Chapter 2
Ed poured himself a cup of coffee from the thermos and kept his eyes on the street in from of the building. Bynum had told him that the woman was an employee of one of the other companies that had offices in the building. It was 4:30 in the afternoon and he knew that most of the employees would be out of the building by 5:30 at the latest. He hoped that he would not miss her in the crowd. About 4:40 he saw a woman in a dress leave the building. He quickly checked the photograph and saw that it was the woman he was hired to tail. Ed took the Cano out of the case, adjusted the lens and took a picture of her. Ed had set the date and time so that the date and time would be imprinted on the photo. He tried to take more photos but she was hidden by other people leaving the office. The woman stood in line at the bus stop behind several others and was again hidden from Ed's camera. Several minutes later a Metro bus stopped and as it pulled away Ed saw that she had boarded the bus.
Ed jumped into the driver's seat and pulled away from the curb. He knew that people rarely noticed someone following a bus. Normally they either read or looked straight ahead. He pulled over to the curb several times to avoid overtaking the bus and several times passed the bus to make it appear that he was just driving home from work. Twice he turned and drove around the block and resumed tailing the bus. The bus started toward a residential section of town and Ed saw the woman get off of the bus and walk to a small diner in a strip mall. Ed pulled behind the building and parked the van. He decided to go into the diner and watch her there. Ed couldn't see her from where he was parked and he knew that she had not seen him.
Ed walked through the door and saw the woman sitting in a booth placing an order with the waitress who was apparently the owner's wife. He saw that the woman was much prettier than she looked in the picture. He noticed that she had "killer" legs. Ed was a legman. Ed took a seat at the counter. His seat was behind her and he could watch her without causing suspicion. He ordered a cup of coffee and waited for the woman to eat and leave. Her order was brought to her about 15 minutes after he entered the restaurant. She had ordered a cheeseburger and an iced tea. While she ate Ed ordered another cup of coffee. The waitress brought over a newspaper and asked if she wanted to read it. She took the paper and started to read.
The front door opened with a bang. A young man, his head wrapped in a bandana, wearing a flannel shirt and the baggy blue jeans popular with the gang members, strutted into the store like he was God's gift to the world. Another young man, dressed like the first, walked in behind him. Both had the straggly moustaches of youth. Both men walked to the counter and sat with their backs to the counter surveying the restaurant. The first man spotted the woman that Ed had been tailing and walked over to her booth and sat next to her, pushing himself tight up against her side. His buddy checked to make sure that none of the patrons of the restaurant were going to interfere and then walked over and sat opposite his buddy.
"Hey, baby what say we go somewhere and party?" he said putting his hand on her leg and rubbing his hand upward.
"Please, leave me alone," the woman, cried trying to push his hand off of her.
"Come on, baby. I'm just trying to be friendly," his hand started sliding her dress up her leg.
Ed watched and the men sitting next to the woman started pushing the woman to the far side of the seat. He winked at his cohort and grabbed the woman's breast. She fought a losing battle with his hands. The owner of the diner and his wife turned to the grills and pretended to be busy cooking and cleaning. The other customers were either watching the proceedings with amusement or were staring somewhere else. It was obvious to Ed that no one was going to get involved. The man had pushed the woman's dress half way up her thigh and was trying to kiss her. She started trying to push him away and push her dress back down; she was losing the battle against the man.
Ed put 2 dollars on the counter and walked over to the booth. He positioned himself at the end of the booth so that he was slightly behind the man sitting next to the woman. He made sure that the snap on his holster was open. The gun was licensed. Ed still had a few friends on the force. Both of the men looked up at him menacingly.
"Hey, you guys got change for a ten?" Ed asked.
The man sitting next to the woman moved little away from her and slipped his hand in his pants pocket. Ed knew that he was going for his switchblade. Ed grabbed the man's collar and pulled him out of the booth and threw him onto the floor. The man hadn't had time to pull his knife so he went for his pocket again. Ed put his foot down on the man's hand hard and heard bones snapping. The man screamed. Ed saw a movement to his right and pulled his gun and pointed it at the guy still sitting in the booth. The guy had his knife in his hand ready to lunge at Ed.
"You want to see tomorrow?" Ed snapped. He dropped the knife on the table.
Ed motioned for them to get up and the man on the floor was moaning and holding his hand. Ed motioned for them to get out the door.
"You a dead man," the man said carrying his hand in front of him.
They hurried out of the diner and ran down the street.
Ed threw $10 on the table and grabbed the woman's hand and pulled her out of the booth. He led her out the door and went to where his van was parked. The woman started to protest.
"Lady those guys are going to be back with everyone of their gang members, let's get out of here," he said as he threw her in the van. Ed squealed out of the parking lot and drove away from the diner. After they were several blocks away he asked her where she lived.
"I have an apartment north of here, but it's about 10 miles from here." she said, "I can catch a cab."
"What were you doing in this area?" Ed asked.
She took a few seconds to answer, "I was supposed to meet someone."
He turned the van northward and continued to drive. As they approached the city limits she started to give him directions to her apartment. She lived in a private home that had a garage apartment that was really illegal in this township. Ed pulled in front of the home and shut off the van.
"Thanks for helping me;" she said quietly," I was so terrified, I could hardly move. By the way, I don't even know your name."
"It's Ed Harold," he said.
The woman got out of the van and thanked him again and walked to the garage apartment. Ed waited while she climbed the stairs and went into the apartment. When he saw the lights come on he pulled away and headed back to the city.
Ed drove at a moderate speed and knew that he had screwed everything up. There was no way that he could continue this surveillance. She had seen him and she would suspect something if she ever caught sight of him as he followed her. The only thing to do was to talk to Bynum and give him his money back. Ed had a friend who was also an ex cop and who was also a private detective. He would give Ed a little commission for steering some work his way. Ed started for the Horizon office. Maybe Bynum hadn't left yet.