What time do I need to be there? (Unedited and unformatted excerpt from my upcoming book)
I was typing away at considerable speed when I heard a firm knock on the door. I assumed that it was my neighbor, maybe she took me on my offer for help.
It wasn’t Laura. A lady with short reddish-brown hair and dark rimmed glasses was about to knock again when I opened the door. She quickly pulled back her hand and used it to squeeze a leopard skin purse.
“Hello,” I said. “What can I do for you?”
She took a deep breath.
“I’m sorry to bother you sir, especially since you just arrived but I have a problem and I hope that maybe you are able, and willing to help me out.”
“Sounds very serious,” I answered. “Maybe you better come in.”
She accepted the invitation with a nod and a short “Thank you.”
I pointed to the loveseat.
“Please have a seat and by the way; my name is James.”
She waved her right hand.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m so upset that I even forgot to introduce myself. I’m Beverly, Beverly Wilson.”
“So, what can I do you for you Beverly?”
She put her purse next to her feet and folded her hands.
“Well, the problem is this. We have a social club, and we organize all kinds of activities. By the way, I’m the chairperson. A few times a year we invite someone to tell us a little bit about his, or her, work and everything that comes with it.
Of course, it must be someone who has interesting things to share and who is able to entertain us for about an hour. Not long ago we had an actor, not somebody famous though. Once we had a former racecar driver and last time there was a forest ranger.”
She coughed twice and resumed.
Flashback (Unedited and unformatted excerpt from my upcoming book)
There wasn’t much too see on the long straight road in Texas. My mind wandered off, to the early days of my relationship with Michelle.
I clearly remember the day when we met; it was a warm Thursday in August. Just as I did about every workday, I went for lunch to a small eatery about a block from the office. Pete, the owner, welcomed me with his customary friendliness. “Ah, there you are. You’re late, I thought I wouldn’t see you today.”
“I wouldn’t dream of skipping a day Pete, you should know me better than that. I’ll take the salad and a coffee.”
I sat down on my usual stool at the counter and looked around. There were some familiar faces. Two guys raised their hands. I didn’t know their names, only that they worked in the office next to mine. A young female was seated at the counter, about 10 feet from me. I was sure I hadn’t seen her in here before, I would have remembered if I had. While drinking her tea she went through some paperwork in a blue folder. Half long dark brown hair, slender body and she was impeccably dressed. An extremely attractive lady indeed. She looked in my direction and she caught me staring at her. She had a warm smile.
“Hi”, I heard myself say. “I haven’t seen you here before.”
She turned another page and answered softly. “First time here, I just moved here.”
“I’m James, nice to meet you and welcome to the neighborhood.”
“Nice to meet you James, I’m Michelle.”
Stay out of it (Unedited and unformatted excerpt from by upcoming book)
“Stay out of it,” was the advice given to me by Albert and detective Maitland.
They had a good point of course. It can be extremely easy to get yourself in trouble when interfering with police business. You may severely hamper the investigation, especially when you don’t have any investigative skills and experience.
But somehow, I couldn’t leave this alone and I decided to make another trip to the truck stop and talk to Jeff again. There could not be any harm in that, could it?
Just as I turned into the parking lot a big white pickup truck left and headed in the direction I just came from. Was it my imagination or was Jeff in the passenger seat? It surely looked a lot like him.
I quickly turned around and followed the truck at a safe distance. This was one of the times I wished that I had a different vehicle. Tailing someone in a fancy sports car is very tricky. Lucky it was silver though, and not a bright colored one.
At a slow speed it made its way through an industrial area, turned into a fairly busy street, and stopped at a convenience store. Both men got out and went inside. Darn, I wished I had binoculars. From this distance and angle, I still couldn’t tell for sure that one of them was actually Jeff.
My camera with the telephoto lens would have been helpful but I had left the equipment at home. A rookie mistake, I suppose.
Five minutes later the two man left the store and got in the truck. They slowly backed out and then sat for a short while, like they couldn’t decide which way to go. Finally, they moved and came back in my direction.