by Bill Bernico
“Then you don’t mind?” Gloria said. “Can we take in a boarder or two?”
“I’ll agree under one condition,” Elliott told her. “That I’m part of the interview process before we agree to let anyone have either one of the rooms. I think I’m a pretty good judge of character and I think I could weed out the undesirables.” He held his hand out toward Gloria. “Deal?”
Gloria smiled. “Deal,” she said, shaking his hand and then kissing him on the cheek.
They both got up from the sofa and Elliott headed for the front door again. “Write up an ad,” Elliott told Gloria, “and when you think it’s worded the way you want it, call me at the office and we’ll tweak it.”
“I’ll get started on it right away,” Gloria said, letting Elliott out. “And I’ll call you later.”
Elliott drove away and Gloria sat down at the kitchen table, pen and paper in hand and began composing her ad for the classified section of tomorrow’s paper. When she had it worded the way she wanted, she called the classified section and told the woman who answered what she wanted to say in her ad. It would run for five days starting in tomorrow’s edition. After Gloria had hung up the phone, she remembered that she was supposed to call Elliott with the wording. He’d just have to trust her judgment.
When Elliott walked in to the office, his son, Matt was casually sitting behind his desk, his wrist extended in front of him. Matt looked down at the face of his wristwatch and then back at his father. “You sleep in this morning, Dad?” Matt said, a wry smile on his face.
“No I didn’t,” Elliott answered. “Just before I left the house, your mother and I had something important to talk about.”
Matt’s smile turned into a full toothy grin. “I’m going to have a new baby brother?” Matt said, chuckling to himself. “That’s great. When’s the big day?”
“Nobody likes a smart ass,” Elliott said. “No, it just so happens that your mother and I are considering taking in a boarder or two to help make ends meet, since this business doesn’t seem to be doing it for us like it used to. I could chalk it up to the economy. I could chalk it up to people in general behaving in a more civil manner, whereas other people wouldn’t be in need of our services. I could even chalk it up to one of us not doing his share of the work around here.”
“Come on, Dad,” Matt said. “Don’t beat yourself up over this. You’re doing as much as can be expected for a guy of your advanced years.”
Elliott remained silent and just stared at his cocky son. Finally, he said, “I was referring to you, Matthew Cooper.”
“Me?” Matt said. “I don’t know what more I can do to generate business around here. Remember, we have to wait for the client to come to us, not the other way around. What would you like me to do, stand on the street corner with a sandwich board with our phone number on it?”
Elliott stroked his chin and looked toward the ceiling. “You know, you might be onto something there. That’s not a bad idea.”
“Come on, Dad. You can’t be serious.”
Elliott thought for a moment before adding, “Tell you what. How about if we make a bet? Starting right now, the first one of us who brings in the next paying client will have the pleasure of watching as the other, non-income producing partner stands on the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Cahuenga with that sandwich board for one eight-hour day. Now, you want to back up that cocky attitude with something tangible, or are you just blowing smoke?”
Matt stood now, defiant. He stepped in front of Elliott and extended his hand. “You got yourself a deal,” he said. “But we have to lay down some ground rules.”
“Ground rules?” Elliott said. “Like what, for instance?”
“For instance,” Matt said. “No outside help.”
“Help?” Elliott said. “Who’d help a guy with a sandwich board? I’d think most people would steer clear of a guy like that.”
“More specifically,” Matt added, “no calling your buddies at the twelfth precinct to drum up extra business for yourself. Whoever ends up with that sandwich board has to solicit business from passersby and no one else.”
“Agreed,” Elliott said. “Anything else?”
“That should cover it,” Matt said and hurried around to his side of the desk again. He picked up his phone and began punching numbers into it. “Yes, madam, this is Matt Cooper. Might you be in need of any private detecting today? Uh huh. Wait a minute, I’ll put him on.” He looked up at Elliott. “You wanna take line one, Dad?”
