Tt Spalding - Espionage

The further adventures of TT Spalding, PI This is just for fun as usual. I hope you enjoy reading as much as I enjoy writing it.

Edited as always by Angel Love. My thanks to her

TT Spalding, PI – The Industrial Espionage Case.

After sitting here for the last three hours, racking my brain, trying to find a beginning worthy of my idol Mickey Spillane, I finally had the beginnings of an idea. Since his untimely passing, my literary clock had begun ticking. I felt it my duty to Mickey to write the all American PI novel. I would draw from my extensive experience as a fearless, intrepid private dick. My worldly knowledge would be my guide. I picked up my pen, (Well actually, it was a computer but what the hell. I know, I know, Mickey didn't use a computer!)

He reached back and turned up the collar of his black trench coat to block the dripping water running down his neck. It was this damned mist, absorbing the sound and making the night as silent as a tomb. But it was good for him as he leaned against the coarse, wet bark of the tree next to him. It hid him from the house as he stayed just back out of view. He was waiting for her to come out, knowing that she was going to meet her lover tonight.

Her lover! He was number two in the local mob, controlling the numbers and the hookers for Don Giovanni, the top man. Normally that was a good thing to be unless the woman you were sleeping with was the wife of the Don. And Don Giovanni had found out about it. He was there tonight waiting for her in place of her lover, no longer number two and no longer anything. When I called to let him know she was on her way, my job would be done and my bank account would be a lot fatter. Her bank account would be stamped closed. But that wasn't my problem. She knew the risks! She knew what the score was. Shit!

I had to do something! I couldn't let her be killed for loving the wrong man. I knew then that I had fallen for this dame. I had fallen hard and there was no hope for me now.

Not too bad, but it lacked something. I needed to punch it up some. Maybe if I read one of Mickey's novels it would help. I needed inspiration and Mike Hammer was the one to provide it. Yeah, that would do it. I could pull out my copy of

Black Alley

, or even

The Killing Man

to stoke up my imagination. Maybe I could knock off early and . . .

Slam! The door to my inner sanctum, my office, my writing den, flew open!

"Theodore, get your ass in gear! There's a gentleman here to see you. I'll give you a minute and then show him in."

I was about to tell her to go the hell away when . . . , "And don't you even bother to give me that crap! I know that look!"

Trapped! Hoisted by my own petard! (Wonder what the hell that means, anyway?)

"All right, all right! I'll be ready. God, give a guy a break why can't you?"

"What did you call the last three weeks in Hawaii? Work? You don't need a break but we need the money."

That was Maggie, my wife and part time secretary and the only living soul that could call me Theodore and live. She was the boss, that's for sure. And she was right. We had spent the last three weeks in Hawaii, and it had been great. I got more loving and more sex than I ever dreamed and we were both fat, happy and sated by the time we had to leave. Good vacation! Good company! Good everything!

I saved my new document, my novel, to disk and sat back waiting for my new client. I had no information on this one, since he hadn't come in before. Since we were on vacation, the office was closed so this would be the first sit down. Yeah, Maggie was right. We needed the money, especially since she had presented me with an anniversary gift, a first edition copy of

My Gun is Quick

, the first Mike Hammer novel and my most prized possession. God, I loved that woman! Always had and always would.

The door opened and Maggie showed him in.

Tall, coal black hair, combed back tight against his skull and gleaming with the liberal application of tonic. Looked to be mid forties, or maybe older. Sharp features, the face of a man used to giving orders. He wouldn't be good at taking them or of having them ignored. Dangerous, but with an air of vulnerability about him

.

I snapped back to reality and stood, waiting.

Maggie glared at me to be sure I was ready and introduced him. "This is Mr. Raymond Villager. He wants to discuss some business with us. Mr. Villager, this is TT Spalding."

"How do you do Mr. Villager. Welcome and please, have a seat." I indicated the softer of the two chairs in my spartan office.

"Thank you. Please call me Ray if you will. Mr. Villager sounds so tight, so formal. I'm just a plain guy." He sat down slowly, looking for all the world like he would rather be anywhere else than here. Interesting!

