Author's Note : The third part picks up four months after the last chapter in Part Two of The Chronicles of Hildy and Kami.
Chapter 1: New Client
Abbi walked back to her reception desk as she switched on her computer. The long Easter weekend had just finished and it was back to work. As she navigated the various programs on her office PC she could not help but smile at how easy it was. From the simplest task like setting up appointments for the firm's investigators, to accessing data bases all over the world, it was now as easy as the click of a button. Thanks to Kami, their computer genius, everything in the office was not only state of the art equipment but also had several programs that Kami wrote personally. As such their firm had the edge on other private investigation companies when it came to amassing and analyzing data for their various cases.
Just then the guys began filtering in the office. As was often the case, someone usually picked up fresh pastries from the bakery down the street on 8th Avenue, and this morning was no different. Edgar was the last to enter the outer office with a box filled with delicious goodies and he proceeded to place the box on the side table in the conference room. The team usually had a generally meeting to begin the work week, and as they were coming off their long weekend, the meeting that normally took place on Monday was now talking place on Tuesday.
"Hey Terry, I thought Hildy came back last night?" Jim asked his friend.
"As far as I know she did. I haven't spoken to her though. Maybe I should give her a call". But before he could dial her number Abbi chirped in that there was no need to because she spoke to Kami that very morning and they both should be in soon.
"Speaking of Kami, it was really impressive that she was invited to the University of Southern California to present a paper on the article she wrote last year. I remember when she was working on it right here in the office at times when we had a lull in our case loads. The topic for her article was really interesting. The way she figured out how computers can be incorporated more effectively in classrooms for students with severe learning disabilities was really thought provoking". David really sounded impressed as he shared his thoughts with his work family. He then continued with; "Once the suggestions she made in her paper are implemented in the schools with high enrolments of students with learning disabilities, the principals should see an improvement of the students' academic performance. And I would hazard a guess that the students' behaviour will improve also".
"I think we have become so used to Kami that we forget she is a world famous computer programmer, consultant, designer, just simply a computer genius". Edgar expressed with a bit of wonder in his voice. Everyone remained quiet for a few moments as they contemplated this fact.
"I am glad you all talked me into putting aside my initial distrust of Kami's intentions for the firm when I first met her", Terry said had he remembered how he was not happy with Kami's proposal to join their firm when she approached them last year.
"I am glad too Terry, we would not have had the level of success with closing our cases without the upgraded computer equipment and programs Kami brought to the firm". Jim added to the discussion.
"True….we all have a lot to be thankful to Kami for and on that note let's look at our latest cases".
"Shouldn't we wait until Hildy and Kami get here?" Abbi asked as she knew the ladies were on the way. "They should be here soon"
"We'll give them a few minutes more but then we need to start discussing our strategies for the cases we have not closed as yet", Terry explained to Abbi as he reached for a cup of tea as his work mates all prepared their breakfast before making themselves more comfortable around the conference table.
By the time Terry took the last bite of his blueberry scone the ladies arrived at work. They were greeted with a big smile from Abbi as she immediately began questioning them about their trip. Even though she spoke to the ladies on the phone that morning there was no time to fill her in on the conference that Kami was invited to speak at.
The next several minutes were spent on catching up with each other even though they all saw each other the previous week. Kami let them know that the university where her Dad was a Dean in England also invited her to present her paper there and she and Hildy will be flying to England next month for a few days.
Everyone was duly impressed with Kami's achievements. Terry decided to take that opportunity to let her know he also appreciated her contribution to the firm.
"Hey Kami", Terry said as he cleared his throat. "I know that in the beginning I wasn't too keen on you becoming our partner. But you have proved yourself over and over with your intelligence, intuition, detective skills, and just overall computer genius. I do not know where our firm would be if you did not enter our lives when you did".
Kami's eyes misted over as she listened to Terry, she approached and wrapped her arms around him.
"Ahh this is sweet. Let's do a group hug". David with his ever present sense of humour rushed forward and wrapped his arms around Terry and Kami. Even though he was half joking Abbi rushed forward and joined the hug. Than Edgar who was often David's wing man with his jokes, joined the hug, Jim began to laugh at how Kami became the cheese in their human sandwich. He thought to himself "Oh what the heck" and walked forward and hugged them also.
Hildy stood at the side of all the love and appreciation for her lady and smiled. Terry caught her eye and smiled as he said in a half joking, half commanding voice; "Get your butt over here young lady".
Hildy walked over and was immediately enveloped in an octopus of hands.
This was the scene that Mr. Samuels walked in on. When he entered the firm's outer office no one was in the reception area and after saying hello and getting no reply he followed the sound of laughter and found the team of highly recommended investigators in a group hug. After a few moments of standing quietly and listening to the banter among the work family, Mr. Samuel cleared his throat noisily. The group collectively turned their heads when they heard the sound.
"I called out as I entered your outer office but I guess you all did not hear me. I am sorry to intrude but I need your help". Mr. Samuel sounded almost apologetic as he addressed the group. The friends disengaged themselves from their hug and approached him as they all began apologizing for not hearing him before. They also assured him that he had not intruded on them as he entered their conference room.
Terry stepped forward and extended his hand as he introduced himself and asked the stranger who he was.
