The Plot Thickens (for Kishiseta)

Monica Barrus stood outside the building, trying to compose herself. She ran her hands down her arms and sides, smoothing out her jacket as she took a few deep breaths. She dug into her purse quickly, looking for the business card her co-worker had given her. Discovering the card, she quickly pulled it out, and studied it again. Looking back at the sign next to the door, she nodded to herself resolutely. This was the place. If they couldn't get the answer for her, no one could, had said her friend. She reached for the door handle, but hesitated, her hand hanging in the air.

Monica was a small framed woman, barely over 5 feet tall. Now in her mid 30's, she looked younger than that, due to her size and her youthful facial features. Medium length blonde hair was presently pulled up and back in a professional style, as she was fresh from the office today. Her blue eyes trying to keep from tearing up as she thought about why she was here in the first place.

Finally, sighing heavily, she finished reaching for the handle. Now or never, she swung the door open, and stepped into the foyer of the PI firm. She looked around at the modestly decorated, but tasteful furnishings. There was a desk by the back wall, with filing cabinets behind it. A couch, some chairs, an ottoman, and a coffee table in the center of the room took up most of the space in this front room. On the far left wall, was a single doorway with "Private" stenciled on a frosted glass window in its center. Next to the doorway, stood a small craft table, where a coffee machine was percolating away. Also on the table was a stack of disposable cups, and a few packets of sweetener, and a bowl of hard candies.

But, there didn't seem to be anyone here. The door was unlocked, but she didn't notice anyone present. "Um... Hello?" She called out, somewhat tentatively. And suddenly, from behind the desk, came the sound of a filing cabinet slamming closed. A young man popped up from behind the desk. Having been there the whole time, he hadn't noticed the sound of the door opening, over his focus on getting the filing cabinets back in order after a few weeks of neglect.

"Oh, Hi there!" He spoke quickly. "My name's Colin. I guess you're here to see the ladies? Hang on just a second, OK?" The guy couldn't be but barely out of his teens, and in fact, he wasn't. At 20 years old, Colin appreciated the ironic humor of a lady detectives having a male clerk, and him becoming her junior partner. Certainly different from the old movies, but he was fine with it. He was a pretty progressive kid, and besides. The lady he worked for was probably the best detectives he had ever met, police included. He was learning so much more working for her, than he was in his criminal justice and law classes in college. Working on a career as an investigator himself, he found the experience he got here to be his best teacher. Espcecially since she had been taking him out on jobs with her recently. He'd proven quite instinctive at researching and drawing conclusions when it came to investigative workk. He reached over, and punched a button on the phone on his desk.

"Miss, there's a potential client out here. You got a minute for a consult?" He spoke his question aloud into the speaker, so that the lady would hear him ask the question on her behalf, but then picked up the receiver and held it to his ear to await the answer, so she wouldn't hear the reply. He nodded quickly, as he listened on the phone. "Alright then. I'll let her know."

Looking back up to Monica, he set the receiver back down on the phone unit. "OK then. We'll see you in the back. Just go right through that door there, and it'll be the room at the end of the hall. I'll join you shortly" Monica nodded, stepped to the 'Private' door, and walked through it. Through the door was a hallway, with another small conference room at the end of it. She walked past two other closed doors, the private offices of the detectives themselves, each of whose names were printed on the doors with a pair of well cut plaques. The room she was headed to however, wasn't sealed by a door. It was a lounge, but they used it primarily for consultations like this, because it was found to be more comforting to clients than either of the offices, and more private than the lobby. She made her way through the open threshold, and smiled a nervous smile, giving a tentative glance around at the furnishings. Two pretty comfortable looking chairs sat in the center of the room. Across from them, was a loveseat, to which Monica made her way. She sat down, nervously, waiting for the young man who had spoken to her earlier, and whomever he had spoken to on the phone, to join her.

Reese hung out in Maya's office not having anything much to do in the last couple of days. Two of her cases involved very easily investigated matters about tracing debtors and frankly, that was usually what er cousins gave her. Being the youngest at 24 and the only one to have pursued psychology instead of criminology, they were more inclined to give her the easier jobs that didn't require too much experience. She swept her black, wavy hair over the arm of her cousin's single-person white leather couch as she tried to fit her voluptuous 5'7" frame in it, her feet dangling over the edge. Her black mini-skirt had ridden up her thighs, but she didn't mind. They were the only ones there.

Her cousin's room was pristine. The whole room was white with aluminum accents and linings along the edges of the bookcase along one of the walls. Her desk was made of tempered glass propped up by steel legs. The floor was covered with a cream-colored carpet with hardly a spot.

