by H. B. Rae
Sheila seemed confused about what was going on and they looked to one another. “Do you not know about your father’s investment?”
“No sir I do not.”
“I see. Well back in college, I was good friends with your father. We were both in law school together and then I dropped out to take care of my pregnant wife. I was working at this very diner, but it was under different management. About three years of working here old Sal had fallen into debt and he sold me this place dirt cheap, but the only thing was, it would not meet code and I did not have the money to do what I needed to. Your father loaned me the money. He technically owned part of Doubles, but he did not want any part of it. If it was not for your old man I would not be where I am now.”
Sheila was at a loss for words, she nodded. “He was a good man.”
John could see that she seemed to be somewhat upset and he was not too sure how to comfort her. He looked to his father for guidance. He was the one who always knew what to say and he nodded. “He surely was. Is there anything I could get for the two of you?”
“My usual please,” John said and looked to her.
“Surprise me,” she smiled.
His father looked to her and he nodded. “I will be right back then.”
John looked back to Sheila and she seemed to want to hide her feelings but he was not too sure what was wrong. Talking about her father seemed to be a touchy subject for her, he wondered why. He smiled at her. He wanted to make her laugh, he wanted to make her feel better.
“So, is everything alright with you?”
“Of course, everything is just perfect. I do not see any reason why it wouldn’t be.”
“Don’t lie to me,” he chided. “Look I am horrible with talking to most people and confronting them but there is obviously something on your mind.”
Sheila shrugged. She did not know how to respond to him. She wanted to tell him everything that had happened – everything she knew, but she could not do that. Her father died a well-respected man and she was not going to tarnish his memory.
“You know if I really want to talk about it I will come find you and we will have a chat about it, alright?”
There was nothing else he could do but nod. His father walked out from the kitchen carrying two of his famous shakes. He set them down smiling at both of them. “These shakes are what most people rave about. John, here is your peanut butter and chocolate shake and for you our vanilla chip. I would have made you the same one but as I remember you have a peanut allergy.”
Sheila seemed surprised with the fact that he knew she was allergic to peanuts. He smiled and walked away. She turned to John and he smiled at her. The atmosphere here was much different than the one she had grown up with. It was relaxing and she could see how alluring it was for families.
“After we are done here what would you like to do?” As soon as those words passed his lips, he realized it sounded as if he was asking her on a date. This would not classify as a date, would it?
“We should go back to the office and see if there is anything we need to do. I know you have to find out what you can about that Carly person.”
Taking a sip of his shake he nodded. “Would you like to assist me in that?”
“Why would you need assistance?”
“I know there are things you can do that I can’t. You were caught hacking into your school database when you were twelve.”
“To prove my teacher was a pedophile and should not be working as my English teacher,” she hissed in a whisper so no one else would be able to hear.
“Regardless, you are more versatile in hacking into things than I am and that is exactly what I am going to need.”
“Why? You have never needed it before.”
“Well this time it is not going to be as simple. Carly has a security system at her residence and it is in a private building. I am able to get in there, but getting into her home without being detected myself is an impossible task.”
She nodded calmly not wanting to seem excited. When she wanted to be his assistant it was because she thought the work would be interesting but she mostly spoke with people, set up appointments and took their money. Now she would be able to contribute in a way she had not been able to before.
“Come to my place,” she said. “I have more equipment there than we do in the office.”
“Yes, that would be fine with me.”
They were silent again for a moment. His father was bringing out their food. He sat down with them with his own plate of food. Sheila looked to the two of them. They were very similar, but John must’ve gotten his mother’s eye color of light brown. She looked down at her plate and saw a burger sitting there with a pile of French fries.
Picking up the burger she bit into it and it tasted like heaven in her mouth. As she sat there in that booth she felt as if she was part of a family.
***
John was staring in awe all around him. Everything in here was decorated so simply but eloquently. Nothing was too eccentric but it was not simple either. It was warm and lovely. He saw Sheila was staring at him – studying him. He felt uncomfortable for a moment but he smiled. “I love this.”
“Yeah, it is beautiful here. So, please follow me.”
Falling in line behind her, they walked down the hall and made it to a door that looked as if it should have been a cupboard under the staircase; but as she opened it he saw that there were stairs going down as well.
“The basement has always been my domain. My mother saw to it that I had my own space away from my father and from her as well.”
He could not help but wonder if there was something wrong. Maybe something had happened when she was younger and that was why she acted the way she did, but he knew he should not pry into her life even though he wanted to.
As they made it to the landing, she turned towards him and he stopped. The way she was looking at him was intense and he attempted not to be awkward, but he was no good at that. “Why did you want to be an investigator?”