"My name is Phillip Samuel and I am here because I do not know where else to go. A friend of mine knows someone who was helped by your firm and he suggested I come here". Terry and Hildy exchanged a look and then even though it was not customary to interview prospective new clients in the conference room, Terry invited Mr. Samuel to have a seat and share with the team what exactly he needed help with.
As the team all made themselves comfortable, Abbi offered the stranger some refreshments form their side table which the gentleman refused.
"I own a small furniture shop in Brooklyn and all the furniture I sell there is hand crafted. My staff is small and extremely talented and we manufacture all the furniture on site. We receive orders from all over the city and I am please to say our reputation is what generates a study flow of customers". Mr. Samuel paused in his narrative as he appeared to collect his thoughts.
"Two weeks ago when I came in to the shop to open it, the entire place was empty. Every scrap of furniture, every tool, every piece of wood was gone. I stood there in shock. How could everything disappear? I called the police and they came and began investigating the theft but they are as baffled as I was, and am".
Mr. Samuel took a shuddering breath and continued "I could not understand where everything was. It was like I was looking at one of those mystery movies on TV where some alien came from outer space and took away everything".
As Hildy listened to Mr. Samuel, questions popped in her head and she asked; "What did the police tell you Mr. Samuel? What was their theory?"
The man looked at Hildy with a lost look on his face as he said "The police thought it was an inside job. But after interviewing my staff extensively they ruled that theory out. Then they began asking me questions like I am some criminal! It was as if they thought I robbed myself! I am a hard working man, everything I own, I earned. I do good work, my customers are happy; I do not understand why someone robbed me of everything like that".
Jim , exchanged looks with Edgar and David. As former police officers they knew a robbery like what Mr. Samuel described did not just happen by chance. It would have taken a lot of planning and there had to be a motive besides just simple robbery.
Kami sat listening quietly as she visualized what Mr. Samuel was describing. Then she entered the discussion by asking, "Mr. Samuel, do you have security cameras at your business?"
The client turned to her with a perplexed looks as he responded, "Yes I do but the cameras were of no help because somehow the picture was tampered with".
"What do you mean tampered with?" Terry asked.
"The pictures on the monitor showed the inside of the store looking as it normally does. The time stamp for the time of the robbery indicated that everything was in place. Up to when I arrived at around 7:30 am the monitors showed everything was in place even though the rooms were empty".
"What did the police say or do about that Mr. Samuel?" David asked.
"The police put their IT department on the case. Their technicians checked it out but they said they could not trace the server that looped the fake images. Even though they have sophisticated equipment it appears that the criminals were better at manipulating the cameras through a fancy computer system. Even the street cameras did not show anything out of the ordinary. As for anyone noticing anything strange in front of the building…. there are stores along the street and trucks off load and load up goods and material all the time both day and night. So if someone saw furniture being loaded it would not look strange". Mr. Samuel leaned forward and placed his head in his hands as he softly said, "It does not make sense".
The investigators all looked at each other and Hildy gave a slight nod to Terry.
"Mr. Samuel, let us do a bit of asking around to see what we can come up with. There has to be a reason why your shop was targeted. Give us a couple days and we will get back to you". Terry assured him.
A look of relief crossed the client's face as he slowly got up. "Thank you. I did not know where else to turn. My shop is my only source of income. My wife is not well and our medical bills are high. We never had children and all we have is each other. She is as baffled by what has happened as I am. I do not want her to worry and I know she is".
Hildy also stood as she reinforced what her business partner said. "We will investigate the matter and get back to you Mr. Samuel".
"OK, thank you once more. I hope you can find out why this happened".
The other team members all shook Mr. Samuel's hand as they bid him goodbye.
After he left there were a few moments of silence, each person threw around ideas and theories in their minds as to what could really be going on. Eventually Jim spoke up and said "This entire thing does not sound like just a robbery, something is off here. I am going to make a few calls to the police station and see what I can find out".
"I agree, I am getting a feeling that this is a typical Magician's Wand case" David mused aloud. Kami looked at him as her brow puckered and asked "Ok, you got me David. What is a Magician's Wand case?"
"Well my dear Kami, it is like this see, when you look at simple magic shows, the magician always has a wand in one hand. The wand is there to distract the audience attention from what the other hand is doing. The hand without the wand, the wand-less hand is the one that pulls off the trick".
"Oh, I get it. So what you are saying David is that this robbery was a distraction for something else that is going on", Kami stated. At her summery, David gave her a big smile.
Edgar nodded at David's words as he added his opinion to the discussion. "I feel David is correct but let's still check out this Mr. Samuel thoroughly before we look for what's going on in the magician's other hand".
The team members all voiced their agreement. Terry and Hildy began assigning tasks for their new case as they all moved over to the room they called their engine room.
After a few minutes Kami came over to her lover and whispered in a low seductive voice "All that hugging this morning with our family has me feeling for another hug. But this time the hug I want is the kind that is more hands on".
Hildy was writing up some notes when her lady came over to her, when she heard Kami's words spoken in that sultry voice the pen slipped from her finger to the floor as she temporally lost momentary feeling in her hand causing all her nerve endings to tingle.
Clearing her throat she replied in a voice that sounded a bit hoarse, "I think we should go over to my office to take care of that matter".
The ladies walked over to Hildy's office and shut the door. The men did not hear Kami's request for a hands on hug but they heard Hildy's hoarse reply, observed her quick walk to her office, and they correctly surmised that some physical explorations were about to take place.