Morning all and welcome to Wednesday. Today is going to be a good day. I can feel it in my bones. And in my lack of allergy medicine. Last night while I slept my brain managed to untangle a character dilemma and this this morning I woke up feeling like I knew exactly what i needed to do to get my story back on track. It makes all the world a sunny place. but before I get to my story, let’s start with a writing prompt. Ready? Fabulous.
This feels like it could be part of a cosy mystery with the amatur sleuth. i just have to figure out what sort of office my sleuth has and and then I can kill off the guy in the car and send the sleuth to investigate. Something to think about, even if I can’t work on it right now. Its fun to line up future projects.
Wednesday, June 16th: Every day for a week, he parked in the same spot, waited an hour and then drove off.
Every day for a week, he parked in the same spot, waited an hour and then drove off. By the third day, I had taken to checking the clock and then sidling towards my office window to watch him. He did nothing overtly suspicious, at least not anything I could call and report him for. The car was parked legally in places marked ‘Two Hour Parking Only” so he wasn’t outlasting his time in the spot.
He didn’t leave his engine running. He simply parked and took out a file folder. He propped it up on his steering wheel and read for an hour, slowly turning the pages. When the hour was up, he gathered the pages, placed the file in the seat, fastened his seatbelt, turned the key in the ignition and drove off. He was a conscientious driver, looking both ways and pulling cautiously into traffic.
I suspected he wanted to avoid an accident not only for the damage it would do to his car, but because it might draw attention to him.
‘Not that he has done anything that would make anyone think that he was avoiding attention,’ I reminded myself.
I thought his behavior odd because I didn’t know the reasoning, It didn’t have to be sinister. ‘He could be studying for some exam and that is the only place he can get peace and quiet,” I tried telling myself. “Or maybe he is driving between meetings and needs to refresh himself on the information in the files.”
There were several possible reasons that he could be there legitimately, but there was something about him that seemed off. Something not right.
On Friday I decided to have a little better look at him. I left my office before I knew he would be in place. I timed my walk from my coffee shop just right so that I could see him arrive. As he pulled into the parking space I paused my steps reaching for my coat pocket as though hearing my cell phone vibrate. I pulled it out of the pocket and instead of pulling up text I pulled up my camera and took a picture of the back of his car, making certain the license plate was clear. I then quickly typed a short text and sent it to my office e-mail. Having completed this piece of what I thought was highly skilled espionage, I dropped my cell phone into my coat again and continued to the coffee shop to purchase my chosen drink. As I returned to my office, mocha cappuccino in hand I clanked at the driver. His head was bowed as he looked over his pages. His dark hair was buzzed down to a thin bristle and he had a balding spot on the center of his head. He looked up as though he could feel me watching and I smiled and nodded, looking away.
His eyes were a piercing blue, looking overly bright in his deeply tanned face. He had stubble on his cheeks and one of his ears was missing part of the lobe. I wasn’t sure if he was watching me to see if I was still interested in him so I didn’t look back. I kept walking, crossed the street at the crosswalk and continued to my building. I was glad that the door to my office building wasn’t visble to him where he was parked. Something about him made me not want to let on that I noticed his odd behavior. Again there was nothing suspicious or threatening about his behavior. It was just a hunch that I didn’t want to be spotted.
I entered my office building with a feeling of relief and took my drink to my desk. I placed myself where I could sit and drink my drink while watching him. He had returned to his files as though I never interrupted him.
Again he waited an hour, put his files away and took off. I wondered if he would continue such behavior on the weekend. I could think of no way to see him without drawing attention to myself so I thought I wouldn’t see if he returned until Monday. However, as it turned out, I didn’t have to wait that long.
Ten til Midnight 