He was taken aback by her question and he realized he had really never talked to her about this before. She took a step back and it was somehow easier to breathe. “I thought it would be a lot more fun than being a stuffy lawyer or tax consultant like everyone else. I wanted to get involved in investigations and help people. I truthfully thought there would be more to it than these domestic cases.”
“And you did not want to be a cop?”
“Why would I do something silly like that? Cops have their job sure, but they have limited power and they have so many chains of command they have to go through. By being an investigator I don’t have to go through anyone else. I have the freedom to act on my own without worrying about breaking some policy that prohibits me from doing my job.”
“So basically you can do something illegal without being detected.”
“Saying “illegal” sounds so bad. I perform illegitimate actions in order to do my job so I can help people get divorced and it pays fairly well.”
“Phrase it however you wish but some of what you do can send you to jail for several years.”
“Or I would get fined, but regardless it doesn’t matter. Why would you want to help someone do something like that anyways?”
“For the thrill,” she smiled and stepped into a large room. For being in the basement, it did not seem like a basement. It was wide, open, and spacious. He could see outside to the wide open spaces and he saw she had several monitors and two flat screens and a rolling chair.
“I probably shouldn’t ask who you hack, should I?”
“I do not hack anyone unless I am asked to do so.”
“And how do you not get caught?”
She scoffed as if it was a ridiculous question. “I have my ways,” she said as she sat down and rolled over to one of her desks. She moved the mouse and all the monitors came to life. She got the keyboard and he watched in awe as they were beginning to do different things. She turned towards him. “Did you say that this Car
ly girl works with Martin?”
“That is what he said to me.” She started typing a few things into a search engine he had never seen before. A list of names that were highlighted came up and she picked one out of all of them. He saw her picture and her name was right next to it: Carly M. Everett. She had pitch black hair and stunning blue eyes and from what he saw she was only twenty-one years old compared to Martin’s twenty-nine.
Sheila began doing something else; she had a live feed up and he saw her working her magic. He looked at Sheila and she smiled. “You are smart for being a Luddite because I now have all of her information on my screen and she doesn’t even know it. Now we can see what she does. We can even go through her browsing history, but that isn’t all either. I can access all of her medical records.”
“Now who is the one doing illegal activity?”
“It is not illegal if you don’t get caught,” she said. Her eyes were scanning over the computer and she seemed to be able to process everything on her screens within seconds. “And I was only caught once, and like most things I have learned from my mistakes.”
She stopped and she turned her chair towards him. “What is the information you need to provide in order for Sasha to win her divorce?”
“Any proof of infidelity, that way she can go ahead and prove that he is in fault of their prenuptial agreement.”
She moved away from one of the screens and he realized she wanted him to read what was on it. They were e-mails from Martin to Carly. He realized that he had been lied to by Martin. He already knew that Carly was pregnant, and he was the father. If tone was able to be conveyed in text it seemed to John that Martin was more than excited. He was going to be the one to file for divorce before Sasha even had the chance, and all he needed now was proof.
“I don’t know if that is the proof you were looking for. Is there anything else you would want me to find?”
He looked at her and he was not sure what to do. “I want more than that pregnancy test to give to Sasha. I want pictures. Hard core evidence.”
She nodded and he knew there was a question on her mind. “Why do you care so much about this? I know you know them both personally, but it seems like you really care about Sasha.”
“I don’t care about her in the way you are insinuating. Sasha has been with Martin ever since they were in high school. She could have had anyone she wanted. Rodney sure as hell didn’t approve of them together, but he kept his opinion to himself the entire time. He wanted her to be happy and since Martin was preaching the “one woman forever” spiel we all thought he was for real. Now it just looks as if he lied to our faces and the moment Rodney knows, he is going to do something.”
“I see,” she began. “I will help you get all the evidence Boss. It is just going to take a few minutes. You said that she has a security system in her home?”
“Yeah, it is one of those top of line.”
“Well she does live in a private building and she has a security system for more than protecting her home. I am more than certain she will have cameras,” she said. John watched her pull up a screen and she began typing. They were not just seeing the feed of Carly from her computer, but they were also seeing the rest of her residence.
“Wouldn’t top of the line security be impossible to break into?”
“Everything is able to be broken into,” she said. “People are predictable and that is exactly why it is easy to gain access to their information. Most people use the same passwords and then when they log into something that remembers their password. They hit “yes” for it to save, it is uploaded into a database that can be hacked too. That does not only hold their passwords, but saved credit card information, their addresses, names, everything is saved. People put too much trust in technology and they all have this mindset that their information is not going to be stolen, but it does inevitably.”
