by Mike Faricy
“Huh? Oh, yes sir. Here you go,” he said then went back to staring at Heidi as she walked into the hotel. Signs for the fundraiser pointed in the direction of an escalator that carried us up to the second floor.
“I’ll just be a minute,” Heidi said as we stepped off the escalator and she made a beeline for the ladies room.
“Can I get you something?”
“A white wine would be nice,” she called over her shoulder. I watched a half dozen heads turn as she made her way down the broad foyer.
I waited in line at the bar for Heidi’s white wine and a lite beer for me. Both items were over priced, the beer was warm and I noticed the tip jar was definitely looking on the sparse side. I carried the drinks back and waited a discreet distance from the ladies room with a half dozen other guys. Heidi returned about fifteen minutes later.
“God, this wine isn’t even chilled you should have gotten an ice cube to put in it.”
“At least yours was cold when I got it.”
“Sorry, I’m just a little nervous, this could be a big account for me, real big.”
“Well, you’re the best looking woman here, and if he doesn’t go for you then you don’t want to work with him because the guy would be an idiot.”
“Thanks, but this isn’t about boobs, Dev, it’s about business and being professional. Still, you know in your own silly, chauvinistic way you’re kind of nice, I think….”
“Heidi? Heidi Bauer, is that really you?”
“Why, Royal,” she called to some fat guy then left me in the dust as she strutted toward him.
I wandered off into the crowd, but kept Heidi in sight from time to time just in case she needed anything.
“Pardon me, sir, but I think you’re in the wrong place, the strippers are next door,” a voice said from behind.
I turned round and there was Andy. “Hey, Andy, didn’t figure you for this stuff. I hope you’re passing out cards some of these guys look like they could drop over from a heart attack at any minute.”
“God, if only it was that easy,” he laughed then took a sip from his wine glass. “Hey, you must have gotten that coat from Tommy, he wore one just like it when I interviewed him the other day.”
“Great minds think alike, he still working out?”
“Yeah, what a tiger, the guy just wants to work. He’s there right now going till eight again tonight. And, he’s getting results for me, too.”
“Really, that’s great.”
“Yeah, can’t thank you enough, Dev. Hey, that’s my wife over there looking for me, I better get moving. Thanks again, enjoy your night.”
“You too, Andy, and behave.”
I lingered around one of the portable bars, delivered another glass of wine to Heidi then made myself scarce. I was right, the few remaining hors d’oeuvres were lousy. Teams of people were walking through the crowd selling raffle tickets at a hundred bucks a pop for two, round trip, first class tickets to anywhere in the world. I couldn’t remember wining anything like that in my life and I figured at a hundred bucks a pop this wasn’t the place to try and start.
From across the room Heidi raised her eyebrows, then her glass, signaling for another wine. I came past as discreetly as possible and handed her the wine, trying not to interrupt her conversation.
“Oh, thanks, Dev. Royal, this is the fellow I mentioned earlier, Dev Haskell, he’s a private investigator.”
“Hi, Royal Baker, nice to meet you,” he said and held out his hand. He was maybe an inch shorter than me, close to a hundred pounds heavier with thinning brown hair and a ruddy complexion.
“Dev Haskell, Royal, very nice to meet you.”
“Heidi was telling me you’re a private investigator.”
“That’s right.”
“I’d like to talk to you, I have a situation at work, but for a number of reasons I’d like to keep it very private and not have law enforcement involved, at least until I know for sure what we’re dealing with.”
“Be happy to talk with you. Would sometime this week work?”
“Could you fit me in tomorrow?” he said, then magically produced a business card.
I pulled my wallet out, flipped past a couple of dollar bills, a twenty, a grocery list and my old expired driver’s license before I found a business card and handed it to him. “I’ll call you tomorrow,” I said.
“I look forward to it.”
Heidi gave me a “get lost” indication from behind Royal then smiled demurely as he turned toward her.
“Well, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve a client I have to catch up with, a pleasure meeting you. I’ll call you tomorrow. Heidi, nice to see you,” I said then beat a hasty retreat to a distant bar.
Chapter Eight
“I can’t believe he wants you to call him tomorrow, God,” Heidi said then took another giant gulp of wine. She was curled into the corner of her living room couch. She’d kicked her heels off at the door, tossed her earrings on the coffee table and had begun to unwind.
“Well, thanks for passing my name on. I don’t even know what the guy does,” I said and fished out his business card from my coat pocket. There were actually two cards in there, the one from Royal Baker and another from Andy. I didn’t recall Andy ever giving me a card. Royal Baker’s listed him as President and CEO of Tri-Cort Services, Limited.
“What the hell does Tri-Cort Services stand for?”
“I’m not exactly sure, it’s some sort of internet subscription service.”
“You mean like a newspaper?”
“No, they’re into more of a security sort of thing.”
“Like guys in parking lots?”
“Yeah, that’s what they do, Dev, they collect parking fees in parking lots. No, it’s more like online security. He has a bunch of different web sites, I guess the things are all over the world, very successful. Anyway, it lets you conduct business anonymously or something.”
