Chapter 2 Fancy boots

It is funny how a well fed antelope like Jim as he so often considered himself found himself in such a situation as that. Jim Mowe was a private detective, or at least he considered himself one. He hadn't caught a fly as far back as the record books went; as a matter of fact if he was being entirely honest with himself, a cold was the only thing Jim was pretty good at catching.

A private dick, fancy boot or some other of the numerous funny names people called him, made sitting in an office and occasionally being bleached by the sun all the worthwhile.

Jim was a funny guy as people would testify and he loved funny names so he didn't mind being called fancy boot, so long as he got paid then he was good. He grew up in Ember lands, finished his primary and secondary education before going aboard to study criminology.

Jim's hope at that time was to get a job overseas as a cop. Growing up he had read a lot of Sherlock Holmes stories and all so he figured out it was pretty easy. Grow up, study, get a job as a cop and start throwing bad guys around like a petulant young millionaire throwing money around in a club.

LHe grew up and he studied but that is as far as he came; no job, no superman cape and no bad guys to throw around, so that said so much about "Hope".

These days if you told Jim you hoped to do something, he did just yell insults at you and that's when he was in a good mood. It took him five hard and long years to study, for four years Jim read and read; from philosophy to physiology and psychology of the criminal mind, till he began to feel it would have been easier to have become a criminal instead.

In his fifth year he moved on to more serious things and graduated before he knew what was happening. He had tried severally to get a job and failed so he did the only reasonable thing to do; he came down back to Ember lands and set up an agency called "Private services". Ever since then, It had been rough sailing for him.

Private services didn't exactly convene the right message across. Jim got calls from old women looking for their lost pets, gossiping housewives who were too lazy to pick up the kid from school. At first he had brushed off those silly calls with detailed explanation of the kind of services he rendered but it soon dawned on him that no one was paying any attention and his bills were stacking up, so occasionally he got to do the odd as long as he got paid.

He took great pains to ensure that he didn't do a lot of them either as he wasn't prepared to give people the wrong idea of what he did but all the same he consoled himself that a guy of his reputation which is akin to an armature soprano singer trying to hit a high pitch of a Whitney Houston classic could afford to do the odd jobs once in a while, after all bills don't settle themselves. He desperately waited for the spotlight that would set him up nicely for limelight.

One of those funny odd jobs that still stuck to his mind the way the smell of alcohol sticks to the breath of a drunkard, was when a very young man in this early twenties and obviously from a wealthy background came running to Jim for help. He spoke rapidly and after the first rush of excitement had cooled off and his hormone levels were back to near normal, Jim finally got a wind of what he was croaking about.

Long story short, he had lost his shoe and needed Jim to find it! Jim had turned him around and sent him parking. His shoe was just outside his office lying close to the waste bin. That was when Jim realized that the man was probably high on some substance.

The police force weren't entirely friendly to Jim either. Private dick eh? The police chief had said. His name was Barns and Jim had heard about him. He was not short but wasn't tall either somewhere in-between, had a bald head that would have made an egg jealous and a moustache that when you came close enough looked like a young carpterpillar.

He had an air of authority around him and had cops scurrying about whenever he barked orders. Jim had a feeling Barns won't be seeing fifty again.

"Punks like you always go around thinking they can save the world", Barns had told him the first time they had met.

"But I'll tell you something, the world doesn't need saving and is better off without slumbags like you. Better watch out, one wrong turn and I will clamp down on you so hard you will think the pyramid of Egypt was dropped on your neck".

Nice reception Jim thought and made a mental note to involve the police when necessary. He was just starting out and couldn't risk being on the wrong foot with the police, at least not with a man like Barns, who he was sure would relish an opportunity of getting him in a pan.

"So much for a well fed antelope", Jim had muttered as he left the station that morning "everyone would want to get a bite out of you".

It was while Jim was leaving the station that he had stumbled into Eddy. He didn't know him at that time but once they had exchanged pleasantries and Eddy got to know Jim was looking for a place he could rent, he had taken Jim to the office block and showed him the office. It was nice, nothing fancy so Jim took it and paid him right there and then.

The office building was sandwiched between a boutique and an abandoned warehouse. The ground floors were occupied by petty traders, while the first floor was occupied by the dentist shop, the spa and the "other shop". Jim's office was the only used room on the second floor. He preferred it that way as he could easily tell when someone was headed to his office and he could prepare himself.

The only real piece of furniture was the seat which he had spent a fortune acquiring. Away at the far corner was a large cabinet where Jim kept client's files and newspaper clippings which always came in handy. He also stashed some stationery, a can of soda water and some other important stuff in there. The walls were painted white and were covered in pictures of flowers, guns and men in fedora hats and black overalls.

Then also there was the seat in which Eddy sat in which was for visitors. It wasn't exactly vintage stuff but was accommodating enough provided you didn't sit long enough. The overall effect was like walking into a knife throwing act at a circus, you would be horrified at first but would begin to calm down and might even manage a chuckle once you began to get the idea.

Jim looked up just in time and glanced at Eddy as he strode out of the office, he knew if he was to have any chance of keeping this dump as an office, he needed something real to come his way and fast.

Jim stared hopefully at the picture of the man in black overalls on the wall for a few seconds at if expecting him to materialize and then he looked away in disgust and spat into a corner. He just didn't believe in hope.