Twitter / RMMWA with friends

Introduction
This article is a basic introduction to the world of infidelity investigations by private investigators (PIs).  It can be used as a primer for writers folding this type of investigation into a story (for example, a P character is hired to check out a cheating spouse), for the reader to bring more understanding to such scenes in fiction books, or for the curious who’d like to know more about this type of investigative work.

Note: This article is primarily written from a professional PI’s perspective, but it also has a slant toward writers developing PI stories/characters.

So why focus on the world of PIs and cheating spouses?  Because this is the kind of work most people think PIs do.  And actually, for some it is.  One PI says 85% of his clientele are people wanting to know if their spouse is cheating.  At my investigations agency, maybe 15% of our business involves cheating spouses or domestic relations.  We attribute this to how we’ve marketed ourselves (our work emphasis is legal investigations, meaning we work primarily with attorneys and legal communities).  However, in the future, we’ll be taking out ads in phone books, at which time we’re expecting more infidelity inquiries to come in.

PI as Marriage Counselor
When an individual calls and says he/she suspects the spouse is cheating, my investigative partner and myself don’t immediately hop on the case.  First, we’ll discuss the situation with the person in more detail, mostly to hear the person out.  It’s difficult and painful to wonder if your loved one is unfaithful.  It takes a lot of nerve to call a total stranger and discuss intimate details of your life.  Sometimes the person cries.  We don’t think this is the time to go to contract.  We’ll always ask the person to think it over, maybe even try marriage counseling first, then call us back.

We want the person to be absolutely certain they want to put out the expense to know the truth.  And maybe more important, to be certain they really want to know the truth.

The Cheating Checklist
Here’s a checklist of signs that someone may be cheating:
• He needs more privacy than usual.
• She’s starting exercising, losing weight.
• He suddenly has the need to work overtime or late.
• She had chunks of unaccounted-for time.
• He comes home smelling of alcohol or perfume.
• Unexplained credit card charges.
• Unexplained cell phone numbers (typically the philandering spouse will use his/her cell phone for calls to a lover, although there might be unexplained numbers on the house phone, too).
• Diseases.
• Unexplained email addresses or new email services being used by the suspected person.

The list could go on and on–you get the idea.

There are online sites that cater to the broken-hearted, selling everything from investigative services to semen-analysis products to software.  Regarding the latter, evidence obtained by capturing snapshots of chat room conversations or email exchanges isn’t always admissible in court because it can violate privacy and eavesdropping statutes.

Catching the Cheater
When we accept an infidelity case, we request:
• Information about the suspected cheater’s habits, work schedule, days off, etc.
• Photographs of the suspected cheater (and the suspected girlfriend/boyfriend)
• Addresses and phone numbers (suspected cheater’s home, businesses, etc. as well as addresses/phone for suspected girlfriend/boyfriend)
• Any known routes suspected cheater takes on way to work, home, to exercise gym, etc.
• Vehicle descriptions, license plate numbers for suspected cheater (and suspected girlfriend/boyfriend)
• Contact information for client, preferred times to call, private numbers person can be reached at, preferred means of contact (work email, cell phone, etc.)
• Any other pertinent information

As with any other case, we then devise an investigative strategy.  Sometimes the client will call and inform us if the suspected cheater has changed his/her work schedule, or is taking off for a surprise appointment, etc.  We can’t always comply with last-minute schedule changes (which we’ve made clear to the client up front) but if time permits, we do.

Part of our contract is that we’ll provide reports on either a biweekly or monthly basis.  However, we’ll work with the client on a different report scheme as long as it’s appropriate, workable, and legal.  For example, we’ve had clients who like to call periodically and discuss the case.  We don’t mind discussing the current progress on a case as long as the client remains professional and courteous.  Sometimes a client might request an email update the morning after an evening surveillance, and we’re happy to comply.

The most difficult thing we’re ever had to do was tell a client that we had garnered photographic evidence that her husband was being unfaithful.  It had been a lengthy investigation (several months) and the husband (who had a background in military investigations) had covered his tracks exceptionally well, so well we had a final discussion with the wife that we believed her suspicions were unfounded.  We had scheduled one last surveillance, and she asked us to continue with it, and after that we’d terminate our investigative work. 

It was during that very last surveillance that we saw, and photographed, his infidelity.  The wife’s suspicions of his infidelity had been right on—he was involved with her best friend.  We finished the surveillance, did a wrap-up meeting where we discussed how to present the evidence to the client, then made the call.  The client immediately wanted to know if her husband and her girlfriend were still at the location where they’d been photographed (Note: a PI never tells a client, in real time, where her/his spouse is flagrante delicto—remember what happened in Texas when the cheated-on wife ran over her philandering husband three times in the hotel parking lot?).  We explained to our client that the husband and girlfriend had already left the scene, but we had photographic evidence that we would provide.  The client asked that we write up a report, with photos, and send to her private email address.

