Flying burritos, the food not the band, have a special significance at our PI agency

Years ago, while conducting one of our first surveillances, my PI-partner insisted he wanted a burrito.

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know I’m into the details, he’s into the big picture. That combo works great for a PI team, although it can also cause friction. On that chilly morning, as we were driving to our destination, I told him that as much as I understood his desire to have a burrito, we were going to be on surveillance together in the same vehicle and why not eat, say, a granola bar instead of a burrito?

“But it’s cold out and I want a warm burrito,” he insisted, “and besides, there’s a cool burrito stand right on the way, we can just drive through, zip zap, order me a burrito, and not lose a minute of time getting there.”

Probably no surprise he’s now a lawyer. They have a way of adding details to their side of the story so they can win.

I am so a lawyer.

I didn’t want to argue, decided to zip-zap this burrito issue by driving through the burrito stand. My partner was very happy.

But he didn’t just order a burrito…nooooo…he ordered a smothered burrito. A burrito with all kinds of chili, sour cream, guacamole piled on top of it. I told him we were almost to our destination, so please wait to eat the mess until we were stopped.

We stopped on a side street we’d picked for this surveillance. My partner opened up his to-go bag and the aroma of beans and chili flooded the car.

We’d planned for this to be a stationary surveillance, meaning we thought we’d be staying put, not moving, for several hours watching a residence. To my surprise, the subject exited his house and got into his shiny Lincoln town car.

I started the engine. “Hold on,” I said.

My partner nodded, his mouth full of burrito.

The Lincoln town car backed down its driveway, pulled onto the street and took off.

I waited until the Lincoln had turned a corner, then I pulled a U. ”Here we go!” I said, stepping on the gas.

I heard a muffled yell next to me.

Glancing over, I saw that smothered burrito now smothered my partner. He was covered in smother — chili, beans, salsa, guac on his pants, jacket, face, hands…

I kept driving, following the Lincoln.

That case had a happy ending…

We’d been hired by a man to find his baby (the mother, a citizen of another country, decided right after the child was born to take the baby and disappear…sources said she hadn’t left the U.S., however). In the course of numerous surveillances, we finally did locate the baby, and through the man’s attorney there was a heartfelt reunion between the father and his child. Last we heard, the mother left the country and the girl, now eight years old, lives full time with her dad.

My partner also learned to never eat burritos, especially smothered burritos, while on surveillances.

In my current mystery novel, THE ZEN MAN, private investigator Rick Levine is charged with first-degree murder. Out on bail, he has 30 days to find the real killer or face certain life imprisonment. On a short “time leash,” what is the most critical action Rick can take to find the real killer? I’ll sum it up in one word: interviews.

Writing and Living the PI Life

Just as Rick and his lady love are a PI team in THE ZEN MAN, my PI business partner is also my husband (probably no surprise I wrote a Nick-and-Nora whodunit). In our investigations business, interviews are critical for finding witnesses, tracing missing persons and more. For Rick, a lapsed attorney skilled at cross-examination, interviewing key suspects is a tool to pry open possible motives and hopefully reveal the true killer.

People’s Words, Even Those They Don’t Speak, Are Powerful

Interviewing is more than asking a set of questions. It’s an art. Even with all of today’s whiz-bang technology, people’s words are still the most powerful declaration of where they stand – and what they know. Even the words a person chooses not to speak can speak volumes to his/her motive, who they’re protecting, and what they’re hiding.

Interviewing People Who Are Fearful or Angry…or Hiding Secrets

But just because a person is willing to be interviewed doesn’t mean the interview goes smoothly. People can have a variety of reactions, from shyness to anger, over being the subject of an interview. Often, people are afraid the investigator is going to drag them into court and they’ll have to testify on the stand, or they’re afraid of getting somebody else into trouble…or as in THE ZEN MAN, they’re working hard to hide deadly secrets.

Which means a private investigator must be skilled at coaxing information from people. Maybe Sam Spade could grumble, lecture and rant at people, but if a PI wants to successfully wheedle confidences from people, the PI must be part psychologist, part confidante, part actor.

Traits that describe Rick as he cajoles, coerces, and charms dark and dirty secrets from others in THE ZEN MAN. Secrets he must bring to the surface not only to find the real killer, but to save his own life.

Like the day I tracked a felon across three counties with no whiz-bang technology tools or techniques. Just me driving my car, following his.

It started out as a two-vehicle surveillance, which is smart when you’re conducting a mobile surveillance (also called a “rolling” surveillance — we write in detail about conducting different kinds of surveillances in How to Write a Dick). My PI-partner was in one vehicle, I was in another. We had walkie-talkies (which we never use anymore…and in fact, I was never all that wild about using them anyway as they were cumbersome and, well, obviously walkie talkies). But that day we decided we’d use walkie talkies as we didn’t know how long the mobile surveillance might be and we didn’t want to constantly use our cell phones (at the last minute, my partner realized his cell phone was low on power).

We needed to serve the felon legal papers that day for a first-degree assault trial for which he was the key witness. The felon had no traceable record for a residence or work place (was probably crashing somewhere, maybe got paid under the table at some job). Fortunately, we knew the address where the felon was visiting that day, thanks to a tip from a source.

We saw him leave the house. He looked like a super-sized Jesse James. A Sasquatch with tattoos. He got into his bad-ass Buick Regal with tinted windows and a license plate that read “2TUFF” and peeled out. Vanity license plates are great — a visible flag that aids surveillances.