Elliott gave Matt a curious look, punched the button for line one and lifted the receiver to his ear. “This is Elliott Cooper.” Once he heard the voice on the other end he looked up at Matt, who was smiling now. Elliott resumed his phone conversation. “Your son is a smart ass,” he told Gloria. It’s going to cost him a day on the street corner by the time I’m through with him.” Elliott explained their deal to Gloria.
“As long as I have you on the line,” Gloria said, “I called our ad in to the paper this morning. It’ll start tomorrow morning and run for five days. Sorry I forgot to call you before I placed the ad.” She read the content of the ad to Elliott. “Hopefully we’ll be able to come up with a respectable boarder before it runs out.”
“Or two,” Elliott said.
“Or two,” Gloria agreed. “I guess I’ll see you tonight. You boys have fun now and good luck with your little contest.”
Elliott hung up the phone and started for the door.
“Where are you off to already?” Matt said.
“I’m going out and drum up some business,” he said. “If you’re so eager to play with the phone, why don’t you do the same? I’ll be gone for an hour or so.”
“By the time you get back I’ll be out on my case,” Matt said, trying to exude confidence in his statement.
“Yeah, right,” Elliott said, and left the office. He drove to the twelfth precinct and found Lieutenant Eric Anderson in his office. Elliott knocked just once and let himself in. Eric was sitting facing his computer screen, which faced the back wall. Elliott couldn’t see what Eric was doing on the computer from where he stood.
“Researching a case, Eric?” Elliott said.
“Something like that,” Eric said, maneuvering his mouse around on his mouse pad and occasionally tapping a key. He was completely absorbed in the contents of his screen and didn’t see Elliott step around to the side of his desk, his neck craning to see Eric’s screen.
“Red three on the black four,” Elliott said and then stepped back again. “Ah, the elusive case of the solitaire killer. How’s that one coming?”
“Nobody likes a smart ass,” Eric said.
“Funny, that’s the same thing I just told Matt this morning.” Elliott didn’t wait to be invited to sit. He pulled up a chair and sat across from the lieutenant. He explained the bet he’d made with his son and concluded by saying, “I’d like nothing better than to shove a little humility down that kid’s cocky throat. That and we do need the business. Got anything for me this morning?”
“Oh sure,” Eric said. “I was just playing solitaire to pass the time until you got here and I could give you one of my cases. Elliott, if I had something to do, I’d be doing it. This day has got to be one for Ripley’s book. There’s absolutely nothing going on right now. It’s downright spooky.”
“I know what you mean,” Elliott said. “Business is so slow that just this morning Gloria and I talked about taking in a boarder or two for some extra income.”
Eric stopped piling up cards on his screen and turned to look at Elliott. “No kidding? You’re going to rent out the kids’ rooms?”
Elliott nodded. “Uh huh. Gloria phoned it in this morning. The ad is going to start in tomorrow’s classified section.”
“That’s great,” Eric said. “I know someone who’d be a perfect tenant for you and Gloria.”
“What’s the matter, Eric,” Elliott said. “Are your jail cells overcrowded? You trying to unload some of your extra dregs on me?”
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“No, seriously, Elliott,” Eric said. “My cousin, Penny just got into town three days ago from Lansing, Michigan. She’s staying at the Y.W.C.A. until she can find a place of her own, but she’s having a tough time of it. She says she can’t find anything decent. Oh, she could get a room in a flop house or transient hotel, but you know what those places are like.”
“How long would she need a room?” Elliott said. “And would she eventually be looking for an entire apartment or a house of her own?”
“Someday, maybe,” Eric said. “For now all she needs is a nice, clean room.”
Elliott thought about it for a moment. “Gloria and I were hoping for someone a little more permanent,” he said. “I’d hate to have her stay for just a month and then move on. We’d have to start the advertising and interviewing process all over again.”
“I can ask her,” Eric said. “Maybe she should be thinking about being a minimalist for a while. She’s got the rest of her life to start collecting material possessions. Let me give her a call later and I can call you on your cell.”
“All right,” Elliott said. “I’ll talk to you later. Thanks.”
