Double Exposure - Part 2: At Liberty
19 September 1981. 4:35 pm. Columbus, Ohio
Claire Weber just wanted to sit alone and have a drink in the booth at the nearly empty, off-campus dive bar. She was 20 years-old and a Junior at Ohio State. Classes started a few weeks ago and she was already late paying her this semester's tuition. What's even worse, she had no idea when or where she was going to get the money. In another month, she knew that OSU would become more and more diligent in their attempts to collect and Claire wasn't looking forward to it. She figured that she had at the most two more months before they kicked her out of school for non-payment.
Because she wanted to be left alone with her thoughts made her get especially annoyed when the stranger slid into her booth in the seat across from her. "Really?" she said. "The entire bar is fucking empty and you have to sit right there?"
The man simply smiled and then signaled to the bartender. "Barkeep, can I have an Old Fashioned, please? And bring the lady another of whatever she's having."
Claire looked at the man sitting across from her. Even though he was older than her, he was good looking. He was well dressed and impeccably groomed, all signs that he had money. On any other day, she might have flirted with him for some free drinks or a free dinner, but today she wasn't in the mood to play that game. "Listen, buddy, I'm not looking for any company. So just be on your way and your wife won't have to know that you were trolling for young coeds."
Before he could speak, the bartender arrived at their table with the drinks. The mysterious man took them and gave the bartender $10. "Keep it."
"Got to love college bar prices." he said. He slid Claire's beer over to her and then took a sip of his drink. His face scowled a bit. "That would explain why this cost $2." setting down his drink as he did.
"Thanks for the drink, but as I said, I just want to be left alone." she said sternly.
The man continued to look at her, unfazed. "Claire, you came to the attention of a colleague of mine who was on campus recently. This colleague was in town on business but had a night off and visited a local college bar. Now this colleague, being a typical red-blooded American male, decided to try to make acquaintances with a pretty young brunette. This colleague was extremely pleased with himself as he thought the night was going wonderfully. Only after she excused himself to use the restroom, never to return, did he discover that she had been playing him and there was money missing from his wallet."
Claire's stomach dropped when he said her name. "How the hell does he know my name?" she thought. Her eyes darted towards the bartender.
"Claire, don't worry. You're not in trouble. In fact, quite the opposite. I'm extremely impressed with what you did. You see, my colleague is very good at what he does, which includes knowing when people are trying to deceive him. So I am beyond impressed that not only were you able to convince him that you were interested in him, but you were able to take his wallet without him even knowing and you actually returned it without him realizing it either!" the man said, getting more excited. "And here's the thing that impressed me the most. There was quite a bit of money in that wallet, but you only took $40. Just enough that it wouldn't arouse suspicion. If all would have gone to plan, my colleague would have woken up the next morning, hungover, and if he even realized there was money missing, he would have assumed he spent it at the bar. But like I said, my colleague is very good at what he does and details matter to him. He noticed the money missing the moment he figured out that you weren't coming back. When he realized what happened, he found out your information and then relayed it back to me."
"So are you going to call the cops or something? You won't be able to prove anything." Claire said defiantly.
"No, nothing like that. I think we may have gotten off on the wrong foot. I apologize. My name is Elliot Graves, and I am kind of a recruiter of sorts. I'm always on the lookout for people like you. People with your skills and your profile. I might just have an opportunity for you if you are interested." he said.
Claire couldn't believe her ears with the sudden shift in conversation. Any job would be helpful with paying her tuition and keeping her in school. "What's the job?"
"Not so fast. It's not a job per se as it is a type of task. More of a test really. Are you interested in hearing more?" Elliot asked.
"Yeah, I suppose." she replied quietly.
"Good. Now here's the deal. There's a professor here at OSU, a nuclear engineering professor named Steven Gallo. 42 years old. Married. No kids. He mainly just does research for the university, but he does teach a few graduate level classes. Lives in Columbus but spends most of his time on campus. I will be back here at this bar a week from Sunday at this same time. It's up to you how you do it, but I want you to find me any interesting information about Professor Gallo." Elliot explained.
"Well that's a bit vague. What do you consider 'interesting'? That could be anything." she said.
