UNDERCOVER The Secret of Luck

by James Kipling

  “Thanks for everything. I really do hope the tip I paid you earlier with the check was generous enough.” said John, stepping out and looking at his sports watch. It was already five in the evening.

  “No problem, young man. Glad to help and thanks for the tip. See you around” said the driver as he started his car again. John waved good bye and watched as the car drove away. John turned around to enter his office lobby. Before he went up to his office, he wanted to do one more thing. He had to talk to the office lobby guy who smiled at him in the morning that he really respond to with good nature. He walked up to the office lobby and found the lobby handler clearing out his table. His shift was drawing to a close.

  “Tom. A word with you.” said John, leaning on the table a bit.

  “Mr. Russo. Hello sir. Is there a problem that I can help you with?” asked Tom, in his usual courtesy. As the lobby handler, it was his job to be the single point of contact for all its tenants, as well as visitors. He was like Sheila, except that he was in charge of the whole building, instead of just one single office.

  “There is no problem with my office, Tom. I just thought about this morning. I guess I was pretty rude. Sorry about that.” said John, his words coming out of him haltingly.

  Tom’s face turned into something else completely. He was actually disappointed this morning. John happened to be one of the few tenants of his building who were nice to him. Tom also looked up to John because of his job. Tom thought that it was pretty cool that John Russo was a private detective. Of course, Tom did not know that right now, John was in some kind of a career crisis.

  “That actually makes me feel a lot better, Mr. Russo. Thank you!” said Tom with a bright smile.

  “You are welcome, Tom. Well, looks like you are done with your shift for the day. I will see you around, Tom.” said John, walking away from the table, waving at Tom.

  Tom did the same and returned to clearing out his table. “That’s three folks who are taken care of. That leaves the janitor, and finally, the office receptionist.” said John to himself. He got into the elevator, and as luck would have it, the janitor was inside it.

  “Hello, sir. Glad to see you again. I was just about to come to your cleaning station at the back of the office.” said John, smiling at the janitor who was secretly something of a real estate millionaire.

  “Hello, detective, how are you? You seem a lot better than this morning.” said the janitor. He was still wearing his torn jeans that were stitched in so many places. His cleaning uniform was a lot dirtier than it was when John saw it earlier that morning.

  “Actually, I am.” said John, pressing the button to his floor. The janitor also seemed to be heading to one of the top floors.

  “I just wanted to say thank you for the advice you gave me this morning. It has really helped me a lot. I decided to have a chat with my father and things are actually better. I have been making amends all around.” said John.

  “Glad I could help, detective.” said the janitor, returning the smile.

  The elevator reached the office floor. John shook the hand of the janitor and then walked straight to his office, past the client waiting room where he would normally find Sheila working on her tablet. She wasn’t there, since John requested her to leave early. John went to his office desk, picked up his phone and called Sheila. The phone rang a few times but wasn’t answered. John called again, and it was answered by Sheila after two rings.

  “Boss. I was in the shower. I wasn’t expecting you to call.” said Sheila. John thought her voice sounded different, almost like someone had hurt her. John felt bad about his behavior after hearing her voice.

  “Sheila, thanks for answering the call. I need to discuss something important with you.” said John.

  “I will be in the office in less than an hour. I will leave right away.” said Sheila, managing half her usual voice. John was further convinced he had managed to upset her that morning.

  “That won’t be necessary, Sheila. If it is alright with you, I will come and see you at your apartment. Would that be okay?” asked John.

  “That would be perfectly fine, Boss. I will have coffee waiting for you when you get here.” said Sheila. John said bye and ended the phone call. He grabbed his car keys and went straight to the basement car park in the lift. John kept his gift for Sheila in the glove compartment and turned the car toward her house. The drive lasted about thirty minutes, and soon he was at her home.

  The first thing that John noticed after stepping out of his car was how beautiful the house was. John had occasionally come to see her at her house. Oddly enough, he never bothered to notice the house, or her, for that matter. He was always the kind of guy who would think about work and nothing else. Earlier that afternoon, he found himself in a difficult position, where he had no idea about his co-worker. He was fairly disappointed with himself for not knowing anything about his co-worker of such a long time. From now on, he was not going to make that mistake.

  John noticed that the two story house had a huge lawn in front of it. The path to the front door curved around like a snake. The lawn on both sides of the path was covered with green and purple bushes of about a foot in height. He noticed that the bushes where actually made up of two different plants. One of them was a green bush and the other was a purple plant that had very few leaves that were visible. It looked as if the bushes were trimmed on a regular basis. The house had a big balcony that stretched from one corner of the house to another. The balcony also had a number of potted plants at regular intervals. The house was painted blue, and it appeared to have a fresh coat of paint. The house was built to have natural ventilation and had more than ten windows. John figured that the house looked like it was made of windows, and the walls were there to simply hold the windows together. John actually liked this house. It was almost like a house version of his beautiful, young assistant, Sheila.