Elliott left Eric’s office and walked back toward the front door. He had just stepped out onto the sidewalk again when he bumped into a woman walking toward him. Their shoulders collided and the woman spun around toward Elliott. “Excuse me,” they both said simultaneously.
The woman looked up at Elliott and gestured toward the precinct. “Do you work here?” she said.
“Sometimes it seems like it,” Elliott said. “Who are you looking for?”
“I need someone to help me find my brother,” she said. “He’s been missing since last night and I’m afraid something may have happened to him.”
Elliott hiked a thumb back toward the police station. “I can tell you already that they won’t be able to help you until he’s been missing for at least forty-eight hours. If you want to come back in a day and a half, maybe they can…”
“I don’t want to wait that long,” she said. “Alfie’s in trouble, I just know it. I need to find him right away.”
“Well then, maybe I can help you,” Elliott said. “Excuse me, my name is Elliott Cooper and I’m a private investigator. We don’t have to wait until the forty-eight hours is up before we start looking for a missing person.”
“We?” the woman said, looking past Elliott and seeing only him.
“I meant ‘we’ in the general sense as in we private eyes,” Elliott explained. He fished a business card from his pocket and handed it to the woman. She looked it over and tried to hand it back. “Keep it,” Elliott told her. “Would you like to follow me back to my office? It’s just a few minutes from here. I can get your details and start looking for Alfie right away.”
The woman looked past Elliott again, toward the police station. “Don’t you think I should at least check in with someone here to let them know about all of this?” she said.
“You’re probably right,” Elliott said, “Come on, I’ll take in you there myself and introduce you to the lieutenant in charge. At least that way they’ll have a record of when you asked for their help. And two days from now, they can join in the search, unless I find him first.” Elliott waited for the woman’s reply. “I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name.”
“Lindsey,” the woman said. “Lindsey Hill.”
Elliott escorted Lindsey into the precinct and introduced her to Lieutenant Anderson. Eric took down the woman’s information, thanked her for stopping in and told her almost word for word what Elliott had already told her outside. She left her name and a phone number where she could be reached and exited the building again alongside Elliott.
“Looks like you were right, Mr. Cooper,” Lindsey said.
“I’m parked right out in front here,” Elliott explained. “Just follow me and if we get separated in traffic, my business address is on the card.”
“Thank you, Mr. Cooper,” Lindsey said and got into her own car. She stayed behind Elliott in traffic and followed him back to Elliott’s building. She parked next to him in the parking lot behind the building. Lindsey rode the elevator with Elliott to the third floor.
Together they walked into Elliott’s office to find Matt on the phone, obviously trying to drum up some business so he wouldn’t have to deal with the sandwich board on the street. Elliott gave Matt a knowing grin as he and Lindsey walked past his desk. Elliott invited Lindsey to sit in his client’s chair while he took a seat behind his desk. Matt was just hanging up his phone as Elliott started his interview process.
Elliott paused, gestured toward Matt and said, “Lindsey Hill, I’d like you to meet my son and partner, Matt Cooper.”
Matt approached Lindsey and extended his hand. “Nice to meet you, Lindsey,” he said. “Are you an old friend of Dad’s?” He was hoping she wouldn’t be a client.
Lindsey shook her head. “No, I just met your dad twenty minutes ago. He’s going to help me find my missing brother.”
Matt exchanged glances with Elliott and noticed his father trying to suppress a grin. He turned back to Lindsey. “Well, I hope we’ll be able to help you. Excuse me.” Matt returned to his desk while Elliott continued gathering information from his new client. Within ten minutes Elliott had all the information he needed from Lindsey to get started on her case. Lindsey gave Elliott a three by five photo of her missing brother as well as her signature on a standard contract. Elliott collected his retainer and showed her to the door. He waited until he heard the elevator door close before he turned around to face Matt. Now his suppressed grin broke out into a full-blown laugh.
“Well, Sandwich Boy,” Elliott said. “Don’t make any plans for tomorrow. You’ll be spending in on the corner with your new advertising gimmick.”
