Following the Lady in the Red Hat

“Stan, turn at the next drive! Right there! Turn! Turn! Good grief Stan you drive like an old lady.”

           “OK Jules. I need new shocks. If I drive any faster I’m going to bottom out. You know that.”

           “Stan would you move! I’m out of the car and you are still trying to get the key out of the ignition.”

           “I’m coming Jules.”

           “Look! I see the red hat. She is going into Renee’s Shoes. Stan I’ll take this side. You run around to the waterfront side.”

I come to a stop in front of the shoe store, rummaged in my bag for binoculars to hang around my neck and sunglasses. I buy a soft pretzel and plopped down on a bench and wait.

There is a light breeze ruffling the branches of the palm trees.  Small waves are gently lapping against the dock and I sit on a bench in front of Renee’s Shoes, lost in thought and watching the birds fly over the ruffled water while I munch on my pretzel and look for the lady in the red hat lady or Stan. 15 minutes pass. I see no sign of the lady in the red hat or Stan. I wonder if Stan found the lady in the red hat. I hope he didn’t have a heart attack with all that running.

Five more minutes pass and I hear the heavy stomp of my partner Stan’s feet come up behind me. Stan could never sneak up on anyone. He never accomplished the skill of being light on his feet. He glances in my direction and walks past waving his I-watch in the air and heads for the waterfront side of the shops.

Stan and I have been partners for 12 years. We are private investigators. Sometimes we assist the police department with cases when they are under staffed or need our expertise.

 Stan is about 15 years older than me. That puts him in his early 50’s. Stan is 5 feet 10 inches tall with dark wavy hair speckled with gray. He has gotten soft over the last few years and is about 50 pounds overweight. Stan needs to exercise more and eat less. He has two ex-wives that are always on him for late alimony. Stan complains about not having enough money but since Stan and I partnered up his income has more than doubled. Yet, he is still short. Lately he hasn’t been complaining about lack of money so I assume he has fixed his financial problems.

My name is Juliet Mason. Everyone calls me Jules.  I’m in my mid 30’s and single, I have two cats, and no ex-husbands. I try to keep fit because you never know when you are going to need to run. I am financially set because I invest my money and not in ex-spouses.

Today our assignment is to catch a jewel thief. The suspicion is that the lady in the red hat likes to rob jewelry stores while they are open. She walks in browsing and walks out with the goods. Sometime later a sales person notices the missing jewelry. The description is always a little different but we have watched the tapes from the different jewelry heist and we think the lady in the red hat is the thief. If we catch her the police department will be happy and so will all the jewelry stores. For the last six months the lady in the red hat has eluded everyone.

Five minutes later the lady in the red hat strolls out of Renee’s Shoes and into a clothing store named Sara’s Boutique. Let’s call the lady in red hat, Madame X.

“Stan, Madame X  left Renee’s Shoes and walked into Sara’s Boutique. She is wearing a red has and straight platinum blonde hair. It is a little bit below her shoulders. She is wearing a red dress, shoes that match her hat, and large sunglasses. It is difficult to see her face. She is carrying several shopping bags. One, two, three, four, five; she is carrying five shopping bags. There is a large bright blue one, a small yellow plastic one, a medium size red one, and two smaller gift bag size in white and lime green. I’ll snap a photo of her and her bags and send it to you.”

 Several minutes later she comes out with one less bag. The large bright blue bag is missing.

 I watch Madame X meander to the next store. I speak into my watch. Stan and I wear I-watches and leave the connection open.

 “Madame X is one bag short. She walked into the lingerie store two doors down from the shoe store. Watch her while I check the Sara’s Boutique.”

“Got it.” said the voice coming out of my watch.

 I casually stroll into the store Madam X walked out of and look around to see if I could see the missing bag lying out in plain sight.

“Stan I see nothing the main part of the store. I’m going to look in the dressing room.”

“OK. I’m in front of the lingerie store. No activity.”

 I grab an item of clothing and walk into the dressing room.

“One of the dressing rooms is occupied. I’m going to look in the rest of them.”

I look through all the other dressing rooms for the blue bag, nothing. I wait for the occupied dressing room to empty. Finally, the lady in the only occupied dressing room leaves. I peak into the final dressing room and find nothing.

“Stan, I found nothing. I’m on my way out. Oh, wait. I found the bag! It was in a trash can.”  

I pull the bag out of the trash and take a gander at the contents inside. Taped to the bottom of the bag is a key. It looks like a key to a safety deposit box. I pull the key from the bag and shove it onto the ring attached to my bag and toss the bright blue bag back into the trash.

 I walk out of the dressing room and see the red hat of Madam X running along the waterfront in the opposite direction. I run out the back door and take off after her. Out of the corner of my eye I see Stan behind me. He turns between two shops and starts heading towards the Parking lot side. I stumbled over a loose board and hit the ground with a thud. Blood starts running down my leg and my hand. I look up searching for Madam X.

