Private Investigator

The morning Lisa was meeting with Carla had come around quick. It had been 3 days since their phone call and their near miss upon her leaving and Carla entering the café. Lisa felt her nerves were through the roof and she felt like she was walking a tightrope, 10,000 feet off the ground as she drove the short way to where Carla’s office lied. It was a far cry from the office Lisa had been used to five years ago, which wasn’t really an office at all. Just a corner in Carla’s flat with a small desk, a laptop and a little whiteboard.

Carla now rented a proper, professional small office space not too far from where she lived. It was in a tower block, small but comfortable. The open space of the first room adorned a desk each; one for her, one for Ryan, with a small sofa and side table over in the corner. There was another door that led to a smaller room, which was Carla’s private space. Many a time she spent here, wanting to escape the outside world. It had been a good thing though for Carla, moving her work out of her flat and into a proper space. It meant she was able to leave her work at the door and lock it in behind her, before heading home. Well, mostly. 

Lisa made her way up the eight flights of stairs to Carla’s space and hesitated for a moment as she approached the door. She really doesn’t feel mentally prepared for this moment at all, even though she’d completed her breathing exercises ten times over, she was still overwhelmed with anxiety and nerves. After what felt like she’d been stood there for hours, Lisa finally braved a quiet knock on the door. 

As Carla opened the door expectantly, her breath hitched and she froze for a moment. Seeing Lisa, this close, in the flesh, rooted her to the spot. Lisa looked incredible. Her beautiful blonde locks framed her face perfectly and she looked casual, so casual dressed in jeans and a dusty pink sweatshirt that matched the colour of her cheeks. Carla wasn’t sure if Lisa looked flushed from the climb up the multiple staircases, or flushed from this moment, but secretly Carla hoped it was the latter. She was really going to have to get a grip of herself as it would be becoming blatantly obvious that she was staring, if she didn’t move. 

Lisa too, feels glued to the spot. The sight of Carla takes her own breath away. She’s still as beautiful as she remembers, in fact even more beautiful it that was at all possible. Carla’s straight brunette hair fell effortlessly to her shoulders, and she dressed boldly. Confident. Lisa had always been drawn to Carla’s confidence. She was wearing a black tailored shirt, paired with black skinny jeans and knee high black boots. Her shirt, Lisa noticed, had far too many buttons undone for this to be a professional look, and Lisa let her eyes linger as she raked them over Carla’s body, fearing she needed to break the tension before she was caught out. 

“You’ve gone up in the world.” Lisa teases as she tries to break the ice. 

Carla rolls her eyes. “Hardly.” Her tone is light, and Lisa feels a little warmth towards the brunette. Lisa watches from the doorway as Carla finally musters up the courage to move and makes her way over to her coffee machine. Carla cocks her eyebrow, a playful smirk tugs at the corner of her lips as she looks back at Lisa, still rooted to the spot on the other side of the door. “Are you just going to stand there all day, or are you going to come in?” Carla tries a soft approach.

Lisa’s cheeks redden as she creeps slowly through the door, racked with nerves. Lisa couldn’t understand how Carla was so at ease with this situation. Had she really closed herself off that much that seeing Lisa again just didn’t phase her at all? 

“Coffee?” Carla asked.

“Yes, please.” Lisa answered as she hung her coat up on the hooks behind the door and made her way over to the desk at the other end of the room. Nervously, she sat in the chair opposite where she supposed Carla would sit, and waited patiently as she watched Carla make their coffees and head over to the desk to join her. It hadn’t gone unnoticed to Lisa that Carla just handed her a black coffee, no sugar without asking what she’d like. She felt an overwhelming warmth that Carla had remembered such a simple, small gesture after all this time. It helped Lisa feel a bit more at ease, thinking this meeting together wouldn’t be so difficult after all. 