  John walked down the path, keeping to its curves, and reached the door. He was just about to knock on the door when it was opened by Sheila.

  “Hello, Boss. I have to admit that this is a pleasant surprise. The last time you came visiting to see me for no reason was, um…. Come right in.” said Sheila.

  Sheila closed the door and walked toward the living room, and John followed her. Sticking to his promise of paying more attention to her, John observed her like he had never done before. He noticed that she was about five feet tall, which was pretty short, even for a woman. Her hair was held in place by a single band that turned her hair style into a pony tail. He also noticed that she was wearing short pants, which showed off her legs nicely. John was surprised that she was so attractive. He could not help but continue staring at her legs, even as he took his seat on the sofa. Sheila caught him checking her out.

  “You checking me out, Boss?” she asked, with a haughty grin on her face. John stopped staring at her legs and looked up at her.

  “I am sorry, Sheila. I did not mean to stare.” said John, going into apology mode. He had been doing that a lot today.

  “No need to apologize, Boss. I know the kind of guy you are.” said Sheila, smiling. “So, what brings you to my house?”

  “I am really sorry about what I did this morning. I think I stepped out of line with the shouting.” said John, getting straight to the point.

  “That’s alright, Boss. I know I must have intruded upon you. Otherwise, you would not have reacted that way.” said Sheila.

  “Whatever may be the case, I was rude, and I was wrong. For that, I apologize and I have something here as a token of apology.” said John, getting up and pulling out the gift he purchased in the afternoon.

  “You went gift shopping? That’s impossible. You don’t even know how to shop, Boss.” said Sheila, taking the gift from him.

  “I don’t know how to shop. That’s true. Then I ran into this really nice guy. He helped with the shopping, and he helped me choose that table
t.” said John.

  Sheila had already unwrapped her gift and was pleasantly surprised, and even shocked, by this. In the eighteen months she had known her boss, he had not gifted her anything. Normally, that would upset anybody, but she figured out John pretty quickly. She knew that here was a man who was dedicated to his work and would not let anything else distract him from that. So, when he forgot to wish her well on her birthday, both years she had known him, she did not worry too much about it. Today though, she was surprised. Her boss was changing, and that could only mean one thing. Something major must have happened. She guessed that the apology was not the main topic that John wanted to speak of today. She decided to check out all the features of her new tablet some other time and put it aside. Then she resumed facing her boss, and John took that as a hint that she was done appreciating the gift.

  “You are my assistant, Sheila, and you have obviously noticed that I have not been myself lately. I would like to believe that you may have a rough idea why I might be acting that way. So, why do you think I am acting this way?” asked John, wanting to get her thoughts before expressing his own.

  “You want me to comment on your behavior, Boss? I won’t lose my job if I am too critical of you, right?” asked Sheila, in her usual style of not taking things too seriously.

  “Come on, Sheila, you know I would never fire you for speaking your mind!” said John.

  “Of course, I know, Boss. You are too much of a gentleman to do something like that.” said Sheila. “Okay, this is what I think of your latest behavior, Boss.” said Sheila.

  John listened patiently.

  “I think that something is bothering you, Boss. This morning, right before you snapped at me, you were asking me about some statistics. Statistics that relate to the number of cases we have handled and how much of them fell squarely under the investigation of marital problems. Given that you never asked about the money we made or anything else, I think you have an issue with the type of cases you are taking on. I think, when you started this business you had different ideas. Now those ideas or dreams aren’t coming true. Am I correct, so far?” asked Sheila.

  “Go on,” said John.

  “The weird part is, an outsider would consider you a very successful private detective. You have no shortage in terms of work. In a short period of time, you have managed to become among the most sought after private detectives in the world. Clearly, you are good at it. It is just that, you are not able to use these skills in the areas of detection that you always wanted to use them. Now, eighteen months after you have done everything right, nothing seems to be right. You are doing a great job, Boss. It is just that you are doing something right, but the end result or final destination seems to be going in the wrong direction.” said Sheila, finishing her long speech.

  John had kept quiet while she said what she had to say. In many ways, he was surprised that a woman, who was more than a year younger than him, had figured out so much about him. John had heard something similar in his head for the last few weeks. That was why he was getting all those headaches. That was what the janitor said. The same thing was said by the cab driver. Then, his father seemed to say the same thing.

