A/N #1: Parts of this chapter were copied from the book Mr. Monk and the Dirty Cop, in particular the company Intertect and the character Danielle Hossack and much of the dialogue. This is because this story you're reading was originally written as a rewritten and action-dramatized version of that book, but then I had to make it its own thing.
Intertect's offices were on the 20th floor of 555 Mission Street downtown, just down the street from where The Davenport Group was building a new company headquarters. After dropping off our groceries at our penthouse, Adrian, Natalie and I drove down to the offices so that we could fill out all the paperwork to get us on the payroll and the health plan as soon as possible.
As we walked down the hall, I saw that each office had a window with a commanding view of the buildings directly across Mission Street, but I guess that was better than having no view at all. By my count, Intertect had at least 30 operatives, and those were just the ones with offices.
We were led to a vacant office that was set aside for us if we ever needed it, but I doubted that we would want to come up here unless there was a dead body in it. The office came with a sleek computer, sleek furniture, and an even sleeker assistant in her early twenties named Danielle Hossack.
Danielle informed us on her background statistics: born in Miami in 1991, graduated from the University of Denver in 2013 with a degree in psychology, was fluent in English and Spanish, and had a black-belt in tae kwon do. She also was blessed with the body of a lingerie model. She didn't have to tell us that, though. It was painfully obvious from what she was wearing, which qualified more as underwear than clothes. In fact, all the women at the Intertect offices were young, gorgeous, and scantily clad. I thought what I was wearing was modest compared to what she was wearing.
O'Donnell was going to be in for a big disappointment if he expected us to dress that way. For me, a black t-shirt, my black Trafalgar vest-jacket, and black pants was enough.
"So how long have you worked here?" Adrian asked.
"For about two years," Danielle said, "I joined right out of college."
"Do you like working here?" Natalie asked.
"Are you kidding? I love it," she said, "I've learned so much working for O'Donnell. He's an amazing man."
"He must be," I said, "I know lots of police detectives leave the force to become private eyes, but few are as successful as he is. What's the Douglas O'Donnell secret to success?"
"Substantial capitalization and abundant charm," Danielle said, "Three years ago, he made some wise investments in the stock market and used his profits to start the company. I've learned that successful detection is a combination of determination, intuition, and getting people to give you what you want. Douglas is a real people person. He can win over anybody he meets."
"That's for sure," Natalie said. Danielle gave her a knowing look.
"If you're thinking about hooking up with him, I should warn you that he's very sweet and a great lover, but he's a free spirit. Monogamy is not part of his personality. He wants to enjoy the buffet of life's opportunities."
That sounded like a direct quote from O'Donnell.
"Does that philosophy factor into his hiring practices?" Adrian asked. "I mean, I'm not planning on having my wife or Natalie sleep with him."
"Is that your way of asking if he sleeps with every woman he hires?" Danielle asked him.
"Your female employees all seem very young and attractive," Adrian said.
"And smart," Danielle added, "There's not a woman here, whether it's a secretary or an operative, who doesn't have a degree or two under her garter belt."
"They wear garter belts?" I asked.
She politely ignored my remark. "Sleeping with him won't get you hired or get you promoted or get you any special treatment, beyond what he does for you in bed, of course, which is pretty exceptional."
Natalie raised an eyebrow. "So you give him two thumbs up in the sack-a-roo?"
"If you got into bed with him, you won't be sorry that you did."
"No thanks," Natalie said, "I for one explicitly refuse to ever have sex, and even if I did, I don't think I'd do it with someone who probably has a dozen or so paramours."
"Besides, we're not big on buffets. We believe that when we go out to eat, we should only go to places where the food is brought to us instead of us getting up and walking to the counter to get it," Adrian said, "But thanks for the heads-up. To be honest, I'm surprised by your candor."
"Because I'm not shy about discussing sex?"
"Because you're so open with intimate and potentially unflattering details about your boss with three new employees that you've just met," Adrian said, "Isn't that a bit indiscreet?"
Danielle smiled. "I'm an employee of Intertect but I am working for you three now. You deserve my full honesty if we're going to establish any kind of trust. And besides, Douglas doesn't mind my talking about his sex life or I wouldn't do it. He's a very open guy."
"In more ways than one," Natalie said.
"And you don't need to worry about me breaking any trust as far as you three are concerned," Danielle said, "My first loyalty now is to all three of you. Douglas made that very clear and that's fine with me. I consider it be an honor to working with you, the trio that thwarted that assassination attempt on Arnold Schwarzenegger."
"Thanks," Adrian said.
"Just don't sell yourself short," Danielle said, "You guys are the best in the private eye business."
Just what the doctor ordered: some advice on self-esteem from a 24 year old woman with a college degree and a body that could melt Michelangelo's David. What did she know about insecurity?
"And if you ever need me, I'm pretty much on call at all times," Danielle added, "I'm at your beck and call at any hour of the day or night, seven days a week, for anything you might need."
