Book 2: What Happens Here - Chicago (What Happens Here Series)

Chapter 34 - Roger Martin

Dreading to make the phone call that he was about to make, Roger downed the last of his black coffee before he picked up his cell phone and pulled up the number for the young woman that he had been working exclusively with for close to four years. Valentina Moretti.

Almost four years prior, Roger had received a call from a young woman with an Italian accent, that had asked to hire him exclusively, and after she hadn't blinked an eye at the fee that such exclusivity would require, he transferred his other cases to his associates and had begun working for her full-time. Initially, Roger had no idea what would be required of him, but once he'd discovered that the beautiful, manipulative and somewhat mentally unhinged young woman had a somewhat unhealthy obsession with a young man that appeared not to want anything to do with her, Roger had debated on cancelling the job completely.

Had he done some borderline criminal acts in the past through his private investigative work? Of course. Sometimes the job required that. It wasn't out of the norm for a client to pay to have either Roger or one of his associates to not only follow, photograph, but also to cyber-stalk either a past, or current lover, or even a dishonest business partner to get something that they could use against them in court. But the things that he'd done for Valentina Moretti over the past three years had not only skirted the border of unethical, but possibly criminal as well. Since starting this assignment, Roger had damn near embedded himself in the life of Ethan Daniels, to the point that he knew every single thing about the man, right down to his favorite meal and at which restaurant. He even knew the type of body wash the man preferred, because that had been one of the items that Miss Moretti had requested that he include in his weekly reports. He hadn't asked questions regarding why this man was so important to Miss Moretti, but since taking on this particular assignment, Roger had begun to secretly question things more and more.

The latest development that had occurred in his assignment had been the introduction of a young woman by the name of Jasmine Ellis, from Charlotte, North Carolina. Apparently, Miss Moretti had not appreciated Mr. Daniels' developing interest in the young woman, because Miss Moretti had recently asked Roger to include the movements of the young woman in his reports as well.

With this new development, Roger had asked one of his other associates, Thomas Helms, to assist him, because there was no way that he could maintain visuals on both people at once, especially with them living in two different states. It was convenient for Roger to tail Mr. Daniels because he was in Chicago, but with Miss Ellis living in North Carolina, him being able to effectively monitor her would be impossible. He had mentioned this to Miss Moretti, and she'd had no objections with paying for Thomas to tag team the assignment with him.

Thomas would be responsible for tracking the movements of Miss Ellis both physically and electronically, by running her credit card purchases, and monitoring her online presence, such as any social media platforms that she frequented. Anything that she posted online, Thomas could track and report. The guy was a serious tech nerd, and was close to two decades younger than Roger, so he was a great resource to have when it dealt with all things technology related.

A few days ago, Thomas had discovered that Miss Ellis had not returned to Charlotte as she had planned, but had apparently boarded a flight to Chicago with Mr. Daniels. He had worked his "tech wizardry", and discovered that the day before Mr. Daniels was scheduled to return to Chicago, he had the travel service that he used exclusively whenever he traveled, to book a flight for Miss Ellis to fly first class with him back to Chicago. It appeared that Mr. Daniels had also paid for an open-ended flight for her return trip back to Charlotte as well.

Over the course of his investigation, Roger found himself developing an admiration for the young Mr. Daniels, which in his business, could adversely affect his job if he weren't careful. His line of work required that he maintain not only an emotional distance, but a rigid impartiality with not just his clients, but with the targets of his investigations as well. And prior to taking this assignment, that had never been an issue for him.

Opening his laptop that sat on the kitchen table of the brownstone that Miss Moretti was paying for him to rent, which happened to be situated directly across the street from the one owned by Mr. Daniels, he clicked to open the case folder which contained all of the information regarding Ethan Daniels that he'd acquired over the past few years, and typed in the latest information that had been discovered. Once he'd documented all of his findings, he stood and walked over to the window and stared out at the home where his target was currently laughing and eating breakfast with the woman that Roger had no doubts was the love of Mr. Daniels' life.

Over the past several days, Roger had listened in on the conversations of the young couple with a very expensive, and very high-tech piece of "listening" equipment that he'd obtained through one of his military contacts. This device was used mainly by special forces units in the military, or law enforcement agencies when they wanted to monitor the activities of targets without actually having to place a listening device, or "bug" onsite.

This device made it possible to skirt the "legalities" of listening in, and "invading" the privacy of private citizens while in their homes, where they had an expectation of privacy. All that was required was the streamlined microphone which contained a high frequency, as well as a long ranged listening capability, that would allow the "listener" to monitor all conversations within a specific distance with a pin-point clarity that was literally like physically being present during the actual conversations. Roger simply needed to angle the device into the direction that he wanted, and he could listen to every single sound or conversation within that radius.

Since Miss Ellis had been in Chicago, she and Mr. Daniels had been very active and very creative in not just the bedroom, but in various ways and various places around the house. On more than one occasion, some of their...um... sexual interactions, had gotten so intense and heated that Roger had found himself becoming so turned on that he had to disconnect the device or else he would've "taken himself in hand", in order to relieve himself.

Roger had opted to leave those interactions out of his reports, because if Miss Moretti were to read the "blow by blow" accounts, no pun intended, of just what was being said and done inside of Mr. Daniels' bedroom on a daily and nightly basis, he had no doubts that she would be on the next flight to Chicago from Italy. He knew this for a fact because she'd done so once before.

Several years ago, Mr. Daniels had met a beautiful young pediatrician, and after several dates, the two appeared to have hit it off. Mr. Daniels had spent a great deal of time with the young woman, and by the many photos that Roger had been able to take of the two on their outings, and on the four-hour road trip that they had taken to the Door County Wine Trail in Wisconsin, their connection appeared to be quite serious. The couple had stayed at a cozy bed and breakfast in the area, and by the intimate touches they'd shared, Roger could tell that the two were possibly developing strong feelings for one another.

When Roger had relayed this information to Miss Moretti, things had come to a complete and total halt. Within three days of Roger sharing this information with her, not only had he not seen the young woman with Mr. Daniels again, but in truth, he had not seen the young woman anywhere else again either. After running a thorough check on her, Roger had discovered that she'd had some issues with an abusive ex-husband in the past that had led to her relocation to Chicago, and while he'd wondered if the young woman's swift and sudden disappearance had something to do with her past, his senses were telling him that Miss Moretti had ultimately been the cause.

Due to a nagging concern for the young doctor, Roger had done some digging, and had discovered that she had left a position in Chicago that she'd had for close to five years, and had packed up and relocated practically overnight, to a small midwestern town in North Dakota. After her departure, there had been a few calls from Mr. Daniels' cell to hers over the course of 10 days, but only one call was answered. That call had lasted for 15 mins, and then radio silence for the past few years. After that final call, Mr. Daniels never attempted to make contact with the young woman again. With a resigned sigh, Roger stared down at the cell phone in his hand and pressed the call button that would connect him with Valentina Moretti.

Quickly checking the time, he saw that it was 8:30am in the states, which meant that it was currently 2:30pm in Paris, where Miss Moretti had flown after she'd left Vegas several days prior. After the third ring, there was a brief pause on the other end of the line, before an accented voice replied, "Pronto!"