“What are you trying to do with him?”
“The company is sitting on a pile of cash. They had a huge increase in cash balance in the first quarter versus fourth quarter last year, something like twenty-five percent of revenue. I’ve got some ideas on making that work and beating the tax man at the same time.”
Before my eyes glazed over I asked, “Is he going to go for it?”
“Well, he hasn’t said no, yet. But I’d kill for the response you got tonight.”
“Your work might be just a little more involved. He probably just wants me to make sure everyone has a current driver’s license. He must be interested, Heidi, he spent a good part of the night talking to you. Well, unless he’s making a play?”
“A play, for me? No, don’t be stupid.”
“It’s a logical question, but if he’s not then wouldn’t it stand to reason that he’s interested in what you have to say, maybe listen to your opinion?”
“I suppose,” she said and took a sip. I could see she was thinking.
“Were you talking mostly business, your usual finance and investment shit?”
“Yeah, we talked all business from that standpoint.”
“And you talked to him for what, an hour? Longer?”
“I suppose.”
“I’d say you just had your first appointment, it wasn’t in his office, but he was sounding you out, and you were probably doing the same to him.”
Heidi raised her near empty glass and smiled. “I think a refill is in order and I could use a back rub,” she said.
I gave her a look.
“Oh, God, just do it and things are likely to go your way,” she said then took a healthy sip.
I called Royal Baker the following morning about half past ten. Heidi was still asleep with a smile on her face. I was at her kitchen counter on my second cup of coffee.
“And who may I say is calling?” the receptionist said.
“My name is Dev Haskell, I met with Mr. Baker last night and he asked me to call him today.”
“One moment please.”
There were a couple of clicks and then a woman answered. “Mr. Baker’s office.”
“My name is Dev Haskell. I’m calling for Mr. Baker.”
“Mr. Baker is in a meeting right now, he wondered if you could meet him this afternoon at 1:30.”
“I can do that.”
“I’m putting you on his schedule, Mr. Haskell. My name is Marilynn. I’ll alert the security desk that you’ll be arriving early this afternoon. When you arrive, if you would please have them contact me I’ll escort you up to our office once you’ve received your visitor’s badge.”
“I’ll see you this afternoon.”
“Please be on time,” she said and hung up.
I suppose I could have made breakfast, gotten dressed, and gone to my office or maybe gone home and showered. I weighed those options and thought it might be more promising to climb back in bed with Heidi.
An hour later and Heidi was in one of her cuddly moods resting her head on my chest. We were relaxing in the afterglow.
“Say, don’t forget to call Royal Baker today,” she said running her finger back and forth on my chest.
I was thinking there was a good chance there just might be another go-round with Heidi in my immediate future. “I already talked to him.”
She stopped with her playful hand and sat up. “You did? When?”
“This morning, you were still asleep and I didn’t want to wake you.”
“You didn’t have any problem waking me up a little while ago.”
“That was different. Besides you didn’t seem to mind.”
“What did he say? Are you going to meet with him?”
“I’ve got a 1:30 appointment.”
She looked at the digital on her makeup table, it was just past noon. “Get out of here,” she said and started to push me out of the bed.
“Relax, I’ll grab a quick shower and it’s a ten minute drive, if I step on it.”
“You’re not going to see Royal Baker dressed in the same dreadful clothes you had on last night. Get out of this bed.”
“Will you just relax?”
“No, I will not, get dressed, go home and get cleaned up. I don’t want him thinking you were here last night and we were fooling around until early afternoon.”
“It might be just the thing to get you in the door.”
“Get out,” she screamed then climbed out of bed and went into the bathroom. When she came back out I was still lying in bed.
She grabbed a white Terrycloth robe from the back of a chair and began pulling it on. “Dev, I’m not kidding. This is really important to me. I gave him your name, you have an appointment, now get the hell out of here and don’t screw it up,” she said then cinched the robe tightly around her waist to make her point.
I got dressed and headed for her front door.
“Call me when you’re finished, I want to hear all about it,” she said then clicked the lock behind me before I was even off the front stoop.
Chapter Nine
I got cleaned up at home. I couldn’t find the sport coat I had planned on wearing and so settled for a nice, conservative navy-blue blazer with brass buttons. I think it was the same style coat Peter Rabbit left on Mr. McGregor’s fence.
Tri-Cort Services, Limited, was in a fairly new six-story building just off of I-94. I must have driven past the place a million times and never paid any attention. The building security desk was about fifteen feet inside the revolving door and situated in front of a wall mural that looked like a giant wiring diagram. The floor was a sort of buff colored glazed stone so shiny you could almost see your reflection. You had to pass in front of the security desk to get to the elevators. I told them I had an appointment with Royal Baker and I was to ask for Marilynn. I signed a roster, got issued a red and white visitor’s badge that I hung around my neck and then waited patiently in a comfortable leather chair.
Marilynn arrived about five minutes later. She stepped off an elevator set just far enough away from the bank of five other elevators to suggest it was private. The other elevator doors were industrial brushed steel, but Marilynn’s elevator had brass doors embossed with a scene depicting trees and a sunset.
