Daniel Ganninger - Icarus Investigations 02 - Peeking Duck

by Daniel Ganninger

  “I understand,” Maddie responded sheepishly, knowing the ramifications if she didn’t succeed.

  -Chapter 14-

  I arrived early in the morning to the office to find our voicemail void of messages from potential clients. Jane planned to come in later in the day due to a late night celebrating her final performance of The King and I at the theater in Balboa Park. She had only a small speaking role, but no singing in the performance. I had been hoping to hear her belt out a few numbers on stage, but to no avail, just a few lines and some background scenes.

  Galveston had been a no show so far this morning, but I had given him some leeway as to when he was allowed to arrive. I just hoped he showed up and was the least bit productive.

  Alex told me he would be in around noon, an early time for him. He had said something about going to the spa, and I prayed he was kidding, but I had a sinking suspicion he was telling me the truth.

  For the time being I was alone and basked in the quiet, sipping on a hot cup of overly priced coffee. Today we needed to show some progress. After the excellent meeting yesterday, I expected everyone to come prepared. Sometimes I lived in a dream world.

  Jane was the first to arrive a few hours later, looking as lovely as ever. I gave her some general accolades on how well she did the previous night, even though she was barely on stage. She knew I thought she was good and didn’t need me to tell her, but she thanked me for the gesture anyway.

  I handed over the front desk to Jane who relieved of my receptionist duties and began her usual morning rituals. I stepped into my cramped office and checked our bank account, just in case some magical deposit had been made the night before. I sighed at the figure; it was going to be quite a day.

  As the clock approached one o’clock, I noticed it was still Jane and me. Galveston so far was a no show, so I had Jane give him a call. Even if he didn’t have any contacts for us, I at least wanted him in the office so I could keep an eye on him. I didn’t want him to regress into another Elizabeth induced funk, nor did I want to have reason to instigate another grass stained, wrestling match.

  Just as I was beginning to nod off in my cushy reclining chair, I got a page over the intercom from Jane that I had a call.

  “Probably Galveston,” I thought to myself, “telling me some tall tale about how he was assaulted by a pack of ravenous squirrels as he was leaving his house.” At this point I expected anything.

  “What excuse do you have for me today?” I asked mockingly.

  The other end was silent for a second before answering.

  “Uh, I’m…” a woman’s voice stammered, clearly caught off guard from my blurting.

  “I’m sorry,” I said sincerely. “I thought you were someone else. What can I do for you?”

  “Uh, yes, hello, my name is Maddie Jenkins and I’m an investigator for OceanLogic Marine. I would like to inquire about your services,” Jenkins told me.

  “Gladly,” I announced excitedly. “So you work with Marines? I didn’t know anyone specialized like that?”

  I felt an uncomfortable silence at the other end of the phone.

  “Uh, no. Marine, like water. We insure ships and cargo.”

  My face grew red, and I was glad she wasn’t in front of me. So far I was not making a good impression.

  “I should have been clear,” she said nicely, trying to keep me from feeling more stupid.

  “I’m sorry,” I said quickly. “What can I do for you?” I changed the subject back to the work at hand.

  “One of your colleagues, Alex Judokowski, handled a case for us a few years ago.”

  “I remember,” I lied. We had so many clients after word spread of the way we worked that I couldn’t remember all of them. “Are you interested in something in particular?”

  “Nothing that I can discuss over the phone. When can we arrange a meeting to discuss what we’re looking for? This is a very big job, and I would like to know if your organization can handle it.”

  “Of course. How about this afternoon? I’ll assemble our investigatory team to meet with you.” I stated it like we had a vast pool of resources to pull from. “My name is Roger Murphy, and I’m the President of the company. How does four o’clock sound?”

  “That would be perfect. I’ll be there at four. Just to let you know, our case concerns a ship and some containers we own on it.”

  “Good to know. We’ll talk about it at four. See you then,” I told her.

