Ellie could see the glazed look in Sue’s eyes as she dazed off with a rueful smile at thought of their conversation.
Heck, Ellie had to laugh too. If her kids thought she was incompetent before, then they would now have some fuel for the fire.
Opening the door to her home, Ellie began to feel a course of loneliness seep in. Before it could grab hold, the phone’s ring had snapped her out of it. She dashed across the foyer to answer the hall phone.
Out of breath, she answered, “Moore residence.”
“May I speak with Mrs. Moore, please?”
“This is Mrs. Moore. How may I help you?”
“This is Dylan from the Price Private Detective School, returning your call.”
*****
Ellie had stayed in Missoula for the six weeks of schooling it took to get her private detective license with the State of Montana. She had stayed with her daughter Janet and her husband while going to school.
It had been one heck of a conversation, telling the kids about the new adventure in her life. Janet and Dave had sat stone faced and closed mouth as she told them about her schooling that would begin in the morning. John Jr. had silently waited for his mother to finish her speech before diving into a million questions over speaker phone. It was the grand inquisition being performed on her by loved ones. She knew this was a battle she would have to face. It was a battle she must win to show her loved ones that she had regained her life and was moving on.
She had been impressed by the kids. After what seemed like hours and hundreds of questions later, they knew their mother had made up her mind. They didn’t have to like it, but they were going to respect her wishes.
For now.
However, one hint of danger, and she knew they would come storming in hell or high water because nothing was going to happen to their mother. She briefly wept at their courage and sincerity and love for her. Then she laid down some of her own ground rules.
“First and foremost, I am your mother, and I love you all for giving me the best children a mother could ask for in life. Second, I am a grown and capable woman, and I have thought about this for many years. This is not a spur-of-the-moment decision, nor is it one that I have given little worry too. I know the danger and boredom this type of work entails. However, I need to move on with my life.
“It’s been very difficult for me since your father passed away. It’s been hard on all of us. I need a new direction, one that makes me want to get out of bed in the morning. All my life, I supported my husband’s career. Then as a mother, I joyfully took on the role of a parent. I wouldn’t trade those years for anything. They made me very happy and fulfilled. Now at this time in my life, I want to do something daring and outrageous and completely for me. I know you love me and want what is best for me. I just want your love and support while I do something for me that will make me happy and want to live again.”
There was a round of murmurs.
Finally, John Jr. spoke up. “I must admit that the thought of you out in the middle of the night, tracking down God knows who scares me to death. I know once you have made up your mind that there is no changing it. So with a bit of unease, I support you. Scared for you, but I support you.”
“We do too. My mom a private eye?” Janet said in more of statement of wonder.
Chapter Two
Ellie decided to rent an office down town close to Books by the Volume rather than work out of her home. She wanted a place to go to every day, and this would make her get up and get moving. Plus that big old house could be a bit lonely at times. This way, she was close to Chuck and Sue and could pop in for coffee runs and some downtime visits. Also, it put her downtown closer to the action of where she needed to be. She wouldn’t have to run all the way in from the North Hill area where her home was located. She would be close to the jail, courthouse, library, DMV, and any other placed that she needed to do research for a case.
The office she rented was a basement floor two room office with its own bathroom. The tiles in the ceiling were dull with age and had collected a few water spots over the years. The walls were painted a dull gray, and at first glance, it was dismal to look at. Ellie saw freshly painted walls and ceiling and a new desk near the basement office window where she could see right out onto Last Chance Gulch.
She loved the idea of being able to watch the world pass by from her hidden cubby hole. It already gave her a sense of excitement of the forbidden, looking into people lives as they passed by, the people not knowing that they were being watched from beyond their line of sight.
She saw bookshelves in the far corner for her reference library and files. In the center of the room, she would place a sofa and some comfortable chairs for research and meeting with new clients.
In the back room, she would fix up as a make-shift mini apartment. This way, if she was working late on a case, she could catch up on needed sleep and not have to drive all the way out into the valley to her home. Plus it would be a great place for cat naps on a slow day.
Over the next couple of weeks, Chuck and Sue helped clean the place up and got it ready for business. Janet even drove up from Missoula to do some furniture shopping with her. Ellie thought Janet’s motives were more to check up on her and see firsthand where she would be working.
Ellie and Sue got the walls painted. Fresh curtains hung. Office plants to green the place up a bit. Ellie thought she went a bit over the top, buying the big executive desk at a real estate auction. Looking at the desk, she thought it gave the room presence and added a masculine touch to all the feminine decor. She had seen the desk in the paper and thought it would be perfect to add a touch of authenticity to the place. Its dark paneled wood and gilded leather top anchored the room. The moving men had a heck of time, getting it down the stairs and through the door. Now she sat back in her overstuffed desk chair and was quite proud of the new surroundings.
The walls were freshly painted in an earth tone that Ellie felt would sooth and ground her clients. The ceiling painted a fresh crisp white gave the ceiling some height and made the basement office less claustrophobic.
The couch and chairs were a plush maroon-red leather that she got down and the local furniture store. They were a bit overstuffed but still had graceful lines. They complimented the desk and softened it a bit.
She brought down some of the old bookshelves out of John Sr.’s library that were no longer being used. It was nice, having a bit of John in the room. She could see John, looking down from heaven with his arms crossed and a big smile on his face. He would be proud, and the shelves added a touch of dignity and class to the room.
Ellie had filled the shelves with every kind of book from skip tracing to picking a lock. Sue and Chuck had to be happy at the number of books she had ordered for the office. It was probably a bit too much, but she wanted to be prepared. Every night, she took a different book home and skimmed through and read a little. When her first client walked through the door, she would be prepared.
Tomorrow, her sign would arrive. She had picked out an oval-shaped sign with a white background and green-and-gold lettering. She wanted to the sign to stand out. She had the sign company write out Moore Detective Agency with her new office number listed below. She kept it simple and did not want to overcrowd the sign.
Ellie also placed ads in the local newspaper, the Independent Record, and the local circular, the Mini Nickel. These ads made it feel all the more real for Ellie. She would have to wait a couple weeks for the new phone books and yellow pages to come out to see the ad she had placed in there.
After the sign went up, and the ads ran, she would be open for business.
The first week, the only time the phone rang it was from Sue or one of the kids. Her brain began to run over scenarios of what her first case may be like. It was starting to drive her a bit nuts, sitting in the office