Cam Jensen didn't really mind waiting usually. The longer she waited the more she was paid, and the sounds of the city were soothing in a refreshing way. Especially after having put in an early few hours at Lexaco. It was still going to be a long day yet, she was realizing.
The girl was leaning against the brick side of an apartment building, a few stories off the ground, balanced on the railing of the fire escape. There were still a little trickle from the rain that had carried them through the previous evening. The clouds would be breaking soon. Cam recalled from the paper she'd read that morning that the sun was supposed to be out around 3PM. Just in time for an evening date. Not for her, of course. But if she had played the right cards, she might just be there as well.
Suddenly the window slid open beside her, and the bushy brown hair and angular face of Davie McAlister popped out. The huge puff of smoke that preceded him carried traces of perfume. A woman? No, it was just a wiff. If he'd been intimate, the smell would probably be stronger. It wasn't her business, of course, what this half-price casanova was up to. She trusted him only to be the low-life she knew him to be. His narrow eyes saw her, of course, and she rose an eyebrow in stoic greeting. But there was surprise in his eyes.
"You forgot didn't you?" She asked, shaking her head.
The con-man schooled his features into a repentant smirk and lowered the cigarette from his mouth. "I'm sensing a distinct disrespect for your elders." He joked, cut off from adding to his jab by a yawn. "I just woke up. Let me put some pants on, jeeze." He added, popping his head back into the window and disappearing.
"We had an appointment, asshole!" She called after him, half in disbelief and half in laughter. Classic Davie, playing the fool. If she hadn't heard about him from some of her father's other associates, she might just fall for easy going musician act. "Some of us have a time table." She grumbled.
In a few moments he swung himself bare feet first through the window, sitting on the sill and leaning forward, He'd thrown on black slacks and a white button up shirt. The buttons were accidentally off set and the sleeves were rolled up to his elbows. He produced a manila envelope from somewhere just inside the window and handed it to her. She took it in hand quickly and started flipping through the contents. Copies of receipts...a list of hotel transactions. A name repeated over and over. A name she was expecting.
Click! She took a mental picture of the map that laid out the room order of the hotel, and the list of rooms that had been purchased. There was definitely a pattern here that she could follow. While she was looking over the papers, she heard Davie's voice as he puffed out another ashy breath. Stupid Cigarettes. "Shoveling shit this morning, Princess?" Came his easy tone.
Cam didn't look up from the folder. "Yeah. Worked at the ranch too." His mouth quirked up in a smirk at the response a little, as she handed the folder back to him. "Mail that to me, would you? No return address, please." She produced an envelope from her own inner vest pocket then and handed it to him. "Make sure you claim this on your taxes."
And with that she was off down the fire escape, two stairs at a time. It look at least this time...like the mark was a moron. She might just get home in time to catch tonight's episode of Game of Chairs.
Davie watched the girl leave, a bemused smile on his face. He'd never met the girl's father, but somehow Davie doubted he did much climbing fire escapes. To each their own, though, he assumed. He got paid for his work. And it had cost him very little. Though he had to admit he was curious what it was about. He had only known the girl for a couple years, ever since he'd gotten on the wrong side of some thugs on account of a bad deal. She'd been on the wrong side of them too, and the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Since that debacle, they'd had a little quid-pro-quo. And something told him he wasn't the only crooked fire-escape appointment she had. But hey, when you played this game you had to use every card to your advantage. He couldn't begrudge her that.
An hour later, Cam was snapping pictures. The lens of her camera zoomed in on the man as he got out of his nice car and passed his key to the valet. *click* She watched as he adjusted his lapel and strode inside like he owned the place. It was a fancy dining place. The kind Sera had only ever been in when she was younger and her dad had been a celebrated detective. She may have been inside this very place, though if she did, it hadn't been often enough to commit it to memory.
Sera lowered her camera to rest against her stomach, hung from a strap around her neck, and looked at her watch. Almost Noon. She closed her eyes and brought back the pictures of the receipts in her mind. The time stamp on each receipt was between 12:45 and 1:00. This was a ritual. The second party would probably be arriving soon. The receipts were printed at the end of the meal, usually, or towards the end of it. So they probably arrived at about noon. One thing was for sure, one person did eat two entrees. And there was a matter of the wine, too...definitely looked like a date. And if it looked like a duck and walked like a duck...
With a sharp intake of breath, Cam moved. She came out of the alley and walked across the street casually, into the alleyway beside the establishment with purpose in her gait. Anyone who saw her was unlikely to assume she had business here. There were windows lining the side of the building, and a metal railing separated the sidewalk from a narrow stair that led down into what she had to assume was a cellar beneath the restaurant. Maybe their meat locker or something. There were a pair of garbage cans along the outer side of the railing, and Cam crouched near them, with a cursory glance around, before peering in through the window from her vantage point.
She could see her mark, tapping his finger and looking at his watch. He was anxious. He was trying to hide it, but it was obvious in the way he oscillated between tapping his foot or drumming his fingers. There was already wine at the table. It looked expensive.
Before long, another man sat down at the table opposite him. Their interactions were genial, business-like, but the way the first man's tension eased told a deeper story. Sera hadn't been expecting a man, but she supposed infidelity came in all shapes and sizes. Wait. Wait. She zoomed in with her camera and snapped a photo just as her quarry was passing a hotel room key to his associate. It was a key for the hotel listed in the intel Davie had given her. She zoomed out a little, and committed the scene to memory before ducking out of her spot and further down the alley. She had him right where she wanted him. Now it was time for a stake out.
Thu Sep 19, 2024 8:54 am by 
