I shook off thoughts of Daniel and focused on giving Gale a confident smile. “I’ll call you as soon as I’ve found out anything.”
Gale looked thrilled. “That would be great! Here’s my number.” She leaned over and wrote it out on my sticky-note pad. Tossing the pen down, she stood up. “It’s important you get him back soon.”
“I’ll do—”
Her phone rang, and she held up a finger to answer it. Without another look at me, she strode out of the office, the earlier hesitant and worried woman gone. It was a big change and made me wonder about which one was the real Gale.
It was only after the door closed behind her that I realized I hadn’t talked to her about getting paid. They rarely talked about price in all those films I watched. Did that make me a proper gumshoe?
I decided it did.
“It’s fine,” I said in a horrible Humphrey Bogart accent. “I’ll find the dame’s precious pooch and hope for a payout later.”
“I don’t remember that line, is it fromThe Maltese Falcon?”
While I’d been sitting there pretending to be Sam Spade, Jim had snuck up on me.
I jumped a little and quickly slid Post-it with Gale's number on it into a desk drawer. “Oh, um, you know, I don’t think that was the line.”
“I should rewatch that movie,” he said.
“It’s a good one,” I agreed. “Although I likeThe Big Sleepbetter.”
He grunted in agreement. He was a fan of Humphrey Bogart, and I was a fan of film noir so there was some overlap, but then he’d start talking aboutThe African QueenorTo Have or Have Not,and I was lost.
“Did you finish the invoices?” he asked.
“Yup,” I patted the pile of addressed and stamped envelopes on the desk, “regular old mail like you insist. I also sent out emails for any of your clients that like to live in the current century.”
“You’re the best assistant I’ve ever had. I’m going to be so sad when you quit,” he said, sweeping up the envelopes. “I’ll drop these off at the post office on my way home.”
“What?” I said, startled by his comment. “I’m not quitting.”
“You will,” he said. “You’re going to get bored; I can tell. You’re enjoying the novelty of all of this, but that’ll wear off, and you’ll go looking for something more interesting.”
He wasn’t wrong, but his insight surprised me. My thoughts must’ve shown on my face because he laughed.
“My business is to notice things,” he said. “Of course I’m going to notice your disillusionment. You’re not the first. I might’ve been a bit of a romantic when I first started this business twenty-five years ago. Anyway, if you go looking for that dog, make sureit’s the right one. You’ll feel like shit if you dog-nap some family's beloved pet.”
I should’ve known I wasn’t going to get Gale and Hugo past him. He might’ve been on the phone, but he could hear everything going on out here when his office door was open.
“I’ll be careful,” I said.
His expression went from amused to mildly concerned. “Call me if you run into any problems. Don’t try to confront this boyfriend. He could turn out to be violent. Got me?”
“I won’t,” I said, then gave him a cheeky grin. “Thanks Papa Jim.”
“No, you will not call me that,” he said with a mock scowl, then turned on his heels and left, saying over his shoulder, “don’t forget to lock up.”
“I won’t,” I yelled, snickering at how annoyed he was by the nickname.
All alone in the office, I tried the number Gale gave me. It was no longer a working number. Thankfully, Leif had an uncommon name. I accessed the databases Jim paid for and found three Leif Johansons. A little more digging helped me eliminate one of them because he was in his sixties.
The two remaining addresses were good places to start. Eager to get to solve my first mystery, I shut everything down, then left.
Don’t worry Hugo, Philip Marlowe was on the case!
The first address belonged to a family who had two golden retrievers. Not a single Frenchie in sight.
