Missed Appointment

After deciding to go for it Holly was faced with a problem. Since normally she would have used Tami's help with this kind of research but if she included her now, Roger would almost certainly find out since he seemed to have quit a knack for knowing what was going on. In that case he would either tell her to drop it which she didn't want to do or he would take the story away from her which she really didn't want him to do. No, Holly decided with certainty she needed more to build on before she could take it to Roger and still be sure he would let her keep it. . So once the rape/murder was ready for airing she cut Tami loose and told her to go home while she stayed to start her latest pet project.

One good thing about working at a TV station was that Holly had access to just about every news outlet there was and she didn't have to pay for any of it. This fact was also always a plus in her book. . Since the guy in question seemed to have a thing for violent crime, she concentrated only on stories where someone had died; it seemed like a good place to start. .

Unfortunately this still left a lot of ground to cover. A lot of the less reparable of the online sites don't put the names of the photographer with the photo's they took so she couldn't go by that since after all that would make things too simple not that he couldn't have used an alias anyway of course, as Holly well knew. They didn't get called bottom feeders for nothing. .

Facing the small mountain of video and still digital photo's of the almost unimaginably wide variety of grisly scenes of death and destruction to sort through, Holly realized she still had to cut the search down to a more manageable size to have any luck at all.

She finally did this by first concentrating on times when both she and whoever it was had been on the same shoot at the same time going back over a year. That helped out a lot. She then started pulling good still images from the video tonight and started comparing faces. After hours of searching and the beginnings of a throbbing headache, Holly had at last narrowed it down to a likely candidate. Of course there were always the shots of backs of heads, the sides of faces, and that sort of thing so there were others she wasn't sure of but at least she had somewhere to start and it seemed like this guy got around. She was more than a little surprised to see how many times the two of them had crossed paths without her even noticing him.

After getting another cup of old coffee she considered her next move. Since she now had a face, Holly could try contacting various web sites and see if she could get them to provide a name to match. But the young reporter knew better than to hold her breath on that one since after all they might not even know who this guy really is. Even if they did, would they be willing to share that information with her?

So after sipping her coffee for a time Holly decided on another course, since time really wasn't an issue in this search, she ran off the best print of the face she had and decided she'd keep it with her to help her stay on the look out for her mystery man the next time they were both at a crime scene. .

Surprisingly enough it only took a few days before Holly caught site of her mystery man. Unfortunately by the time she actually saw him, the two women were back at the station editing the video from another murder. . With everything that had been going on at the scene Holly had completely missed him at the time but there he was, standing with his camera. She checked the web sites she'd flagged as working with him and sure enough shots from the murder tonight were already posted. She couldn't help but grin at the realization that the chase was on!

A week later she got another chance, it was at the scene of a suspected attack on a homeless man. There had been a series of these attacks that were similar in nature but like the others there were no witnesses and no one was talking. Someone usually just stumbled across a body that was been beaten to a pulp. There had been only one survivor so far but he was in a vegetative state and not expected to recover. Like many metropolitan area's Holly's hometown had a long running problem with the homeless that had been simmering for a long time, but now it was starting to look like it could be finally coming up to a boil.

When Holly caught sight of her target photographer that night she hadn't even been really looking for him at that moment; she'd in fact been thinking about ten different things none of which had anything to do with her pet project. But suddenly there he was, just standing right in front of her. .

The whole thing surprised her so much she didn't know what to do for a moment. . Holly really hadn't thought about how she could approach him with a hope of actually getting anywhere. . Should she really try talking to him now or wait to get more information first?

Hell she didn't even know his name and with that thought it suddenly sank in just how unprepared she really was for this. If she had been this sloppy in a scheduled interview, Roger would have chewed her ass and he would have been right to do it.

After debating the situation over with herself for a moment she decided to wait, in the hope of perhaps gathering more information before she approached him. Anyway that's how Holly justified the decision; she wasn't in fact chickening out but she needed more information first so she was properly prepared. Yes that's what she was doing she told herself, and even managed to make it sound convincing.

Later back at the station it surprisingly didn't take too many tries to get the information she wanted, she contacted a few people she knew in the paparazzi world and after e-mailing the picture she had of the man in question around, she learned quite a lot about him. .

Most of the people in this line of work didn't like to talk about what they did at least not to an outsider all that much, whether it was fear of giving away what they considered trade secrets or maybe they just liked working in the shadows. But since holly was in the news business herself it helped her get the information she wanted. That is when she finally convinced them that she wasn't interested in what they were doing with the celebrities or whatever but was really interested in crime scene photos instead. Most of them did from time to time but it wasn't as a cut throat business as the true paparazzi.

In any case this guy seemed to be a real outsider even by their standards.

The first thing she learned was that his name was John Collins, and like she suspected he worked as more or less a freelance photographer. He would shoot pictures for just about anyone that would pay him but he did seem to specialize in the more gruesome side of the business, like murder. If someone was dead then he was interested but he generally stayed away from the more celebrity side of the paparazzi business. Even though she knew from experience that's where you made the real money.

