The Collector
Page 19
After hanging up from Beth, Alan sat back down and petted Pan, staring blankly at his phone. He realized that he had just actually committed to taking on a case, any way you sliced or diced it. Had he made a mistake? Was he really in a position to simply stop what he was doing now and throw fate to the wind to track down some woman with hopes of eventually saving her sister?
What in the hell was he doing? Julie must be turning over in her grave!
Yet, he really did want to take the case—couldn’t wait to get cracking on it in fact. Why was this? Was it his interest in this particular situation or the urge to get back into private investigation in general. Or was it something else: the obvious fact that his life had become so predictable and unsatisfying that he wanted to do something challenging and exciting for a change?
Hmm. The answer was all of the above. He wasn’t conscious of it most of the time but he had been looking for something like this case to pop up for quite awhile. While pursuing his web designing business, he had been loathing the monotony of sitting in front of a computer screen laying out web pages, typing out code like some kind of complacent nerd processor with no real life to speak of.
Sorta like Charlie Ling.
Is that really what he wanted to do for the rest of his life? Become another Charlie Ling?
He smiled. It wasn’t that he didn’t like Charlie or admire his special skills. Nor was Charlie’s line of work really comparable to his own. But he and Charlie both shared one common thread that was rather unsettling: spending the bulk of their waking hours alone planted in front of a computer.
There was a bit more to life than that, eh?
Certainly. And perhaps it was time to move on from his complacent station in life and do something that really matters for a change.
Having worked all of this out in his head, Alan now felt a certain sense of liberation. He could easily afford to take a few days off and fly up to New York, at least. He had just finished Chris Hammond’s website and didn’t need to tear into another one right away. He was free for a while with no commitments and a change of scenery just might do him some good. He was tired of Columbus and he was tired of being cooped up in this house. In fact, he couldn’t wait to get away from both for a little while. It might give him a fresh outlook on life if nothing else.
Tomorrow he would get up early, take a shower, eat and pack up his camera. Then he would— Shit! What about Pan? He couldn’t just blast off and leave the dog all alone with out anyone to care for her. He couldn’t take her with him either.
He would just have to find a place to board her. He clicked on an app on this iPhone and searched for animal boarders in the vicinity. He was just ready to call one of them when he suddenly stopped himself. He couldn’t just dump off Pan at some boarder to be stuck in a cage for two or three days. Especially after what she had been through and the fact that she was just now trying to adjust to a new environment here.
He would have to get a dog sitter, and he knew just the person who could do it. He recalled an old acquaintance of Julie’s who owned a dog day care center. Marie Schiff. Alan hit his yellow pages app, looked up her number and gave her a ring. After filling her in about his life since Julie passed, he was told by Marie that she would be more than happy to keep Pan at her awesome home-away-from-home pet facility. She informed Alan of the rates and assured him that Pan would be pampered and well looked after during her stay. Alan copied down the directions to her place and told her that we would bring his new dog in early in the morning.
He arose and decided to begin preparing for his trip to the city since there was little else to do. After booking his hotel and flight reservations, he charged the batteries for his Nikon and packed up a couple of lenses. By the time he had collected all of his gear for the trip, Alan realized that he was getting excited, if not absolutely euphoric at the prospect of getting back into the game again.