Son of a Pitch Entry #2: Jake Whittaker, PI #sonofapitch #newadult

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​Title:  Jake Whittaker, PI
Category and Genre:  NA PI
​Word Count:  55,000

Query: 
Jake bumbles his way in most of his PI cases, but he solves them in the end—even if it may end up completely silly! 

250 Words:   

She wasn’t cute, she wasn’t ugly.  She didn’t look confident, she didn’t look scared.  She was maybe ten years old, with a short, faded dress over baggy tights. Looking into her big eyes, there were two things I was sure of:  She had problems, and I don’t deal with kids.

It was late on a summer night as she stood in the doorway of my office, first staring at me and then at the lettering on the door that said “Jake Whittaker, Private Investigations.”  I stared back, willing her to disappear.

She closed the door and moved toward my desk.  “Are you Jake Whittaker?”

“Yeah.”

“They said in the deli you might be able to help me.”

Oh boy!  “Look, kid,” I said, “I don’t work for free.  I cost more an hour than your whole year’s allowance.”

Damn if she didn’t burst out crying.  She just stood there with shaking shoulders and tears dripping on the floor.  She bobbed around, shifting her legs up and down, one at a time.  A strand of dark hair escaped from the rubber band at the back of her neck.  Her thin cheeks were pale, and she looked tired and hungry.  Now she looked more ugly than cute and more scared than confident.

Then I sucker-punched myself by saying, “Okay, let’s talk about it.”  I pointed to the torn seat on the client chair and got up to search through the debris on top of the file cabinet.