Sheldon Cooper, P.I.

Here we are another day! Hope everyone is having a good one. Here's the new chapter. Enjoy!

 

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Chapter Two

 

 

            One of the last places I wanted to go was the Cheesecake Factory, but seeing as that’s where Bernadette was I didn’t have a choice. Turning off the car, I was reminded yet again that the check engine light was still on. Buying a new car wasn’t an option. At least Sheldon wasn’t there to remind me yet again of that warning light. I swear if I could, I would muzzle him for car rides. It would make the ride nicer for me if nothing else.

            I went into the restaurant and quickly found out that Bernadette was on her break. Finding her wasn’t the problem. Problem was, she wasn’t alone. Pulling out my cell phone, I took pictures of her and the badly dressed man she was talking with. From the look of him, I reasoned he was another geek. Having been around them and getting more than my fair share of time observing them in their native habitat, I’ve become pretty good at spotting them out.

            Not only was this guy a geek, he was a pissed off one.

            “Where es the fwusher, Bernie?” And he had a really bad speech impediment. Knowing I’d never be able to decipher what the man was saying, I began recording him on my cell phone.

            I crept closer, getting the whole conversation as best as I could on my phone. Before I knew it, he was taking off. I hid off in the unused service station for the empty section they had been arguing. Going over to Bernadette I found her crying. Sighing heavily, I got her a cloth napkin I took it over to her. She sobbed into it, hiccupping every now and again.

            “I got myself into something bad,” she said, her child like voice giving her an air of innocence that was automatically removed with her next words of, “Even worse than the phone sex business! But I can’t make enough money to pay off my student loans! I had to do something…” She began sobbing again and I knew I had no other choice but to take her to see Sheldon. He wouldn’t like it, in fact he would hate it, but chances were he could snap her out of this better than I could. I was, after all, only the muscle in this odd tag team of ours.

            I had her go home early, claiming that she was sick. They let her off right away. It was late enough so that they could do it. And last thing they needed was a sick waitress passing on whatever illness that they had to the customers. She protested, but I told her that I had ice cream and booze where I was taking her. Bernadette went quietly after that.

            “They came to me,” she simpered. “Told me that they knew I was in bad debt with my student loans. They even mentioned how they knew I was in the phone sex business.” Sniffling she breathed, “If my mother ever finds out…” Sighing heavily, she said, “Have you ever seen a pissed off overprotective Catholic mother who just found out that one of her children went wrong? Trust me, it’s bad.”

            “And helping steal an expensive space flusher isn’t?” I inquired.

            Gasping she asked, “You know about that, Penny?”

            I looked into my rearview mirror, spotting a car following us two car lengths back. “Yep,” I answered, popping the ‘p’ at the end of the word. “Why would anyone want to steal something like that? It’s not like it can be used here on planet earth. It’s made for space, right?”

            “Yeah, I know. I didn’t get it either.”

            “And yeah, it’s expensive as all get out,” I replied. “But again, it’s not like there are people out there waiting in line to purchase them.”

            “Howie…”

            “Howie?” I asked, sounding shocked that anyone, let alone a woman, wanted to come up with a nickname for him.

            “Yeah, it’s just my little name for him,” she said, blushing.

            She actually liked that little pervert. Go figure.

            “Howie told me that there were a bunch of different big bids for the new part,” she told me.

            “Hmm, seeing as he got the job, chances are he underbid them for it,” I speculated. “And that can make people a little grumpy.”

            “Oh you can say that again!” That’s when she noticed how I kept looking behind us. “What are you looking at?”

            “There’s a person following us,” I told her. “Hold on tight!” I made a quick and very illegal u-turn.

            I lost our tail and managed to get us over to the apartment building. I rushed her into the building and up the stairs as fast as I could.

            “Why bring me here?” she asked.

            “There’s someone you have to talk to,” I said. “Now get a move on! He goes to bed at a ridiculous hour and I still have enough time to beat him at one game of Halo.”

            We stepped into 4A and Bernadette went straight over to Howard. They went off to the side hugging and she started weeping again. Rolling my eyes I went over to a sour faced Sheldon, pulling out my phone.

            I showed him the pictures as well as the video I took of the argument.

            “Krypke,” he muttered. “I should have known that low life Barry Krypke was involved in this somehow.”

            “Could you make out what he said?” I inquired softly.

            “Yes, in deed I did,” he replied.

