Pulling up in front of his building, Arthur checked to see if the tail was still behind him. His plan wouldn't work if it had pulled off. Arthur was a bit puzzled with their tactics though, you didn't just tail someone from behind the whole time. It just wasn't a productive, inconspicuous way to do things. Even the best driver would get spotted by someone paying attention. "So why were these people so obvious?" Arthur wondered. But now wasn't the time for speculation.
Lee was looking at Arthur expectantly. She had obviously asked him a question, and he had no idea what it was. The blank look on his face giving him away, Arthur opened his mouth to ask her what she had said. Lee forestalled him by saying, "What I said, while you were looking very intently into the side mirror, was what now? Are you really going to go into your office? With that brown car that has been following us since we left lock-up?" Lee wasn't that unfamiliar with his work. She knew what Arthur did, she had gotten his butt out of many troubles. She was a really smart woman. Arthur smiled. "I would kiss you if I wasn't like this, you beautiful woman, you. I need that key I gave you after the Bordeaux case." Lee frowned. That case had been real bad, breaking and entering, kidnapping, all involving this family from one of the low parishes. They had broken into Arthur's office. After which, he had some security features added, and had given her the key for safe-guarding, telling her that he never wanted to ever use it.
Arthur nodded. "It's that serious. I can't tell you about it now. I just can't. You can't know anything right now." The worry grew on Lee's face. Arthur held up his hand to reassure her. "I don't think you are in any danger. But I need to be in "crisis" mode. I need you to go on high alert. Do you remember what I told you to do?" Lee nodded, her lips tight, compressed. She didn't like this, but she knew it was what was needed. Arthur wouldn't be telling any of this if he didn't think it was this serious. "Ok, now when you drive off, you may or may not be followed. I am going to get out and go inside, I have my motorcycle stashed inside, so I will leave that way. I am only going inside to get my gear and then I am out. I am going to the safe house." Arthur had a number of safe houses, New Orleans provided many different avenues for dwellings, all of which appealed to different aspects of his job. You never knew in his business.
Arthur asked, "Do you still have the taser I gave you?" Lee nodded and patted the middle console. "Good, don't go anywhere without it. Now I want you to drive to your home and pack a few bags. Keep an eye out for anyone following you. After you are ready to leave, if they did follow you to your house, call one of your police friends and get them to come harass the car while you leave.Go to your safe house. Stay there. Got it?" Lee gave him a tight smile and nodded. Arthur continued, knowing he needed to be going soon; they had been in the car too long, it was starting to get suspicious. "I am going to stash the cell phone. I will get some burnable ones and call you once I do. Be careful and stay safe." Lee leaned over and kissed him hard, Arthur could tell she was scared. This wasn't her world. Her world was full of innuendo and back-handed comments. She could battle with the best of them, and was a composed woman. But the life of a private detective was gritty, raw and fast-paced. Lee was out of her element. But she trusted Arthur and he really needed her at her best right now.
Breaking the kiss, and giving her a smile, Arthur stepped out of the car. He stretched, surveying the surroundings, looking quickly for the tails. It still seemed to be the one. They weren't trying to hide, sitting right out in the open. Leaning in slightly, Arthur spoke loudly for others to overhear, "Ok, I will be about an hour, just come back then." Lee nodded and Arthur closed the door. The ruse had been started. No matter what, Arthur was committed. He had to see this to the end. Lee drove off, as planned. The brown car didn't move, sitting in the same spot. Either they had another car to tail Lee, or they weren't interested in her. It didn't matter to Arthur. They were now the enemy, and Arthur was going to find out more about them.
Arthur walked to the front door of his building. He liked his building, having bought it about a dozen years ago. To keep people from knowing that it was mostly used by his detective agency, Arthur rented out the street store front to a local music store. They were a little bohemian, but their smoking grass out behind his building didn't bother him. It was the last place anyone would suspect of being a giant spy factory. Arthur smiled, it was ingenious really. Originally the building had been structurally unsound. It was an older design of building, dating back to the late 1800's. It had a crumbling stucco exterior with thick walls. Arthur had the inside gutted and rebuilt to withstand a direct hit by a mortar round. He had built a fortress, without doing a single improvement to the outside of the building. He built a fortified basement with gun safes a water purification system. Then in the attic, he set up a grow-room for crops, and then installed massive solar panels on the roof. Arthur could sustain himself there for almost a year without replenishing any sort of supply.
Going around to the back, Arthur watched to make sure he wasn't being followed. It was starting to get dark, but there wasn't any kids hanging out behind the shop. "Strange," Arthur mused, this time yesterday he had been getting ready to go tail his mark. Now, he was in full crisis mode and was being set up for murder. Arthur wasn't really sure what he had stumbled upon. But he was damn sure he was going to get to the bottom of this. Arthur knew he had plenty of enemies. You didn't spy on people for a living and make lots of friends, but this didn't seem like the type of revenge that Arthur usually received from his normal clients. This had the hallmarks of professionals.
Arthur knew that going into his office was a risk. There surely was a trap in there, but it was the only way to reach his basement. Everything was there. His weapons, his money, his information, his bike, everything. Arthur had an escape tunnel to ride the bike out of, but there was no way to enter that way. He would have to blow a door to get out on a main street. Once blown, there was no quick replacement. Arthur really didn't want to go that route, he would rather just ride it away, but he did have every contingency planned for. However, the only real way to reach the basement was down his secret stairs, you couldn't access it any other way. And those stairs were behind a fake wall in his office. Which was upstairs. High above the ground. So many things could go wrong.
Opening the door, Arthur stepped inside quickly, scanning the room. No movement, no sound other than himself, he paused listening intently. When Arthur heard nothing to raise his suspicions, he turned on the lights. Seeing nothing but a room in disarray, Arthur proceeded cautiously. The layout of the office was simple. A waiting room with a secretaries office, then a long hallway breaking off into a room, a bathroom, and then a large open room with a large office, his office at the back. Nobody would suspect that this was anything out of the ordinary. Arthur kept the office looking this way to support this image. In the basement was his weight/training room, the gun safe, the computer servers, his personal safe, everything important.
It was obvious that someone had been through here, Arthur thought at first. Papers strewn on the floor, pictures askew, drawers open, but Arthur noticed that nothing seemed to have really been touched. As if someone had gone through here disrupting things to make it appear as if someone had searched.
"Stranger and stranger," Arthur thought, "why would someone go to all this effort for nothing?" Things were quickly not adding up. Arthur decided it was best to get what he needed and then get out of here. Nothing was making sense, and this wasn't the place to think about it. Quickly gathering a few items that he needed from the office, he walked to the back wall in the second office. It held a desk and two chairs and a fake tree in the corner, nothing else. Arthur employed a staff, they just never worked here. The only person who ever worked here was a little college girl. She goofed off all day, and didn't ask questions. It was the perfect arrangement for Arthur. She was professional enough when he actually had clients come into the office and that was all he needed.
Walking to the fake tree in the corner, Arthur moved it to reveal a button on the floor with a key slot next to it. Arthur steeped on the button on the floor. The back wall silently slid open, revealing a spiral staircase. Arthur pulled the key from his pocket, and inserted it into the keyslot, and turned the key. He had just armed one of the security features he had added. The next time someone pushed the button without unlocking the button would set off an intruder alarm causing the doors to lock and a knockout gas to be delivered via the air ducts. Arthur wasn't taking any chances. Satisfied, he withdrew the key and started down the staircase. It was time to be going.
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