"And you can call me TT, Ray. Let's get some facts first and see what we can do for each other. OK with you?"

He nodded affirmatively but didn't relax in the chair. He was perched, the best word I could come up with, on the edge of the chair with his legs tight together and his hands clasped on his knees. Not what I expected when I first saw him. Of course, I saw him through Mike's eyes and they were biased.

"First, I need to know what it is you want from us. We do many things but we need to decide first if we can even help you. Why don't you start from the beginning? OK with you?"

He nodded again and seemed to withdraw into himself for a moment while he tried to come up with the words he was having trouble saying. I thought probably he was going to be one of those domestic problem guys with a cheating wife and my heart sort of stumbled. I was really tired of those: sad, broken men who couldn't believe that the love of their life didn't feel the same way. I had seen it all and it saddened me.

"I own and operate my own company. It's called, '411, Inc.' and we control access to, or provide the source of, information. Information of all kinds. We're sort of a know-all, see-all outfit. If there's something you need to know, we find it out. If there's something you want to sell, information wise, we sell it. We do it all."

"And this is a profitable endeavor? I mean, you make a living doing that?"

"A very good living. I grossed more than seven million last year and this year, so far, looks much better. I have twenty employees and we provide services to more than two hundred companies. I travel a lot and spend a lot to time out of the office."

Better and better. Maybe this was my meat and potatoes problem: industrial espionage. I loved this stuff. People trying to steal secrets from one company to sell to another. This was the stuff of profits: mine!

"And what seems to be the problem? It sounds like things are going well."

"Yes and no. I'm still doing well and profits are up, but recently, we have been underbid by several other companies that aren't half as good as we are and they couldn't offer the services we do but they are able to come up with a program proposal equal to or better than I can provide at least for the presentation."

This came out in a rush and seemed to be confusing. If they were smaller and not able to provide the services, how could they promise them? I asked Ray this question.

'If they get the job, they can afford to hire the people temporarily to do the job. Probably not as well or as complete but by that time, they're already hired. I'm shut out. The thing is there is no way they could know what I proposed or how much I was changing for that service. But their bid is always exactly 5% less than mine. On a $100,000 job, that's a difference of $5,000, usually enough to get the job."

Now I saw. Someone was stealing the information of the bidding and using it to provide a lower bid with the same services. Someone was ripping him off and had done it enough that Ray was now noticing. I get it! Great! My cup of tea. I knew what I could do for him now.

"I see the problem. You want to know who's feeding your competition information on the job bidding process. Right?"

"Exactly! I need to close the leak and I need to do it soon. There are a lot of people counting on me and I don't want to let them down. I'm good at ideas, information and the ways it can do things, but I'm out of my depth here. Can you help?"

"We can help and we can close the leak. We work on a simple contract basis. I'll need $5,000 up front, permission to place two employees in your offices and permission to install camera or phone taps as I see fit. I'll provide you with the locations of all cameras and taps. We work on a flat fee basis. Once we begin, I'll provide weekly reports and if you are satisfied with the progress, you will pay us an additional $5,000 per week. Once we complete the job, and the leak is identified and stopped, our business will be concluded and there is a fee of $10,000 at the completion. If these terms are satisfactory, I'll have Maggie draw up the contract and we can begin."

Mr. Villager didn't give it much thought before standing up and putting out his hand. "We have a deal. Thank you, very much, for helping. I look forward to stopping this as soon as possible."

"Excellent. Normally, we can wrap everything up in just a few short weeks. Shouldn't be too hard in this case."

I yelled for Maggie and she was in the door before the echoes stopped. She was probably listening at the door. Maggie was a greedy little minx. But, she was my little minx so that was OK.

"Maggie, would you take care of the details with Mr. Villager?" Since she was snooping, I didn't even have to give her the terms. She smiled at me, a smile that promised good things later and showed him out. She would take it from here.

