d lived with a guy for three years, and he never bought me a single present the entire time we were together.
At the time, I told myself we were too practical for gifts.
We were saving for our future and didn’t need to buy each other trinkets.
Except when I looked back, I realized that Daniel wasn’t being practical, he was being a miserable bastard. He spent plenty of money on his hobbies, but there was never anything in the budget for what I was interested in.
I shook off thoughts of Daniel and focused on giving Gale a confident smile. “I’ll call you as soon as I’ve found out anything.”
Gale looked thrilled. “That would be great! Here’s my number.” She leaned over and wrote it out on my sticky-note pad. Tossing the pen down, she stood up. “It’s important you get him back soon.”
“I’ll do—”
Her phone rang, and she held up a finger to answer it. Without another look at me, she strode out of the office, the earlier hesitant and worried woman gone. It was a big change and made me wonder about which one was the real Gale.
It was only after the door closed behind her that I realized I hadn’t talked to her about getting paid. They rarely talked about price in all those films I watched. Did that make me a proper gumshoe?
I decided it did.
“It’s fine,” I said in a horrible Humphrey Bogart accent. “I’ll find the dame’s precious pooch and hope for a payout later.”
“I don’t remember that line, is it from The Maltese Falcon?”
While I’d been sitting there pretending to be Sam Spade, Jim had snuck up on me.
I jumped a little and quickly slid Post-it with Gale's number on it into a desk drawer. “Oh, um, you know, I don’t think that was the line.”
“I should rewatch that movie,” he said.
“It’s a good one,” I agreed. “Although I like The Big Sleep better.”
He grunted in agreement. He was a fan of Humphrey Bogart, and I was a fan of film noir so there was some overlap, but then he’d start talking about The African Queen or To Have or Have Not, and I was lost.
“Did you finish the invoices?” he asked.
“Yup,” I patted the pile of addressed and stamped envelopes on the desk, “regular old mail like you insist. I also sent out emails for any of your clients that like to live in the current century.”
“You’re the best assistant I’ve ever had. I’m going to be so sad when you quit,” he said, sweeping up the envelopes. “I’ll drop these off at the post office on my way home.”
“What?” I said, startled by his comment. “I’m not quitting.”
“You will,” he said. “You’re going to get bored; I can tell. You’re enjoying the novelty of all of this, but that’ll wear off, and you’ll go looking for something more interesting.”
He wasn’t wrong, but his insight surprised me. My thoughts must’ve shown on my face because he laughed.
“My business is to notice things,” he said.
“Of course I’m going to notice your disillusionment.
You’re not the first. I might’ve been a bit of a romantic when I first started this business twenty-five years ago.
Anyway, if you go looking for that dog, make sure it’s the right one.
You’ll feel like shit if you dog-nap some family's beloved pet.”
I should’ve known I wasn’t going to get Gale and Hugo past him. He might’ve been on the phone, but he could hear everything going on out here when his office door was open.
“I’ll be careful,” I said.
His expression went from amused to mildly concerned. “Call me if you run into any problems. Don’t try to confront this boyfriend. He could turn out to be violent. Got me?”
“I won’t,” I said, then gave him a cheeky grin. “Thanks Papa Jim.”
“No, you will not call me that,” he said with a mock scowl, then turned on his heels and left, saying over his shoulder, “don’t forget to lock up.”
“I won’t,” I yelled, snickering at how annoyed he was by the nickname.
All alone in the office, I tried the number Gale gave me. It was no longer a working number. Thankfully, Leif had an uncommon name. I accessed the databases Jim paid for and found three Leif Johansons. A little more digging helped me eliminate one of them because he was in his sixties.
The two remaining addresses were good places to start. Eager to get to solve my first mystery, I shut everything down, then left.
Don’t worry Hugo, Philip Marlowe was on the case!
The first address belonged to a family who had two golden retrievers. Not a single Frenchie in sight.
Due to traffic, it took me almost an hour to get to the second address, but this one was much more promising. It was an apartment building, and as I pulled up, a woman walked out with a tiny dog on a leash. That told me they allowed dogs here, which would make it feasible for Leif to have Hugo.
The neighborhood was crowded so it took a while, but I found a parking space. The inside of the complex was tidy, but bare bones. There used to be a pool, but it was now filled with gravel and park benches had been put on it.
The part that made the whole place look a lot less nice was a bunch of guys hanging out on the benches drinking beer. The moment they noticed me, the catcalls started.
Classy.
Ignoring them, I found a set of stairs and knocked on door number 202.
When a scruffy-looking blond guy opened the door, I gave him a bright smile. This wasn’t Leif so it must be his roommate.
“Hi,” I said. “I’m looking for Leif. I think I got some of his mail by accident.”
“What?” the guy said, looking stoned as fuck. “Leif? He’s staying with a friend for a little while.”
“Oh, do you know when he’ll be back?”
The guy’s expression turned suspicious. “Why do you want to know?”
I pretended to be affronted. “So I can give him his mail.”
He held out a hand. “Give it to me, I’ll give it to him when I see him.”
I shook my head. “That’s against the law. I can only forward mail or return it to the sender. Handing it to an unidentified third party without a notarized power of attorney or a court order is unlawful.”
He blinked, obviously confused by the legalese that had flowed out of me without thought. I’d been a lawyer back in South Dakota. I was studying to take the California bar exam, but mostly because it gave me something to do. I wasn’t sure I wanted to be a lawyer again.
What I wanted was adventure and satisfaction, but what I was doing right now was messing up. I tried a different tactic.
“Look, if you have a phone number, I can call him and resolve this really quick,” I offered.
His expression went back to suspicious. “No way. Only cops and process servers talk like you. Get lost!”
With that, he slammed the door shut in my face.
Damn, that hadn't worked, but I wasn’t out of options yet. He said he’d be seeing Leif, so maybe it was time for me to experience a stakeout!