"Thanks," Adrian said. Danielle went out to her desk, dropped our completed forms in her outbox, and wheeled in what looked like a rolling file drawer.
"What are these?" I asked.
"Open cases for you to review," she said "Any insights you can give the detectives working on them would be welcomed, or you can take over them yourselves."
It looked like a pretty large amount of work, but considering the pay, I couldn't blame them for wanting to throw us a lot of cases.
Danielle wheeled the cart to the elevator. Adrian, Natalie and I followed her down to our car in the parking garage. The cart wheels collapsed like those on an ambulance gurney. Before she left, she handed us a set of credit cards.
"These cards can be used for gasoline and any other expenses," she said, "Use them accordingly, and wisely."
"Thanks," Adrian said.
"I think we'll be pretty happy here at Intertect," I said.
I gave Adrian a small kiss as Danielle walked out.
We got right to work that afternoon, sitting around the dining room table as we looked at the various files. One file concerned the disappearance of some diamonds from a Pacific Heights house.
"OK, the case of these missing diamonds was an inside job," Adrian said, closing that file folder.
"So who was it?" I asked, "The cleaning lady, the son with the online gambling issue, her sneaky ex-husband, his bitter ex-wife, or their contractor?"
"None of them," Adrian said, "It was the dog trainer."
"But that trainer worked with the dog in the backyard," Natalie said, "He didn't have access to the house."
"The dog did it," Adrian said, "The trainer taught the dog to steal the diamonds and bury them in the backyard. That explains the dirt tracks on the floor."
"And what happens now?"
"The trainer plans to retrieve the diamonds the next time he works with the dog," Adrian said, checking his watch, "In approximately two hours."
Natalie opened her purse and grabbed her cell phone. "I guess I'll call the police and notify them so they can catch the guy in the act."
"And while you're at it, I think you should also call State Barn and tell them they're right: this tennis pro is almost certainly faking his arm injury," Adrian said, sliding another file, "Look at the sling on his right arm."
"I just looked at this one," I said, "He tripped on a crack in that country club's parking lot. He can't band or extend it and the doctors say his arm is locked at a 90 degree angle."
"Yet the surveillance photos make it clear his keys are in his right pocket," Adrian said, "So how does he get the keys out if he can't straighten his arm?"
Natalie and I squinted at the photo. Our eyesight wasn't as perfect as Adrian's, but I knew that his word was typically fact. I think I'd see the keys myself if I had a bionic eye.
"He could always use his left hand and reach over," I said.
"Good point, Kendra," Adrian said, "Still, it's highly unlikely that would be the case."
"Ah," I said.
"Also," Adrian picked up another file, "Uh, looks like the company spy at Charlie Company Choppers who's been sneaking trade secrets to the competition is this disabled engineer, Mr. Sommerlik."
"Are you sure?" Natalie asked.
Adrian picked up a photograph of a slender man who was wearing a cardigan sweater and sitting in a manual wheelchair.
"He says he's been confined to this wheelchair ever since he broke his back in a helicopter crash five years ago, but this picture is from when he was posing for his photo ID six months ago, when he was hired. There are blisters on his hands."
"So?" I said.
"If he's been pushing himself around in a wheelchair for five years without upgrading to an automatic one, he should have calluses on his fingers by now."
Natalie and I looked at this photo too. The blisters weren't exactly noticeable, but remember that Adrian has an eagle eye when it comes to open sores.
"He's probably got secret compartments to smuggle out photos, drawings, CDs, anything he can get his hands on," Adrian said.
"I guess I'll make sure that the Charlie Company knows to detain the guy and seize his wheelchair," Natalie said. She went off to her bedroom to make some phone calls.
I was somewhat baffled we were being handed such easy work.
"Boy, Adrian, this—this is easy stuff," I said, "Why is Mr. O'Donnell giving us cases like this? This is…..like nothing compared to murder cases!"
"We specialize in murder cases, Kendra," Adrian said, "Although yes, we also specialize in abductions and high stakes heists."
"It just feels weird that O'Donnell is giving us a big pile of these cases that you're solving in a matter of minutes," I said. "It's almost like he's trying to distract us. Maybe you're right when you said at the store that this guy clearly has to be up to something."
"Why else would he hire us unless he wants us occupied while he's doing something sinister?" Adrian asked. "All right, Kendra, let's just do maybe one more of these files and then call it a day."
"OK," I said, "I guess maybe we should solely take on new cases instead of old ones. Let the other Intertect operatives take care of those."
"That sounds like a good idea, Kendra," Adrian said.
We did call it a day after closing another case which involved an abduction scam. To be honest, I didn't bother to remember the exact details. We went out to dinner at a diner just down Jones Street from our apartment. Afterwards, I, at the very least, settled in for a nice bath before going to sleep.
A/N: If you want an idea of who I picture as the model for Danielle Hossack, it's American actress Génesis Rodríguez. She's not exactly a well-known actress, but she was the voice of Honey Lemon in Big Hero 6. I think of Danielle as being about two to three years younger than Rodriguez is in real life.