I considered giving my all American novel another try but decided to let it go today and let the creative juices stew overnight. Even Mickey had dry spells. It was seven years between the last two Mike Hammer novels. So there!

When Maggie came back in, we discussed the case and decided to call both Polly and Bruno in on this one. I wanted Bruno to go in as a security guard while Polly could go into the mail room or as a temp secretary. Maggie agreed and left me to make the calls. She had the contracts to finish typing so we could review and finish them up. I wanted Ray in for one more consult before we began.

I called Polly first. I told her the job and that she would need to be free for the next couple of weeks. She said that would be fine as her photo work was slow this time of year. She was actually happy to get the cash so we made plans to meet end of week.

I called Bruno and talked to him and had a little trouble convincing him to give up his freedom for the time I would need him. I had never really understood where Bruno got the money to let him do pretty much as he pleased. He never volunteered the info and I never felt the need to ask. But, he finally agreed and we negotiated a price that was fair to both of us.

When Maggie came in after closing the office for the night, she had a smile on her face. She had finished the contracts and had done some Maggie type calculations. She must have liked what she saw because she plopped herself down on my lap and nuzzled my neck, raising my blood pressure and my temperature.

"Well, well, what has you feeling so amorous tonight? Not that I'm complaining you know. Just wanted to know what I did to make you this happy."

"I just went over the numbers for Mr. Villager and if we play our cards right, we can net out a little more than $30,000 on this deal as a minimum. If you string it out a little, could be more. That's what you did right, lover."

"Well, all it takes with you is money, huh? Didn't know you were that easy. I can always find money."

"You don't need money lover. I'm yours for free, but you can always get me hot by showing me the dollar signs. I do like money."

Now, you have to understand that Maggie and I had never been rich. We made a good living with the PI business, but we spent pretty much what we made. Neither of us was much for saving for the future. With no kids, we had nothing to save for except our own retirement and neither of us was in that big a rush to get there. So, we didn't think about it.

Maggie and I left for home and I am glad to report that I indeed did get lucky that night with promises for more if things continued this way. I arrived at the office the next day for my meeting with Ray in great good spirits and even Maggie was in a good frame of mind. She was still smiling when she showed Ray in later that morning.

"Ray, thanks for coming. The paperwork is all complete and waiting only for your signature. I've talked with two of my associates and I would like to send them in to see you tomorrow. The gentleman's name is Bruno Morelli and I was thinking security for him. That would give him access to the whole place without arousing suspicion. The lady's name is Polly Purcell and maybe either the mailroom or as a temp secretary. She's not too good as a typist so, it's up to you. Either way, I'd like them to start right away."

Ray blinked in surprise before he nodded. "I'm surprised that you can get to it so quickly. That's wonderful news. I think what you suggest can be arranged. I'll talk to my wife today and let her know."

"Pardon me Ray, but does your wife work with you? Is she one of the employees?"

He had a little frown on his face as he considered this. Somehow, I knew things were not simple in that regard.

"Yes, she is. We've been married for just more than two years and she works as the office manager. It's not a full time job and she is not there most of the time. She fills in when I travel."

"Does she know that you've been to see me? Does she know that you are concerned enough to ask for help?"

"Actually, no. I was going to tell her after we made it official. Why?"

"I'd rather you not tell her. Just to be on the safe side, and to be sure there are no accidental leaks. It's not that she's a suspect, of course, Just trying to minimize the number of people that could let it slip. Is that OK? I'll talk to her later to let her know this was my idea."

It was clear Ray didn't like it but he was a smart businessman and knew the risks increased as the number of people involved increased. So he finally agreed, shook hands and went out to sign the paperwork and drop off the certified check for five grand. That would also keep Maggie in a good mood, and increase my chances for a little afternoon delight in the stock room.

"What time are Polly and Bruno coming in? I assume you called them for today?" Molly asked me after Ray left.

"They'll be here in about an hour or so. Why? What'd you have in mind?"

"Come with me, young man. I need some help in the stockroom."

