Page 4 of The Burnt
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Charlie stood in front of Chapman, Sherbrook and Finch, the small human resources firm Tyler Chipping was working at…for now. Charlie’s nerves were on edge. He didn’t want to let Declan down. His computer research hadn’t been completely in vain. He had identified two employees who seemed to be the office gossips based on the contents of their social media posts. Maybe he’d get lucky.
He stood and waited on the street. The winter sun was low in the sky and shining directly into his eyes. It was twenty below with a wind chill that made it feel closer to minus thirty. He loved Calgary. He just hated winter. Why couldn’t this be happening in July?
Charlie checked his phone and huddled against the building.
A few minutes after noon, two young women exited from the main door of the one-storey office building. They were chattingwildly to each other. As they neared Charlie, he moved into their path.
“Excuse me. Sorry to bother you, but do you work here?”
“Yes,” one said, hesitantly. She peered at Charlie through the fur of her hooded parka. She was mummified against the cold, the part of her face not shielded by her coat was covered by a scarf and sunglasses.
Smarter than me.
“My name’s Charlie Watts.”
He pulled out the small metal business card case that his friend Carrie had given him when he started working for Declan. His hands shook a bit as he opened it. The case had a tight catch on it and when he finally got the lid to pop open, several of the cards spilled onto the ground. Most of them blew away in the wind, but Charlie managed to bend over and retrieve a card that was stuck to his boot. The day was going from bad to worse.
Charlie handed it to the mummified woman.
The woman looked at the card and read, in a whispery voice, “Declan Hunt Investigations. Charlie Watts, Researcher.” She lowered her glasses and stared him directly in the eyes. “You’rea private detective?”
This was not going well. Charlie swallowed and stared back at her. “Look, I was just wondering if you’d be able to answer a few questions for me. My firm has been hired to do a background check on Tyler Chipping. Do you work with him?”
The term ‘background check’ was an exaggeration Charlie came up with to hide his real purpose.
“Well,” the other woman said, “I’m not sure we should be talking about this here.”
Charlie considered his options. “Would you be more comfortable talking over lunch? My treat.”
The first woman said, “Maybe it would be all right, if we get to pick the place.”
“Sure,” he replied.
The two looked at each other, simultaneously spun back to Charlie, and shouted “Bastion’s!”
Charlie assumed Bastion’s was an expensive restaurant based on their enthusiastic reaction to being taken to lunch.Hopefully not too expensive.
The women led Charlie along the street for a few blocks then steered him down a back alley and through a door into a small café. They made their way to a booth in the darkest corner near the back and stripped off their polar-wear. One of the women was a redhead whose scarlet lipstick matched the colour of her thick mane of hair. The other, a blonde, was more reserved with her makeup, with a light blush on her cheeks and pale lipstick. Both were in their early twenties. As they sat down, he pieced together why they had recommended the place. The waiter was tall, had raven-black hair, blue eyes and the perkiest butt Charlie had ever seen. He quickly came over to take their orders.
“Crystal. Laura and…friend,” he said, smiling at Charlie. “I’m Carrick. I’ll be your server this afternoon. Will it be the usual for you ladies?” he asked in a spine-melting Irish accent.
They giggled out a “Yes.”
“And for you, sir?” he asked, with a sexy emphasis on ‘sir’, even though he appeared to be Charlie’s age.
“I’ll have…whatever they’re having.”
“Excellent choice, sir,” Carrick said before he smiled broadly at Charlie, turned on his toes and walked away.
“Hey,” Crystal, the redhead, said as she swatted Charlie on the arm. “You leave him alone. He’s ours.”
“I’m not so sure about that now,” the other woman, who he now knew was Laura, added.
Charlie was thoroughly enjoying his time with Crystal and Laura. They adopted him like a long-lost friend and soon theywere engaged in conversation which slowly turned to Tyler Chipping.
“Declan Hunt Investigations has been hired by Chapman, Sherbrook and Finch’s law firm to look into Tyler,” Charlie started.