Carls’s expression remained professional, despite the playful smirk that had graced her lips only seconds ago, and it was something Lisa couldn’t read. She’d always been good at reading people, but something was different here. Carla seemed to remain guarded, and of course Lisa couldn’t blame her. She felt privileged enough to even be sat in the same room as her, and Lisa was desperate for them to talk, but she remained cautious and let Carla take the lead. 

“Thank you for coming.” Carla offered as she handed a chunky brown file to Lisa across the desk. Lisa smiled softly at her as she took the folder from her hands. Carla then got up for a moment and Lisa’s expression shifted as she watched the brunette move her chair around to the other side, so she’d be sitting next to Lisa instead. Lisa cleared her throat, nervously and it didn’t go unnoticed to Carla. 

“Is this okay?” Carla asked as she sat down next to Lisa. “Just feels too…businesslike to be sat opposite you, and well, this isn’t what this is…is it?” Carla asked hopeful and Lisa was itching to ask what this was, but she refrained, and just offered a warm smile as she turned to open the file that she’d been handed her a few moments ago. 

Lisa’s eyes widened as she witnessed what was before her after opening the folder. 

“It’s a sensitive matter.” Carla began. “Involving the Prime Minister’s wife. She believes her husband may be having an affair, but also believes he’s tied up in something far more sinister than that and she’s worried about the implications to her, their family and his political career.” 

Lisa listened intently to what Carla was explaining, but her eyes never left the page. Not yet, anyway. Lisa could feel her heart pounding louder in her own chest as she felt the warmth of Carla’s presence so close to her. Carla’s tone was soft and inviting as she explained the situation and Lisa knew she wouldn’t be able to look at her right now. Scared that if her own eyes met Carla’s then Carla would be able to see deep into her soul. Lisa’s heart also raced at the sheer gravity of the situation. This really was no ordinary case, and there could be more at stake than either of them could potentially be aware of. 

“What do we know so far?’ Lisa asked, eyes still fixed on what beheld in the file on her lap, as she felt Carla lean even closer. The smell of her perfume lingered and it was the same sweet smell that she wore five years ago, on that night in the pub. Lisa wouldn’t forget that in a hurry. The sweet notes of wild strawberry layered over a base of musk and vanilla. She breathed in Carla’s scent that took her back to that night, but quickly tried to blink away those painful memories, conscious Carla needed her here. Present. Now. 

“She reached out to me after she was recommended to my work by a private source of hers. She wouldn’t tell me who, but of course I can only assume it’s someone who I have helped in the past. You wouldn’t really believe what goes on in the political world without a line of work like this one. She’s worried about her husband’s activities, but also about what he may have gotten himself into. She fears he’s in deeper water than he can handle. She wants to know the truth about the alleged affair and about whatever else he could be tied up in, but she also values the privacy of that and her family. Especially her younger children. That’s where we come in.”

Lisa chanced a glance at Carla at the word we. As their eyes met, a spark of electricity crackled in the air around them.

Lisa quickly looking away again, broke the temporary tension in the room. “What do you think her motivations are? Do you think she wants to save her marriage or is she looking for a way out? Do you genuinely believe she still wants to protect her husband throughout all of this?” 

Carla paused as she contemplated Lisa’s question. This is one of the reasons why she’d called Lisa in. Lisa’s analytical mind helped Carla see the bigger picture. Of course, Carla was a success on her own, but over the last five years she had felt that missing piece in her work. Some cases had taken her longer as she’d tried to assess each case from her own perspective and that of what she thought Lisa would think, but Carla had always got there in the end. With or without Lisa. It didn’t mean she didn’t miss her though.

Carla smirked before she answered, which hadn’t gone unnoticed on Lisa. “I think she’s torn. She’s definitely hurt, but she still loves her husband. He’s still her best friend and the father of her children.” Carla gazed into Lisa’s eyes and Lisa swallowed hard. It was as if that sentence had a double meaning. As if Carla was telling her that she hurt but that Lisa still meant a lot to her. As if she was torn, but she still yearned for that friendship she missed out on. “If this hits the public eye, she’s afraid of being judged. Once even just one journalist gets a sniff of something, anything, it can create absolute chaos.”

