Chapter 4 - Ki

 

“So, do you like my color-coded calendar?” I asked leaning against the doorframe to Prescot’s office. His pen stopped and he looked up, wearing those black glasses that looked like they were made for his face.

But then he took them off.

Such a shame.

“Yes, although it confused her,” he looked behind me, “for half the day.”

“Where do you find these people?”

“Some temp service my partner uses.”

“Partner?” I was hoping he wasn’t going to say wife.

“Business partner. We just haven’t got the new signs yet.”

“Moving up in the world.”

“That’s the point.” His eyes quickly glanced down and back up my body. I was wearing blue jeans with running shoes and a tank top, with my camera bag slung over my shoulder. I always had it with me. It was hot outside, and I wanted to stay cool walking around the city, but I hated my legs, so I never wore shorts. The look in his eyes made me want to look down to make sure I didn’t have any stains on my shirt. He finally said, “I’m good at what I do.”

“You must be if you can pay me two hundred and fifty dollars an hour.”

He put his hand out, inviting me inside his office.

“I don’t think I should stay,” I warned, patting the side of my camera bag, which doubled as a purse.

“You take that thing everywhere.”

“I do.” Pulling out the envelope, I slowly walked to his desk to set it down. He kept his eyes on me, void of any expression. Then, I snapped his picture with my camera.

“You should smile more,” I told him stepping back from his desk.

“But then I wouldn’t be as good as I am.”

“But I like it.” My eyes went wide, and I spun around. I can’t believe that slipped out. “See you later.”

“You should come back to work for me,” he yelled behind me. “You were the best I’ve ever had.”

I smirked at the black-haired girl sitting at her desk, who heard what he had just said.

“It’s just colors,” I said passing her. “A simple color-coded calendar.”

She started mumbling under her breath, and I was at a loss for words. How can he go through so many assistants? I mean, this is New York City. There had to be tons of qualified people that could do the job. I waved at the receptionist at the front desk, whose name I learned a few minutes ago was Molly, and hit the elevator button. While I waited, I briefly thought about working for him, but I’d only do that so I could look at him all day. Plus, I’d never fit into the dress code here, and I had my own business to run.

I went back to Molly’s desk and waited for her to end her call. Her curly, red hair was tied up with her earpiece sitting in her left ear.

“Even though you don’t work here, you should still come to happy hour tomorrow. All the assistants go on Wednesday, plus me.”

“You’re asking me to join you?”

She gave me a genuine smile. “I heard about the calendar, the colors, and that he paid you a shit load of money. And, a client told Mr. Bale that you were very professional on the phone and was happy you called to confirm their appointment because they had the wrong time written down. We’re all jealous.”

I knew which client she was talking about and stated, “I’m not sure why everyone’s making a big deal about it.”

“Trust me; it’s all anyone’s talking about. You could probably—” She held her finger up. “Hold on.”

She took a call, and I heard the elevator ding, but I ignored it. I wanted to talk to her about something else.

“You should come. Sparrows on seventh, tomorrow at five-thirty.”

“How many assistants?”

“Ten. Two for the two partners and eight of them are assistants for the eight associates.”

“And how many assistants has Mr. Bale been through?”

“A lot.”

“And they all come from the same temp service?”

“Yes, the other partner, Mr. Hopkins, has a client that owns a temp service.”

I pulled my phone out and took some notes. “What’s the name of it?”

“Why do you want to know?”

I shrugged a shoulder. “I know someone who needs a job.”

She smiled ear to ear. “That’s so sweet of you. It’s called Horizon Temp Service.”

The phone rang, and I told her I might visit tomorrow night, while I Googled the temp service’s name and address. It was a mile away and too late to visit, but it was on my to-do list. I thought it was funny they would continue to use the same service if they kept sending over idiots. This was the reason I wanted to be a private investigator, even though I majored in business. I liked asking questions. I liked being nosy. Plus, I over think things and have a tendency to get too involved in other people’s business. I’ve justified it over the years with my new career.

I texted Alexa about dinner and she said she was picking up Chinese food, so I was on my way home.

I felt like we needed more information on Lucas Hills, so we had to call his mother again tomorrow and get some more information. It was part of the job. Finding people, catching them doing what they aren’t supposed to be doing, and I always loved a challenge.

“So, do you want to talk about your mom yet?” I asked after we sat down for dinner, which was on the couch because business papers and mail covered our table.

“It was emotional.”

“I’m sure it was. Your mom was—”

“Please don’t, Ki; your parents aren’t perfect either.”

She was right, but at least my mom didn’t do drugs. She came to all of my school programs, pretended we were a happy family, so that was better than nothing. Her mom never gave her anything but heartache.

“I’m sorry.”

She set her food down after a few bites and grabbed her glass of wine. “She’s trying. It’s hard because of the lies and betrayal, but like I said, she’s never gotten this far. I hope this is it. I just want her to live and be happy, drug-free.”

“I know you do.” I finished my egg-drop soup and washed it down with water, then I went for the wine.

“If she fucks up, then you can say, I told you so, for the hundredth time.”

“Never.”

“Good, I wouldn’t want to give you a black eye.”

“You know I took a kickboxing class,” I reminded her.

“For a day.”

I laughed. “So did you!”

“I know. It was a lot harder than it looked.”

“I’m just not talented.” I took a sip of wine and it was so good, that I drank the rest in a steady sip.

“Whatever.” She set her glass down and got up. “So now that we’re done with my mother, let’s talk about how you serviced Mr. Bale.”

“Can you please not say service like that?”

“Nope. It’ll never get old, especially if we have to keep serving him.” She came back and poured more wine into our glasses. “I wonder if he’s in trouble. One was for a grand jury testimony.”

“I never asked.”

“I’m sure Josh would tell us.”

“We aren’t going to get him involved, or into trouble.”

She sat back down. “They probably have to sign a gag order or something.”

“We do know a lot of people,” I reminded her.

“We do.”

“You still friends with that detective guy?”

“A few of them.” She winked, then picked her glass up and got comfortable on the couch with me.

“You should snoop around; see what you can find out.”

“Why? So you can better serve him?”

“If I could reach you, I’d kick you.”

“I’d be scared if you actually learned the kicks in the kickboxing class.” Alexa laughed but moved slightly away.

“So, we have to figure out more about Lucas Hills. I’m calling his mother tomorrow to let her know that we didn’t find anything at the coffee shop.”

“Please, before you make her worry more, just verify that we went to the right coffee shop.” Alexa gave me a knowing look.

I grimaced. “It was one mistake when we first started. I learned my lesson.” Yes, I’m still defensive about it. I made one little mistake, went to the wrong store, and made a woman fly off the handle on her husband, threatening divorce. I fixed it though, and it’s not happened again.

“Still. Better safe than sorry. This client is big; we don’t need to lose it before we even get started.”

“True. I’ll verify with her before I break the news. I’ll need you to start scouring the internet and social media for any mentions of him or profiles.”

Alexa grinned. “You got it. I still have my fake accounts in place, so if I do find him, we could totally bait him into giving us more information.”

I felt satisfied with our next step in getting information for Mrs. Hills; I just hope that Lucas doesn’t continue to give us problems.

We sat in silence sipping our wine and listened to the sounds of the city coming through the open window, then called it a night.