We’ve since talked to this client and learned that after being confronted with the evidence, he admitted to the affair, and they are now in marriage counseling.  This was a happy ending.  More often, a client’s next call to us is requesting a recommendation for a good divorce lawyer.

Think about how to use infidelity investigations with your fictional PI.  It could be a comic subplot if a subordinate PI broke the cardinal rule and called a client while an investigation was in process.  Or maybe, as we’ve all seen in movies before, a seemingly distraught client hires a PI to watch his/her spouse, when the real reason for the investigation is something darker.

If you’re curious to read more about our infidelity investigative services, go to http://www.cheaterfinders.com.

Colleen Collins is a professional PI by day and a fiction writer by night, often vice versa.

Publisher Viking Penguin hopes his fourth book, ‘Another Man’s Moccasins,’ raises his profile.
By Marc Weingarten, Special to The Los AngelesTimes
July 20, 2008
Posted with Permission

CRAIG Johnson comes as advertised. Standing outside the Autry National Center on a boiling summer afternoon, the Wyoming-based crime novelist is decked out in a long-sleeve shirt made of heavy cotton, scuffed brown boots and a 10-gallon hat that provides shade, but not nearly enough. Spotting his interlocutor, Johnson sticks out his hand and delivers a booming “How ya doin’?!” This is the same Marlboro Man who squints at readers from the window of a beat-up junker truck on the jackets of his four novels, which includes the recently released “Another Man’s Moccasins.”

Johnson was mentally stocking away stories and observations during his two years on the force, then suddenly decided it was time to move West and maybe write a book. He plunked his savings down on a large tract of land in Ucross and decided to build a ranch. Literally, with his own hands. Johnson laid 1,200 logs alone for the beams of his roof. It’s been seven years, but he’s getting there. “That’s a young man’s job,” he said. “If I had built the bulk of it after the age of 40 it would have killed me!”

While building his ranch, Johnson befriended Larry Kirkpatrick, a sheriff in nearby Buffalo, Wyo., to pick his brain about local law enforcement. He got what he needed, then wrote two chapters and shoved them into his desk. It would be nine years before he pulled them out. “I was filling my gas tank one day and there was Larry,” said Johnson. “He shook my hand and said, ‘Aren’t you the guy writing that murder mystery? If you don’t mind me saying so, it’s going kinda slow!’ So I got back to work!”

He finished the rest of “The Cold Dish” in five months, then got lucky when Gail Hochman, a major literary agent who also represents Scott Turow and Julia Glass, loved the manuscript and sold it to Penguin as part of a multi-book deal. Now he’s entertaining movie offers for “Another Man’s Moccasins” and his earlier novels. But for Johnson, publication has been its own reward. “My dream was to be published by the same company that published Steinbeck’s books,” he said. “Just to see that orange spine running along the side of my novels. That was my idea of heaven.”

         Here are the steps I take when plotting a murder mystery.  And, while some of the steps I use are germane to the mystery, most work for any type of novel you’re plotting.

Step 1 — Nail down the genre

         The first thing you need to do is figure out what you’re writing.  Is it a mystery?  If so, you’ll need to have a crime, a protagonist who solves the crime, an antagonist or villain, suspects, clues and a resolution.  If you’re writing a romance, you’ll need a handsome hero and a beautiful heroine, a conflict that keeps them apart, and a resolution.  Same goes with almost any genre you choose—you’ll need characters, conflict and resolution.

Step 2 — Come up with the idea.

         Every story needs an idea—or a theme.  What are you writing about?  I write birdwatching mystery novels, so my books revolve around murders that happen in the bird world.  For example, in my first novel, A RANT OF RAVENS, my idea was to write a story about the illegal trading of peregrine falcons to the Middle East.  In DEATH OF A SONGBIRD, I wanted to write about a coffee company that sells only “bird friendly” coffee.  In A NEST IN THE ASHES, I explore the concept of “prescribed fire.”  My books hinge on environmental themes.   

Step 3 — Generate a story.

         Once you have an idea, you need to generate a story.  In my current novel, DEATH SHOOTS A BIRDIE, I decided to the story would be about Rachel Wilder, whose partner has asked her to get to know one the keynote speakers at the convention she’s attending—a birder later accused of murdering another keynote speaker.  To complicate things, she encouraged her friend Dorothy’s romantic interest in the alleged murderer.  It’s now up to Rachel to unravel the mystery and ferret out who actually killed the keynote speaker before she and her friends end up dead.

