《Enticing E-Girl Ephemera》


 chapter 1

    James waited in his office behind his desk for his new client. He checked his watch, then checked his phone. "Must be the kind of man to be exactly on time" he thought to himself and moved over to the window opening it slightly. He then pulled out a case that was supposed to look silver but was clearly cheap sheet steel and opened it revealing the hand rolled, filterless cigarettes inside. He took one from the case and then closed it so he could tap the sweet roll of tobacco twice on it as was his tradition. Afterwards he pulled out his lighter, put the stick in his mouth and lit it. Slowly he drew the smoke into his mouth and then into his lungs savory the taste of the custom tobacco mix he got from a local shop. The nicotine entered his bloodstream from his lungs and mouth and calmed and focused his mind. He looked out his office window as he smoked watching the people below.


    "It''s a lot less busy these days on the street." He thought as he remembered how crowded it was, before the recent acceleration to the inevitable work from home instead of the office. "Change keeps coming and it is hard to keep up with it." His phone in his pocket buzzed. He pulled it out and took a look.


    "It better not be you. I am getting texts about smoking by a window." The text read.


    "Of course people are complaining, no one can mind their own business these days." He thought as he texted his landlord for his office back a message saying "of course it isn''t me." The fact that the office he was in was owned by someone locally and not a big property management company was a happy anachronism for him. He felt slightly guilty for the lie, justifying it with a ¡°right now the office isn¡¯t open to the public and the window is open.¡± A knock intruded upon his thoughts and brought him back to the current situation. He grabbed his portable ashtray and put the rest of the cigarette in it and closed the window.


    ¡° It''s open,¡± he said, coughing slightly and making his way over to the door to greet his potential client.


    A man opened the door, his build was slight and his posture was not great as if he sat in front of a screen for long periods of time. He unsuringly asked ¡°is this the office of detective James?¡±


    ¡°Yes, that is me. You are Wallace right? You have a missing person you want me to investigate, at least that is what your email stated.¡± He looked the man in the eyes first then began trying to observe his mannerisms and his appearance in detail. He wore a clean polo that was not loud in color tucked into his slack with a belt. He was not ugly, nor was he handsome, ¡°Just an average white collar guy trying to make a living¡± James thought, then spoke ¡°Your email sounded like the situation you want to look into is very dire, I normally do insurance claims and cheating wives, work for civil attorney¡¯s basically.¡±


    ¡°I know but like I replied back in my email I don¡¯t know where else to go other than the private sector for help. The cops don¡¯t think there is an issue but I know something is off.¡± He looked down at his hands seemingly unsure of what to do with them. ¡° I will pay, I just want to make sure everything is ok.¡±


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    James cracked a grin. ¡°Well, it¡¯s not like me to turn down a paying customer, please have a seat and give me the whole story. I just want to be upfront with you no matter what it is 200$ a day and that does not include any expenses, any expenses will also be billed to you and I will need a week upfront if solved sooner you will be reimbursed if not once a week has gone by we will discuss further what needs to be done. I will give you updates as I learn or discover anything."He took out a tablet from his desk drawer that had all the legalese down and showed it to him. ¡°I will just need some signatures on here and we will be good to go and you can proceed with telling me everything.¡±


    The man signed the tablet and entered his payment information for the down payment. His shoulders slumped after he signed the paperwork and his head sagged down.


    ¡°So you want me to look into a missing person? That the police don''t think it''s missing. And then you have no direct relationship with that, correct?¡±


    The man said ¡°Well, It''s incorrect to say that I have no connection to her. I am one of her biggest donors and it worries me that she has not streamed in a while, normally she streams on a very set schedule and she hasn''t and I did some private sleuthing at least what I could on my own. Using some of my knowledge that I have acquired in the IT world and from what I can tell, she''s just been completely silent with no word of warning to anybody for the past week and I''m extremely worried.


    ¡°Well, I guess I can look at it. I need to know her name and her address.¡± James said this and was curious how far this man had gone into his sleuthing. If he had delved into an area that could be considered stalking he would have other questions to ask, and eventually, if the girl was missing, so would the police.  ¡°I don¡¯t mean her online name, I mean her real name and where she lives in the city, stuff like that. Also, what did the cops say when you talked to them?¡±


    ¡°They said that a family member or someone personally involved will have to report it or no one will support it.  I didn''t tell them this, however I will give you what I found.¡± he pulled out his phone and sent an email with attachments. James looked at them on his phone, names, addresses of her family her and her boyfriend is what he saw. ¡°I looked up information through her Facebook account. And apparently she has had some issues with her boyfriend. I''m worried that¡¯s what made me get in touch with you.


    "You aren''t stalking this girl are you?" James asked with his piercing blue eyes stared into the eyes of the man across from him.


    "No I am not, I swear look I know her streaming schedule, she never misses without some notification and there wasn¡¯t one so i was worried¡­¡± He started babbling about excuses about how and why he got the information he had so far. James could tell that while he was obsessed he wasn¡¯t harmfully so. He pulled out a card from his desk drawer and the explanations stopped.