  “Thank you, see you then,” she replied.

  I hung up the phone and dialed Jane at the front desk.

  “Jane? Get everyone on the horn. We have a potential big client coming in. I need Galveston and Alex here by two o’clock. No exceptions. Tell them it’s extremely important. Tell Alex he worked on a case for this company before.”

  “Got it boss,” she replied sweetly.

  I sat back in my chair. We might have a job, and a big one at that. Big companies seemed to be our golden ticket. We had done many jobs for a variety of companies over the previous years. They hated to lose money, and we were glad to oblige in helping them get their money back. The ideas of what the job could be swirled in my head. Hopefully it would be quick and easy with a big payout. I never would have guessed what a mess we were about to get ourselves into.

  -Chapter 15-

  Alex managed to pull himself away from his day at the spa, which he had not been kidding about. He looked polished, refreshed, and relaxed. For him it was another tough day.

  I corralled Alex into my office around three o’clock; I didn’t want him to find an excuse to leave early. I hadn’t told him much about our prospective job, only that he had previously worked with the company.

  I was growing nervous as the clock passed thirty minutes past three. Galveston finally strolled in five minutes later, as if he was on time. Alex and I just stared at him as he came in and plopped down on a chair in front of us. The way he looked was in one word, shocking, and in another word, hilarious.

  “That’s what you decided to pull out of your closet?” I asked in a dead pan tone. “Were you drunk at the time, I hope?”

  “What’s wrong with what I’m wearing, you bunch of snobs,” he replied seriously.

  “You look like a rainbow threw up,” Alex said laughing.

  Galveston had decided that a bright, vertically striped, button down shirt with blue jeans that were way too baggy and had that crazy, acid washed look—that was popular twenty years ago—was appropriate attire for our meeting. He even had the audacity to wear some well worn flip-flops that made his posture look like he was a remnant from the Paleozoic Era; a hunched over, knuckle dragger.

  “And your face? Did you rub it with a rock?” I exclaimed.

  “I had a little trouble with my razor. It was a teeny bit dull,” he replied.

  Galveston‘s face was red with irritation from the razor, and he had cut himself two or three times.

  “You didn’t have anything clean, did you?” I asked.

  He looked away. “This was all I had left in my closet. I haven’t had time to do a load.”

  “It’s not hard. You put it in a washing machine and turn the knob,” Alex told him sarcastically.

  I shook my head at the sight, but I didn‘t have time to change him. We only had fifteen minutes before our appointment, and I didn’t have any extra clothes. I would have to deal with him later. At least he made it in. I shouldn’t have expected him to revert to the way he used to be in one day.

  “We’ll just tell the client that he’s an intern from the unemployment office,” I said to Alex.

  “Are you guys done? Now what about this client?” Galveston said, trying to change the subject.

  I sighed. We could harp on him the rest of the afternoon, but we had more pressing matters. I would deal with his appearance later.

  “The client is one that Alex has worked with before—OceanLogic. Do you remember them, Alex?” I asked.

  “Yeah, a few years ago I went over there to do s
ome computer work. They wanted me to track down the owners of some cargo or something. Easy job. I think I completed it all from the comfort of my chair at home.”

  “Well, that’s who our client is. I don’t know what it’s about, though. She’ll be here in a few minutes,” I told my partners.

  “A she?” Alex began, “I wonder if it’s the same…” he was cut off by Jane paging over the phone’s intercom.

  “Roger, Ms. Jenkins is here for the meeting.”

  “Send her back,” I answered.

  “There’s something you should know,” Alex said quickly, “I…” But he was cut off again as Jane strolled in with Maddie Jenkins.

  Galveston turned to stand and meet our guest, and his jaw literally dropped as he saw the stunning beauty walk through the door, impeccably clothed in a modest dress. He was amazed at her appearance, while Alex acted as if he was trying to crawl into a corner of the room. I then noticed Alex’s face turning a bright shade of red. I was losing confidence that this meeting would go smoothly.

