06 – Event

I hadn’t actually seen her in a few days.  She was on summer break so there was no school to bring her out of the house, and it had been raining, so this meant no walks or reading on the deck outside.  It had been a long and incredibly boring summer.  We all agreed that she needed to get some friends and a life…yesterday.  

But now something was up.  She was standing outside in the sun on her front porch.  It was about eleven-thirty.  This was totally off the script for her.  I actually had to do a double-take to make sure it was her.  But I had seen both her parents leave earlier, so by process of elimination, who did that leave?

She literally looked like a Barbie doll.  A shorter, paler version, I guess, but a Barbie for sure.  She had on a pink sundress with matching high heels and, I couldn’t believe it, but there it was:  a hat of all things!  A matching hat!  She had her hair arranged in a thick blonde rope down her back.  It even looked like she might be wearing makeup.  It was the most put together, most appealing I’d ever seen her look.  But that was nothing.  Stunning my mind, making me question her identity again, was the crowning accessory:  a happy little smile on her precious little face!  

So that’s what it looks like, I marveled.  In all this time I had never seen it for myself.  It was a huge relief to know it was possible.  And it was far more beautiful than I had imagined it would be. 

Over the course of the spring and into summer it had become very clear that our little mark was suffering from depression.  It made me feel so sad for her.  She was young and remarkably attractive.  What in the world could be crushing her spirit? 

Her parents (even her step-father) seemed to adore her.   There was no indication of turmoil in her life.  The best I could recon was that something had happened just prior to our being brought in, and part of what we were watching was the aftermath of something very damaging, something we would be involved in preventing from recurrence.  But what?

I would love a recurrence of the scene playing out before me now.  It was surprising how good it made me feel to see her smile.  I grabbed for the camera.  If I didn’t get a picture of this, I’d regret it forever, and nobody would believe me regardless. 

After I’d snapped off some evidence, which I was very pleased with and briefly considered not sharing after all, I was about to call it in when a taxi pulled into the driveway.  I should have been expecting that, I guess.  I said a choice word, hit a speed dial button on my phone and ran for my car all at the same time.

Ray picked up on the second ring. 

“What’s up?”

“She’s on the move…she just got into a cab,” I hurriedly explained.  “I’m trailing now.  I’ll check back when I get a feel for their direction.  And…she’s all dressed up.  You might want to put on a suit,” I suggested. 

There was a brief pause.

“What do you mean by dressed up?” he questioned, a trace of humor in his voice.

I gave a complete description and he laughed out loud. 

“Did you get a picture?” he asked, hopefully.

“Of course.  That’s why you pay me the big bucks,” I countered, with a little more edge than I had intended.

“Alright, I’m going to go change.  Call me when you can tell me where to head.”

I disconnected and put the phone down on the passenger seat.

It felt idiotic to be so keyed up over this.  For all I knew she was just heading over to have her senior pictures taken.  In a hat?  Not likely.  Maybe she was going to the Derby?  She definitely looked like she’d fit in there.  But they had run for the roses back in May, and there was no way she’d pick up out of the blue to go lay some money down on the ponies at the track.  

The more I thought about it, though, the more it seemed like the key was in the outfit.  It looked too grown up for her; like she wanted to look older than she was…at eleven-thirty in the morning on a Wednesday.  Why?

Was I so tense because I thought she might be going on a date?  Probably.  Was I going to have to make some kind of ‘subtle maneuver’ to fend off whoever he was? Probably.  But if it made her so happy, could I bear to do that?  Probably…not. 

How about I just get a hold of myself and see where she goes, I chastised myself.

She was so short that I couldn’t see her in the back of the taxi from behind, sort of like she was a little girl.  Well, size wise, little in the elementary school sense of the word. 

Ugh!  No, instead, the object of my obsession was little in the still in high school sense of the word. 

I hated myself for being so attracted to her.  It had come on slowly over the course of several months, while catching glimpses of her meek and gentle personality, and wondering about the imaginary rain cloud that shadowed her every move.  Curiosity turned to compassion, which turned into affection, which began building in intensity until now, especially in this ridiculous panic, I couldn’t deny it. 

She was far too young to pursue romantically. And as our mark she was completely off limits, no matter what her age.  But she was also the most adorable, sweet natured, shy and unpretentious…stop it.  STOP IT! 

Was I going to have to take myself off the job so that I could kidnap her and marry her?  Or would it be more advantageous to be on the job when I pulled that off?  Stop, stop, STOP IT!

I needed to not be a perv and a freak because she deserved better than that.  I wanted her to deserve me, or really, I wanted to deserve her.  Thing is, I was pretty sure I was going to get what I deserved…in the end…and I was also pretty sure it wouldn’t be her.  It would probably be jail time or a well placed bullet, probably from my best friend. 

The taxi made for the highway, heading, west, maybe downtown.  I called Ray and let him know.  After fifteen minutes heading west on I-64, they took the Ninth Street exit and turned left on Broadway.  The taxi pulled over in the five hundred block and let her out.  She looked around, getting her bearings.  Then she walked in through the revolving door of the high-rise building on the corner.  I pulled over into a spot that had just opened up.  It was a perfect vantage point.  I’d be able to watch her come back out again, hopefully.  A raised sign across the brick facing read “The Bank of Louisville.”

Had she come all the way downtown to make a deposit in her Student Savers Club account?  Not likely.  Though she had turned eighteen recently.  And she was dressed up, trying to look…grown up or, perhaps, legal?  That was it.  Now it made sense.

She was here at the main branch of this local financial institution to find out about an inheritance or something like that.  It was obvious now that she wasn’t here for a romantic rendezvous.  My unease evaporated and I settled in.  Ray would arrive in about seven minutes and once he did, I’d give up the parking spot to him and find a different vantage point.  My shift was supposed to be over at noon, but I’d see this through and then afterwards I’d head over to the sporting goods shop as planned, hopefully with Ray, if there were no issues here.

Ray drove up in his BMW SUV.  I pulled away and he pulled in behind me. 

Stepping out and locking up, Ray made his way into the bank.  He looked like a million bucks.  It was easy to tell that Lidia oversaw his wardrobe now.  His suit was tailored, and Italian. 

He didn’t say what his plan was, but I had a feeling that the Bank of Louisville was about to welcome a new customer; probably one interested in learning more about trust administration…