Maya looked at her cousin. The redhead was the one who vouched for her with her sister and cousins and she was proud of what Reese has accomplished. She took her cousin in knowing how observant her cousin was. She was better at noticing things than any of them even when they were still children. Her red-lacquered nail tapped on the desk as if she had come to a decision. "Alright. The next case will be yours whatever it is. Just don't tell Aliyah I'm doing this."

Reese groaned, letting her heel drop from her foot. "If that's another research thing again, I'm going to scream."

Maya shrugged when the phone rang. "A client?" she asked answering the phone. "Alright. Reese will be the one handling this case. Send the client in." She put down the phone and turned to her cousin. "Looks like a woman by the tone of his voice. I'm betting it's an infidelity case so, that could be fieldwork. Now go shoo and fix yourself. You look like a hooker about to pounce on your next victim."

Sighing, Reese stood up and lowered her skirt, straightened her button-down shirt, tied the scarf around her neck and wore the coat hanging from the back of the couch she sat on. "That better be. I'm sick of desk jobs. And please let's not have the hooker jokes when we're in the office? You know how self-conscious I get." Ready and looking professional, she stepped out of the office and headed to the receiving room, her back heels clicking on the wooden floors. Her pink-colored lips curled into a smile seeing the woman. Well, at least Maya got one out of two right. It was a woman. Now to see if she was here for an infidelity case. Reese stretched out her hand for a shake. "Good day. My name is Reese Costa. Please, take a seat." She sat in front of the woman. "Your name is?"

((Hey sorry I kind of left you hanging on this one. I'm getting back to you I promise. Just once I figured out whats going on, I had to do some quick re-writes to certain story points.))

"I- I'm Monica Barrus." She was obviously nervous about being here in the first place, and she didn't think the woman in front of her looked anything like the ace investigator that she was promised would be able to help her here. She looked like she was barely any older than the guy that was fining papers out in the lobby. And not at all hardened like she would have expected. She looked very much like some of they young secretaries at her company. Hired by the bosses more for their ability to fill out a dress than their ability to perform the job description. But what did Monica know? Maybe the woman used her looks to disarm people, and let her get information she otherwise wouldn't have been able to. Reese, she had said her name was.

"I hope you can help me." She started off. "I'm not even sure there's really anything even going on. It's just... it's my husband you know? We don't talk like we used to. And he's been working more hours lately. Like, on weekends, and on into the nights. But, I had tried to call him once at the office, on one of those nights, and he wasn't in. Someone else answered. Said they just heard the ringer while they were passing by. That my husband had left at six o clock that day..." She signed. "And, we got a phone call once, from a number I didn't recognize. When I answerend the phone, they just hung up. I called back, and it was some woman, but when I told her I was the person she just called, she just hung up, and wouldn't answer any more when I tried calling back." She held her hands up in a kind of confused gesture. "I mean... just... I don't know. Does it even sound like anything? Or do you think I'm just being paranoid? If it was just any one of all those things, I wouldn't be so upset, or so worried about it. But it's not just one. It's all of that all happening at once. Once it all just stacks up like that, it can't all be coincidence, right?"

She sighed again. As she spoke, finally said it all out loud, she just looked like all ther energy had gone out of her. One of her hands, clutching tightly against her purse, started to shake a little.

"Oh, I don't know. I mean you probably just see things like this all the time, right? What do you think? Should I just go home?" She had been handling herself fairly well upon coming in, but once she had actually said it, actually come out and admitted it, even to herself, for the first time ever all the way, she was breaking down fast. She looked like she was going limp in the chair, her eyes cast down toward the floor. Part of her really did want the help, and to find out the truth, but another part of her just wanted to hear from a professional, that everything was okay, that her husband wasn't cheating, and she was just being paranoid.

As her experience with her cousins, she noticed everything about Ms. Barrus first. The woman had definitely snuck out of the office for something important, or at least to ease her mind with something. These were often indicators of, what Maya had initially predicted, a possible infidelity case. There was nervousness in the woman's eyes that was similar to the common fear of women fearing their spouses have another. And there was also doubt in her eyes. Of course, that would likely stem from meeting her, by the way the older woman looked at her, up and down. It wasn't the first time people underestimated her because of her looks, and it took quite a while before she was able to control her reactions and now, she was able to keep her composure and do her swearing inside her head without the client knowing.

