Part 3 of The Gumshoe and The Dame (1920’s revisited)

“Rough morning,” Martyn thought as he leaned against the driver’s side of his Canary Lady.  He then decided that now was a good time to enjoy his cigar.  The gift with strings attached.  Its aroma reminded him that he had several text messages from Max. Letting out a deep sigh, he thought of the wrath he was soon to incur from the lady esquire, Maxine James, for not answering.  He could not remember a time when he called her by her full name as he had always called her Max. Moreover, for reasons he would not admit openly to himself or anyone else he always made himself easily available to her.  However, yesterday was the first time in a long time that he decided to ignore her. “Well, I’d better respond before…” Just then, in his peripheral vision, there was a very pretty young Korean lady walking cautiously toward him.

“Can I help you or are you here to admire this wonderful alley view?” He glanced at her from the corners of his eyes. 

Martyn was never the 9 to 5 desk jockey type.  Considering his clientele the conventional office was not very agreeable with his type of work.   Plus he believes in keeping his over-head costs low, so he found it convenient to set up shop where he got most of his work.  And the bounty of his work came from the law firm of Littman and Bernstein where Max had an office as a junior partner.  The alleys behind Littman and Bernstein were amazingly clean.  The trash binds were neatly tucked away in the corners.  If it weren’t for the word “waste” printed on the sides of these binds one might not believe that there was garbage inside of them.  However, in spite of it’s clean appearance Martyn knew better.  He knew that this area was no different than any other area in Atlanta.  Dirt could always be found, you just had to know where to look. Also, dirt cannot always be found in its usually hiding places and this reminder  helped to keep Martyn on his toes. 

“Are you Mr. Mustang?  I was told I could find you here.”  The Korean lady continued to shyly approach.

Martyn looks straight into her eyes and doesn’t answer.  She stops her approach as if she were a frightened animal about to make an escape.  His eye-to-eye look was not meant to frighten her but to examine the look on her face and to get a better read on her true intentions. As one of his defense measures Martyn learned to pay close attention to non-verbal gestures.  A good defense is often better than a great offence and in this situation it was obvious that this young lady was not a threat.

“Who told you how to find me?” Keeping his eye-to-eye look locked waiting for an answer.

“My name is Elaina Chang and Maxine James told me that you could help me.  My identity has been stolen and I think that someone is following me.” Not taking any breaths in between it was as if the words were choking her as she said them.  Tears filled her eyes as she looked downward and away and the eye-to-eye lock was broken.  At the same time Martyn suddenly realized that this is the case Max was texting to him yesterday.

“My services aren’t cheep.  And this is something you can take care of for yourself.  I can give you a couple of websites for reporting identity theft.”  As he reaches into his pants pocket for his little notebook Elaina’s tears increase.  Tears from a pretty woman were Martyn’s kryptonite.

“I’m being followed.  I’m afraid and I don’t know what to do,” she mumbled in between sobs.

 

“What makes you think that your identity has been stolen and that you are being followed?”  The kryptonite was slowly taking effect.

She started to explain as she slowly attempted to look back up at him. “A month ago I went to South Korea to visit my family when my wallet was stolen.  When I came home I noticed that my email had been hacked.  I can’t explain it but I feel like I’m being watched and followed.”

As he listened to her explanation he started to believe that this was a simple case of identity theft and paranoia.  Martyn decided to help Elaina and offered to take her home.  He started to feel sorry for her and so he did not allow his normal business speech for new clientele to cross his lips which was a sure sign that the kryptonite was now in full effect.

As the Canary Lady rounded the corner Martyn kept one eye on his distressed passenger while his other eye was both on the rearview mirror and the road ahead.  Martyn noticed, for about three blocks, that there was a dark colored Ford LTD trailing behind them. To find out if they were being followed meant that he would have to drive like a moron.  Martyn made a lot of meaningless turns.  So that this would not turn into a high-speed chase that would land them in jail or on the six o’clock news he had to be patient and try to lose them.  Like a moron he continued to speed up, slow down, signaling one way and turn the other waiting for them to make a mistake.  Then it happened and the mistake was made.  The Ford LTD made a wrong turn and Martyn then immediately put his beloved Canary Lady into high gear.  It was at this moment  he knew that Elaina’s feelings were genuine and it was probably not safe to take her home.    

To be continued......