Chapter 3 #2
“Fine. I’ll put it up, ol’ fake balling ass muthafucka. Just shoot me the dates so I can make sure not to schedule anything on that date.” I said just as a round of knocks came from my front door.
“Aight, now get out. I have a meeting.”
I was already moving toward my front door with Art on my heels.
“Don’t bullshit me, you’re serious?”
I looked to acknowledge him once more before I opened my door.
“Yeah, now can you please head out of the back.” My eyes directed him to the back just as I reached for the doorknob. Everything happened all at once. I opened my door to greet the unknown man just as Art closed the back door.
“Good afternoon, I’m Burkeley, please come in. My office is just this way,” I said as I led him to the back office.
Once we were inside, I took a seat and motioned for him to do the same.
“Hey, thanks for meeting me.”
“Of course. How can I help you?”
“Can you look into someone for me? How does this work exactly?”
“You provide any information you can give me on the person. Of course, name, a picture if you have one, and common hangouts. And what exactly am I looking for?”
He reached into his jacket, pulling out a picture and setting it on the desk.
“I can’t stress enough the need for confidentiality.” I looked at the picture and the name didn’t need to be said out loud. It was a well-known politician.
“Of course. What exactly am I looking for?” I asked as I woke up my idle computer and began to create a file for the client.
“I need to catch him with his hands dirty—drugs, large amounts of money, that kind of thing. I’m sure you’ll see him with his dick out a couple times, but I’m not concerned about that.”
I nodded as I typed. “Rush order?” If this case needed to be moved up on my list, then my fee would increase.
“If you can. The quicker the better. Don’t worry about the rush fee, I’ll take care of you generously,” he said, getting up, but that wasn’t how I worked. I double tapped the desk, getting his attention.
“Oh I know you will. The rush fee is fifteen percent more. That’s twenty-five thousand now and the rest upon delivery of evidence.”
He smirked but reached back into his pocket and pulled out a thick ass envelope this time and held it out for me to receive.
“I’ll be in touch once I have everything for you.” He got up, with me doing the same to walk him out.
I sat in my car with my camera in my hand, snapping pictures of the man my client had me trailing, a dirty politician who, after a little more digging, I now knew was at the center of a drug case.
I took a couple more pictures of him passing an envelope to someone inside the parking garage at Millennium Towers.
I sat back and smirked as I watched him look around after the exchange then head back to his car.
I quickly took another few more rounds of pictures of him getting in and the plate.
I always got a kick out of how oblivious people were to their surroundings.
If someone wasn’t directly in front of them, the whole out of sight, out of mind fucked with their perspective when it came to being watched or followed for that matter.
I had been trailing this same man for the last week or so and he never once caught on to me.
Once I left, I took my time making my way out of the garage. I ran through the last couple pictures I took, smiling. This might be one of the easiest jobs I had ever been on. I was no lawyer or cop, but felt like from this one meet up, the case was open and shut with the evidence I had on ol’ boy.
I went to pull off when I saw the most beautiful woman walking out of the elevator while she talked on the phone.
I couldn’t make out what she was saying but I could tell by her long expression that the conversation had to be a heavy one and had her stressing.
I took in her black pants that had her ass sitting up and a fitted, long-sleeved T-shirt that put her already big titties on further display.
The sleeveless vest she wore over it wasn’t even zipped up all the way.
Gotdamn.
When she looked up and paused, I thought she felt me watching but it wasn’t until she began to look around that I knew for sure. I wasn’t worried though. The tint was deep and I knew she couldn’t see into the truck. But I noticed her swollen eyes and puffy lips this time.
Was she upset about something?
When she sneezed, I relaxed, not even realizing I had tensed up at the thought of someone making this goddess cry. Then I frowned, wondering why I even cared. I didn’t know her.
But I wouldn’t mind though.
Not on no stalker shit but I got my camera back out and snapped a few flicks of her. I couldn’t help it. It was a rare occurrence when I was out in the field and caught something so breathtaking.
I froze when her eyes locked on mine. Again, I wasn’t worried though because I knew she couldn’t see me, but I smiled that at least she was aware.
We had a silent stare off until she finally continued walking to her car. Once she was inside, I waited until she drove off to head out myself. I had to get to my homeboy Tino’s lab to get these prints developed for the client.
Since my line of work required a lot of discretion, I had to be careful who I brought in to help with certain tasks, and pictures of a highly connected person called for privacy.