Matt rolled his eyes. “Luck,” he said. “That’s all it was.”
“I’ll take it anyway,” Elliott said. “You’d better make some calls and get your sandwich board ready for tomorrow. I’ve got a missing brother to find.”
“Where are you going to start?” Matt said.
Elliott glanced down at his notes. “According to Lindsey, she last saw Alfie when he left her house for the grocery store last night. He didn’t come back.”
“Alfie?” Matt said.
“Alfred Hill,” Elliott explained. “Even he doesn’t like his own name and once Lindsey started calling him Alfie as a child, it just stuck with him.”
“How old is this Alfie character?” Matt said.
“According to the information I got from Lindsey, he just turned twenty last week,” Elliott explained. “He lives with his sister in her apartment over on Franklin. Hell, she’s just a kid herself. Can’t be more than twenty-five and…” Elliott stopped himself, realizing that Matt was only twenty-five himself.
“How’s that, old man?” Matt said.
“Forget it,” Elliott said. “They’re a couple of young people. Let’s just leave it at that, shall we?”
“You’re going to need some help with this one, Dad,” Matt offered.
“Won’t you be busy having your sandwich board made?”
“That’s the other thing,” Matt explained. “Suppose I help you with this case? If I find Alfie first, I don’t have to deal with the sandwich board tomorrow.”
“And if I find him first? Elliott said.
“Then I’ll give you double or nothing,” Matt said. “I’ll carry it for two days if you find him first. Is it a deal?”
Elliott thought about it for a moment. It was a win-win situation for him. There was no penalty for him if Matt found Alfie first and it could only help the business’s reputation if they both found the kid before the police got involved. “You got a deal, Matt” he said, shaking his son’s hand. “Let’s get out there and find Alfie.”
“Then you gonna ask him what’s it all about?” Matt said.
“Huh?”
“If I have to explain it, it’s not funny, Matt told his dad. “Where do you sugge
st we start looking?”
“How about if we drive over to that grocery store on the corner of Highland and Franklin?” Elliott suggested. “According to his sister, that’s where he was supposed to be going. Maybe someone there saw him come in or go out.”
“I’ll drive,” Matt said and headed out of the office ahead of Elliott.
Elliott called after him. “Give me a minute. I just need to call your mother.” Elliott called his house and told Gloria about Eric Anderson’s cousin needing a room. “Better change the wording of that ad for just one room,” he told Gloria.” “Gotta run. Matt and I are on a case.”
The grocery store was less than ten blocks from their office. Matt parked outside of the store and the two of them went inside to see the manager, who, as it turned out, was a man named Benjamin Perkins. His office was on the second level, looking down onto the grocery floor. One of the clerks out in front buzzed Mr. Perkins on their phone and he came down to meet with Elliott and Matt.
“Mr. Perkins,” Elliott said, handing the manager one of his business cards, “My name is Elliott Cooper and this is my son, Matt. We’re trying to locate a young man whose been missing since last night.”
“What does this have to do with me?” Perkins said.
“The man’s sister tells us that he was coming here last night to pick up a few groceries,” Elliott explained. “He didn’t come home.” Elliott pulled Alfie’s photo from his pocket and showed it to Perkins. “Would you recall seeing this man in here any time last night?”
Perkins examined the photo and looked up at Elliott. “What time would he have been in here?”
“Between eight and eight-fifteen,” Elliott said. “Somewhere in there.”
Perkins handed the photo back to Elliott. “Then I wouldn’t have seen him,” he explained. “I left here shortly after seven and didn’t come back in until an hour ago.”
Elliott took the photo. “Can you tell me who was working during that time last night, Mr. Perkins?”
Perkins took one step backwards and turned around to face a wall with a clipboard hanging from it. He pulled the clipboard off the nail and flipped one sheet up over the top, running his finger down the paper. “Barbara and Kenny were working last night,” he explained. “They both came on at four-thirty and their shift runs until twelve.”