by Bill Bernico
“Mr. Cooper,” Powell said. “Edgar Kendall is the regional president in charge of my Los Angeles plant. I’d like to think I could trust him, but frankly, at this point I don’t know if I can even trust him to cooperate with you. No, Mr. Cooper, what I’d like you to do is get into that facility after hours and place your surveillance equipment in places that would not be detected. I understand your cameras are extremely small and inconspicuous.”
I pulled a camera and its monitor out of my pocket and passed the monitor over the desk to Powell. I held the camera over my head and rotated it while Powell looked at the tiny monitor. He looked up at me after a few seconds and I handed him the camera unit. He looked at it from all angles and then handed it back to me.
“These are the perfect size for concealing behind a fire hose, on top of a wall clock, on a door frame or even attached to a light fixture,” I told him. “If you didn’t already know they were in place, you’d never see them. I also have another model with infra-red capabilities that can record video in total darkness. I’m sure it wouldn’t take long to uncover who is behind these thefts once the cameras were in place.”
“I like that idea,” Powell said. “How long a time would you need to get, let’s say, a dozen of these installed in my Los Angeles plant?”
“Two hours,” I said, “maybe a little longer. They typically take only ten minutes each to install so figure at least two hours for a dozen of them. But how do you propose I get in after hours? I’m sure you must have an alarm system in place already.”
Carlton Powell handed me an envelope and nodded at it. “Go on, Mr. Cooper,” he said, “open it. In there you’ll find a key to the main office. That piece of paper with the key is the code for deactivating the alarm system once you’re inside. The other paper, the folded one, is a floor plan of the offices and the factory. I’ve marked all the places where parts have been disappearing so far. Once you get into that area, I’ll leave it up to you to decide where to install the surveillance cameras. Now, what about recording what the cameras see? Do you also have that capability?”
I took the monitor unit from Powell, turned it around and slid the USB connector out and showed it to him. I explained how many hours of recording time he could expect from each camera and how to transfer the data to any computer once the surveillance part of the job was complete.
“You may have to repeat this procedure for several nights in a row, Mr. Cooper,” Powell said. “I can’t tell you exactly when the thefts will occur, if at all during any particular time period. One month we had no thefts and the next month we had over thirty-five thousand dollars worth of equipment and product go missing.”
“That could run into a few dollars,” I said. “We get two hundred dollars a day plus expenses, Mr. Powell.”
Powell waved off the notion like he was shooing away a pesky fly. “Mr. Cooper,” Powell said. “Between my six factories, I net in excess of fifty-five million dollars annually. Paying someone like you to put a stop to these thefts is nothing. Your fee could come out of petty cash. But let me tell you this, Mr. Cooper. I’ll pay double your regular fee—four hundred dollars a day and expenses. And there’s a guaranteed ten thousand dollar bonus if the evidence you gather results in an air tight case for me when I take these thieves to court. Do you want the job, Mr. Cooper?”
“If anyone can do it, we can,” I said. “I accept your terms. When would you like me to begin?”
“How long would you need to get everything together?” Powell said.
I thought about having to buy ten more of the mini camera outfits and hoped the store where I bought my three units would be able to fill that order. “How does the day after tomorrow work out for you, Mr. Powell?” I said.
Powell thumbed through his appointment desk calendar and wrote my name in ink on the page two days from now. “I’ve put you down for Thursday, Mr. Cooper. Thursday night you can just let yourself in, install the equipment and see what turns up on the recorders by Friday.”
“I may have to go back in on Friday to adjust the angle of the recorders,” I said. “Is that plant open during the weekend?”
Powell shook his head. “Monday through Friday are the only days the plant operates,” Powell said. “They don’t have a night watchman or anyone else to interfere with you, Mr. Cooper. The police patrol the area surrounding the plant several times a night, but that’s the extent of their security.”
“The reason I ask about the weekends, Mr. Powell,” I said, “is that when I let myself back in on Friday after the plant closes, I’d like to be able to spend enough time there to go over the contents of each recorder in peace and privacy. It wouldn’t do to have someone walk in on me during this time. I’ll have to watch a little of each video to see if any of the units need to be aimed someplace else.”
“You’ll be alone,” Powell assured me. He stood behind his desk and extended his hand.
I shook it and thanked him for the job. “I’ll be in touch within a week,” I told Powell, “maybe sooner than you think if I find anything out right away. Otherwise, if you prefer, I’ll check back with you every other day to let you know how it’s progressing.”
“No need, Mr. Cooper,” Powell said. “I have faith in your abilities. Just get back to me if and when you have something to report.”
I left the office and made it back to the airport in time to catch the two o’clock flight back to Los Angeles. I found my car in the lot, paid the attendant on the way out and drove directly back to the electronics store where I’d bought those first three camera units and the helicopter. I walked through the store until I found the same clerk who had waited on me before.
I tapped him on the shoulder. “Hi,” I said. “Remember me?”
“Mr. Coogan,” he said.
“Close,” I said. “It’s Cooper. I bought three mini camera outfits and the helicopter.”
