Alistair Stone was sleeping soundly when the call came though .He hadn’t been expecting it; his P.I. business hadn’t had a customer in almost two months. The shock caused him to fall from his chair, where he had been napping, to the hard wooden floor. From there he answered the phone. The caller was a distressed sounding woman. Her name was Rachel Duncan and she needed his help. Nearly a month ago she had come home to find that her jewels had been stolen. He asked if she had contacted the police yet. She had, and they had no suspects or leads. Alistair agreed to take the case, he didn’t have anything else to do and he was running low on cat food funds. The P. I. could feel his Persian, Mr. Snuggles boring holes into the back of his skull. An hour later, the black haired man was standing outside one of the priciest apartment buildings in New York. The doorman let him stating the Miss Duncan was expecting him. He rode the elevator up with a young boy and his nanny. The nanny, a pretty blond attempted to flirt with him. Alistair ignored her advances. They got off three floors before him. He rode the elevator all the way to the penthouse. He knocked on the door. An aging red headed woman opened it. He showed her his card and she allowed him to enter. Once they were both seated in the seating room, Alistair

asked, "Can you tell me exactly what happened?" Ms. Duncan nodded and began her story, "I had just returned home form a late dinner and show with friends. Around eight-ten. I left early because my arthritis was acting up. I walked into my bedroom and found the thief escaping through an open window." Did you leave this window open?" Stone asked writing what she had told him, inhis small notebook. "Never. I have A/C, besides it was a cool night".

The detective sunk deep into thought. Something about the case’s details bothered him. They were too familiar. Theft occurred in a high class home on the top floor. The thief had entered and escaped through an open window. A window the victim claimed they never . Duncan quietly asked if he could help her. Alistair replied, that he had agreed he would and would do his best. "Could I see where the theft took place?" She nodded and showed him to her bedroom. Alistair looked over every inch of the room. The jewellery had been kept in a safe; the only one who knew the commotion was Ms. Duncan herself. Again this seemed familiar to the man he just couldn’t put his finger on it. He told Rachel he needed sometime to review the evidence. Alistair left; taking a cab back to his there he paced back and forth telling Mr. Snuggles all about the case. It was a habit he had picked up when he first joined the force. He was racking his brain trying to remember why those details struck a cord with it hit him like a ton of bricks, Lisa Marks. The little… was up to her old tricks again. I guess getting shot in the leg didn’t slow her down any, Alistair mused.

He dialled up one of his old friends in high places and asked her to search Lisa Marksand all her aliases. One turned up a hit - Lisa Dott 104 East Broadway. Once he finished up with that, he called Ms. Duncan. The P.I. informed her that he was on the verge of catching the thief and returning her jewels.

The next day after feeding his cat. The he headed out to his ex-lover’ apartment. Two NYC detectives met his there. They introduced themselves as Detective Cane and Jones.“ We have a warrant for her arrest. Hopefully we’ll be able to keep her this time.” Cane said as they climbed the stairs to the 4th floor.“They had two years to get a case against her together.” Alistair told banged on the door. When no one answered Jones kicked in the door. Theysplit up and searched the apartment. Alistair found her dead body with a bullet wound to the chest. A small revolver lay on the floor beside her.

“Lisa, Damn”

Cane called out saying he had found the stash of jewellery. He rushed into the room stopping short.“We got her”, Alistair the jewellery was returned to it’s rightful owners. They never found who killed Lisa Marks but nobody really tried that hard. Mr Snuggles got fed and Alistair went on working as a P.I. He never forgot the sight of the only woman he ever love lying dead

though. He didn’t think he ever would either.