  “Thanks for coming, Ms. Jenkins,” I said sticking out my hand.

  “Thanks for meeting me on such short notice. You can call me Maddie.”

  “This is Dan Galveston, my business partner.”

  I pointed to Galveston who jumped up to a standing position, and in the process came out of one of his flip-flops. He slowly stuck out his hand, but said nothing. With a glazed look on his face he finally stammered to greet Jenkins.

  “Uh, nice to meet you.” Galveston’s voice was almost monotone, and he shook her hand a bit too long.

  “Galveston had a clothing malfunction this morning. Today was his day off,” I lied. Galveston immediately flashed me a dirty look.

  “Nice to meet you,” Maddie said to Galveston, and pried her hand from his. He continued to stare at her like a sick puppy.

  “Okay,” I said, trying to break up the awkward moment. “This is Alex,” I started, before Maddie interrupted me.

  “Alex Judokowski,” she said putting out her hand. “How have you been, Alex?”

  “Pretty good, thanks Maddie. I see you’re still working hard.” Alex was still red, and smiled strangely at her. I was beginning to think my colleagues were crazy.

  “Do you two know each other?” I inquired, even though I was beginning to get the idea.

  “Alex helped me out a few years ago,” she told me. “He did an excellent job. That’s how we knew to call your company.”

  Alex looked down at the floor. There was something else going on that I would need to delve into later.

  Galveston was still staring blankly at Jenkins with a goofy smile on his face. I was getting concerned she would think we had patients from the local mental hospital working here.

  “Well, why don’t we get started? How can we assist you?” I asked formally, and motioned for her to sit in the nearest chair. I then motioned for my two, nutball partners to also have a seat.

  Maddie pulled out papers from a leather bag and put them across her lap. I looked over at Galveston who was trying not to appear obvious in his examination of her. I cleared my throat loudly and stared at him, giving him an indication to cut it out.

  “As I’ve told you, my company is OceanLogic Marine,” Maddie began calmly. “We own containers for lease to other companies. We also coordinate cargo for shipment in our containers. We specialize in high priced items, or cargo that needs extra security.”

  “Interesting,” Galveston blurted, fascinated by her rather mundane statements. I peered at him quickly, closed my eyes, and shook my head in disapproval.

  “Uh, yeah,” Maddie said, caught off guard and clearly a little concerned over the man sitting to her left. She shook it off and continued. “We had an incident yesterday that could be a major loss to our company. A container vessel called the Trusian was steaming from the port of Hong Kong to Los Angeles. Its ultimate destination was Barcelona, Spain after it went through the Panama Canal. We lost communication with the ship in the middle of the Pacific. We currently have no indication of where the vessel is.”

  “I haven’t heard of this on the news yet,” I told her.

  “It has been squashed temporarily, but you will, probably today. Like I have said, we don’t know what has happened to the Trusian, but we have good evidence that the ship has been hijacked.”

  “Really?” I questioned. “In the middle of the Pacific?”

  “Exactly.” She answered. “We had a communication that the ship lost its transponder. That is what allows the ship’s dispatch to locate it at sea. They continued to communicate with the ship, but it was not where it was supposed to be. We honestly don’t know where it went.”

  “I’ve heard of other cases like this. It seems extraordinary that a ship that size could be lost, but I know it has happened before,” I told her.

  “Interesting,” Galveston cut in, moving to the edge of his seat. I wasn’t really sure he had heard anything we said. I ignored him as best I could.

  “Uh, yeah,” Maddie murmured again.

  “What would you like from us?” I asked her directly.

  “We have four security containers on this ship carrying high value cargo for backers that wish to remain anonymous. We are not exactly sure what is in those containers. That isn’t the problem, though.” She paused slightly before continuing. “We stand to lose around $12 million dollars if these containers are not recovered soon.”