This is a good place to develop a log line—a sentence or two describing what your story is about.  I use a modified method of the Gary Provost Sentence, a method created by the late-author and columnist for Writer’s Digest, and documented in How to Tell a Story: the secrets of captivating tales, by Peter Rubie and Gary Provost.

The sentence goes like this:  Once upon a time, something happened to someone, and he decided that he would pursue a goal.  So he devised a plan of action, and even though there were forces trying to stop him, he moved forward because there was a lot at stake.  And just as things seemed as bad as they could get, he learned an important lesson, and when offered the prize he had sought so strenuously, he had to decide whether or not to take it, and in making that decision he satisfied a need that had been created by something in his past.

Step 4 — Create believable characters

         I write a series, so I have a pool of characters to draw from, however when I wrote my first book I had to develop the cast.  In DEATH SHOOTS A BIRDIE, my protagonist is Rachel Wilder, the protagonist from my first book—now divorced, in a new relationship and with her friends at a birding convention set on a coastal Georgia island.  I chose her as my main character for several reasons—she’s the one responsible for involving her friends in a murder case.

         When developing characters, I use a method I learned in a workshop presented in Estes Park.  “Discovering Story Magic” was developed by two writers, Robin Perini and Laura Baker, whose website www.discoveringstorymagic.com provides more information.  The process is to figure out the following for ALL of your characters (minor, major, good or bad, live or dead):

1.     Inciting incident — what starts the story for the character. 

2.     Long Range Goal — this is what the character wants five years from now. 

3.     Short Range Goal —what the character wants right now. 

4.     Fatal Flaw — what is the character’s main flaw, the one that causes him trouble with others? 

5.     Personal Relationship Barrier —an outgrowth of the fatal flaw. 

6.     Worst fear Realized — what is the worst possible thing that could happen (note, it usually goes back to the fatal flaw)?

7.     Epiphany — the resolution, or what your character learns. 

By filling out a chart with these seven items for every character in my book, I know what my characters goals are, and, more importantly, what motivates them!

(FYI — in a mystery, you typically need 5 or 6 suspects, so you have lots of material.)

Step 5 — The story structure, or fleshing out the skeleton.

    This is the main plot.  I start with a grid like this one (again a tool I was offered by Robin Perini):

TP stands for turning point, or places where the story takes a twist.  If you look at the character charts, you’ll find many scenes that you’ll need to insert somewhere in your grid.  Add to that any scenes that have jumped to mind in the course of coming up with your idea—for example,  I knew there would have to be a finding-the-body scene, a scene in the swamp, a scene where the police crawl over a crime scene.  All of these scenes are plugged into the grid in the spots where your reader needs the information. 

STEP 6 — Putting it all together

    Armed with your log line, your character charts and the plotting grid, you now have everything you need to write your novel.  By following the plot grid, you can write a chronological synopsis of your story and prepare a proposal for submission to contests, to agents, and/or to editors.  You’re on your way. 

While plotting may not be the easiest thing to do (trust me, if you’re doing it right, it is hard work), having done the work makes writing the book all that more enjoyable.

Christine Goff is the author of the Birdwatcher’s Mystery series published by Berkley Prime Crime.  Her first two novels were both named finalists for the Willa Literary Award, Best Original Paperback category.  Her current novel, DEATH SHOOTS A BIRDIE, was released in March 2007 and was a finalist for a Colorado Author’s League Best Genre Fiction Award.  For more information on this author, please visit her website at:

www.christinegoff.com.

-Humphrey Bogart as private eye Sam Spade

I used to think most private investigators (AKA PIs, private dicks, private heat, but for this article we’ll stick with the term PI) were like Humphrey Bogart when he played PIs such as Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe: rumpled clothes, edgy attitude, heavy smoker/drinker, stud extraordinaire, a guy quick to draw a gun or cock a fist.  If they didn’t fit that model, they were probably like Jim Rockford (from the ‘70’s TV show “The Rockford Files”): glib-talking, fast-driving, lousy at collecting payments for completed jobs, hating to use a gun unless absolutely necessary (if you’ll recall, Rockford kept his gun in a cookie jar).  Then there were the fictional female PIs like Honey West (drop-dead gorgeous who wore techie devices like a garter belt gas mask) and Emma Peel (drop-dead-gorgeous who had expertise in fencing, sewing, and thermodynamics).