    ¡°If she is missing and the police start looking into this you will be pulled in for questioning and as a probable suspect.¡± his client started to say something ¡°Don¡¯t talk yet just listen, here is a card for a lawyer I have done work for, if or when this happens do not talk to the police or say anything other than ¡®I evoke my right to an attorney and my right to remain silent¡¯ and don¡¯t do anything till your lawyer comes in alright?¡± James looked at the man and he shook his head in compliance. ¡°Alright I will go ahead and start working on the information you have gathered so far, I will update you when I have any news.¡± He led his client to the door and then picked up his things to leave the office and start investigating.

 chapter 2

    James opens up his laptop at his table and pulls out a small cigarillo. He lights it and then proceeds to start pursuing through the information that Wallace file shared with him. He pulls out a small notepad and starts taking notes on her current address, boyfriend''s place, and the streaming and video sites she uploaded to. He pulls up her channel and proceeds to peruse through the video titles and thumbnails.


    ¡°Hey James, what can I get for you? The usual?¡± Frank the bartender/owner of the cigar lounge asks as he approaches the table. James feels him look over his shoulder ¡°Oh I never figured you for one to watch streamers¡± he huffs and then he proceeds to pull out a cigar holder from his front jacket pocket. He pulls out a cigar, takes out a variety of cutters, and punches from around his neck and proceeds to use a punch to make a hole on the end of the cigar. James observes it is a darkly wrapped cigar, most likely a Maduro. Frank then prelights it then proceeds to put it in his mouth then takes a pull on the cigar letting the smoke enter his mouth as he fully lights it and then goes back to looking at James.


    ¡°Normally not my cup of tea,¡± James responds while looking at Frank ¡°however this is for a case I just picked up. No alcohol right now but a couple of sliders and a Kristoff would do nicely.¡± He dispassionately retorts. Then he begins to wonder. ¡°What is the likelihood of Frank being into this kind of entertainment? He does have long periods of time where he has to kill time and probably listens or watches stuff in the background, maybe Frank is more familiar with this stuff than he is. James then looks at Frank and curiously quips ¡°you watch this stuff Frank? I could use a little insight if you do.¡±


    ¡°Oh watch some streamers, but only ones that are basically video podcasts.¡± Frank then takes another puff of his cigar ¡°Mostly because I can¡¯t always watch them. I find it helps occupy my mind when I am doing work that doesn¡¯t require a lot of thinking. Not much of a fan of video game streamers, I enjoy video games but I would rather play than watch someone else play.¡± He then starts to walk back to the kitchen, ¡°I will get that order put in and grab your cigar¡±


    ¡°Thanks Frank.¡± James then keeps scrolling through the videos looking at titles of the streams and descriptions if there were any. In many of the videos Alaina was wearing a tank top with eyeliner, a common look back in the day for those who were in the ¡°punk¡± or ¡°alternative¡± communities, which did show off her attractive features without going into slutty territory or gorgeous territory. Which, he surmised, means that while she may have chosen these clothes for comfort as a secondary characteristic she more than likely chose them for the exact purpose to look good without looking like she was trying to look good. ¡°That¡¯s a good marketing tactic¡± he thought ¡°you can always claiming you wear what you wear because it¡¯s comfortable when someone tries to shame or critique you, clever¡±


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    While he pondered on this fact he clicked on a video from several months ago when her streaming topics begun to change. The weird thing was,he noticed,as he went from her older videos to her present ones she slowly started to change her topics from video game let¡¯s plays to things talking about society and culture. He went through watching a clip here or there and while he was skeptical, about anyone in entertainment actually meaning what they are saying, she seemed fairly sincere. Then he happened upon one describing her breakup with her boyfriend over what each wanted in a relationship. He made a note of this in his notebook as Frank brought him the cigar and two sliders with fries.


    ¡°Frank, would you kill your ex if she left because she wanted to stop sleeping around with you and get married and you didn¡¯t want to?¡±


    He paused thinking on the question for a moment, ¡°That would be an extremely petty reason to kill someone,¡± setting down the food he continued talking after taking another puff of his cigar ¡°I wouldn¡¯t but people do stupid things all the time. Do you think that¡¯s what happened?¡±


    James shrugged his shoulders, ¡°I am not sure, I will have to talk to her ex eventually. I doubt it, but it is so far the only thing I can think of so far. Maybe I¡¯ll figure out something when I talk with him, but her parents live here and will be easier to talk to them first. Now, according to her change in scenery in her streams and what she said online my client believes she moved back in with them and he did a decent amount of¡­¡± James expressed a bit of a pause to think of the best words to use for what his client did, ¡°due diligence.¡±


    ¡°So he stalked her?¡±


    ¡°One way to say it Frank and that was my feeling as well when he told me all this and his excuse leaves a lot to be desired. But, if she is missing then it''s free legwork for me. He, in person, seemed very¡­ inoffensive but I can see how his actions could be seen by a prosecutor and police as evidence he did it so I gave him Larry¡¯s card.¡±


    ¡°Larry deals with civil cases, I thought.¡± Frank then started to use a punch on the cigar, gave it a prelight then handed it to James. James took the cigar then started puffing as Frank lit it. The smoke entered his mouth giving off earthy tones and hints of vanilla.


    ¡°Yes, but he is better than nothing and he is a good first call if the cops start hassling him. Anyway thanks for the food, won¡¯t be here too much longer.¡± James replied as the smoke came out of his mouth. He then blew some smoke rings as he contemplated the situation. James then pulled out his business card and handed it to Frank. ¡°Thanks for the ear and food frank, it sucks how hard it is to find a place to smoke and eat these days.¡± James then returned to looking through the computer watching the streams and rereading the data his client sent looking for anything better to jump out at him. Frank, seeing that James got engrossed again into his work nodded his head and took the card and went back to the bar as James sat and thought about where this case may lead him.