  “Wow,” was all I could say at the amount. That was an extraordinarily high monetary value.

  “It’s an amount we can’t cover without going out of business,” she said seriously. “That’s ultimately why I’m here. We need additional support to try to find this ship and retrieve our cargo. I’ve heard through the grapevine the types of cases your company has undertaken in the past. We need someone who will be covert and not bring attention to the vessel with their investigation. That is why we need a company your size.” She pulled some other bound papers from her leather case and pushed them onto the desk. “I’ve written up a report and what we are willing to pay. Between us I’ll tell you, it is negotiable.”

  I stared at the papers in front of me and didn‘t dare open them yet. I would do that when she was gone. I also fought the urge to ask what the cargo was. I felt it wasn’t quite the right time to press her on these issues. This was something that we could address later. I had learned in the past to get the basic facts first and go from there. It was an important lesson Galveston had taught me before he had mentally checked out on us. He was still smiling goofily at Maddie from his chair.

  “We’ll review the report and the costs, and I’ll contact you. We’ll determine if we can help you,” I told her.

  “We must act quickly. Every minute puts us farther behind,” she implored.

  “No problem. I’ll have an answer for you within the hour,” I promised.

  “Thank you, gentlemen. I look forward to your response.” She got up out of her chair and stuck out her hand toward me. As I moved to shake it, Galveston butted in and thrust his hand into hers.

  “Thank you for coming, Ms. Jenkins. That’s right? Miss Jenkins,” he emphatically said.

  “Uh, yes,” she said uncomfortably. “It is Miss, but you can call me Maddie.”

  “Maddie,” Galveston said softly and blinked his eyes at her.

  She gave him an awkward smile and removed her hand from his. “Thank you, Roger. Good-bye, Alex,” she said.

  Alex continued to cower in the corner and gave an awkward wave of his hand.

  “Jane? Can you escort Maddie out,” I yelled. “We’ll contact you within the hour,” I repeated to Maddie.

  Jane came in and showed Maddie through the lobby and to the front door.

  My attention returned to the papers in front of me, and I slowly opened the front page. My eyes scanned down quickly until I came to OceanLogic’s financial proposal for our services. Alex and Galveston popped out of their stupor, noticing the bug-eyed look on my face. My eyes had nearly flo
wn from my head when I read the numbers.

  “Oh my, God,” I exclaimed. “Boys? We need to talk.”

  -Chapter 16-

  I was awestruck by the number I had just read. I don’t think I had ever seen that many zeros in one place before. Alex and Galveston attempted to peer over my shoulder, like two kids straining to see a cool new toy.

  “Yikes,” was all Alex could muster.

  Galveston kept quiet, but breathed heavily, in a state of shock at the number, or perhaps, he just found me attractive.

  “I think we’re going to take the job. Hell, I don’t even know what it’s going to entail, but we’ve got to do it,” I told them without taking my eyes off the page.

  Galveston leaned down and put his face close to the paper. “Are you sure it’s not just an optical illusion? Is the page going to explode or something?”

  “It might. This is huge. How in the world are we going to take this on? We don’t know how to find a ship,” I said, realizing the enormity of the situation.

  I noticed Galveston vigorously nodding his head up and down. “Oh, we’re going to do it. We can do it. This is prime stuff.”

  I could tell from his demeanor that the old Galveston was back in action. He lived for the challenge and loved the chase. For the first time in months, he finally had something to get excited about. The monetary value on the paper didn’t hurt either.

  “They’re going to pay us $80,000 to start, plus they’ll cover all expenses. In addition, if we come in under two weeks we get an additional $20,000; if under a week we get $40,000 as a bonus.” I let the words sink in. We had no idea what kind of money this was. “I couldn’t have dreamed of negotiating a contract like this.”

  Jane walked in the door and sat down in one of the open chairs. “She seemed nice,” she said as we continued to hunch over the paper like birds on newly killed prey.