When I met you in the Summer

The lights were blue.

Actually, no. There were no lights. It was a fresh summer morning, and there she was at the bus stop, using her hand to block the sunlight from her eyes while looking frantically in both directions. I found her urgency endearing. I stood there smiling, already knowing that no bus would arrive for the next five minutes. I could have told her, but I preferred to stand there and observe. I think she was late for work. Five minutes passed quickly. She kept glancing at her watch. When the bus finally arrived, she climbed aboard and it sped away.

What was I doing there? Observing her. I am a private investigator. She was my target. She was getting married next month into a wealthy family, and they asked me to dig around. The first thing you do when you want to learn more about someone is shadow them. You get a sense of their routine, and a routine can tell you a lot about a person. Do not hate the player, hate the game.

I had been hired in the past to follow a nanny just to make sure she was not mistreating a child. Parents, families, everyone is paranoid. I simply fill the market gap. The invisible hand of the market forces, hehe. I take all kinds of investigation requests. A woman even hired me to find out how her astrologer knew so much about her. It turned out that the astrologer had hired me earlier to dig into her life. Obviously, I did not tell her that. I told her it was someone else who had investigated her. She confronted the astrologer and cut ties.

I take my clients’ privacy seriously. I burn all my files when a task is done. Just kidding. I have a secret storage place where I keep everything, because you never know.

So why was a wealthy girl taking the bus? It is not like we have great public transport. After shadowing her for a week, I became familiar with her routine. Morning jog in the park, yoga class, an expensive coffee, office, lunch delivered from home, leaving the office at exactly five, gym class, another expensive coffee, and then home. On weekends she met her friends, and they drank expensive coffee together. Out of nowhere she skipped her routine and took a bus ride. The reason turned out to be that she was visiting a psychiatrist. What an anticlimax. I had imagined I would find her involved with the wrong crowd or maybe a crime. I put everything in my report and gave it to the client. It is not my job to make moral judgments. I investigate and present findings. I do not opine. It is not my place.

I do what I am told. I sometimes bend the law, but I have not broken it yet. I am not a risk taker. I am diligent and I make plans. I have contingencies in place. I take half the payment before I start the job and the other half after I submit my report. I make cool reports, with charts and all. Presentation and aesthetics are important. I am basically a glorified consultant.

At one point, an employee from a big four firm hired me to dig up dirt on his colleague so that he could get ahead in the promotion ladder. I did find dirt. Sometimes people want dirt and there is none to find. I cannot manufacture it. So when they get dissatisfied and refuse to pay up, I simply send the report of the person to the person, anonymously, along with the contract showing who hired me. People are strange, but I know how to handle them.

It has been seven years since I started this private investigator gig. I am quite invisible. People rarely notice me. I am also a part-time food delivery guy, which actually helps because delivery guys are invisible too and nobody questions their presence. I am highly rated on all delivery platforms.

I work on one case at a time, although I sometimes juggle things during the preliminary investigation phase. A temple committee also hired me to vet the priest they wanted to employ. I did not have to do much fieldwork because I did a deep dive into his social media, and what I found was not pretty. Some jobs are easy, like vetting. But, as I said, I do not give opinions. I simply present what I find. The decision belongs to the client.

A lady once hired me to find out if her hairdresser was an actual hairdresser. You will not believe what I found. There are places that issue degrees in hairdressing. Her hairdresser was a fake, but that is not even the interesting part. I also investigated a gym trainer because the client wanted to know if he flirted with all his clients. It turned out he was professional with everyone else. I have no idea what happened there. Clients have strange requests, but who am I to judge? I do the work and I get paid.

Anyway, if you have any problems, you can reach out. Maybe I can help.