Alex Ross sat outside of Millie’s boarding house sipping his coffee – his nose stuck into the morning edition of The Glen Times. It was a nice, sunny day, lucky for him, since he was on the job. He’d been staking out the place for days now, waiting until he had enough info to call home with. Home, of course, being the man who had hired him for this particular job.

The ‘package’ now located, all he had to do was sit and wait. He’d head over to the paper once the coast was clear and hopefully have a bit of chat with it’s owner.

Abby Campbell was in a mood this morning. Colin wouldn’t take her calls and she really needed to explain things to him. She really liked Colin, and hoped their relationship wouldn’t end over her still being technically married and all.

As she made her way out of the boarding house, deep in her thoughts, she never noticed the handsome man watching her over his morning paper. Not even when she headed down the road towards Libby’s flat did she see him following her – making sure to keep to the shadows as he went.

He’d followed her to that Roberts fellow’s office building. Was she seeing him? Nope, apparently she had a friend up on the top floor. Stayed there for a good while, too.

Alex hung back, trying to look like he belonged there... blending in with the surroundings. He waited for a good hour or more, when she finally came back down the stairs and headed over to the paper. He’d follow her there... have a little poke around the place, then chat up her boss, Cal, if he was around.

Abby was feeling a bit better after her ‘girl-talk’ with Libby. She breathed in the morning air, as she walked slowly along the path to work. She’d call on Mr. Roberts later during her lunch break, set up an appointment to see him and try and get her divorce moving along if she could.

"Morning, boss man!" she called, as she headed into the office. No answer. "Hmm... guess he had another late night out with his main squeeze," Abby chuckled to herself, as she put on a pot of coffee and made herself comfortable at her desk.

Ross peeked through one of the windows, making sure not to be seen. She was alone... hmm... Cal didn’t seem to be around this morning. Figures. Well, on with the show...

He stood up from where he was crouching outside of the window and walked through the front door of the office. Abby jumped, completely startled by Ross’ sudden appearance in front of her, knocking over her cup of coffee as she did so.

"Morning, Ma’am," he said, smiling down at her.

"Um... can I help you?" Abby asked, wiping up the coffee she had spilled on her desk.

"Actually, I was hoping I could help you," Alex replied, grinning. "Name’s Ross... Alex Ross. Was hoping to talk to your boss, Cal, about hiring on as a reporter for this little rag of yours."

Abby cocked an eyebrow at him, "Well, Mister... Ross... was it?"

He tipped his hat, nodded.

"Cal isn’t here this morning and I doubt very seriously that he’d be lookin’ to hire anyone else right now."

Abby tossed the wet towels she used to mop up the spilt coffee into the trash bin next to her desk and sat back down. Ross was still standing there, his head tilted to the side, a crooked little smile on his handsome face.

"Do me a favor, dollface, and tell him I stopped by?" Alex told her, handing her his card.

Abby took it and set the card aside on her desk. "Sure will, as long as you don’t call me dollface again," she smirked.

"Deal," Alex replied, with a chuckle, then headed back out the door with a wave of his hand.

Abby smiled and shook her head as she watched him leave, then picked up the phone to try Colin again.

Once he was around the corner, Ross pulled out his cell phone and dialed his client’s number. After 2 rings, there was an answer, and Alex spoke into the phone, "Yeah, this is Ross. She’s here... just like we hoped. Yeah, she’s not going anywhere. No, we had a deal, you wire me the money and I’ll give you her location. Fine. I’ll be waiting."

He hung up the phone and headed back to the boarding house to wait for his payment to come.

TBC...