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“His name is Scott Daniels.”
“Daniels—I’ve heard that name before. Who is he?”
“He’s a big boy in the construction business. Recently moved in to real estate developing. His company developed that property on North Avenue.”
There was a fairly long pause before Garrett finally spoke. “Let me ask you a question, Marcus.”
“What’s that?”
“Do you really need me on this one? Because if you do, I’m on it first thing in the morning. But if you don’t need me, I got some other things going on.”
“No, Garrett, don’t sweat it. Like I said, this is nothing major. This is just me sending you a paying customer.”
“And I always appreciate that, but I tell you what I will do, especially since it’s nothing major, I’m breaking in a new operative.”
“What happened to Jamara?” Marcus asked of another of Garrett’s operatives, who was very instrumental in the money laundering aspects of the Ferguson case.
“Nothing happened to her. I only used her on cases that require her special talents. This new chick’s name is Olivia Wayne. She’s good. I’ve tried her out on a few things. Ex-cop, got good instincts, born and raised here so she knows the streets. What I like best about her, and I think will be very useful in surveillance operations, is that she blends.”
“What do you mean, ‘she blends’?” Marcus asked.
“I mean she blends in well. Like you might see, but don’t notice her is what I’m saying. You’ll understand when you meet her.”
“I understand. I’ll have Janise e-mail you the information, and you can have Olivia call Mrs. Daniels and get things started.”
“Sounds good to me. If she works out, Olivia can handle this sort of thing and you save me for the big stuff. You know; the juicy murder stuff. That’s more my speed,” Garrett said definitely.
“You got it.”
4
That very next afternoon, Olivia Wayne sat in her 1998 Honda Accord, outside the Roswell offices of New Horizon Realty. After meeting with Garrett, she had spoken with Panthea Daniels and had gotten all the information she needed to get started.
When Garrett called her the night before and offered her the job, she was excited. At that point, any offer of work was welcomed, but when he explained that it was for Marcus Douglas, and that if she did a good job it could lead to more work, she was hyped.
It wasn’t an easy decision for her to quit the police force and go out on her own. She was a good cop and she knew it. Nothing would have made her happier in life than to be promoted to detective. But after years of waiting, Olivia finally decided that the day would never come, and she would continue to be passed over. She always felt like part of her problem in advancing in the police department was that she was a black woman, a little on the heavy side, not the prettiest and unwilling to compromise on her self-respect.
It hadn’t been easy since she opened her own office. Once her first client got the information he had hired Olivia to get, he announced he couldn’t pay. The same situation occurred with her second client, only this one refused to pay because the information wasn’t what they were expecting.
On her first paying assignment, Olivia was hired to work undercover at a clothing store to figure out who was stealing. That one was simple, because everyone who worked there was stealing.
After that, things were slow and Olivia considered taking a job as a security guard until things picked up. Fortunately, she met Garrett before she had to make that choice.
It was past one o'clock and Olivia was starting to get hungry. She was so excited about meeting Garrett to get this assignment that she skipped breakfast. She was wondering if Scott Daniels would leave the office anytime soon and give her a chance to grab something.
It was almost two-thirty when Scott Daniels came out of his office and went to his car. Since Olivia had only spoken with Panthea and gotten a description of him, she couldn’t be absolutely sure that it was him until he got in his car.
Olivia snapped a few quick shots with her camera, before starting up her car and following Scott’s Lexus. She only hoped that lunch was part of Scott’s afternoon agenda. Without any problems at all, Olivia was able to follow Scott to downtown Atlanta.
He got off I-75/85 at the 17th Street exit, turned on Peachtree Street and again on Peachtree Walk and went into the Oceanaire Seafood Room. “Thank God,” Olivia said as she followed Scott into the parking lot. “I was about to starve.”
She watched from her car as Scott valet parked his car and waited for him to go inside the restaurant before getting out and following him in.
“Good afternoon. Table for one?” the maitre d asked and escorted her to a table.
After insisting on the table that she wanted, one with an unobstructed view of Scott. Olivia put on a pair of photosensitive glasses with a micro-miniature camera. The images could be recorded using a standard video recorder or fed into a video transmitter that she kept in her car.
From the moment Olivia entered Oceanaire, she felt like she was on a classic 1930s ocean liner. Since she was expensing the entire meal, she ordered the Black and Bleu, Blue Marlin Steak with sweet onion confit and Roquefort Butter while she waited to see who would join Scott Daniels for lunch.