They could both feel the tension in the room. The air was palpable. The unacknowledged emotions were swirling just beneath the surface, crying to come out. They were both professionals but the personal history they shared with each other made it difficult to ignore the feelings that lingered. Five years had passed, but they were still the same people beneath the surface. Still the same two independent strong women that longed for that valued friendship…in each other. 

“So what’s our first step?” Lisa asked, turning her attention back to the case.

Carla’s hand moved gently over to the file that Lisa was still holding in her lap. Their fingers brushed as Carla turned the pages to the Prime Ministers schedule, and they both felt the jolt of electricity course between them. “I think we should start with surveillance.” Carla suggested, not meeting Lisa’s gaze. “We need to see if there are any patterns in his behaviour What is he doing outside of his schedule? Is he meeting anyone we don’t know about, that’s laid out in here.” She suggested as she eventually found the page she wanted. The Prime Ministers schedule. All his meetings and appointments, laid out neatly in a diary entry page. There was four weeks worth, so they knew they were in for a long ride. “It’s going to involve some stake-outs, which I don’t mind doing on my own if you’re not up-“

“No, it’s fine. Stake-outs are my speciality remember. Besides, they’re better with company.” Lisa interrupted Carla softly, a little gentle smile playing on her lips. “But we’re also missing information on her. We need to get some background on her life, outside of Number 10. Her family, her friends, her commitments. We need to make sure that she’s not the something sinister that she’s suspecting he’s in deep water with. Do what you need to do Carla, to build a relationship with her, to build that trust. But be cautious as well.” Lisa warned, kindly. “It’s not uncommon for someone to seek out help in a PI, try to turn the tables, flip something upside down and turn it all around on someone else.”

They continued to discuss strategies, plan their first stake-out around the Prime Ministers schedule. Carla agreed to get back in touch with the wife, to see what information about herself she would willingly give, without having to find it on her own accord, but she would if she had to. Lisa’s investigative techniques and knowledge were on point, and she was excited about the thrill of the chase. She never thought that she’d really miss the work, but the exciting case that lay before her re-ignited a passion inside that she’d long forgotten. 

Of course, she missed Carla too. She missed her working relationship with her as well as her personal one, but she hadn’t quite anticipated how much she missed her, especially every time she looked at her, she felt a pang of guilt and then of something deeper. Lisa knew that there was always something that lied just beneath the surface between the two of them, but five years ago, she never really could quite put her finger on what is was. Now she was back in Carla’s company, Carla’s aura, Carla’s life. The soft touch of her hand that had grazed accidentally against her own, the stolen glances, the smell of her perfume, the way she’d leaned in closer, it was all re-igniting something else within her too, yet she still couldn’t quite figure out what it could be. 

“Do you think we’ll be able to keep this under wraps?” Carla asked Lisa, hopeful.

“We need to be careful, but we need to be committed too Carla. Committed to the case and committed to each other. If we’re going to work on this together, we need to be serious that we can. We can’t let each other down and then we won’t falter and we won’t let the Prime Ministers wife down.” 

Carla looked at Lisa, deep into her eyes. They had always worked well together, always had each others’ back. Their professional relationship was undeniably strong and nothing had ever got in their way before. 

“Well, I’m all in, if you are?” Carla asked openly. 

“Yeah, of course I am.” Lisa smiled, trying to offer reassurance to Carla. She knew she had a lot to prove if she was going to be trusted again, but working on this huge case together seemed a small step in the right direction.

They’d wrapped up their initial discussion and Lisa was looking like she was getting ready to leave. Carla knew it was now or never. Now Lisa had agreed not to let her down and that they could work together professionally, she had to ask the burning question that was playing on her mind. 