I pulled into his driveway, hit the side door, and waited for Tino to appear. A few seconds later he appeared in the doorframe with a blunt in his hand.
“Yo, what’s going on, man?” I dapped him up.
“Working, can you develop some pictures for me?” He nodded his response as he blew out the smoke he had just inhaled.
“No doubt, I got you. I was already down here anyway. Is this a new case?” He stepped back, letting me inside. I made my way down into his basement where his dark room was.
“Yeah, man, but this one might be over already. The muthafucka fucked up early. I’ve only been on this for a week now.” I chuckled as I passed him the camera from the bag.
“Damn, I love when the cases work like that. Let me see what you got for me.” He went to the back but poked his head out.
“Ay yo, you sticking around for these or coming back?” I glanced down at my watch and noticed it was still lunch hour.
“Shit, I got time. You wanna order from BJ’s or something?” I asked with my hand already moving to place a food order from somewhere while I waited for the pictures.
“Cool with me.” That was all I needed to know to finish our order.
By the time we finished our food and he smoked another blunt, the pictures were dry and ready.
“So, did Art talk to you about him wanting to rent a suite for the game in a couple weeks?” Tino asked while packing up my prints. I snorted as I thought about the money I had just wired my brother for this outlandish outing.
“Yeah. I’m still trying to understand why the arena seats wouldn’t work. We always do regular seats for the games.”
“Ah shit. I should’ve known your cheap ass would raise hell over the price. I told his ass you wouldn’t go for it.”
“I’m not cheap, that ticket is high, but I said yeah. So both of y’all raggedy muthafuckas can stop with this cheap shit talk. I just would rather not waste my money on a box when a general admission seat works just fine with me.”
“Fool, you only talk like that because you hate spending more than twenty dollars a day. I keep telling Art you had to be switched at daycare or some shit because ain’t no way you born into money and move like you barely got two quarters in the bank,” he joked
“Anyway, are you done? I want to get these to my client by the end of the day.”
“Aw, is BK getting sensitive now? Calm down, fool, but ay, we at the rec this weekend?” I dapped him up as he slid a manila folder toward me.
On weekends, we always tried to get together with Art and our other friend Boss to shoot hoops.
“Of course. This weekend just don’t come crying about no busted ass shoulder and shit. We took it easy on yo’ old ass last weekend; it won’t go down again,” I joked as I prepared myself to leave.
“Old? Fool, I know yo’ senior citizen ass ain’t talking. You’re one birthday away from picking out your unit at Golden Age. Matter of fact, we probably need to do that this weekend after Boss and I whoop you and Art’s asses.”
I laughed as I waved him off, making my way out of the door.
“Yo, hold up. I wasn’t going to say shit, but who is the cold piece that you took a couple flicks of? What does she have to do with this case?”
I frowned as my brows dipped in confusion.
Cold piece?
I wasn’t sure what he was talking about because the only pictures he should’ve developed were of the dirty politician. My brows furrowed together trying to understand what he was talking about. My mouth opened when he produced the few pictures of her I had forgotten I’d snapped.
“Whatever baby girl is accused of, she’s innocent. She was with me,” he joked while I looked over the pictures before I smirked at his stupid ass.
“She’s not part of the case. I just so happened to catch her before I took off. I don’t know why, but I had to snap the pictures. She was too gorgeous not to, ya know.” My fingertips danced across the picture over her face as if I were truly stroking her cheek.
“Well shit, if you keep the pictures yo’ ass is a creep. You should let me get rid of them for you.” Tino’s hand was already reaching back out to grab the stack of loose pictures, but I swatted his hand out of the way, making him laugh uncontrollably.
“Damn, man, be cool. I would hate to see how you act if you actually knew baby girl.”
“Worse, now move, fool.”
Tino tossed his hands up in mock surrender all while laughing at me.
“I must say, in all my thirty-eight years of living, I ain’t never seen a man fall in love at first sight before. This is some new shit for me. Just tell me one thing, are you going to swap the pictures on the blow-up doll daily or on special occasions?”
I shot him a glare as I flicked him off and continued making my way upstairs to head out.
“Better than that single palm you working with, fool,” I shot back as I hit the door, making him chuckle.
“See you this weekend, nigga,” he shouted.
Once inside my truck, I stared at the pictures once more, mesmerized by the unnamed beauty. Even in the career I worked in, it would be nothing for me to get all her information. Part of me loved the idea of the mystery of who she was for now.