“Of course, Mr. Cooper,” he said. “I’m sorry. It’s just that I see so many customers every day that it’s hard to keep the names straight.”
“No problem,” I said. “Let me ask you something. Those camera outfits I bought, you know, the infra-red ones? What kind of deal can you give me if I purchase in bulk, let’s say, ten more units, all with the range extenders?”
The clerk’s eyes lit up and I had his undivided attention. He held up one finger and walked over to his desk and pulled an older, used sales book from the drawer. “When was that you bought those first cameras?” he said. Before I could answer, he said, “Never mind, I found them. Yes, you got one regular light camera, two infra-red units and the mini copter. The infra-red units sold for eighty-two forty-five each. If you were to buy ten more, I could let you have them for…” he picked up the calculator from his desk and punched in some numbers. “I could let you have ten of them for the price of the regular camera—sixty-nine ninety-five each, or six ninety-nine fifty plus tax for the whole works.”
I thought about it briefly and realized that this was a hell of a deal for me. But apparently I’d hesitated a few seconds too long to suit the clerk. Before I could tell him I’d take them, he countered with, “Tell you what. If I recall, I believe you said you still had six hundred dollars in your budget for surveillance equipment. I can’t go down quite that low, but if you want ten units, you can have them for six-fifty plus tax, if that will help.”
“Sold,” I said. “Wrap ‘em up. I’ll take ‘em along with me.”
Yes sir,” the clerk said, scurrying around like a giddy schoolboy after his first kiss. I browsed up and down the aisles, waiting for the clerk to return from the stock room with my order. I could see that this was going to be one of the stores on my list of favorite places. The more equipment I looked at, the more uses I could think of for them.
The clerk returned after a few minutes, pulling a small four-wheeled cart behind him. He had ten more infra-red camera boxes stacked on the cart and he pulled them over to the cash register and began scanning them. When he’d finished, I gave him my credi
t card and he ran it through, gave me my receipt and offered to help me load my van with the units.
I drove back to the office, parked in my space, locked the van with the ten camera units and went back to my office to formulate my plan for entering the locked offices on Thursday after hours. I spent the next hour reading and re-reading the manual that came with the camera outfit, making sure I understood everything there was to know about installation and preparation. I read that each camera came already loaded with a small watch battery and that all I had to do was pull the small plastic strip out that kept the battery from making contact and they’d be set to go. I’d take care of that detail Thursday afternoon, just before the offices and factory closed for the day.
When I was satisfied that I knew exactly what I was going to do and how long it would take me to do it, I decided to pay a visit to one of the local van customizing shops in Hollywood. I wanted to find out about having a padded shelf installed along one wall where I could mount a dozen small monitors and make sure they would slide off while I was driving. I also wanted to look into some sort of smaller chair that I could use while monitoring the system from the back of the van.
After I had described what I wanted done to the cargo area of my van, the owner of the van customizing shop assured me he could have one of his guys do it over the lunch hour, but only after I let him think that I’d be bringing the van back at a later date for a full customization job. I didn’t know if that’s what I’d be doing, but it didn’t hurt to let him think that that was my plan. I stopped in the next day during lunch and showed them one of the monitor units and how I wanted to secure it to the shelf. They assured me that they could set up a dozen such mounts on a padded shelf inside of an hour. I left the van with them and walked up the street to a coffee shop to kill an hour.
When I returned an hour later to pick up the van, the custom shop owner met me at the overhead service door and walked me over to my van. He opened the double side doors, stepped up into it and showed me what they’d installed. Across the opposite wall was a shelf, maybe nine inches deep, with a series of what could only be described as the spring mechanism part of a rat trap, only with a less powerful spring. He lifted the spring up and set my monitor unit in place and eased the spring back down. He gestured toward the monitor.
“Go ahead,” he said. “Give it a tug.”
I felt the monitor nestled under the spring unit and it was secure. Beneath the shelf unit they’d installed half a sheet of plywood with carpeting stapled to it. Onto the carpeted plywood they had attached a short swivel chair that both swiveled and reclined but didn’t roll anywhere it was secured to the floor. I sat in the chair and tested my reach to the monitor and to the other eleven spaces. It was perfect and I told the owner so.
I followed him back to the office and he handed me my invoice. It was very reasonable, considering the time frame they had to work with. I paid the bill and drove away with phase one of my rolling surveillance van. When I got back to the parking lot behind my building I began unpacking and mounting twelve mini monitors on my newly installed shelf. Once I had them all mounted, I carried the empty boxes up to my office and stored them in the closet. I found a small bag and set all the mini cameras in it and left it on my desk. The bag would be coming with me to Powell Industries on Thursday.
I spent a few minutes calling home to check on Gloria and Matt and then just sat behind my desk wondering how the big upcoming case would play out. I was still deep in thought when my phone rang.
“Cooper Investigations,” I said. “This is Elliott speaking.”
“Hello,” the voice said. “You don’t know me, but I was talking with Lieutenant Anderson this morning and he was telling me that you may be just the person I need to do a job for me.”
“What sort of job are you talking about?” I said. “And when did you need it done?”
