The Agency

Chapter 2-2

“You need to hire someone new,” Nina said, resting one hip on the edge of Kip’s desk.

“That better not be your way of telling me you’re quitting,” Kip grumbled.

“Come on, would I do that? I love it here. The thing of it is, you’re so busy we have to turn away people because you can’t fit them into your schedule.”

Kip knew she had a point. In the last three years his reputation for being a good and trustworthy private investigator had brought him enough clients he was beginning to feel overworked. Not that he was complaining but some days, and nights, it seemed as if he didn’t have time for a real life.

“First,” he replied, “we’ll have to find a larger office space.”

Nina grinned. “On it. In fact…” She handed him a sheet of paper. It was a print-out from a realty company that handled business properties. She had already circled several possibilities.

“Now I know why I keep you around,” he said, getting an eye roll from her.

It took two weeks, during what he laughingly called his lunch hour, for Kip to find a place he liked with a rent he could afford—and an option to buy if he wanted to in the future. It was east of downtown, a stand-alone building on the corner of Twelfth and Colorado. There were two floors, the first floor broken into office space on one end and a room for the furnace, water heater, and air conditioning unit at the other end. The second floor, accessed by outside steps to a small front porch, took the full length of the building and would be for the agency.

“What are you going to do with the first floor?” Nina asked when Kip took her through the building.

“Turn it into my apartment.”

“Seriously? Are you crazy? You’ll never get away from work if you do.”

Kip laughed. “Like I do, anyway? This way it’ll only take a minute to walk downstairs, not a ten minute or more to drive, and I’ll be home.”

She ceded the point and once the contract was signed, Kip hired a contractor to repaint and carpet the office space and turn the downstairs into a one bedroom apartment. While all that was being done, Kip continued to take care of his clients at the old place and Nina started the process of letting everyone know they would be moving, and where.

A month later, over the long Memorial Day weekend, Kip supervised the movers as they took everything from the old office and his apartment to the new agency.

“It’s done,” he said with relief when he and Nina arrived at work Tuesday morning.

“And it’s beautiful,” she replied, surveying the large waiting room. Her desk was at the back of it, next to the door opening onto the rest of the agency. There were three rooms on one side of the hallway, plus the washroom. Kip’s office was on the other side, as well as a second room, and a small kitchen area with the stairs next to the back door leading down to his apartment. “Now you need to get off your ass and hire someone to help you,” she said.

“I thought you were my help,” Kip replied with a straight face.

“I meant…” She smacked his arm.

“I know, and I will. It’s just where to find someone who knows what they’re doing.”

Nina went to her desk, booted up her computer and went on line. “You start here.”

He took a look, nodding. “Okay. Let me work up…”

With one click, she brought up a document. “Like this?”

“You’re two steps ahead of me, as always. Thank you!”

She sent the employment ad to the website, saying a few minutes later when it was up, “Now we wait.”

“And hope someone responds.”

* * * *

A week later, Kip was beginning to wonder how many unemployed private investigators lived in the city. He had already interviewed five men and one woman for the job, eliminating all of them.

“It’s not that I’m picky,” he said to Nina after the most recent one had left. “I just want someone who has a résumé to back up their assertions that they know more than how to run background checks and stake out roaming spouses.”

“It’ll happen. Maybe the man you’re talking to tomorrow morning will be perfect. Right now, though, Mr. Collins is expecting you to be at his main store at six.”

Mr. Collins was regular client who owned three clothing stores. He’d called earlier in the day, saying he wanted to upgrade his security on one of them as there had been a rash of either shoplifting or employee thefts. That meant Kip needed to install more cameras—but not until after the store closed as they needed to be hidden so that whoever was committing the thefts wouldn’t know they were there.

“Another late night,” he said under his breath.

“So hire the guy tomorrow, even if all he knows is how to run background checks. That would still ease up your schedule.”

“I might do that.” Not that he would. He wanted a competent investigator. One who knew the ropes, from serving subpoenas to setting up and running surveillance to finding missing persons—especially kids.

He went into the storeroom to get what he needed for Mr. Collins, then headed out, leaving Nina to lock up.