UNDERCOVER The Secret of Luck by James Kipling

office, he wanted to do one more thing. He had to talk to the office lobby guy who smiled at him in the morning that he really respond to with good nature. He walked up to the office lobby and found the lobby handler clearing out his table. His shift was drawing to a close.
    “Tom. A word with you.” said John, leaning on the table a bit.
    “Mr. Russo. Hello sir. Is there a problem that I can help you with?” asked Tom, in his usual courtesy. As the lobby handler, it was his job to be the single point of contact for all its tenants, as well as visitors. He was like Sheila, except that he was in charge of the whole building, instead of just one single office.
    “There is no problem with my office, Tom. I just thought about this morning. I guess I was pretty rude. Sorry about that.” said John, his words coming out of him haltingly.
    Tom’s face turned into something else completely. He was actually disappointed this morning. John happened to be one of the few tenants of his building who were nice to him. Tom also looked up to John because of his job. Tom thought that it was pretty cool that John Russo was a private detective. Of course, Tom did not know that right now, John was in some kind of a career crisis.
    “That actually makes me feel a lot better, Mr. Russo. Thank you!” said Tom with a bright smile.
    “You are welcome, Tom. Well, looks like you are done with your shift for the day. I will see you around, Tom.” said John, walking away from the table, waving at Tom.
    Tom did the same and returned to clearing out his table. “That’s three folks who are taken care of. That leaves the janitor, and finally, the office receptionist.” said John to himself. He got into the elevator, and as luck would have it, the janitor was inside it.
    “Hello, sir. Glad to see you again. I was just about to come to your cleaning station at the back of the office.” said John, smiling at the janitor who was secretly something of a real estate millionaire.
    “Hello, detective, how are you? You seem a lot better than this morning.” said the janitor. He was still wearing his torn jeans that were stitched in so many places. His cleaning uniform was a lot dirtier than it was when John saw it earlier that morning.
    “Actually, I am.” said John, pressing the button to his floor. The janitor also seemed to be heading to one of the top floors.
    “I just wanted to say thank you for the advice you gave me this morning. It has really helped me a lot. I decided to have a chat with my father and things are actually better. I have been making amends all around.” said John.
    “Glad I could help, detective.” said the janitor, returning the smile.
    The elevator reached the office floor. John shook the hand of the janitor and then walked straight to his office, past the client waiting room where he would normally find Sheila working on her tablet. She wasn’t there, since John requested her to leave early. John went to his office desk, picked up his phone and called Sheila. The phone rang a few times but wasn’t answered. John called again, and it was answered by Sheila after two rings.
    “Boss. I was in the shower. I wasn’t expecting you to call.” said Sheila. John thought her voice sounded different, almost like someone had hurt her. John felt bad about his behavior after hearing her voice.
    “Sheila, thanks for answering the call. I need to discuss something important with you.” said John.
    “I will be in the office in less than an hour. I will leave right away.” said Sheila, managing half her usual voice. John was further convinced he had managed to upset her that morning.
    “That won’t be necessary, Sheila. If it is alright with you, I will come and see you at your apartment. Would that be okay?” asked John.
    “That would be perfectly fine, Boss. I will have coffee waiting for you when you get here.” said Sheila. John said bye and ended the phone call. He grabbed his car keys and went straight to the