“I need someone to follow my girlfriend,” the man said. “I have a feeling she’s been fooling around on me and I just gave her a pretty big ring last month. I’m afraid if she finds someone else, she and my ring will be history. Can you help me?”
“It’s what I do,” I said. “Why did Lieutenant Anderson specify me?”
“He said you just bought some new surveillance equipment,” the man said. “I’ve tried following her myself, but I keep losing her in traffic. Can you handle this for me?”
“When did you need it done?” I said.
“Right now,” the man said. “After tomorrow it may be too late. She’s planning on visiting her aunt in Sausalito, or at least that’s what she tells me. I’m afraid she may be going to visit some other guy.”
“Well,” I said. “I’m free right now and for most of the day tomorrow. After that I’ll be involved with a big case and won’t have the time. Can you come to my office to square away the details?”
“I’m already here,” he said. “Lieutenant Anderson told me where it was and believe it or not, I’m out downstairs in the lobby of your building. Can I come up right now?”
“Sure,” I said. “I’ll open the door for you. Just come on in.”
Two minutes later the man walked into my outer office and stood just outside the doorway to the inner office. He knocked on the door frame. “Mr. Cooper?” he said.
I waved him in. “Come on in,” I said. “Have a seat.” He sat across from me and nervously looked around my office. “I’m Elliott Cooper. You never gave me your name,” I said.
“Greg,” the man said. “Greg Murdock.” He grabbed my hand and shook it briefly.
“So, Greg,” I said. “If I understand you correctly, you not only want to know if your girlfriend is fooling around, but you also want your ring back. Is that correct?”
Greg nodded. “That’s right,” he said.
“Hold on a minute,” I said. “If you want the ring back, doesn’t that mean you also want to end the relationship? And if that’s the case, what does it matter who she’s seeing?”
“Well,” Greg said, “it’s a little more complicated than that. If I’m wrong and it turns out she’s not seeing anyone, then I want her to have the ring. But if she is seeing someone, I think I should be able to get the ring back, don’t you?”
“All right,” I said. “We’ll do this one step at a time. I’ll tail her and let you know what I find out before proceeding to the next step. How does that sound to you, Greg?”
“Yes,” Greg said. “Let’s do that first. Because if she isn’t fooling around, I wouldn’t even want her to know that I hired you to follow her. You will keep that part to yourself, won’t you, Mr. Cooper?”
I crossed my heart with two fingers and held them up, like any good Boy Scout would. “You have my word on it, Greg,” I said. “So if you will just fill me in with the information I’m going to need, I can get started.”
“What do you need?” Greg said.
“Well,” I said, “for starters, I’ll need her name and address. A description of her car and the license number would help. Tell me where she works and where she hangs out. Give me the names of some of her friends. The more you can tell me, the easier it will be for me and the faster I can get results. Do you have a picture of her that I could borrow?”
Greg gave me all I needed and more. His girlfriend’s name was Angie Bower. I tucked the girl’s picture in my shirt pocket, thanked him for his business and excused myself so that I could get started on his tail job right away. I was secretly looking for an excuse to use my new mini cam helicopter anyway and this was as good an excuse as any. After Greg left my office, I call Dad and told him to be waiting out in front of his house and that I’d pick him up in ten minutes.
It seems that Dad was just as eager for something to do as I was for wanting to try out the spy copter. He was waiting in front of his house when I pulled up. I got out and ran around to the passenger’s side and he slid behind the wheel of my new van.
“Nice van,” Dad said.
“I just got it,” I told him. “It’s going to be my
command central vehicle.”
“Where are we going?” Dad said.
I pulled the piece of paper with Greg’s information concerning his girlfriend and said, “We’ll start out on Hollywood and Western.” I checked my watch. “Our subject should be coming out of work in just a few minutes. We’re tailing her for her worried boyfriend.” I reached behind my seat and picked up the spy copter. “Looks like I may get a chance to try this thing out.”
“Look at us,” Dad said. “We’re like a couple of kids on Christmas morning. You with that helicopter contraption and me, well, I’m grateful for whatever I can pick up in kicks these days.”
“Speaking of that,” I told Dad, “How’d you like to fill in for Gloria for a few weeks while she’s home with Matt. She’s needs a little recuperation time herself.”
“That would be great,” Dad said. “If I have to watch one more daytime television show, I’m going to…”
“Hold on, Dad, there she is,” I said, gesturing out the windshield at a young woman coming out of the bank. She matched Greg’s picture and description perfectly. I told Dad to turn the corner and pull up at the curb while I watched her. She walked over to the car Greg had described and the license plate number matched. “She’ll be pulling out soon, Dad. Stay with her.”
Angie Bower pulled out of the parking lot and onto Hollywood Boulevard, heading east. Dad pulled away from the curb and stayed right behind her. We followed her east on Hollywood to Harvard Boulevard, where we both had to stop for the light. She kept going straight and Dad managed to stay with her. I noticed Angie’s left turn signal start blinking at Normandie Avenue. She sat in the intersection, waiting for oncoming traffic to pass. As she sat there the light turned yellow and then red. She continued north on Normandie and we were stuck on Hollywood Boulevard at the red light.