  If it was just one person whose opinion seemed to veer in that direction, John would not have taken that seriously. What he was seeing was different people voicing the same concerns. Now John was even more certain that he had made the right decision. The decision that he made, thanks to that eventful discussion with his father. Earlier this afternoon, when he walked out of his father’s diner, he had a little doubt that was lingering in his brain cells. The lingering continued when he was riding in the cab, going to his office, and while he was shopping for a gift for his assistant. Now, after hearing what she said, John was now completely sure. He had to get out of this business. He had to try. If he was going to fail, he was going to fail the way he chose to.

  John took a deep breath and broke the news to his lovely assistant.

  “I had a word with my father today. The outcome of that is that our office, which is you and I, will no longer work on marital related investigations.”

  Ten minutes ago, John would have expected Sheila to react with shock and awe. But then again, he had already asked for her opinion. A girl who can think of all those things and put it in such meaningful words would have figured out this decision of his. Still, he waited for her to respond. Sheila kept quiet. She was thinking of the best way to react to this scenario. She had guessed a long time ago that something like this would happen. She had mentally prepared for this particular announcement. Despite her mind being prepared for it, now actually living through the moment was a little difficult for her.

  “You know, Boss, I think you are doing the right thing. We should stop investigating marital related cases. If you are looking at me for support, and as your only employee, I believe you would expect that from me. I will promise you that I will stand by your decision.” said Sheila, giving him a reassuring smile.

  John smiled in response. At this moment, the most important person that mattered to his business was her. Here was the person who took his phone calls, managed his clients and their payments, client relations, and every other activity that was too long to list in a job description. If she was on board, he had nothing to worry about, with respect to his decisions. John was already in a good mood and he felt even better after having told her.

  The next part was equally important for John. He wanted to discuss the plan for the next few months. What was going to happen to his business? How was he going to change things and move from his current way of functioning to the new way of working? There was too much to discuss and too many worst case scenarios to ponder. This was going to be a long evening of discussion and that meant, he would need some coffee. Sheila would also need some coffee.

  “Sheila, I am glad that you are completely on board with this idea. Your support matters a lot to me. Could you make two mugs of coffee? We have much to discuss.” said John.

  Sheila nodded and headed to the kitchen. John removed his shoes, and made himself comfortable on the sofa, that was now his seat of thinking. As Sheila kept herself busy in the kitchen, John let his mind do its thing and think of the consequences of his decision.

  After a few minutes, Sheila returned with two mugs. She was also carrying a hot drinking flask which was also filled with coffee. She was preparing herself for a long meeting. From experience, she knew that the more intense the discussion, the faster the coffee cup would empty itself. John looked at her ability to be prepared for events like this, and told himself that he chose a nice assistant for himself. He also resumed to staring at her legs, and then caught her eye, and stopped staring. Sheila took her seat and John did the same.

  “Thanks for the coffee, Sheila. It is very good.” said John, taking a sip.

  “You are welcome, Boss.” said Sheila, not really touching her own cup.

  “The first thing that we need to do is tell our clients about our new game plan. Luckily for us, our business does not depend that much on repeat customers. So it is only the new customers that you need to handle. I am guessing there will be some disappointment.” said John.

  “Disappointment? They are going to be upset. You may not like to admit it John, but you are among the best detectives in the city of Primer.” said Sheila.

  John took another sip as Sheila continued.

  “Much of your business may not be repeat business. Most of our business comes through referrals. Referrals from past clients. Referrals from lawyers whose job has been made easier because of you. They obviously know that you are good at what you do, and when they find out about this, their heads will go through the roof. Not literally, of course, Boss.” said Sheila.

  “I agree with what you say, Sheila. That is what I am worried about, and it is you who should be worried. It is you who will be taking those calls and telling them the bad news, so to speak.” said John,
raising one of his eyebrows.

  “I know, Boss. I was just thinking about that. I am guessing that the next few days are going to be pretty busy for me. Perhaps, more busy than I ever was with actual client related work. I think we will need a truckload of coffee. I hope that coffee is not harmful to the health, Boss.” said Sheila.

  “If you want, you can always leave this work and take a vacation. If you want to take leave or something like that, I would be okay with it, Sheila.” said John.

  “Boss, I enjoy working for you, and I am guessing we are in some kind of crisis mode. If I leave you now, that would be almost like abandoning you at the worst possible moment. Nope. I am not doing anything like that.” said Sheila.

  “Thanks, girl. With that taken care of, there is another thing I wanted to discuss with you. We are looking at two scenarios right now. The best case scenario, and the worst possible results. You have any guesses on that?” asked John.

  Chapter 3

  “Let me see. You have decided not to do what you used to do in the past. For good or bad, that is what you are famous for. When people find out that you are not going to be doing what you are good at, they may not agree with it. That also means that this huge chunk of work is going to become employment for some other private detective who is willing to do this job. Effectively, you may not be making any money for a while.” said Sheila.