Even though they hadn’t seen each other for five years, the familiarity was right there. They had eased into each other’s company effortlessly. Catching stolen glances, lingering into one another’s personal space for a length of time that definitely went beyond both professional and friendship. It was easy like this really, balancing on the edge but still having complete control. 

After hours of discussing the case and putting a preliminary plan into action, Carla tried a soft approach with Lisa, feeling that during the last few hours they’d managed to pucker up common ground. 

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Carla asked as gently as she could. Her voice, soft and quiet, barely above a whisper as she tried ever so delicately to not provoke Lisa. Carla looked at the blonde softly, her heart ached and her expression was laced with a thousand unspoken words. Carla was hurt that Lisa didn’t feel like she could have talked to her, come to her, used her as a human punch bag if she needed to five years ago. That hurt wasn’t just going to wash away. 

“Tell you what?” Lisa asked, animatedly. Completely at ease with Carla, as if they had never left each other’s side. Lisa had no idea what was coming, of the curveball that Carla was about to send her way. Lisa had kept her secret hidden then, now and for the last five years in between, by running away. She could always run away again. But this time, not come back. 

“About your wife…about-“ Carla had kept the same tone, same level of a whisper but was abruptly interrupted by the scraping of Lisa’s chair on the cool wooden floor. The air around them had changed in an instant.

“How do you seem to know everything about me?” Lisa snaps as she stood to walk out. Her animated voice from only seconds ago had erupted into a cold force, fiercely protective of herself. Lisa headed for the door and grabbed her coat, not wanting to even wait for a reply from Carla. She was momentarily angry at Carla. Angry that the other woman had got her onside, only to then try and provoke her. Although this was not Carla’s intention at all. Lisa had got it wrong and Carla was going to prove it. 

“Don’t you dare walk out on me again.” Carla fired back as she too stood from her chair with meaning, her whisper long gone as her voice found itself. Powering through the silence that rocked between them. There was so much more said in that single sentence that had spat from Carla’s lips. Her words were etched in pain and hurt, but also longing and want. Carla had so desperately wanted Lisa back in her life and now she was here, after five long gruelling years, she was here, she certainly wasn’t about to let Lisa slip away again. Not without a fight. 

Lisa softened for a moment as she let her tough, hard exterior crack. Her grip on the door handle loosened. She felt the vulnerability in letting Carla in wash over her. With every fibre of her body screaming out to run, she fought against it and with every bated breath, began to regain control of her every thought, pushing away all the thoughts of running and letting the tension bore into her, helping herself realise that maybe it wasn’t so bad, after all, to let Carla in. Lisa knew deep down it would come up eventually, her disappearing act five years ago, she just never imagined Carla would find out things about her before she’d had the chance to tell her, herself. 

“Look, I do need to go, I promised Betsy I’d meet her after work, but are you free tomorrow night? Come to mine and then…then I can’t run, can I?” Lisa’s soft tone came back, tinted with light humour but her voice was still laced with a layer of vulnerability which Carla saw right through. She breathed in and out deeply, as she still gripped the handle, still faced the door, unable to look at Carla.

When Carla hadn’t yet responded, Lisa pushed further. She let go of the door handle, turned back around and moved herself gently forward, edging back into the room every so slightly. Carla watched Lisa as she retreated back into the room. Very much the opposite of running away. 

“Please, Carla. I owe you an explanation.”

“Lisa, you don’t owe me anything.” Carla was gentle too now. Now she could see how much Lisa was trying. 

“Yes, I do.” Lisa said, her voice laced with an urgency that wasn’t there before. A desperation almost. To Lisa, she was practically laying her cards on the table, putting her heart on the line. Knowing that what was to come, if Carla would allow it, could shape their entire future. 

“Okay.” Carla agreed. Of course she agreed. Carla wanted to agree the second Lisa had opened her mouth, but Carla waited. Wanted to see the blonde squirm a little. Wanted to push just to see how far Lisa would go, but she didn’t cave, she didn’t falter, she definitely didn’t run.