"This way, if you please, Ms. Barrus." She led the lady to her office. It was a small room with a black particleboard-and-plastic desk attached to a shelf filled with books and files on the side. Her hardwood floor was had a small black rug underneath the table and the three chairs that were hers and her clients'. The leather couch on the other side of the wall ran parallel to the glass panes that stopped at a wall just behind Reese's black manager's chair. The wall was decorated sparsely with various photographs signed by her favorite football players.

Husband. She had to know how Maya did what she did! Given time, she knew she'd be able to get the trick soon. But with what the lady had given her, it could still be anything. Infidelity was just one of the options, but the most likely. "One thing is for sure, Ms. Barrus, your husband is acting suspiciously. Of what, I cannot be sure, to be honest with you. It could be anything. But to give you better answers, I need to know more. Basic things like how long this has been going on. Did you find any tell-tale signs that he was with another woman? Something as simple as the scent of perfume or cologne that you don't recognize on his clothes. Lipstick stains on his collar. Have you checked his schedule book? His phone? Did you find any condoms or papers with numbers. Anything at all out of the ordinary would be helpful so that we can have leads to where we can begin. Of course, this meeting never happened, as you know."

- - - Updated - - -

As her experience with her cousins, she noticed everything about Ms. Barrus first. The woman had definitely snuck out of the office for something important, or at least to ease her mind with something. These were often indicators of, what Maya had initially predicted, a possible infidelity case. There was nervousness in the woman's eyes that was similar to the common fear of women fearing their spouses have another. And there was also doubt in her eyes. Of course, that would likely stem from meeting her, by the way the older woman looked at her, up and down. It wasn't the first time people underestimated her because of her looks, and it took quite a while before she was able to control her reactions and now, she was able to keep her composure and do her swearing inside her head without the client knowing.

"This way, if you please, Ms. Barrus." She led the lady to her office. It was a small room with a black particleboard-and-plastic desk attached to a shelf filled with books and files on the side. Her hardwood floor was had a small black rug underneath the table and the three chairs that were hers and her clients'. The leather couch on the other side of the wall ran parallel to the glass panes that stopped at a wall just behind Reese's black manager's chair. The wall was decorated sparsely with various photographs signed by her favorite football players.

Husband. She had to know how Maya did what she did! Given time, she knew she'd be able to get the trick soon. But with what the lady had given her, it could still be anything. Infidelity was just one of the options, but the most likely. "One thing is for sure, Ms. Barrus, your husband is acting suspiciously. Of what, I cannot be sure, to be honest with you. It could be anything. But to give you better answers, I need to know more. Basic things like how long this has been going on. Did you find any tell-tale signs that he was with another woman? Something as simple as the scent of perfume or cologne that you don't recognize on his clothes. Lipstick stains on his collar. Have you checked his schedule book? His phone? Did you find any condoms or papers with numbers. Anything at all out of the ordinary would be helpful so that we can have leads to where we can begin. Of course, this meeting never happened, as you know."

- - - Updated - - -

As her experience with her cousins, she noticed everything about Ms. Barrus first. The woman had definitely snuck out of the office for something important, or at least to ease her mind with something. These were often indicators of, what Maya had initially predicted, a possible infidelity case. There was nervousness in the woman's eyes that was similar to the common fear of women fearing their spouses have another. And there was also doubt in her eyes. Of course, that would likely stem from meeting her, by the way the older woman looked at her, up and down. It wasn't the first time people underestimated her because of her looks, and it took quite a while before she was able to control her reactions and now, she was able to keep her composure and do her swearing inside her head without the client knowing.

"This way, if you please, Ms. Barrus." She led the lady to her office. It was a small room with a black particleboard-and-plastic desk attached to a shelf filled with books and files on the side. Her hardwood floor was had a small black rug underneath the table and the three chairs that were hers and her clients'. The leather couch on the other side of the wall ran parallel to the glass panes that stopped at a wall just behind Reese's black manager's chair. The wall was decorated sparsely with various photographs signed by her favorite football players.

Husband. She had to know how Maya did what she did! Given time, she knew she'd be able to get the trick soon. But with what the lady had given her, it could still be anything. Infidelity was just one of the options, but the most likely. "One thing is for sure, Ms. Barrus, your husband is acting suspiciously. Of what, I cannot be sure, to be honest with you. It could be anything. But to give you better answers, I need to know more. Basic things like how long this has been going on. Did you find any tell-tale signs that he was with another woman? Something as simple as the scent of perfume or cologne that you don't recognize on his clothes. Lipstick stains on his collar. Have you checked his schedule book? His phone? Did you find any condoms or papers with numbers. Anything at all out of the ordinary would be helpful so that we can have leads to where we can begin. Of course, this meeting never happened, as you know."