At least, in using wither of her devices, a tablet, and a smartphone, she fitted in with everyone else. All she needed was a stack of books in front of her.
First on the agenda was the man named Lorenz, and typed in the name in the search box and waited for the number of hits.
Nearly 22 million. She had to break that down and then added ‘name’ to the search.
6.8 million. Great, she thought. She scanned the first six or seven pages, and most were about the meaning of the name, and the rest were about Florence in Italy.
Nice thought, a trip to Italy. She’s been once with her parents years ago, and they had gone to Florence, Pisa, Tuscany, Rome, and Sorrento. She had loved Sorrento the best.
Enough daydreaming.
This wasn’t working. She needed to have more information about who the person was. She was not even sure Florenz was male or female, though the odds were on the former if they were a golfing partner.
Then she had an idea, professionals gravitated towards other professionals in those fields like medicine, law, accounting, upper management. Florenz had to be one of those. They also had to be in the New York area, because of the fact they played golf.
Twenty minutes later she had him. Emil Florenz. Doctor, not of the strictly medical sort, but a psychiatrist, aged 50, not married, and liked to be seen with beautiful women. One photo that did catch her eye was Florenz with Harry’s mother.
Not recent, but many years ago, when they were at University together, and presumably before she met Harry’s father. She took out her notepad and scribbled, “bet mother and Florenz have reacquainted’.
Yes, that was certainly the look of love in those eyes, Felicity thought.
Next, she searched for anything else, and found that he was employed at a number of hospitals in outpatient clinics, and the board of one charitable institution,
One that raised a lot of its money from golf tournaments. And, yes, there was a photo of Florenz and Harry’s father, looking like best friends forever.
This guy was squeaky clean, so how could it possibly be the man she was looking for?
Then, scrolling pages quickly to see what else she might find, it had stopped on another photo, this time with three people in it, Florenz on one side, and Harry’s father on the other, but it was the woman in the middle that was of most interest.
Mandy Prenderville.
She knew the name Prenderville. Everyone who was anyone knew that name, and also knew never to go near them. Search over. Investigation over, for now.
Time to go.
In previous surveillance, Felicity knew Corinne usually came out of the main administration block and headed for the subway through a shortcut. She had positioned herself halfway, with a vantage point that would not be seen by Corinne and give her a full view of anyone who might be following her.
It was only an off chance there might be, and a greater chance the afternoon would come to nothing. She did have some of Corinne’s feelings about her father, so it was not a total loss.
She waited, and waited until it was almost as the point when she was about to leave.
It was then she noticed Corinne come out of the administration block with her girlfriend [name] and ambled towards the subway like time didn’t matter. Perhaps for her, it didn’t.
With one eye of the two girls, she kept the other behind them, seeing, checking, and discarding candidates, until the list came down to one. Trying not to look obvious and not very good at it.
It might be a hapless suitor working up the courage to talk to her, but it seemed a little too contrived.
No, that boy or young man was definitely keeping her in his sights. She took a number of photographs of him, and a few as close as the zoom on her phone camera would let her.
It was not a face she recognized.
She joined to procession, keeping back enough distance that if he turned around, she would be just another student going home.
When the girls went down the subway stairs and their heads disappeared from sight, the boy started running towards the stairs.
Felicity adjusted her speed too but didn’t run. That would bring unwanted attention.
When she reached the top of the stairs, the girls were gone, and the boy was looking at destination boards.
She knew where Corinne was going, he did not, but she could just see them ahead, walking amid a group of other travelers. Then the boy saw them and dashed for the turnstile.
She had got through before him and kept him in sight. She didn’t need to worry about where the girls were going like he had to. At the top of the ramp to their train, he had just turned the corner and looking feverishly for them.
A train was in at the station, having just arrived and disgorging passengers, with others waiting to get on. Corrinne and her friend were closer to the front of the train. The boy was now dashing for the train and meeting a headwind, passengers getting off the train before leaving the station.
Then, suddenly, the train doors closed and it left the platform. The boy had been too late and missed the train.
In his haste, he had dropped a piece of paper from his back pocket and she went over to pick it up. Not a piece of paper, but a photograph.
Of Corinne, on the University grounds.
© Charles Heath 2020
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