http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2018/01/19/flash-fiction-challenge-this-time-i-pick-the-lyric/
The above link is to the blog post by Chuck Wendig that has the story prompt in it!
Also, this short makes me want to pick up another story I was working on before my arm problems got bad and then during my arm problems etc. Also Rig Farrow is an older character of mine who I constantly look for a place for. She may turn up in a vastly different book or something in the future I don't know. I hope you enjoy this short!
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Private Party
"It hurts you know? But
then, many things do. This is just...not quite the sort of pain I
expected. I guess I was expecting something a little more normal and
a little less..."
"World crushing?" I
offer.
She nods before gazing back at
the photos and files I handed her an hour ago, "Yeah. That
works."
The woman, Nancy, hired me to
check on her business partner, Benny. She was worried the man had
crossed someone or owed someone money since Ben had gotten evasive
recently. What I discovered while tailing him was...unexpected to say
the least. I mean, I figured he was having an affair, either with her
wife or with someone else's husband. That's the sort of thing one
would expect when someone starts missing meetings or showing
up in clothes they slept in.
What I found was...frankly?
Weird.
"This..."
Nancy stares at the files with
her mouth open. She is careful to peep at the photos before slipping
them back under the write up.
"I don't understand why he
didn't trust me with this," she finally says.
"Maybe, because it's so
personal?"
"Personal?" She winces
as if stung. Nancy shakes her head, "I just, don't know when he
could have started doing this. Why? Was the business not exciting
enough for him? I don't get it."
I sip my coffee before I speak.
"My investigation leads me to believe he was doing this well
before he partnered with you to start your company."
"But why didn't he tell me,
then?"
"I thought that would be
obvious. What he's been doing is very dangerous. The fewer people who
know the better. I'm sure he withheld the information from you to
protect you and your wife."
She doesn't seem to follow, or at
least doesn't accept that as she shakes her head again then stabs a
finger at the papers on the table before her. "You're telling me
he didn't tell me to protect me? What about the business? What am I
supposed to do if he winds up dead in an alley somewhere?"
I sigh, "What anyone does
when their business partner winds up dead in an alley."
Nancy scoffs at me, "This is
no joke. How could you say that?"
I polish off the last of my
coffee but continue to keep my hand on my cup as if it still holds
some warmth. I shouldn't have given her the real information. I
should have just lied to my client. Told her Benny's dad was sick or
something. But if I had done that she probably would have hired
someone else to follow her business partner around and that someone
else may not have had the skill set I do that kept me from dying in
an alley.
"Ma'am," I finally
begin. "What you do with this information is up to you. I would
suggest that you do nothing." She tries to interject but I cut
her off and keep talking. "What your partner is doing is
something he's done for a long time. Someone doesn't just
start doing that sort of thing as a mid-life crisis. He had to feel
strongly enough to partner with you for your bakery to do that
and what he was already doing. It's not your place to tell him to
stop."
"But it's impacting the
business," she objects.
"Is it?" I ask. "As
I understood it reading over your business agreement he financed the
bakery. Helped you secure a loan and what not. He checks in regularly
and sits on meetings. He has been late and disheveled to a few, yes.
BUT I couldn't find any evidence that what he's been doing has
negatively impacted anyone. If anything he's made a positive impac-"
"No." Nancy cuts my
words in half before she gathers up the files and shoves them into
her purse. "No," she shakes her head. "He needs to
know when the party's over."
I get up from my seat, "What?
No. No, no no. There is no 'party' to be over here. He doesn't do it
just because it's fun. It's incredibly important."
She shakes her head before
pushing past me, "No."
I stand for a moment and watch
her leave the coffee shop before I return to my seat with a sigh. I
may have just made a huge mistake, but at least I can do one worse. I
pull out my cell phone and type in the number of the man who's life I
just laid bare. After it rings several times he answers. His voice is
strained as he tries to catch his breath.
"Now is a bad time," he
says.
"I know," I reply.
"Who is this?"
"This is Rig Farrow. I'm a
private eye. Nancy hired me to look into you," I bite my lip and
shake my head. "I'm sorry."
"Huh?"
"She knows everything,"
I say.
"Shit."
I hear a noise over the phone
like a tree cracking in half, which may be just that considering what
the man does in his spare time. There's some shuffling. Distant
shouts and a roar. After a few moments he's back on the line.
"Who else knows?"
"Just Nancy," I say.
"Honestly, I thought she'd take it better but she's pissed.
Thinks you're betraying the bakery with...your uh other...job."
"Did'ja tell her I've been
doing this for years?"
"Of course, I'm pretty
thorough."
He lets out a huff I'm not sure
is of amusement or exertion before he speaks again, "You've
really been following me?"
"Yes," I say.
"And I didn't notice
you?"
"It didn't seem like you
did, no."
"Huh," he takes in a
breath. "How much do you run?"
"Excuse me?"
"How much do you run? To
hire you?"
"Uh, about fifty an hour."
"That cheap?"
"It's average."
"If you were able to spy on
me you're certainly not 'average' anything. How'd you like to be my
sidekick?"
A distant booming voice growls
over the phone, "Don't think you've won, Captain Megaton!"