God bless the stock room. As I know I've told you, some of the stuff we look at is very erotic and downright nasty and it always makes me horny and Maggie hot. We've stocked some really hot stuff in that stockroom. Today was no exception. Maggie was humming something about shopping for the world as she leaned over the table. That was almost enough to dim my fire, but not quite. Have you ever seen Maggie?

We met with Polly and Bruno and set them up with their fake IDs and sent them off to see Ray Villager bright and early tomorrow. They were smart kids and knew exactly what to do. We discussed the cameras and voice activated recorders and agreed on what and where. Ray had given me the blueprints to his building so we had what we needed.

Just before they left, I let Maggie go out to begin shutting down the office while I talked to both of them.

"There's something I want you to watch for. There's a new wife in this deal and something just doesn't sit right with me. He travels a lot and she fills in for him. She also heads up the office, so be careful. But check her out good, you understand?"

Grins from both before they left. They were smart, like I said. They would do the job. After all, it was worth $750 a week for them, three weeks guaranteed, considerably more than the $800 per job with the domestic crap. They took off with promises to follow up with me in two weeks. We were in business.

Maggie and I used the time to get things straightened up around the office. We had made a nice profit in the period just before our vacation and we went ahead and bought some of the new stuff we wanted for the office. New computers with a total office network was top of the list. Since Polly was working, I had to try to set up the computers by myself and that was a disaster.

After a couple of days of embarrassing failure on my part, Maggie finally called for help and this young prick from something called 'Network Nerds' showed up. He was indeed a nerd but Maggie thought he was 'cute' and made a big fuss about showing him around. I left them to it, Maggie giggling like a schoolgirl, while I went back to my Great American Novel. I could use the old desktop for that. I fired it up and began.

An hour later, I was still staring at the blinking cursor on the screen and becoming aware of the silence from the office in front. I knew there should have been something happening out there and the silence made me nervous. I got up, went out to see what was up and found no one. The office was empty and the computer equipment was sitting there, seemingly deserted and still not connected and working. There were computer tools, computer repair equipment but no computer repair guy and no Maggie! No! No! Not my Maggie!

I stood there partly in shock until I heard some sounds coming from the stockroom. The stockroom? God, not my Maggie and the repair guy! In our stockroom? In panic, my heart in my throat, I ran out the door, around the corner and into the stockroom, prepared to defend my honor and kill someone. The door flew back against the wall and there, in front of me and in full view was Maggie, holding a flashlight for the computer nerd who was up on a ladder drilling a hole in the wall. Maggie turned at the sound and, looking at me with this big innocent face, slowly began to smile.

"Hi, dear. Come to help? Expecting something else, hum?"

Shit! How could I have been so stupid. I knew my Maggie and I knew she would never do me wrong, but I was so lost in my creative juices that I put two and two together and got five. I would never live this down now. I could tell by the look on her face. I was doomed!

"No, no, just curious. Why in here?" I asked the computer guy, trying to recover as much of my self respect as I could. Hopeless, knowing Maggie, but I had to try.

He explained the stockroom backed on both my office and the outer office and he had to run some wires so this was as good a place as any. And, he said, Maggie suggested it so as not to disturb me. Hah! Fat chance. I was set up, no doubt about it. She set me up!

I won't go into it any more but know, fearless reader, that I paid dearly for that little gambit of hers and she enjoyed every minute of it. Well, actually it did lead to some very nice fantasies.

Two weeks and three days after Polly and Bruno started, they come into my office with information. They had confirmed their suspicions with each other and were quite sure they had it nailed. But, they wanted to clear it with me before they went any further. I had decided to wait to tell Maggie and asked them to meet me one afternoon when she was out on an errand. Sneaky but she deserved it after that stockroom stunt.

Polly looked at Bruno and he nodded, so she began.

"Well boss, we think we have the guy guilty of stealing the secrets but it's more than that. There are two of them and it's pretty much what you thought. Do you want to hear about it now, or wait till we have the PICS and discs?"

"Get the pictures, proof positive of the theft and the two of them together and then let's talk further. What do you need? Another week or two?"