Julia
Chapter 2"Good morning, Suzanne," Stuart Bailey greeted the Bailey and Spencer receptionist as he breezed into the office on a Friday morning.
"Bonjour, Stuart," Suzanne answered. "You seem awfully happy this morning."
"I am, Suzanne. I'm going sailing with a beautiful girl this weekend and no one is around to ruin it. Jeff's in San Francisco on a case, Kookie's gone to Malibu for the surfing championships, Roscoe's in Tijuana for the races, and I just wrapped up my case. Even Gil took the week off. You, my darling, can do nothing to destroy my mood."
"Stuart?"
'Oh no,' Stu thought, 'I know that tone of voice.' "Yes, Suzanne?"
"There's a Mr. Harvey Davis waiting in your office. He said it is most urgent that he speak with you."
"Did he say what it was about?" Stu had an image in his mind; a picture of the beautiful Marylou Clement sailing away all by herself, while Stuart stood on the dock waving goodbye.
"No, just that it was urgent."
A large sigh emanated from the senior partner in the private investigative firm. "You delight in doing this to me, don't you?" he asked.
"Me?" Suzanne giggled. Stu stopped at her desk to see if he had any messages; when he didn't, he went in to see what Mr. Davis' urgent problem was.
He opened the door and went straight to the man waiting for him. "Mr. Davis? I'm Stuart Bailey. What can I help you with?" The men shook hands and Stu took a seat behind his desk.
The man sitting in front of him appeared to be in his late twenty's; good looking in a sort of slick kind of way, with a rapidly receding hairline and a smile that was slightly off-kilter. From the cut of his clothes Stu could tell he had a good job; his hands manicured, shoes shined, and an expensive watch on his wrist.
"Mr. Bailey, I want you to find my wife."
Stu hadn't heard that before. "I want you to follow my wife and see if she's having an affair; I want you to get photos of my wife so I can get a divorce; I want you to prove my wife is an unfit mother; I want you to find my children," but finding someone's wife had never come up before.
"Exactly when did she go missing, Mr. Davis?"
"Almost a month ago. I've spent that time looking for her myself, to no avail. I've checked with the neighbors, her mother, her friends; I've been everywhere she might possibly disappear to. I can't find her anywhere, Mr. Bailey, and I'm about to lose my mind." Stu thought he saw a tear glisten in Harvey Davis' eye.
"Do you know why she left?" Stu could think of a million reasons why a wife would leave her husband. He was having an affair . . . she was having an affair . . .she didn't love him anymore . . . he was boring . . . she was bored . . . they couldn't agree about having children . . . they couldn't have children . . . he or she was drinking too much. And that was just for starters.
"That's my fault, I'm afraid. I took a job that required a lot of late hours, mostly entertaining clients. Julia couldn't abide that and accused me of having an affair, which I wasn't. We fought one night when I came home particularly late, and when I came home the next night she was gone. Mr. Bailey, I understand why she was unhappy, and I want her to come home. I've quit that job and found another with much more regular hours, and I can spend more time at home. I love her, Mr. Bailey, and I just want her to come home and give me a chance to prove it. Can you help me?"
"I usually don't take cases like this, Mr. Davis. Perhaps if you . . . "
Harvey Davis sounded emotionally distraught. "Please, Mr. Bailey. The police won't investigate it because she left home voluntarily. You're my last hope. I don't want to spend the rest of my life without her. If it's a matter of your fee – "
"We charge one-hundred dollars a day, Mr. Davis, plus expenses. Is that acceptable to you?"
Davis nodded eagerly. "Yes, yes, I'm willing to pay whatever your fee is. I just want Julia to come home."
"Alright, I need to get some information from you." Stu got out his note pad and began writing things down. "Full name?"
"Uh, Harvey Daniel . . . "
"Not your name, Mr. Davis. Your wife's full name."
"Oh. Oh, of course. Julia Marie Davis."
"And her maiden name?"
"Benson. Julia Benson."
"Can you give me a description of her?"
"Well, let's see. She's about five foot five, no more than a hundred and twenty pounds, with medium to dark hair and blue eyes."
"Any distinguishing marks? Scars, birthmarks, anything like that?" Stu asked.
"No, but she's very pretty."
Stuart almost chuckled. "I'm sure she is. What's her hair like? Short, long, or somewhere in-between?"
"Long, down past her shoulders. She wears it up a lot."
"Do you have a picture of her, Mr. Davis?"
Davis opened the large manila envelope in his lap and pulled out a picture, which he handed to Stu. "That was taken a couple of months ago."
Stu spent his time carefully examining the photo. Julia Davis wasn't pretty. She wasn't even very pretty. Bailey would definitely call her beautiful. There was something about her . . . her eyes, maybe? The haunted look in them. There was more to this marriage than Harvey Davis was telling him. Something he could see in her face, almost like she was looking directly at him.
"Mr. Bailey? Mr. Bailey? What else do you need to know? Mr. Bailey?" Davis almost had to shout to get Stu Bailey's attention.
"Huh? Oh, sorry. She . . . uh, resembles my sister." It was a lame excuse and Stuart knew it, but it was the only thing he could think of. He was fascinated by the photo he held in his hands. He put the picture down and covered it with his pad. "Now, um, did your wife work prior to your marriage?"
"Yes, she was a teller at Bank of America. And before that, she worked as a bookkeeper for Smith and Sons Furniture. I've tried both places to see if she might have gone back to work there, or been in touch, but no one has heard from her."
"Alright, and what is your home address and phone number?"
"1192 Summerset, Los Angeles. Our number is Chester 4-5430."
"And her mother's name and address?" Stu wanted to get as much information from Harvey as possible. He had a strange feeling finding Julia Davis was crucial.
"Marjorie Benson, 1863 Park Drive, Chicago. Her number is Sandy 8-9048. Marjorie is retired."
"Does she have any sisters or brothers?"
Davis shook his head. "No. She was an only child."
"Best friend?"
"I, I don't know if she had one."
"Everybody has a best friend, Mr. Davis. A neighbor, perhaps?"
"Maybe Gloria Thomas. That's the next-door neighbor. They haven't lived there very long, but I've seen Gloria and Julia together two or three times. She's at 1200 Summerset, and her phone number is Chester 4-6782."
Stu was just about at the end of his questions. "And where do you work Mr. Davis? Just in case I need to contact you during the day?"
"Shulman and Jacobs, Attorneys at Law, 4516 Wilshire Blvd., Marion 7-2391, extension 4. If I'm not there you can leave a message with Thelma, my assistant."
Stu nodded. Now all the things he'd first noticed about Harvey Davis made sense. The elegantly tailored clothes, manicured hands, shined shoes, expensive watch. The abandoned husband was an attorney. "Alright, Mr. Davis, that's about all for now. If I think of anything else I'll let you know." Stu got up from his desk and threw one more question at Harvey. "One more thing. If I find Mrs. Davis, do you want me to try and convince her to return home? Or do you prefer to do that yourself?"
"You just find her, Mr. Bailey. I want to explain to Julia myself what I've done to try and rectify the situation."
It wasn't an unusual request, but something about the way Harvey Davis said it didn't sit right with Stu. 'Quit obsessing over Julia Davis, you idiot. She's a married woman, and her husband wants her back,' he told himself. He walked around the desk and they shook hands again after the new client stood up. He followed Davis out of his office and watched from Suzanne's desk as the man went out the front door.
"Still going sailing, Stuart?" Suzanne asked him.
It took him almost a full minute to respond, and when he did so he was still watching out the front door. "Hmm, what? Sailing? Oh, no," Stuart answered her, and he didn't seem the least bit disappointed.