DO YOU REMEMBER WHEN?
Chapter 2. Getting Down to Business
It took Kyran more than six months to get her business going well enough to pay the bills, finally. There was more than enough work so she was able to pick and choose what cases she was willing to take.
During this settling in time, she had not attempted to get in contact with Ulysses. She wanted to be firmly set up in her business and home before approaching him. Besides, the city seemed to be under a constant wave of attacks by the top three omegas at the moment. The Katizens were weary of it and were beginning to clamor for an end to the siege.
Kyran sighed as she read about yet another messy attack, this time by Dr. Viper. She shook her head in sorrow for her one time lover. He was besieged and the incompetent mayor wasn't helping issues either. His constant haranguing about 'solving' the problem when he was the problem, was almost laughable. The pompous ass was keeping the enforcers chronically short of funds so they were forced to work with out-of- date tech. And being constantly shown up by the over-the-top tech response by the SWAT Kats didn't help matters.
So many of the enforcers were dying in every encounter and because of the mayor's fiscal irresponsibility, no new recruits were stepping into those empty positions.
She wished she could help in some way, but she was just one person in this huge city and her small private investigation business could do nothing against such potent enemies. All she could do was what everyone else was doing, survive and hope the city didn't get taken over by one of its enemies.
However, it didn't mean she was completely helpless. As she went about her business, she kept her eyes and ears open for anything that could aid the beleaguered enforcers. So far nothing of import reached her but that was about to change.
She'd just taken on a fairly easy but tedious case concerning a chronic theft problem suffered by a new client. The client had already reported the crime to the local police but nothing was happening. The detective handling the case was overloaded and couldn't give the case the attention that was needed to do surveillance on the warehouse being pilfered.
So the client had sought private help instead. After getting as much info from Mr. Timmons, the owner, Kyran went to see the detective handling the case.
Det. Eaton was more than happy to give her the info she needed.
"That poor guy. I just don't have the manpower to do a surveillance on that warehouse of his. That's the only way we're going to catch whoever is responsible. If he wants to pay someone to do it, that's fine by me. I have enough other work as it is. Only thing I ask is that you keep me updated on what you find. Alright?"
"No problem. I might get lucky and get the bastard for you and hand him or her over gift wrapped." Kyran grinned.
Eaton eyed her a moment. The she-kat was well built and it was very obvious that she kept herself in shape. She had a commanding air about her and he had no doubt she knew how to use that weapon he could just see peeking from under her jacket. Her credentials were impressive as well. Yeah, she probably could get whoever was doing this so he just nodded and smiled at her.
"Just be careful. I'll be happy if you can close this case quickly. I might even send some other work your way. You can feel out the complainants and see if they are tired of waiting too."
Kyran chuckled. She liked the detective. Most cops would be insulted and annoyed at having a PI interfere with their cases but Eaton obviously was much more interested in getting cases solved as quickly as he could and didn't concern himself about such things as propriety. A good cop! She foresaw an excellent business relationship beginning here and her pocketbook would thank him for it.
"I'm always careful and thanks for the info. I'll be in touch!" She said warmly as she got to her feet to leave. He smiled and nodded in farewell, reaching for his phone that had just begun ringing insistently.
Now armed with the info she needed, she carefully planned how she was going to do the surveillance on it. First, though, she needed a tour of the warehouse. She went back to Mr. Timmons and asked to be shown around and allowed a look at his security measures. He agreed.
Since it wouldn't be until late afternoon that Mr. Timmons would be available to show her around his warehouse and since it was still early in the day, she'd gone ahead and checked out a couple of her other jobs. At two p.m. sharp, she was standing near the entrance to the warehouse waiting for the owner to arrive.
He appeared less than a minute later, nodding at her in greeting then leading her into the building. There was a small business office at the front and they spent some twenty minutes there talking to the building supervisor. The super showed her their security system.
She frowned. This wasn't a cheap system. Mr. Timmons had spent big money for a top of the line system, with cameras and close circuit monitors and yet he was still losing property. The only sign of entry was brief blanks on the security tapes of up to ten minutes but no longer. Whoever was doing this was good with security systems and fast. Mr. Timmons had also hired a private security force and still the thefts continued. The guards never were able to spot anything off. Somehow the one doing the stealing was very much aware of the guard schedule despite it being at unpredictable intervals.
Shaking her head, they went on into the warehouse where she interviewed the workers, took their names so she could do background checks and thoroughly looked over the area that was being hit constantly.
The thief or thieves had been stealing electronic parts used in a variety of devices from simple radios to making high-tech military gear for jets.
After getting all the information she could from the site, she said goodbye to her client and returned to her office. Sitting behind her desk, she leaned back and stared at the ceiling.
No way could someone get into this building without assistance. She felt one of the staff had to be in on it. Going with that premise, she began an exhaustive background check on all the personnel and the private security force.
Some two days later, she had to admit defeat. Everyone she'd checked had come up completely clean. Scratching her head in frustration, she racked her brain for any logical way the robber could be getting in and out without being seen.
Suddenly she froze. 'Wait! Why am I assuming the normal form of thievery is being committed? This is a city of the truly weird........so the impossible will have to be considered too.' She thought with a scowl.
'Okay, I know the normal people working at this warehouse are completely innocent. There was no sign of forced entry and except for a ten minute blank on the security tape, there was no other sign that anyone had actually got in and out of the warehouse except for the missing equipment. And even then, whoever they are, were extremely cautious and only took a few things at a time that wasn't noticed being missing until days later.' She mused, getting her facts laid out in her mind. 'So what does that leave?'
Growling in annoyance as her mind stayed blank, Kyran decided to let it percolate in the back of her mind. She got up from her seat and went to the little fridge she kept in her office and pulled out the sandwich and milk she brought from home, sat back down and flipped on the TV while she ate.
A show was just ending and the news came on. She listened to it with only half her attention, that is, until the reporter Ann Gora came on with something that made her nearly choke on her milk.
"........it was reported today that notorious techno thief, Hard Drive has yet again managed to escape jail. He'd been arrested only two weeks earlier and was awaiting trial when he somehow managed to escape from Megakat Prison........"
"That's it!" Kyran shouted in excitement. "He's the only one who could have done this." She quickly pawed through her paperwork until she came upon the most recent theft report. "Last theft was a little over two weeks ago! It was him! It has to be. Only he could get in and steal things and zipped right out with no one seeing him." She said to herself.
'Now that he's free, the warehouse may see yet another item stolen, but wait........' She paused in her thought, frowning. 'Why would he consistently rob this particular warehouse? That would be stupid when there are other companies carrying this same thing and why is he doing it? He normally sells what he steals but I doubt that's what he's doing now and his escape from jail seems to well done. Someone is helping him and whoever that is may be behind the thefts.' She thought with certainty.
She was sure she was on the right track but she lacked certain pertinent facts about this special crook. She sighed. 'Well it looks like I've got a legitimate reason to see someone I've been avoiding. Time to make a visit to Enforcer Headquarters.'