part 2
Ocarina walked into the office of Tim McGurk and immediately began to smell something like a cross between a high school locker room and the kitchen of a condemned Chinese restaurant. He looked inside and saw a small pot simmering on a hot plate residing on the top of a rusty filing cabinet. “excuse the smoke, that’s the leftovers from my lunch.” said McGurk. He noticed the look on Ocarina’s face, ranging somewhere between dismay and horror. “It’s my own version of fusion food, Tex-Mex with a combination of Thai food, topped off with a bit of Ragu. Very tasty, actually.” Ocarina was able to pull off a modified smile and muttered something about exotic food tastes. He sized up McGurk and the office. In the background, he could hear piano music playing. He noticed that there was a small stereo unit in the corner under the dirty window. A record was playing on the turntable. “Sounds like the greatest hits of Carmen Cavallaro, right?” said Ocarina. “Wow! On the button my man. I see that you are a man of taste, such as myself. Great stuff to accompany a meal.” He had been expecting something in the way of a Mickey Spillane or Sam Spade or some other hard boiled type detective. Instead he was presented with a smallish man, a little chunky around the edges, in his forties, with long hair, arranged in a bit of a pony tail, topped off with a small, black beret. On the desk he could see the plate with the remnants of lunch, a couple of empty Hostess cupcake wrappers and a large bottle of Mountain Dew. The detective began to clear off or at least slide the luncheon debris to one side, took a pull on his Mountain Dew and pulled out a pad of paper. He smiled as he drank with gusto “the Dew clears the mind and activates the energy enzymes in my body. This way I will be ready to listen to your story and give you the benefit of my expertise and immediate attention. So what is the situation? How can I help you?”
Ocarina was not sure that this was going to be the result that he was looking for, or even if this guy was qualified to find a missing piece of paper in his office. He did notice a couple of framed certificates on the wall, but the glass was a little smudged and the writing was in a script that he had never seen before. A little more flourish than English. He decided to see how it went. He sat down on the folding chair across from the desk. “Mr. McGurk, I don’t know if this is your area of expertise, but I need some help. I am trying to track down a woman. I want to find out if she is alive and well, if she is married and where she might be living at this time. Is that something that might be possible?” The detective sat back in his chair and lit up a cigarette. It looked very long, kind of like one of those ‘you’ve come a long way, baby’ type, from back in the 60’s. McGurk smiled and proceeded to exhale a plume of smoke in Ocarina’s face. “Well, finding missing people is not exactly in my milieu, but I have done it before. I have the experience, I just need to put a few things together. I do have a lot of stuff on my plate, so to say right now, and looking down, not just the items on the desk here.” He punched out a short laugh and then continued. “I could re-arrange my schedule to help you out. I would need a bit of information from you before I could proceed.” Ocarina, interrupted him at this point, not forgetting his accounting background “what is your fee for this, how much would it cost?” McGurk put his hands on his desk and assumed a more business like demeanor, kind of like right before a used car salesman senses that he is about to unload something from the back lot. “It would all depend on what kind of service that you require. Do you need an immediate result, do you have time to wait? If you want my full and complete attention, that would be the deluxe package and would be $100.00 a day plus expenses. If you just need me to handle this in my spare time, it would be say, $50.00 a day, plus some expenses.” “Okay, we can start out with the $50.00 deal. “ said Ocarina “I’ll write you a check for $300.00, and here is $50.00 in cash, that should cover you for a week.”
McGurk accepted the cash and check with the alacrity of little kid holding his bag out for Halloween candy. Maybe he needed a little cash infusion at this point. Ocarina assumed that McGurk didn’t have many pressing matters right now, and he might be able to get working on this case pronto. “All right, I can see what I can do for you. For now, I will need details and as much info as you can give me.” He looked over at Ocarina with pen and yellow pad ready to take down the facts in the case. Just like Joe Friday. Ocarina hesitated for a moment. He wanted to find Corey, but was nervous about opening up about Corey to this strange, stranger. He decided to give him as much as he could, to a point. “Her name is Corey Burlington, at least it was the last time I saw her. She might have since married. The last I knew of her whereabouts was about four, five years ago. She was living around Mancelona with a gentleman in the transportation business. I never knew his name.” he said sadly. “So, she took up with a truck driver type, in some small town burg. She could still be there, or maybe is living the gypsy life on the open road in her eighteen wheel condo.” laughed McGurk. Corey shot him a look that he hoped would make McGurk’s fusion luncheon wrap a little tighter around his bowels. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to make fun, but it does sound like the typical case of a small town girl, looking for love and semi-adventure in a minor league way, so to say. Would you happen to have a picture of the lady in question?” queried McGurk. “Something to go by?” “I do have a picture of her from back in high school, but I don’t know how much it would help. She had a predilection of changing her hair color at least once a year, and who knows what kind of hair style she has now.” said Ocarina. “Yeah and being with a truck driver, she might have added on a little extra avoirdupois over the years. You know what I mean?” interjected McGurk “Just something to consider.” Ocarina hadn’t thought of that. He had a picture of Corey in his mind, and McGurk was ruining that portrait by the minute. “Right, you must consider everything. No picture I guess. See what you can do. Here is my card with my contact information.” He wanted to end this interview as quickly as possible. It was not turning out the way he hoped and his pessimism was enhanced with this dose of Detective McGurk on the case. Looking down at the card, McGurk looked back at Ocarina. “Okay Mr. Barkley, will get working on this as soon as possible and will keep you informed of any leads or stuff I might be able to dig up/“ Ocarina, acknowledged McGurk and made his way out the door and down the steps as quickly as he could.