It was another late night for me in the office. I usually got most of my clients after hours, but business had been dying down and I hadn’t seen a face other than that of my secretary and my own reflection for weeks. All the other offices had been locked up for the night, and the only sound was the clicking of Tina’s pencil on her clipboard in the waiting room. She’d probably quit soon, but why? She’d stayed with me for…how many years was it? I couldn’t remember a time when she wasn’t there, and she’d probably tell you it was too many to count.

I was just looking over some of my old unsolved cases when I heard the door open.

“Mr. Mason, you have a visitor,” Tina said. Her all-white outfit had suddenly become the brightest thing in the room. She stepped back into the waiting room and was replaced by another dame. I felt something special about her the minute I saw her, like I’d known her from somewhere before. She had a body that could kill a man, curves in all the right places, and legs that went all the way to the ground. For a long time she just stood there looking at me as if I should have been expecting her.

“Can I help you, sister?” She didn’t reply, not with words at least, but the look she was giving me told me more than words could say. Her eyes were wider than a doe’s and her red lips quivered in the harsh overhead lights.

“Bradley?” she said quietly. She looked at me like she knew me well, but I couldn’t place her. But something about her told me that we’d had a history together.

Suddenly, my hands started shaking as if I were nervous, but I wasn’t. Tina sometimes gave me some pills for it, but now I didn’t feel like pressing the intercom. My files fell to the floor and I scowled as if she had caused it.

“Do I know you, angel?” I asked, trying to lean down from my chair. It wasn’t easy so late at night, when I got stiff and tired.

“You don’t remember me?” Her lip shook even more, and tears welled up in her eyes. “I didn’t think you’d forget me so quickly. It’s me, Bradley. Veronica.”

Ah, that was a name I thought I’d never forget. We’d met back when I was on a paid excursion to New York City to find some dame’s runaway bank account. I’d met Veronica in a little bar, and I’d wanted her from the moment I laid eyes on her. She looked like she’d aged 50 years in the…was it five years since I’d seen her, or more? Numbers faded at that hour. She still looked beautiful as ever. I wondered how’d she’d found me all the way in Chicago, but there would be time for questions later.

“Of course I remember you, doll face. What have you been doing since New York?”

She fell onto a nearby chair and started crying into her hands. I sat back and let her get it out of her system; most of the broads I’d known didn’t want any empathy, they just needed a minute to collect their thoughts. It’s hard to admit when you need a private eye like me. It’s always a last resort.

“So, you wanna tell me what’s brought you here after so many years?” I asked when she’d calmed down. She looked at me, her soft pale skin white as a sheet against the bright red of her tearing eyes.

“I’m looking for my husband,” she said shakily, trying hard not to break down again.

So, she’d gotten hitched to some guy who ran out on her. It made my blood boil to see a sweet, pretty thing like her end up with some deadbeat bastard.

“And you need me to find him?” I asked her. She nodded but said nothing, and then she cried again.

“Come on, don’t worry angel, I’ll find him for you, no problem. But you gotta tell me first why you came here. You could have gotten a private eye closer to home. Why’d you come all the way over here just for me?”

She sniffed and looked at me and smiled. “I don’t want another P.I., Bradley, I want you,” she replied. I grinned at her.

“I think of you whenever the nights are too long, doll,” I said to her. I realized it was probably true, but the woman in my thoughts never had a face. Hers would fit perfectly.

She sighed and grinned a grin of pure sadness. “I guess it’s too late now though, huh?”

“I guess so,” I said. “So, you got a picture of this guy so I can find him?”

She stood and nodded, then opened her purse and pulled out a photo. “It’s from our wedding,” she said.

I looked at it once. Something about the groom struck me as odd, but I couldn’t quite place it. It was as if I knew the guy, like I’d seen him before. Then she came over to me, kissed me tenderly on the lips.

“The kids will see you soon,” she said quietly.

I didn’t know what she was talking about. I guessed it was some New York slang that hadn’t caught on in Chicago yet.

“I’ll call you when I get a lead, angel,” I said.

She nodded and stepped to the door.

“I love you, Bradley. Try to remember that, will you?”

I didn’t reply. My eyes were at the picture again.

“Time for bed, Mr. Mason.” I looked up. Veronica was gone, and Tina had taken her spot in the doorway. She knew I was too tired to drive home. That’s why I kept her around.

“Thanks, kid. I need to concentrate on this picture some more.”

Tina glanced at it and smiled. “That’s lovely, Mr. Mason. I didn’t know you were married.”

“Neither did I.”

She led me to my cot, and I slipped down between the sheets with the picture still in hand as she flicked off the lights. From my bed, I could see out the window and into the parking lot, and I watched as Veronica got into her car and drove away.