“Well hopefully you can’t find anything on me,” and as he said that he realized he was challenging her. She looked away from him and he heard as she was striking the keys. As several tabs opened and disappeared, he wondered what she was doing and he saw his own picture, but it was back from when he was in college and it had all of his information on the screen.
“It looks as though I have found something,” she said and there was a smile on her face. John was not sure how to feel at the moment. All of his information was right in front of him and anyone could gain access to it. His identity could be stolen. He realized Sheila was much more talented than he was when it came to hacking into things. He was very basic, but she was on a completely different level.
“Well that is just disconcerting. Uh, so with the information that we have on Carly,” he began. He was not too sure what to say or how to approach it. He just wanted all of his information to be gone off the screen.
She locked her screen and she turned towards him. “Would you allow me to compile the evidence you need to provide to Sasha?”
“You sound too excited about this.”
He watched as color formed on her cheeks. Was she blushing? Why would she blush? She brushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear and she bit her lip. “I was always hoping to be able to do more than just take messages and schedule appointments for you all day.”
John looked away from her. Now he felt as though he had been ignoring her wants, but why should he feel bad? Sheila had never told him about her desires to do any of this and that was not his issue. Now that he knew though, he wondered if he would actually be able to close up shop. He knew it was possible he would have to let her go and he did not want that.
“I see, well I wish you had told me sooner. I thought you were busy enough with everything else and I didn’t realize you wanted to juggle more.”
“I am busy,” she smiled. “But I am very good at multitasking.”
“Well I guess we will have to see how well you actually do multitask.”
She blushed again and he realized what he said could have been taken wrong. He hoped that she didn’t take it the wrong way. He was awkward enough without talking. Now that he was, he realized he should probably shut up. She smiled.
“I think you should be getting home,” she finally said. “I will have everything on your desk in the morning.”
He nodded and he could not help but feel reluctant to leave. He enjoyed being in her company, but he knew he had to go as it was. There were a few things he had to go ahead and do anyways. She was seeing him out and he turned towards her. He needed to say something. “Look, this might be the only case you can work on. Once I stop taking these domestic cases, we might be out of work for a while.”
Sheila took a step closer towards him and she looked him in the eyes. “I know that Boss, but that’s fine. We will work through this together.”
John nodded. She had opened the door for him and he stepped outside. He wasn’t too sure he wanted to leave but he finally walked to the gate. He opened the gate and shut it. He heard something beep and he saw that the security had been set. He could not deny that Sheila was extraordinary. He looked over his shoulder. Part of him wanted to see her there, but she wasn’t there.
Continuing to walk down the road he had no idea where he was going. He hailed a taxi once he made it to the main road. Sitting in the backseat he knew where he needed to go.
Chapter 5
He had not sat in this kitchen in well over a year and his mother was bubbling with excitement. She was putting dinner together as quickly as she could as his father walked in through the front door. He appeared to be exhausted, but he had multiple functions at the diner. He paused for a moment.
“John, what the hell are you doing here?”
“Rick,” his mother said. “What is the matter with you? Is having our son in the house such a bad thing?”
“No, and I am sorry if that came out wrong. I was just not expecting to see you twice in one day. What’s the matter?”
John was not too sure how to tell his father what was going on in his head, but he knew he
needed to talk to him. He was the most logical person he knew and he trusted him. “I just needed to talk to you about something.”
He smiled and walked over towards him. Patting him on the shoulder, he pulled a chair out and sat down next to him. “And what is that something on your mind?”
“I don’t know how to say this because it is something that you don’t approve of.”
“What? Dating your coworkers? Sheila looked as if she was into you too.”
“What, no! That is not what I am here to talk to you about; there’s something else.”
“There’s a girl,” his mother interjected. “Who is she?”
“Mom, there is no girl. I don’t think so at least; but that isn’t why I’m here. I need to talk to you about my business.”
His father scrunched up his nose. “What is going on son?”
John knew his father had not approved of him changing his major. They had never fought so much, and it was because of that fight that John had not been around as much. He knew that was wrong of him, but after the things that had been said – he knew he was being immature about it and he needed to get past it. However, he was not too sure if his father was over it either.
“I am successful,” he started. “But the sort of cases I have been working on are for people wanting to catch their cheating spouses. I can’t stand them any longer. I always thought it would be different, and I want it to be different.”
“John, there is no way to change your clientele. All you are going to be able to do is wait for the right cases to come along.”
“And what happens if they don’t come?”
“Then you deal with it. I have a feeling you already knew this was going to be the answer. Now can you please tell me why you are really here?”
He had never been able to keep something from his father and sighed. “You remember my roommates, Rodney and Martin?”
“Yeah. I remember they had gone to the diner a few times before I knew you had changed your mind about what you were doing for school. Why?”