However no one she talked to seemed too really know how long he'd been in the business, it just seemed that he'd always been there. One of those people that were always hanging around but no one really noticed. . About the only thing that made him stand out was his seeming talent for getting to crime scenes first. Everyone agreed Mr. Collins had a real talent for that. Otherwise he looked ordinary enough to her she thought from the captured video images, if a little low rent what with the threadbare jacket. Whatever he was making he sure wasn't spending it on clothes, she decided though Holly really didn't know what she should have expected. .

Ever since she had been a little girl Holly had always wanted to be an investigative journalist but now that she had a real interesting case to investigate she found herself hesitating.

She knew that if her investigation was going to move forward she had to take the next step and in this case that step seemed to be trying to reach out to this man and make some kind of contact. But she still hesitated...was she really afraid of failure she wondered to herself? Or was it something else? Holly wasn't sure but she knew that she was going to have to bite the bullet at some point. . From the few good pictures she had of him he looked like he was in his thirties but she couldn't get anymore from the online sites that would even talk to her about him. She did find that someone with that name that had worked as a stringer photographer for the local papers but that was over 40 years earlier. Ironically there wasn't actually a picture of that guy on file. But Holly knew that there was no way this could be the same man the ages just didn't add up, maybe it had been a relative she wondered? Just another question she would have to ask him when she decided it was time. But when would that be?

A few days later still in the midst of her procrastination she saw him again at yet another accident scene. She'd been running late again and had just met Tami there in her own car. After getting the video they needed, Holly settled on making what could have been considered a rash decision, that since she had her own transportation available, she would take the opportunity and follow him. . She told Tami to get back to the station with the footage they had just shot to get started working on it and that she'd catch up with her friend later.

Tami was understandably curious about what was going on but Holly put her off and just told her to get going before Roger started calling and bitching. Now with Tami on her way, Holly did her best to blend in with the crowd and keep an eye on him. He hung around the scene for a time, then left in what to even her inexperienced eyes could only be described as an old junker car. Holly really didn't know what she was doing but was determined to find out more about this enigmatic man she had stumbled across. . While following behind him in her red Honda, she found the experience left her with even more questions for he didn't seem to go anywhere; he just drove around the city. .

After following him for what seemed like a long time and not getting anywhere Holly was trying to deicide what to do. But while this was gong on she had let her attention wander a bit and found suddenly she'd lost him traffic. Frantically looking around the dark streets for the old car he was driving she couldn't find it anywhere it was like he'd just vanished. Muttering a few curses at her own bad luck Holly, as promised, returned to the station to help Tami with the video.

After her failed attempt at tailing him it took her a few days to catch sight of him again. In the hope of increasing the odds of success the next time she'd taken to driving her own car to the various places the two women were shooting video as often as possible. . She'd told Tami that it was because she might want to get out of there a little early and in that case, Tami was quite capable of doing any work on the video that needed to be done. She never said it in so many words but she let her friend believe that she was in fact seeing someone and wanted some privacy.

Of course it never occurred to secret agent Holly that her investigation hadn't gone unnoticed. . John didn't watch much TV so he didn't recognize her from that but it was clear what was going on as he watched her do her thing with her camera women or whatever they call them in the new politically correct times he found himself in.

The week before he'd realized someone was tailing him, at first he wasn't sure who it was. He usually didn't attract too much attention and he liked it that way but now someone for some reason had taken an interest. During his drive through the city that night he managed to get a look at the driver of the red car that was on his tail and to his surprise he saw it was the young reporter or whatever from the accident scene he'd just been at that night. . Once he knew who it was he relaxed a bit and at first decided that if she really wanted to follow him around that was fine with him.

But finally after thinking it over for a moment and seeing she was still back there, John decided he wanted to change tactics and have a little talk with this woman who was showing so much interest in him. If for no other reason than to know just exactly what was going on. After considering it for a moment he'd decided to lead her into a more secluded part of town and then confront her and see what happens. Unfortunately by the time he'd decided all that he looked back to find that she was gone.

After looking all around in a vain attempt to find her car John found he was only mildly irritated by this turn of events for he'd watched enough reporter types over the years to know that she'd be back. On the other hand though maybe it was time to move on again; he'd been here for almost 10 years this time and maybe that was long enough. He'd had a good run here but John had to admit one of the reasons he didn't want to leave was that he'd have to start all over again with building up his contacts as well as get his job back under a new name. He really hated doing that; it was just such a hassle. .

He tried to lay low for a couple of days in the off chance that just maybe she'd get tired of the little game they seemed to be playing and move on. But he doubted it. Then one evening he got a message from one of the internet sites that there was a major fire downtown and they wanted him down there to get whatever shots he could, so here he was.