"Well that's part of the test. You have to figure out what might be interesting. And I'll give you a bit of advice, it's not his dry cleaning bill or grocery shopping lists. It's going to be things he doesn't want people to know about." Elliot explained. "On Sunday if the information you bring me is useless, then I'll walk away and this will be just some adventure you tell your friends about for years to come. But - if you bring me something that I think is useful or interesting, then I will pay for this semester and next semester's tuition. And maybe then we can talk about other opportunities."
Claire tried not to show any reaction when she heard the offer, but the fact that she could get her tuition paid for the year would be life-changing for her.
She studied the man's face and contemplated what he was asking. Basically she needed to get some sort of dirt on this professor. She surmised that Elliot was some sort of private detective most likely working for the professor's wife. His wife was probably looking for proof that he was cheating or something. That scenario made sense except for one thing that bugged Claire, Elliot was dressed far too impeccably for a private detective who worked in Columbus, Ohio. But for two semesters of tuition, she really didn't care who Elliot was.
"I'll do it." Claire said with confidence.
"Good. I was hoping that you would." Elliot finally smiled and drank the rest of his Old Fashioned.
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27 September 1981. 6:30 pm. Columbus, Ohio
Claire stretched out at the Quad, ready for a run. She had carefully picked her outfit, loose fitting red Umbro soccer shorts and snug t-shirt from a fraternity dance she went to last year. The outfit was meant to draw the attention from someone without being too obvious about it. She didn't particularly like to jog, but today was different. Today she had to execute a carefully laid plan.
It was Saturday and Claire had spent the entire week observing Professor Steven Gallo. She watched from a distance to determine his routines, she sat in on his lecture to observe his demeanor, she followed him as he walked home one night just to see where he lived. In fact she got so into it, Claire didn't bother attending her classes this week so she could concentrate on Professor Gallo. Now it was Saturday and she was ready to put her plan into motion and that's why she was in the Quad ready to start a run.
Professor Gallo always did a nightly jog, rain or shine. And that jog would always begin and end at the Quad, which was close to his office. His jog always started right around 6:30 pm every night, give or take a few minutes. And like clockwork, she saw him approaching now. Getting ready to begin his stretching before his run.
Professor Steven Gallo was on the youngish side for a professor with tenure, which showed his importance to the university. From what she learned from sitting in on his lecture, Claire knew he was a brilliant man doing important research, although she wasn't quite sure what that was. The obvious guess was that it had something with nuclear energy. He was relatively good looking and often caught the eye of a few of his students in his class which never went unnoticed by him. He used every opportunity to flirt back with them. It was obvious to see that he was a man who was full of himself.
Claire made her way towards the bench that he was using to stretch out on. "Excuse me." she said, interrupting his routine. "Professor Gallo?"
He looked up when he heard the woman's voice and his eyes brightened when he saw the young, beautiful coed. Unconsciously, he began to fidget with his wedding band, wishing that he would have removed it prior to his run. "Yes?" he replied. He ogled the girl in her modest but sexy outfit, obviously she was ready for a run as well. He knew she wasn't one of his students because there's no way he would have ever forgotten a body like that.
"I'm sorry to interrupt your warm-up, but when I saw you here I just had to come up to you" she said, beaming. "My name is Claire Weber and I'm a Junior here, majoring in Chemical Engineering. I happened to catch a lecture you gave on Nuclear Engineering and I was fascinated by it. I am considering pursuing Nuclear Engineering in graduate school and I was wondering if I could pick your brain about it."
"Oh, definitely!" Gallo couldn't contain his excitement. Very rarely did people want to ask him about his expertise away from the classroom and it was never a beautiful coed. "It looks like you're about to run too. Do you want to take a jog together and we can talk and run at the same time?"
"That would be absolutely wonderful! Thank you so much!" Claire touched his arm as she responded, sending chills through Gallo. "Let me just tighten my laces and I'll be ready to go." Claire then bent over, her nylon Umbro shorts stretching taunt over her buttocks. Gallo stared hungrily as she was bent over in front of him.
"Ok, I'm ready! Let's go!" Claire said and began to jog. Gallo couldn't believe his luck and quickly followed her. Watching her breasts gently bounce as she ran.
