The Private Investigator

Chapter 4: The Old Lady vs Young Drug Junkie

"Babe, pass me that pipe please." Dane says as he finishes his drug injection and places the spoon and needle on the bedside table. Jacklyn takes a hit off the pipe and hands it over, he takes a long draw from the pipe and began coughing. He sniffled an placed the pipe on the bedside table next to the spoon and needle then leaned back in the bed and threw his hands behind his head. It was 2:30 in the morning and all the lights were off except a dimly lit lamp on the night stand. Jacklyn leaned over and placed her head on Dane's chest and her hand on his abdomen. The drugs began to kick in and they were feeling good when a noise from the hall startled them. They lived in an apartment building and noises from the halls were to be expected but this noise was different. It was like glass shattering on a concrete floor which was odd since the hall had carpet. Dane shrugged it off and relaxed closing his eyes again to enjoy his trip. Jacklyn didn't find it so easy to ignore, maybe it was the drugs, maybe it was her paranoia. She nudged Dane to get up and check it out to help ease her mind and insure it was nothing to worry about. "Dane, could you please look? I can't sleep knowing something could be out there." He agreed and stood up, "You watch to many scary movies, I'm cutting you off." he said laughing as he walked to the door. He opened it slowly and peaked out looking around as much as he could without sticking his head out in fear of it being chopped off. When he felt it was safe he poked his head out further, nothing to the left, then he turned to the right. "AHHH! Dammit woman you scared me!" He yelled clutching his chest. The old woman just smiled an evil smile and went into her apartment.

Two days later Dane noticed his belongings were coming up missing. Drug paraphernalia, clothes, shoes, and pictures to start with, then his t.v, DVD player, movies, and collectable baseball cards. The old lady next door kept giving him an evil stare every time they passed each other in the hall, or she would make a loud noise to make him look out just so she could give him an evil smile. Because of that he began thinking she was the one stealing his things. He talked to Jacklyn about it and she agreed, she didn't like the old woman either. Dane contacted Mr. Benson and asked for an Investigator to help him catch the thief, Mr. Benson agreed and sent Cheyenne and Jim to Dane's apartment. Cheyenne and Jim jumped on the case and decided to contact Dane over the phone to get the details of what was happening before heading out so they could bring the equipment needed.

Entering Dane's apartment they where immediately struck with the smell of burnt metal and stale clothes. The smell was strong enough to make their eyes to water and their noses to burn, looking around it was obvious where the smell was coming from, Dane was a drug addict. Cheyenne changed her mind and did not want to work on the case due to his obsessive drug use. She figured he was simply being paranoid, selling his things for drug money and getting so high he forgot he was the one that got rid of his things and no one really stole it. Even though she was unwilling to take the case any further she continued to listen to his story. "I mean, yea I was high. I stay high, I mean obviously right?" He laughed pointing to his paraphernalia purposely set out for them to see. "I know I have a problem, and I'm not trying to hide it, but I would never get rid of my stuff like that. Look at it, I live in a high class apartment, all my bills are paid on time every month, I have a brand new cherry red Maserati completely paid for. Why would I sell my things if I can afford all of this? Besides, That baseball collection belonged to my dad, he died six years ago. My dad meant everything to me. Why would I get rid of that? That was all I had left of him." He finished by giving Jim and Cheyenne sad puppy dog eyes. Jim's heart melted, he was known to be a softy which was a bad thing in this line of work. Cheyenne decided to look into it despite still thinking he was just a drug junkie, his story caused her to question what was really going on, he made a good argument.

Cheyenne and Jim set up hidden cameras throughout his apartment to catch the thief in action and also began following the old woman from next door to see what she was up to just to rule her out. They didn't think she was the culprit, but since she was being blamed she was the number one suspect so they had no choice but to follow her. After a few days of footage being recorded in Dane's house, Cheyenne collected the cameras for review. She took them to her office and told Dane she would call him when she found out what was going on. Later that afternoon she sat down in her office and reviewed the tapes to find that the actual culprit was Jacklyn. Cheyenne immediately turned her attention to Jacklyn while Jim continued to follow the old lady. The woman seemed to lead a very boring life and Jim fell asleep in the car often, but at least he was smart enough to turn on the recorder so he could capture what he missed during his naps.