The fire was in a multistory apartment building that was an old converted office building if he wasn't mistaken; there were even a row of shops on the ground floor all nicely high-end for the upwardly mobile. He remembered it was all part of the downtown redevelopment deal that the city had been working on, off and on for years. . John could still remember these building when they were being built and now seeing them as run down shells only to be rebuilt again into something new was a real reminder, if an unnecessary one, of just how long he'd been around. .

Shaking off the shades of the past John reminded himself that he was here on business, not for a trip down memory lane, and he had to admit that the fire was pretty spectacular; the pictures would hopefully fetch a nice fee. Even if he wouldn't find what he was really looking tonight he still had a job to do and a job was a job because if he did have to start over somewhere else, he'd need all the money he could get to do it.

Unfortunately for John luck wasn't with him in another regard either since he found himself once again face to face with his young admirer. She'd seen him too, he was sure of it; in fact, she'd seen him first. Well here we go again, he thought with a sigh.

After he'd gotten the pictures of the fire he needed to satisfy his current employers it was time to go. Deciding it was time to move this little dance the two of them had been doing along, John, without being too obvious, moved to his car and made sure she had enough time to follow if she wanted. He then left and headed into the city. . He made sure to go slowly at first since he didn't want to lose her again, at least not yet.

Holly counted it as real stroke of luck to run into her mystery man again so soon. Though she supposed she shouldn't have; after all he was a photographer and such a big fire was real news. . The whole downtown area had really come back to life over the last ten years or so. She'd even gotten coffee once or twice in the little trendy coffee house in the building that was currently going up in smoke. It was really too bad, Holly did feel a little sorry for it all but also knew that she and Tami had gotten some really great footage of the event.

But seeing Collins leaving, Holly knew she had to act fast. On impulse she again told Tami to get some more shots and she meet up with her back at the station later to do some voice over for the edit. When Tami questioned her about the change in plan Holly just told her that she had somewhere she needed to be and not too worry about it.

Holly knew her friend well enough that she didn't need any help to get the shots they wanted but she also knew that Tami would be questioning her about this continued change in routine later. . After getting clear of the immediate area of the fire, Holly did her best to keep her quarry in sight. This time around the guy didn't seem to want to wander around the city for no apparent reason. Instead he headed into a less than great neighborhood, apparently completely oblivious to her presence, parked his old car and walked into an unimpressive looking apartment building.

Holly waited out front not really sure what to do now. She'd seen a light come on in one of the apartments and could even see him moving around inside. . But now what should she do?

Inside John was asking himself much the same question. He'd led the girl back to his apartment on a whim just so she could see how unremarkable he really was and maybe she'd go away. He should have known that he'd never get that lucky. . Peeking out the window he could see her just sitting out there like she was a cop on a stake out or something but if she wouldn't leave of her own volition what should he do? Being in something of a playful mood that night John decided to give her a taste of her own medicine.

After getting his camera out and ready to go and even though the lighting wasn't very good. . He still managed to get a good set of shots of her before the young woman decided to take off on him. He'd already gotten the TV station she worked for off the van she and her friend used, so it was an easy matter to catch her there later and leave a little present for her tucked under the windshield wiper of her car.

By the time Holly got done with the footage from the fire as well as the rest of the house keeping chores she'd been ignoring around the station for the last few days it was almost dawn. Dragging herself out to her car Holly was just looking forward to heading home and taking a bath before rolling into bed for a few hours of sleep.

But getting to her car instead Holly found a manila envelope tucked under the wiper. . Not sure what the hell was going on, but too tired to really care she snatched it up and opened it only to find she was looking at pictures of herself sitting in her car from could only have been last night. Some were of her and the car and others were obvious enlargements of just her face so there could be no doubt of who it was. She didn't find a note or anything else but there couldn't be any doubt who had taken her picture.

For a moment though Holly just found herself standing frozen in the T.V. station parking lot, not sure what to do. . In her imaginings of how this was all supposed to go it had really seemed so much easier somehow.

Even being the on air face for the news spots she and Tami did Holly still found she really didn't like being on the other end of the camera under these conditions.

So, okay, on the one hand she was irritated that this guy had seen fit to play a little joke on her. She found hypocritically perhaps that she really didn't like having her picture taken by someone she didn't know was there. . Holly also was forced to acknowledge that her attempt at stealth had very obviously failed. . The role of secret agent clearly wasn't her thing, but what should she do now? There was one other thing that was also very clear and which was that she was just too damn tired to deal with this right now and chose to head home for that bath and some time to think.

Holly, after getting some sleep, decided it was long past time to talk to this guy and get his side of the story. With that in mind she headed back to what she assumed was his apartment as soon as she could the next afternoon and just hoped he'd be there. Pulling up once again in front of his building she realized as if it were possible that the building and the neighborhood itself looked even worse in the daylight than it did at night. She didn't see John's car out front but decided to knock on the door anyway just in case he was actually in there. .