“Stan, I lost her!”

My watch starts talking back to me. It’s Stan. “Madam X is on the move. She is missing another bag. It is the small yellow one. She left it in the lingerie store. I’ll follow her and you check the store.”

“What’s wrong Stan? You don’t want to go into the lingerie store?”

“Ha-ha, very funny. I have to go before I lose her.”

I hear Stan huffing and puffing while he runs to keep up with Madam X. He really needs to exercise but it might not be my problem soon.

I pick myself up off of the dock and sprint down to the lingerie store. Since Madam X used the dressing room before I thought I would try it again. This time the dressing rooms are all empty. I check all the rooms and find nothing. I’m on my way out of the dressing rooms when something at ceiling level caught my eye. I l look up at the ceiling and notice the dressing room has a drop ceiling. I could see a tiny piece of yellow plastic sticking out of the corner of one of the ceiling panels. Quickly, I close the door to the dressing room and climb up on a chair and pull out the yellow plastic bag. The bag contains a white envelope. It is one of those envelopes they give you at the bank when you get cash. Printed on the envelope is the name of a bank, The First Federal Sun Trust Bank. The address on the envelope is Bay Shore Drive and the number 201 is written on the inside flap of the envelope.

I hear Stan’s breathless voice come from my watch. He must be running.

“Jules, Madam X is going for her car. I’m going to follow her. Did you find the missing bag yet?”

“I found it. There is an address I’m going to check out. Let me know where Madam X goes.

“Will do.”

I switch off the phone part of my I-watch and sprint back to the Expedition. I drive to the First Federal Sun Trust Bank on Bay Shore Drive. I quickly walk into the bank and speak to the manager. He escorts me into the room with the safety deposit boxes. I insert the key I found in the big blue bag and insert it into the box marked 201 and slowing turn the key. I have sweat beading on my head. What if I’m going down the wrong path?  What if I am wrong? Boy, I would feel horrible. I hear a click and the box pops open.

The bank manager escorts me into a private room and left closing the door behind him. I open the box and pull out a brochure for a B&B, several paper documents, and a thumb drive. I insert the thumb drive into my computer and watch the video on the thumb drive. After I watch the video I read the paper documents. It was quite eye opening. It has all the information I need; dates, time, locations, and account numbers. The brochure for the Bed and Breakfast Hotel has a number written on it, number 14. I assume it is the number to a bungalow Madam X is staying in. I drive to Oceanside Drive and found my partner lounging in his car waiting and watching.

I sneak up on Stan from behind. I’m going to miss working with him “So what’s happening?”

Stan jumps and grabs his chest.

“I wish you would stops doing that! Madam X went into bungalow 14 for about 5 minutes and left. She came out  with empty hands.  She is sitting in the restaurant alone. She hasn’t made any phone calls or talked to anyone but the waitress. That was about 30 minutes ago and nothing has happened since. No one else has gone into the room.”

“Let’s go in” I said.

“When is our backup going to be here?”

“I didn’t call for backup.”

“You want to go in without backup?”

“We need backup for an empty room? We are just going to look around and plant a few bugs. We’ll see if we can find anything of value.”

Stan extracts himself from his car and we let ourselves in the front door of bungalow 14. I begin my search around the room for any information of value. 

Stan, did you find any good places to put bug?”

“Nothing fun, Just in the lamp, and the phone. It’s a pretty small room. Did you find anything?”

“Not yet.”

 I look in the closet and Stan is inserting a bug into the phone by the bed when I hear the bathroom window slide open, a soft thump, and a click of a gun cocking. I turn around and see Madam X walk out of the bathroom and past the closet I’m standing in. She has her gun pulled and aimed at Stan.

She calls Stan by name.

“Stan, turn around.”

Stan froze in place and looks up at the lady in the red hat. Recognition and confusion appear on his face at the same time.

”Jessica?”

Jessica throws off the red hat and pulls off the blonde wig to show her short dark spikey hair.

“Yes Stan. It’s me.”

“What’s going on Jessica? Why are we following you? Are you the jewel thief? Would you put that gun down before you hurt me.”

“We know Stan. We know what you have been up to.”

“What do you mean? What have I been up to and who is we?”

I walk out of the closet with my gun drawn and turned towards Stan.

“Stan you are busted! I have the documents that show where you hid the money you took that we were holding for the police. Also, I have video of you taking the money.”

Stan has a startled look on his face. Recognition sets in. The jewel thief case was a lie. He was set up. He takes off running for the door of the bungalow. He throws the door open and standing in front of him are three more of our employees with guns aimed at him. The sirens are wailing in the distance and they are sounding closer by the moment.

“Stan. Do you really think I would go into a situation without backup?”