Chapter 2

Ed poured himself a cup of coffee from the thermos and kept his eyes on the street in from of the building. Bynum had told him that the woman was an employee of one of the other companies that had offices in the building. It was 4:30 in the afternoon and he knew that most of the employees would be out of the building by 5:30 at the latest. He hoped that he would not miss her in the crowd. About 4:40 he saw a woman in a dress leave the building. He quickly checked the photograph and saw that it was the woman he was hired to tail. Ed took the Cano out of the case, adjusted the lens and took a picture of her. Ed had set the date and time so that the date and time would be imprinted on the photo. He tried to take more photos but she was hidden by other people leaving the office. The woman stood in line at the bus stop behind several others and was again hidden from Ed's camera. Several minutes later a Metro bus stopped and as it pulled away Ed saw that she had boarded the bus.

Ed jumped into the driver's seat and pulled away from the curb. He knew that people rarely noticed someone following a bus. Normally they either read or looked straight ahead. He pulled over to the curb several times to avoid overtaking the bus and several times passed the bus to make it appear that he was just driving home from work. Twice he turned and drove around the block and resumed tailing the bus. The bus started toward a residential section of town and Ed saw the woman get off of the bus and walk to a small diner in a strip mall. Ed pulled behind the building and parked the van. He decided to go into the diner and watch her there. Ed couldn't see her from where he was parked and he knew that she had not seen him.

Ed walked through the door and saw the woman sitting in a booth placing an order with the waitress who was apparently the owner's wife. He saw that the woman was much prettier than she looked in the picture. He noticed that she had "killer" legs. Ed was a legman. Ed took a seat at the counter. His seat was behind her and he could watch her without causing suspicion. He ordered a cup of coffee and waited for the woman to eat and leave. Her order was brought to her about 15 minutes after he entered the restaurant. She had ordered a cheeseburger and an iced tea. While she ate Ed ordered another cup of coffee. The waitress brought over a newspaper and asked if she wanted to read it. She took the paper and started to read.

The front door opened with a bang. A young man, his head wrapped in a bandana, wearing a flannel shirt and the baggy blue jeans popular with the gang members, strutted into the store like he was God's gift to the world. Another young man, dressed like the first, walked in behind him. Both had the straggly moustaches of youth. Both men walked to the counter and sat with their backs to the counter surveying the restaurant. The first man spotted the woman that Ed had been tailing and walked over to her booth and sat next to her, pushing himself tight up against her side. His buddy checked to make sure that none of the patrons of the restaurant were going to interfere and then walked over and sat opposite his buddy.

"Hey, baby what say we go somewhere and party?" he said putting his hand on her leg and rubbing his hand upward.

"Please, leave me alone," the woman, cried trying to push his hand off of her.

"Come on, baby. I'm just trying to be friendly," his hand started sliding her dress up her leg.

Ed watched and the men sitting next to the woman started pushing the woman to the far side of the seat. He winked at his cohort and grabbed the woman's breast. She fought a losing battle with his hands. The owner of the diner and his wife turned to the grills and pretended to be busy cooking and cleaning. The other customers were either watching the proceedings with amusement or were staring somewhere else. It was obvious to Ed that no one was going to get involved. The man had pushed the woman's dress half way up her thigh and was trying to kiss her. She started trying to push him away and push her dress back down; she was losing the battle against the man.