Until I became a real-life PI, I knew which fictional traits were ludicrous (garter belt gas mask?  Hello?), but had no idea if some of the other portrayals I read about or saw on TV or in the movies rang true or not.  Because the PI genre is hot as ever, with writers continually creating new, innovate PI characters and stories, I thought it’d be helpful to highlight a few of the general misconceptions portrayed about PIs on the page or on the screen.

Toward this means, I conducted a survey of real-life PIs whom I asked what misrepresentations they’d like to correct about PIs in the media.  I also added a few perceptions of my own.  Below are our answers (note: I sometimes use “he” and sometimes “she” when referring to a PI’s gender rather than the more cumbersome he/she):

Staying Legal: At least 80% of the PIs I surveyed brought this up as their number one pet peeve.  Fictional PIs are often shown doing illegal things when, in actuality, real-life PIs abide by the laws.  Because if they don’t, they could lose their business and license–a risk no PI wants to take.   

While on this topic, I personally have yet to meet a PI who doesn’t know his legal rights.  If he doesn’t know, he knows how to look up the statute or he has a lawyer buddy/client he’ll call for advice.  No PI worth her proverbial salt goes into a legally-murky situation without knowing exactly what actions are lawful.  Slip-ups and missteps muddy a PI’s reputation, which is perhaps her most critical asset because it reflects both her ethics and skill.

Being Prepared: Colombo (the detective from the ‘70s’ TV series with the same name) always came back again (and again and again) to the witness, before he finally asked the zinger question.   He never seemed to have a plan how to obtain information in one fell swoop.

A real-life PI typically has one shot, and one shot only, at interviewing a witness. There’s no bumbling around—he has to get to the point.  That means being prepared.  When a PI first makes contact with a witness, the PI needs to know the purpose of his questioning as well as the questions themselves.  Sometimes legal investigators (PIs who work for attorneys) will come armed with police reports or past statements by the witness.  For example, sometimes a prior witness statement reveals to the investigator, in the course of the interview, that the witness’s statement has inconsistencies—such conflicts in a person’s story indicate the witness is unreliable.

Surveillance fantasies: PIs scoff at the notion that a solitary PI can effortlessly pull off a successful mobile surveillance (meaning, following someone in a vehicle) for hours and hours.  Mobile surveillances typically require at least two PIs in two vehicles, and even then the success rate (per one PI’s statistics) is 50%.  And yet time and again one will read about (or see in a movie) a PI who magically follows someone who’s weaving in and out of traffic, turning, speeding, zipping through intersections for an entire day!  Try following one of your friends in traffic (especially when you don’t know their destination) and see how easy it is to lose their car.

Business savvy: Too many PI stories ignore that a PI runs a business that entails negotiating and writing contracts, managing money (and sometimes subordinate PIs), buying/upgrading office equipment, writing reports, etc.  First and foremost, a PI has a business relationship with her client that includes all the legal ramifications that come with any customer situation.

Violence: Real PIs don’t hit people first, even if they are mad. In fact, they don’t engage in violence anymore than they engage in burglary or theft. The debate is ongoing within the PI community as to whether to carry guns or other self-defense weapons.

Goin’ It Alone:  Real-life PIs frequently work alone, without Sam Spade’s ubiquitous gal Friday or Jim Rockford’s wise, ex-trucker father.  In fact, many PIs work out of their homes, with their website functioning as their virtual office. 

Make It a Whiskey, Neat:  Real-life PIs don’t all drink like Phillip Marlowe or Sam Spade, and if they were to be slipped a micky, or hit with a sap, they’d be ashamed of their lack of planning.  Most real-life PIs wouldn’t chance dulling their senses as this could be used to denigrate them should they have to testify in court about their observations.

This is a good place to also note things a real-life PI would never do.  If a writer chooses to have her fictional PI do any of these acts, she’s setting up the PI character to be in some deep you-know-what:

A PI who wants to keep his job/license/career/reputation would never:

·       Knowingly assist a criminal

·       Get involved with jury/witness tampering

·       Wiretap

·       Place a surveillance camera in a private place without the target’s knowledge

·       Commit a burglary

·       Slap GPS’s too freely on vehicles

·       Eavesdrop in a private place

·       Use violence to get information

·       Pretend they have evidence that they don’t–the possibility exists that they are going to be asked to produce it by a lawyer or cop

·       Commit any other knowingly illegal act

Hope these facts enhance your understanding of the PI’s world, whether you’re shaping a PI character or curled up enjoying a PI story.   Facts are, after all, what every fictional or real-life PI is after.

Colleen Collins is a PI by day and a multi-published author by night.  To check out her upcoming books, go to www.colleencollins.net.  To check out the next “Writing PIs in Novels” online course she and her PI business partner will be teaching, go to www.writingprivateinvestigators.com.