“Why would a chick ask us to follow some other chick?” He seemed genuinely perplexed by that, but I could think of a million reasons.
“When did this start?” He gave me a date that coincided to within a week of when she left, which somehow left me with more questions than answers.
“You’ve been following her for two years?”
“Pretty much.”
“And what did you learn?”
“Not much, she never leaves the house, except to go to work in the beginning and then to the doctor’s, after a while, she stopped going to work. It got real boring after that, not that it was a rave before, but she became damn near reclusive.”
“Did anyone ever visit her?”
“Not that we saw, oh, yeah, the client used to visit, but he’d always make us leave on the days when he was coming over.” He smirked and shook his head.
“Secretive asshole. Once I thought of staying around to see who I was dealing with, but he actually sent me a text while I was in the car telling me that he was looking at me and I should leave if I wanted to keep my cushy job. The pay is pretty good, so I did as I was told and never tried that again.”
“So you’re saying you never met this person, don’t have a name. I need all the contact information you have on this person. Email, phone, everything.”
“I don’t have a phone number; it’s always blocked, and trust me, I’ve tried running a trace on the email address, no dice. This guy is buried deep. I get the sense that he has a real hard-on for this girl, though. Then again, who can blame him? She’s one hell of a looker.”
He recoiled at the look I gave him and sat back on the crate in silence. “Is there anything else you can tell me about the last two years since you’ve been following her? Anything you can think of that stands out.” He shook his head and looked at the guy next to him. “Pete here takes over from me sometimes, me and the guys work on rotation since the client wants the target watched twenty-four seven.”
“We were together today because we lost her trail, and we’ve been combing the city trying to find her. I’ve got one more day before the client checks in, and I have a feeling it’s not going to be pretty once he learns that we’ve lost her, dude seems kind of obsessed. You wouldn’t want to share that information, would you?” He gave me what I guess he thinks is a congenial smile, and once again, my glare shut him down.
All the while I was standing there, I was trying to piece together everything he’d told me. He gave Silas the email address, and he passed it off to one of his guys, who left the room immediately. I know that his top-notch equipment is way more sophisticated than this guy’s because I paid for it, so maybe we’d get something there.
When I was sure I’d gotten everything out of the PI that I was going to, I headed out, stopping at the door as a thought hit me. “How often did your client ask you to disappear?”
‘That’s the thing, for a guy that was so obsessed, he only came a handful of times during the last two years. Funnily enough, the target always seemed a little bit jittery after those visits.”
Trying to make sense of the picture he painted was like walking through a minefield. Once back in the car, I closed my eyes and rested my head back against the seat, replaying his words over and over again in my mind. Who could this secret person be, and why were they going to such lengths? Did she leave me because of this person?
It was beginning to look like it. But why? Giselle had been a virgin when I took her to my bed the first time, so there were no hidden lovers lurking around somewhere. This person, according to the PI, had only visited her a handful of times in the last two years, so that didn’t sound like they were having a tawdry affair. And the fact still remains that he has no idea if the person who hired him is male or female.
Could she be in some kind of trouble? But if so, what? The girl I met and married was too shy and timid to have been involved in anything nefarious. The woman I met again loves her son, our son, too much to put him in danger. Putting aside all prejudice, Giselle isn’t the type to keep my son away from me. Before all this, I would’ve sworn to anyone that she’s fiercely loyal to a fault.
So why didn’t she come to me if she were in some kind of danger? Why did she leave me without warning? Why keep our son away from me? I could feel myself softening and knew that it was because of what the PI had said about her being a recluse with no visitors except this mystery client who’d only been to see her a handful of times.