She took three steps off the elevator then stood in a perfect “meet the queen” pose with her hands clasped in front of her and her right foot set at a forty-five degree angle behind the left. She wore an attractive, conservative suit and her hair was nicely styled. She had some sort of silver flower pin attached to her lapel and she looked all business.
“Devlin Haskell,” she called and I felt like I had just been summoned to the principal’s office.
“Yes,” I said half jumping up and hurrying toward her with my hand extended. “You must be Marilynn.”
“Very nice to meet you, Mr. Haskell.” She grasped my hand for half a second then made a sort of grand gesture toward the private elevator.
“Please, after you,” I said.
She smiled and led the way. Some sort of soft violin music filled the elevator and seemed to immediately remove one from the chaos of the outside world. There were only two buttons, she pushed the one labeled “up” as the doors closed then half turned to face me.
“Mr. Baker is on an extremely tight schedule. I’ve allotted fifteen minutes for him to discuss things with you. I’ll knock on his office door in exactly fifteen minutes from your entry. Please don’t think I’m needlessly interrupting, unfortunately he has quite a number of things to attend to today.”
The doors opened and I moved back a half step indicating she should go ahead of me. We walked down a nicely paneled hallway on thick carpeting leading toward a set of massive double doors. She input a six-digit code on the security lock. I heard a loud snap and she pushed one of the large doors open.
We entered a round, spacious office with a large desk stationed in front of another set of double doors. A set of arm chairs and a coffee table with neatly arranged magazines were positioned within glaring distance of the desk. Marilynn was clearly keeper of the gate.
“If you’ll wait just a moment, I’ll see if you can go in,” she said then pushed a button on her desk phone and placed a white head set to her ear. “Yes, sir, I have Mr. Devlin Haskell to see you. Yes. Yes. Very good.”
“He’ll see you now, Mr. Haskell,” she said then put the head set down, grandly opened one of the doors behind her desk and I entered the king’s chambers.
Royal Baker sat behind a massive U-shaped desk positioned in the corner of his office so that he had windows to his left and right. Behind him was a hundred and eighty degree view of treetops stretching all the way to the Mississippi river. He signaled me with an index finger indicating one. One of what, I wasn’t quite sure of. After a moment, he put his pen down and tossed his glasses on the desk as he stood. I noticed a framed photo of him and I guessed his wife on his desk. Royal had a wide grin pasted on his face and the woman, a brunette with short hair and apparently no makeup looked like a kid who had just been told to stand in the corner for another time out.
“Mr. Baker, nice to see you again.”
“Please, let’s keep it informal, Dev, call me Royal.”
“Okay, Royal.”
“Let’s sit over here, we’ll both be more comfortable,” he said indicating a leather couch and two matching arm chairs against a side wall. “Oh, man, I tell you, it never seems to end,” he said taking a seat on the couch.
I sat in one of the arm chairs and nodded like I knew what he was talking about.
He tilted his head back and closed his eyes.
I waited for what seemed like a year until finally I said, “You mentioned something private you wanted to talk about. I believe you said it was work related and you were hoping not to have law enforcement involved, at least initially.”
He seemed to blink himself back to
reality then cleared his throat. “Here’s my problem. One of our, or rather, my very special clients, is being harassed. I’d like you to find out who’s doing it.”
“Define harassed. Is someone spray painting the side of their building, picketing their office or maybe sending threatening letters?”
“To tell you the truth, I wish that was the case. No, they’ve somehow bypassed our security systems and fire walls. Without boring you with the technical details they’re posting bad reviews, changing my client’s profiles and inserting different images.”
“Reviews? Profiles? You make it sound like Facebook or something.”
“Not far from the truth. If word of this got out it’s the sort of thing that could put us out of business, literally over night. We deal in a series of websites with a discrete online presence. We cater to a need for absolute client confidentiality.”
“If this is some sort of technical thing, Royal, you know with computers and stuff? Let me be honest, I’m probably not the guy.”
“No, this client is local, and whoever the individual is harassing her, they’re local as well. They seem to be behaving in such a way as to suggest they want us to know they’re local. But, as I mentioned, if word of this got out, well, we would probably have to close the doors.”
“So that’s why you don’t want law enforcement involved?”
“Partially, right now we’re just trying to contain.”
“Royal, just to be clear, I’ve got my passwords written down and stored on my Rolodex, literally. It sounds like you might need some high tech investigators. Pardon the stereotype, but shouldn’t you be looking for a nerd?”
“I’ve already done that, brought them in from the outside so they have no relation to any of our teams. Thus far they haven’t found a thing.”
“If they’re not finding anything, I’m not sure what it is that I can do for you.”
“I was hoping maybe some old fashioned investigative work. If you could just meet with our client, I think that would go a long way in putting her at ease. Let her tell you what’s been happening and take it from there. I’ve already drawn up a short list of disgruntled former employees I suspect could be involved, but to be honest, they’re all long shots.”
