The Diary of Sophie Dayton - A Humorous, Coming-of-age Detective Story

12. Trailing a Blaze

Monday 5th Feb 2018

Once again, I could hardly sleep, but this time it was for excitement over the planned meeting with Adam. I floated around all morning and left the flat a good hour before I needed to, which meant that I arrived at the meeting place stupidly early — and I mean stupid in the sense that Study Nook Café wasn't even open yet.

List of qualities to improve:

- Patience

- Punctuality

- Perception

- Pedantic urge to alliterate everything

When the café finally opened, it was still too early for the meeting. I thought I'd have to sit around waiting for Adam. However, I hadn't had time to do more than order a coffee and find a seat when he appeared like magic. I suspect that he has the place under video surveillance.

"Dayton, you're early." He took a chair opposite and blasted me with a 100 mega-watt smile.

"Hi Adam." I tried to maintain a professional air but it was impossible to keep from grinning back.

List of qualities to improve (continued)

- Passivity.

"So how'd it go at the dinner?" he asked.

"Not bad." I whipped out my phone and followed the link to Layla's cloud drive. This was followed by an embarrassingly long pause as the lumbering café wifi did its best to grant my request. Things weren't improved by the noticeable tremor in my fingers.

Finally the images loaded. I chose a shot that provided a good view of the red-jacket guy and zoomed in. "Is that him?" I held the phone out.

He took it and looked closely, frowning. "What made you pick that guy?"

My stomach dropped through the floor. Shit, did I get it wrong? After all Tessa's theorising and our careful checking! But something — perhaps a glint of humour in Adam's eye — made me pause before panic took over. No, this was probably a sneaky test to check my reasoning and commitment. I cleared my throat. "Going by his actions and body language, that man wasn't at the event for the sake of networking. He stood out." Adam's eyes were boring into me and I felt my face redden.

He glanced at the photo again. "What about the jacket? Seems a bit fancy for someone who's trying to blend in."

I grasped after a plausible explanation. "I think that was for the sake of misdirection. The bright colour attracts people's attention, but they notice the jacket rather than the man wearing it. He could change clothes and slip around unnoticed afterwards."

Adam looked steadily at me for a few more seconds, then his face relaxed into a grin. "Well done, Sophie. You might have been improvising, but you were right. That's exactly why our agent - Harvey - chose that particular jacket. You passed the second challenge."

I had a driving urge to squeal and hug him. I went for the more sober option of pushing my hair back behind my ears several times while beaming like a maniac. "That's great! I mean, it's great that I was right. And that I passed the test..."

Note to self: Babbling isn't sexy. Don't babble.

List of qualities to improve (cont. cont.)

- Placidity.

Adam was browsing through some of the other photos. "I have to say I'm impressed with these shots. If you weren't doing so well in our tests, I'd suggest following a career in photography."