None other than her target, Evan Closs

Jessica sat in the hotel restaurant. $50 slid discreetly to the hostess when she was being seated got her into a nice corner booth in the shadows, that also provided an unobstructed view of her quarry, one Evan Closs. Evan’s wife, Kayla, had hired her to tail him, fearing infidelity, and it looked like she had been right to be suspicious. Sitting in booth about halfway across the room sat her target. He was currently making out with a girl who looked to be barely half his age. Some hot-to-trot intern most likely looking for a leg up at this business conference and who was more than willing to trade her body for that advantage. Jessice frowned in disgust. She despised that type of women. Setting back the entire gender by whoring themselves out to pigs like Evan. She subtly adjusted the camera she had and took a few snapshots of Evan and the intern.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket, and she frowned. It was her personal phone, a number only her parents, husband and daughters typically had, so possibly an emergency. She pulled it out and looked at it again. Another email from her doctor. Twice in two days. She sighed, and went to look at it, glancing up towards her target, and nearly did a double take. He was looking right at her, his brows furrowed. Had she been spotted? Better not to take any chances, she thought to herself. She gathered up her equipment and shoved everything into her purse, leaving a generous tip on the table before rushing back to her room, email forgotten.

The next morning, she sat in her hotel room, smirking to herself. Having just finished up the file on Evan’s infidelity, all that was left was to hand the file off to Kayla and let her lawyers do the messy work of the divorce. She wasn’t going to complain about how easy this job was. Typically, she’d be following her target for weeks or months. A single day was her new record. Putting the last of the paperwork into the file folder, she gathered it and her laptop up, and headed out of her room. The case had been even easier than she thought. Hopefully she’d be able to get a refund from the hotel, seeing as she no longer needed the room. Not that it mattered. She’d expense all this to Kayla anyway.

Grabbing all the files, her luggage, and her laptop, she prepared to leave.

As she walked purposefully down the hall, her phone buzzed insistently. Her hands full, she shuffled the paperwork, laptop, purse, and bag around, pulling the phone out of her pocket. Another email from her doctor. A third call in as many days, she thought to herself. What could be so important that they’d be calling and emailing her non-stop the entire weekend. Mentally shrugging, she figured she might as well take care of it now. Swiping in her phones passcode and struggling to hold her bags, she walked straight into what felt like a brick wall. Her bags, paperwork, and phone went flying, as she sprawled on the floor.

Looking up, her heart stopped. The “wall” she had crashed into was the tall, muscular form of Evan. He was holding up a few of the papers that had been in her file on him and was frowning, a nervous look on his face. She could see he had one of the pictures of him making out with the intern last night and was glancing between it and her. Slowly, she began inching her hand down to her purse, where she typically kept her pistol hidden. She didn’t know what was going through this serial cheater’s head, but she wanted to be sure she was….

“This” He held up the picture to her. “Isn’t what it looks like.”

What? She paused a minute. The picture…it wasn’t what it looked like. But, to her it looked like evidence that he was cheating. So…if it isn’t what it looked like, then it wasn’t evidence that he was cheating. She silently cursed. Looks like she’d need to find more proof of him cheating. Suddenly she was glad she hadn’t checked out of the hotel.

“Are you a cop!?” He was near frantic, panicking about the useless pictures you had in your file on him for some reason. “If you are, you have to tell me. It’s the law!”

Its true, she thought to herself. Cops were required by law to identify themselves if asked. But Private investigators resided in a somewhat legal grey area. Not technically police but fulfilling somewhat similar functions. She chewed her bottom lip, mulling it over. Better to be on the safe side. “Yes, I’m Jessica Evans, a private investigator. I was hired by your wife to tail you for to see if you were cheating.”

He frowned, looking around, and started gathering up the papers, looking like he was about to run. Let him. Those papers were all useless. They definitely weren’t evidence that he was cheating, even if she had originally believed that. She slowly stood up and dusted herself off. Looking over at him again she saw he had picked up her phone and was thumbing through something on it. God, this guy must not be very bright. Why waste time reading an email from her doctor.

He looked up at her, his formerly panicked look replaced by a grin. “Jessica, was it? You know, you’ll never get evidence of me cheating, at least without help.”

He was right, she realized. This case was too tough for her to handle alone. She started mentally running through a list of possible friends and colleagues she could bring in to help her on this one, before his voice cut off her thoughts.

“And who better to help you catch me, than me.”

She frowned in confusion. “You? Help me catch you? How would that work?”

The smug look never left his face. “Well, it’s obvious. Who knows my routines and habits better than me? And yes, I admit it’s unconventional, but you need to look at it like two separate people. Mr. Closs, your consultant on this case, and Evan, your target.”

Of course, it all made sense now. Who would be better to help her tackle Evan than Mr. Closs. Being the same person, he knew every detail of Evan intimately. It was perfect. “Mr. Closs, Sir, I’d be honored to bring you on as a consultant for this case. I feel your help will be invaluable in nailing that scum, Evan.”

He laughed at that. “Trust me, I’m the one who’s honored here. Of course, you want to listen to all my advice, no matter how outlandish and will treat it all as perfectly normal.”

“Well of course, I’d be a fool to bring on a consultant who knows so much about this case and ignore his advice. Consider me at your disposal.” She smiled again, already thinking about how quickly she’d be able to close this case now that she had Mr. Closs to help with it.

He handed her back her phone. “My first piece of advice, is to delete all emails from your doctor without reading them and block all contact with him and his office. You don’t need those distractions hindering your case.”

Already he was making good points, she thought. Why, yesterday she had almost been spotted by Evan because of an email from her doctor. She opened up her email and deleted every email from the doctor’s office, blocking the email address and then blocking the number on her phone. “Done and done, Mr. Closs.”

“Excellent. Now, let's discuss how we’re going to nail this guy.”