Chapter 1

Ed Harold pulled across the street from Horizon Financial Services, Inc. and waited. He put the "loading" sign in the windshield and climbed in the back of the 8 year old van and sat on the stool that he had bolted to the floor so that he could observe subjects that he was trailing and take pictures if necessary. The van was an old electrical company van. The company had been a one-man operation and had gone out of business a couple of years ago. The lettering on the truck was faded and almost unreadable. Ed had modified the back of the van with 2 windows with one-way glass. The rear glass had already had one-way glass in it and the back of the van was separated from the front by a sheet metal partition with a door. The van did not look very nice but Ed had a hopped up engine installed and kept the mechanics in top shape. With the van Ed never drew attention to himself. The van was perfect for surveillance work and was one of several non-descript vehicles he used in his private detective work.

Ed had started the private detective agency after he had resigned from the police force, after one too many hoods had filed formal charges against him for police brutality. Ed would be the first to admit that most of the charges were true, but the brutality was against known felons who didn't see the wisdom of answering Ed's questions. Ed had been assigned to the "Repeat Offenders Unit. His supervisors had started coming down on him hard and one day, after a bitter argument with his captain; Ed threw his gun and badge across the desk and resigned, losing twelve years pension rights. He opened the private detective agency under the name, Aaron Detective Agency so that he would be listed first in the Yellow Pages. His business consisted mostly of divorce work and medical insurance work. He liked the medical insurance work best. It was easy. The dummies would apply for workingmen's comp or disability and would go out and lift weights, chop wood or some other strenuous activity. All Ed had to do was take a few pictures. Ed's sister was a stay at home mom and took the Ed's calls when he was out of the office. Ed would let her know when he had to be out and would hit call forwarding on the phone. Ed was making a little more money than he had as a cop. He would never get rich, but he wasn't starving either.

He pulled a picture from his briefcase and studied it. The picture was of a very beautiful blond haired woman Ed assumed to be about 28 to 30 years old. The woman in the picture was dressed in a business suit that did not reveal the figure all that well, but Ed could tell that she was probably built as well or better than most women her age. She was wearing high heels in the picture and the picture was taken as she was walking in front of Horizon's building. She seemed to have a mad look on her face in the photo. George Bynum had told Ed that she was his girl friend and he thought she was running around on him. Bynum told him that he wanted to be sure about her before he married her. Yeh, Ed thought as he sat across from Bynum. Ed saw the wedding band on Bynum's hand.

George Bynum was the Institutional Fund Manager of Horizon Financial and Ed had taken an immediate dislike to him. Bynum didn't seem to like Ed all that much either. Bynum was an arrogant son-of -a-bitch who looked down on anyone that didn't make a 7-figure salary. Bynum had thrown the picture across the desk like the picture was infected with the worst kind of germs. He gave Ed the woman's address and a list of the places that the woman frequented. Bynum told him that her name was Betty Krause. Ed told Bynum what his fee was and what the minimum was and insisted on a $1000 up front payment. After Ed and Bynum had agreed on the fee for the surveillance, Bynum pulled 10 $100 bills out of his wallet and dismissed Ed with a wave of his hand and then picked up his phone and placed a business call as if Ed was no longer in the room.