* * *

Okay, so when I left off last week, My friend Dick Tracy was ready to begin surveillance. When I got home from work early the next morning, however, I had another email from Nancy Drew waiting in my in-box. She said "Hi guys! Sorry to say, but I've found what I'm looking for."

Disappointed, I wrote back asking how she got the information, and then printed out her message for Dick. He was still sleeping, so I slipped the note under his door. I wanted to make sure that he didn't waste his time.

Nancy promptly wrote back, saying "Yes Greg, I got the info via the internet. A lady that runs genealogy found out for me in a day, don't ask me how!" She then went on to explain briefly what this is about. It seems that Nancy was helping a long-time friend to buy a house. When the friend sought a roommate to help with the expenses, she found our Jane Doe, who turned out to be "a control freak, lying, drug-addicted con-artist." While there is money involved, "the money I'm after doesn't really matter to me, its the principle," she wrote.

Well, a couple of days went by and I was thinking about how to write this chronicle. It would have concluded last week had the story ended here, but Detective Tracy would get his chance after all.

Two more pieces of email from our client arrived in as many days. The first said "Hey, may need your help after all! Seems the job is only one day a week." Before I could talk to Mr. Tracy, she wrote again with the news that upon phoning Jane's supposed employer, she was informed that no one by that name was employed there. The game is again afoot!

On Friday of last week the investigation began and I sent my first report: "I didn't talk to him, but he told Julie, my wife, that She took her boyfriend some place and returned home. She then went back to get him about 3 hours later." When I heard back from Nancy, though, she said "Hate to throw you for a loop, but there is no way she took her boyfriend anywhere cause she don't have one. She is gay." Nancy sent me a picture of Jane with her girlfriend -- along with a couple of bags of coffee --and we confirmed that Dick was in fact watching the right couple.

Over the course of the last ten days, Mr. Tracy put in approximately 30 hours, at 15 discrete vantage points, using 3 different vehicles. He covered all possible times when people typically start work and after that first day, neither vehicle moved. It would appear that neither Jane nor her girlfriend are working ... at least not a regular job anyway.

The week was not totally without incident though. The weather this past week was incredibly nice. Tracy brought along his friend, Barney, much of the time, and when they got tired of sitting in a hot car or truck, they would walk around. One day, when they returned from a walk, they found three squad-cars parked around their car. It turned out that the woman who lives across the street from where they were parked, backed out of her driveway hitting Barney's car! She was apologizing profusely and assured him that her insurance would take care of the damage, but the police issued a $7 citation for parking across from the driveway.

Dick and Barney were not as sneaky as they thought either. Yesterday, they decided to walk right past our subject's house, and when they neared, she was in the driveway with a Great Dane. "How come you two have been hanging around the neighborhood so much lately?" she asked them. "My sister lives just up the hill," Barney answered without hesitation. They then talked for 5 or 10 minutes about the dog and about the weather, and as they walked away she muttered under her breath what they thought was "you're not going to get me."

Evidently, she knows they've been watching her, so it doesn't pay to sit out there now. The case, at least for now, must be moved to the back burner to cool for a while. We need a new approach. Surveillance just isn't working and I don't know how else to find out where she works -- if she is working at all. I can only think of one thing:

Knock, knock ... "Hello, I'm from the City Directory. could you answer a few questions, please?" But I doubt she'd fall for it.