            “Well, I’m glad one of us did.” Pausing I added, “We were being followed.” He turned his head slightly. “I got us out of it and lost them, but this can’t be good.”

            “Hmm, yes,” he murmured. “Not good. Leonard!” He came over and joined us. “Go onto your computer and link up with the camcorder you planted on Penny’s vehicle…”

            “What?!” I snapped. “You can’t give me a raise, but you can put a…”

            “Please, Penelope! No dramatics!” He went back to instructing Leonard. “Look at the recording and let me know the license plate of the car following them.” Sheldon looked back to me, stating, “A digital recorder in your car is a sound investment, seeing as your memory is less than perfect.”

            “Okay,” Leonard announced. “We have the digital recording.” He flushed, looking over to Sheldon. “But we have a little problem…” We both went over and saw that the recording was of me and Bernadette. But really, mostly of me. Sheldon and I looked back over to him. “Uh, you didn’t say where you wanted the camera pointed and you just gave me the one…”

            “May I?” I inquired of the brilliant physicist next to me. “I’ve always wanted to say it and right now is like the only time I can with it being true.”

            “As you would say, ‘Go for it’,” Sheldon told me using air quotes around what I would have said.

            I turned to Leonard and snapped, “You idiot!”

            “Am not!” Leonard yelled back at me.

            “Really?” Sheldon’s Texas twang was coming out in full along with his ire. “Leonard, why would I want any sort of recording of Penelope driving her car? We all know how she drives like a maniac in a car that should have been fixed or discarded ages ago. We’ve all seen it! We need to know what she sees and record it for me to view. And that, my comrade, is what makes you an idiot at this time.”

            “I just thought you would like to see video of her singing along with the radio or how the wind plays with her hair…” he said, looking dreamily at me as he said so.

            “Oh my lord, why can’t the boy just stop trying to find his self worth between a girl’s thighs!” Sheldon muttered to himself.

            “Tell me about it,” I commented, walking away. “And just for your information, Doc, the plate said, NEROPHD.” He blinked at me. “It was a vanity plate. Next time just ask.” Looking around I saw that Bernadette and Howard were gone. “What happened? Where are they, Raj?”

            “They left,” he said casually. “Said something about wanting to catch up.”

            Looking over to Sheldon, I saw him rolling his eyes in irritation. “I knew I was going to regret taking this case. The things I do for friends.” Looking at me he announced. “I’m off to bed.”

            “Instructions?” I called to him as he went to the hall to his bedroom.

            “Chances are that Howard has been abducted by this point—that’s his kind of luck,” he said casually. “Fresh and early tomorrow morning at eight…”

            “Eleven,” I corrected him.

            “Eleven,” he said tightly. “You will hunt them both down and bring them back to me at Caltech.”

            “What if Howard hasn’t been abducted?”

            “Trust me,” he stated. “He’s like that girl on Scooby Doo who’s the hostage all the time. He’s been abducted. It’s a given. But if it means a thing, I doubt they’ll kill either of them.”

            “Why are you so sure?” I pressed, walking over to him. “Right now they could be torturing them!”

            “I said they wouldn’t kill them, not that they wouldn’t torture them!” He stepped into his room. “Tomorrow is soon enough for you to go looking for the two.”

            “You owe me a game of Halo,” I reminded him.

            “So you say,” he muttered.

            “Whatever,” I replied and finished with, “It’s too early to hit the hay. I’m off to play Age of Conan.” His door paused at that, even as I was walking away towards the front door of the apartment “Queen Penelope is outta here! G’night, Sheldore!”

            It was on my way out the door that I could have sworn I heard him murmur, “Good night, my queen.”

            I ended up playing Age of Conan for only an hour. I could have played for longer, but I saw that Sheldon was online as well. He needed his rest, I reasoned. As did I, I thought wryly. I was going on a hunt for Howard and Bernadette. To say I wasn’t looking forward to it was an understatement. In truth I don’t know which bothered me more—the thought of either one of them being tortured or the people doing the torturing were to find out that they had no information…Well, that would make them worthless in their captor’s eyes, wouldn’t it? Sighing I went over to the bottle of wine on the fridge in the hopes of just not going to that bad place in my head where I could imagine all the bad things happening for once.

            The wine didn’t help with the images in my head, but at least it got me to sleep.

 

TBC...

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Okay the second chapter is up. Let me know what you think. Leave me a review!!! Thanks and have a great day!