We started our engines and followed.

When we’re conducting a mobile surveillance, we have techniques we use (swapping places in front/behind the subject vehicle; if one of us gets stopped at a stoplight, the other might take side-streets to catch up with the subject vehicle; and so forth). The latter situation happened almost immediately. My partner had to stop at a stoplight while felon zipped right through. I took a side street to hopefully find him a few blocks ahead.

I found him. The Buick passed right in front of me — I turned right and followed.

Several miles later, as I cautiously kept my distance while tracking the Buick, I radioed my partner. The walkie talkies only worked within an 8-mile radius, so I was getting concerned about our losing contact. My partner was way, way behind me…had gotten caught in traffic and more stop lights. I told him I’d keep radioing my location so he could follow my path.

Fifteen minutes later, I lost radio contact. My partner was outside the 8-mile radius.

But I was still tailing the Buick, which had crossed one county line.  I called my partner on my cell phone, gave him my location. He reminded me his cell was low on power. We agreed to keep cell phone calls short, long enough to relay location information.

I tracked the Buick into a second county. He was driving into the country. Not a great scenario for a rolling surveillance as it’d soon be obvious the same car was following him. Where possible, I let other cars get between us, but not too many that I couldn’t still see the Buick. This worked for a while.

We entered a third county. Now we were out in the middle of nowhere. A single thread of asphalt road through farm country. Dude was speeding. I kept up, trying to keep my distance, but it was obviously now just the Buick and my vehicle. Either he thought he was immune to being followed, or he rarely checked his rear-view mirror, or he knew he was being followed and was leading me somewhere.

The latter worried me.

I decided when he stopped, I’d make my decision then on the safety of the situation.

And I wondered if that old stun-gun we kept under the front seat of the car still worked.

Did the stun gun still work?

He turned down a dirt driveway leading to a farm house. I drove past and stopped farther down the road. Through a pair of binoculars, I checked out the farm house. Looked like a lot of vehicles parked behind it. People milling about. A lot of people. Men and women. People laughing.

Okay, it looked safe. Relatively speaking.

I drove back, headed down the dirt road and stopped. Felon was standing with group of guys at the end of the driveway, looking like extras from the Sons of Anarchy set. Some women — also in leather and tattoos — stood on the porch. I grabbed the papers, stuck them in my shirt pocket and got out of the car.

With a smile, I walked up to felon and said his name. He frowned, then nodded in acknowledgement.

I pulled out the papers and handed them to him. “You’re served.”

He gave me a dumb look. “How’d you find me?”

There were several wisecrack remarks I was tempted to say, but those are better quipped in the movies. Instead I wished him a nice day, headed back to my vehicle and started the long drive home.

Today at Terry’s Place, a fellow mystery author’s blog, I posted the following Valentine’s Day article “Lust, Ethics, and the Private Eye.” Everybody who leaves a comment between today and this Friday, Feb. 17, is eligible to win a free copy of THE ZEN MAN.

An excerpt of the blog article is below.

Lust, Ethics & the Private Eye

Being a private investigator as well as a writer, and that it’s Valentine’s Day, I thought it’d be interesting to discuss the pros and cons of private investigators and their chosen love interests. We read about these entanglements in stories all the time — from Sam Spade falling into the sack with a wide variety of dames to private eyes conducting more serious affairs with police detectives, clients, even other PIs. Although there aren’t always legal restrictions, there are often ethical ones in such romantic liaisons.

Let’s first look at the implications of a private investigator getting involved with a law enforcement officer.

Romance with a Law Enforcement Officer

I recently finished a wonderful private eye novel by Jeff Shelby (Liquid Smoke) that features a private eye whose girlfriend is a police detective. Although the police-detective-girlfriend was interested in her boyfriend-PI’s case, she knew better than to get overly involved because her participation in the case had the potential to undermine a legal proceeding. Besides, her department had already assigned other detectives (and the department, knowing about her involvement with the PI, had purposefully not assigned her to work the case as well).

Why were the department and girlfriend-detective being cautious? Because if a romantically involved PI and officer are on different sides of a case, and share–or even appear to share–case information, it can compromise the integrity of both the defense and the prosecution in the trial judge’s eyes. More important, the defendant, after learning that the prosecution and defense investigators were bed partners, could file for a new trial.

Romance with a Client

Lawyers, physicians, accountants and psychologists cannot legally get involved with their clients because those professional-client relationships are interwoven with significant trust. However, in many jurisdictions, there is no legal ban forbidding a PI getting involved with a client.

Even without legal prohibitions, there are powerful reasons why a PI should scrupulously avoid romantic entanglements with clients. Probably the most critical reason is the PI’s loss of professional objectivity. After all, clients hire PIs to make factual discoveries, not be advocates of their versions of events.

Additionally, when an attorney retains the services of a PI, the PI then becomes an agent of that law firm, and the PI’s conduct is covered by the attorney’s code of professional responsibility. If the PI were to get romantically involved with a client, the attorney could be viewed as authorizing the investigator’s sexual misconduct with a client, and the attorney could easily lose his/her license.

But as Terry’s Place has a large following of writers, let’s chat a moment about several juicy plot implications of having a private eye getting steamy with a client:

(To read the rest of this article, click here)