Private Dicks

Since this blog hasn't been updated in a long time, here's a bit of a story....

(* * *)

"So what do you see?"

Sandi looked through the binoculars. Quinn found it annoying that Sandi wouldn't share. Binocular hog!

"Okay...he's getting out of the car....he's with the woman....oh!...he's putting his arm on her shoulder...and...they have entered the hotel."

"That's it," said Quinn with some satisfaction. "We're done."

"Whew."

Sandi put down the binoculars and rested against the seat of the car. Quinn pulled out a small tape recorder.

"At 8:35 pm, Mr. Cedric Fleming entered the Palmer Hilton Hotel with the young woman identified earlier by photographic evidence. We are remaining here in hopes that we can see Mr. Fleming and his partner depart."

It was all that Quinn and Sandi needed. In State Law, evidence of opportunity of adultery was sufficient as evidence in a divorce proceeding. They didn't have to catch Mr. Fleming with his new friend's ankles around his ears. All that had to be proven was that Mr. Fleming was with a woman who was not his wife, and that both of them were in a place that allowed the opportunity. A hotel definitely counted.

Ms. Fleming could further testify that she was unaware of her husband's location -- supposedly, he was going out to dinner with business friends. Quinn knew that the very next day Mr. Fleming would be served his divorce proceedings, and Ms. Fleming would be asking for a handsome sum.

"We still don't know who his girlfriend is," said Sandi. "We know she's 'Becky', but I've just not been able to get that last name." Not that the two hadn't tried. Sandi had come very close to catching Ms. 'Becky' enter a car in an underground parking garage but couldn't get the license plate, and there had to be a thousand gray Honda Accords out there.

"It doesn't have to be perfect, you know."

"Yeah. But I like it to be perfect."

Quinn smiled. When the retainer came in, Sandi would be happy. She could blow her part of it on shopping for some new shoes.

Quinn, however, would be working at Dharma Surf, Inc. the next day as a lowly paid temp worker. Supposedly, someone was stealing Dharma Surf's designs and selling them to Kahuna Boards. It would be Quinn -- and Sandi's -- job to find out who. The shingle in front of "Griffin and Morgendorffer Investigations" didn't pay for itself, you know.