Dymond in the Rough (© C.E. Gee)
Page 5 During his walk deep into the Heights neighborhood, Russ randomly
stopped other pedestrians, asked over the open channel if they knew the
location of Cat. All confessed their ignorance. When Russ reached the distant end of the street, he caught a taxi, returned to his hotel.
Next morning, Russ texted his client that he was ready to report his
findings. Julie texted back that she would leave right away, meet Russ
in the bar. Russ sat in the same booth as previous. Julie showed up, sat across from Russ, immediately asked, "Did you find Cat?" "Yep. Sure did." "Where is she?" asked Julie. An expression of surprise marked her countenance. Russ smirked, said in a snide tone of voice, "Sitting right across from me." Cat sat back, seemingly in shock, her mouth flapped open, then shut to
a grim expression. Her eyes narrowed. She leaned forward. Cat asked. "What proof do you have?" "First of all," replied Russ, "let me assure you that client
confidentiality is an absolute must in my practice. Also, that lie you
told me about some relative living in the Heights neighborhood was a
tipoff." Cat nodded as Russ went on with, "I've been a private detective almost
all of my adult life. Much of my practice is concerned with finding
people. Some of my clients are on the lam. They hire me using false
names, want to see if they can be found under their actual name. Ever
hear of the expression 'hiding in plain sight'?" Now it was Russ's turn to sit back. Around a smirk he said,
"Remember when I told you I've never had a missing persons case I
couldn't solve?" Cat nodded. Russ said, "The person you had tailing me was an obvious amateur. Next
time you need to follow someone you should have the trackers frequently
swap out. Make sure you use different genders with radically dissimilar
statures, differently decorated pressure suits. I also suspect that you
had someone hack into taxi company data to track my whereabouts. And no
doubt you had people monitoring my open channel conversations." As she took out her iCard, Cat again nodded, said, "I appreciate the advice." Cat transferred a substantial gratuity to the detective's iCard. Cat then stood. Before she left she planted a sloppy kiss to the
forehead of Russ, said, "Thanks for the education you gave me on how to
follow people." After Cat left, Russ took out his iCard, noted the gratuity.
Russ spent the next few days playing tourist. Finally, Russ departed Mars, returned to Earth. He booked a berth in a regular ship. The trip took almost two months. When Russ was well into his dotage Cat broke her cover. With great
delight Russ then told his friends and relatives about the kiss he got
from Cat.
- THE END - |