The Egyptian Key

[COLOR="Red"]So, I had to write a story like the Maltese Falcon. After writing 9 pages, I said to myself, dang, this could go forever, so I stopped it real quick like.

The Egyptian Key
Clint Gats was sprawled on his green couch. His face was calm. He was in a deep sleep in his office. He had just spent the previous night gathering information about a case they had just gotten. A client had come to them early in the morning. She was a pretty blonde, but for some reason, her face showed the signs of distress. Her blue eyes darted around the room, only settling when Clinton talked to her. Clint was somewhat new to the business. His friend, Tobias Hunt, assured him that there was money to be made solving other people’s problems. Tobias also mentioned that Clint’s natural abilities would be perfect to make this job happen. To be totally honest, Clint only really took the job as Tobias’ sister would be their receptionist. He had harbored a liking for her ever since he had seen her. But she was all profession and told him when she first signed up for the job that she would not fall for him under any circumstances. Sighing in his sleep, Clint was remembering the blonde lady and what she told them. She called herself Ms. Aran. Ms. Aran was ushered in by Lindsay, Tobias’ sister and Ms. Aran immediately began to talk frantically, as if there would be someone listening and they would attack her at any moment.
“Um… I- I need you to t-take care of a little problem I have. You see- Well- The thing is- The thing is that I think I’m being followed. My father is an important figure from my hometown and I’d like someone to watch over me as I go about on my day to day dealings.”
“Sure lady, I’m sure I could protect you from the bad men.” Tobias told her promptly, his brown eyes boring into her. Clint knew what he was thinking about.
“Lady, I think we could help you. Tobias used to wrestle in High School, and I think he has a black belt in some martial art or whatever.” Turning to Tobias, “I hope you’ll deal nicely to the bad men that seem to distract our Ms. Aran.” She thanking them repeatedly and pulled out a wad of cash. She hurriedly pushed it towards Clint, who realized it was quite a sum, too much for a simple shadowing. They all stood up, shook hands, and Ms. Aran, with Tobias following her out. After the two of them left, Clint approached Lindsay. “What do you think about her?”
“It doesn’t really matter what I think, as long as Tobias doesn’t get hurt and I get my paycheck.” Her brown eyes glinted for a second as it seemed a thought crossed her mind. “Well, it is late, and time to close up. I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Sure. Actually, now that you mention it, I’m going to see if there is really anything that could possibly want to hurt Ms. Aran.” On this note, they both started to leave. They both reached the office door at the same time and bumped into each other quite awkwardly. Clint mumbled an apology, with no response from Lindsay. Maybe another day though Clint. After getting her a taxi back to her house, Clint went to his bar. At the Captain’s Steering Wheel, Clint gained his knowledge on anything he might be interested in. He was long time friends with the owner. They both grew up together. Now, he actually had a use for her bar rather than getting a drink on late nights. He entered the Steering Wheel, and was greeted cordially by his childhood friend, Jane.
“Hey there, Handsome. What can I get ‘cha?”
“Just information right now, maybe I can come back later for a drink.” Her ability to get information was helped by two things. First, she owned a bar. Under the influence, men would tend to say things that are of importance, and being around them all the time, she could find out anything that was going on in the underground, from the Mafia’s dealings to what meats there were at the deli. She was also helped by her bosom, which lead men to be a little more open.
“Whom do you need information on?”
“Ever hear of an Aran before?”
Her hazel eyes panned the ceiling, appearing to think. “Nope, sorry honey. Why? A new client?”
“Sort of. I think she has something more going on behind than what she appears to show. For example, for a simple trail, she overpaid by quite a considerable sum. Tobias is with her now, shadowing her.”
“That sounds like him. I bet he wouldn’t just shadow her.” They both laughed.
“Well, thanks Jane. I’m going to poke around outside. Call me if you hear anything.”
“No problem, Sweetie. Come by for a drink later.”
“Hm-kay. Bye.” Clint walked outside. It had begun to drizzle slightly. He let out another sigh. He just didn’t know what to do about this new case. Walking around, he bumped into a man who was jogging quite quickly as if he had done something and was trying to escape it. At the moment of impact, the faced each other for a brief second and looked each other in the eyes. The man’s held a look of horror. Intrigued, Clinton ran after him, making sure that the man didn’t noticed that he was being trailed. Eventually, the man entered an apartment complex. He did not speak to the doorman, but instead hurried into an open elevator. Clint waited and watched the numbers and saw the man stopped at the fourth floor. He quickly called down the elevator, and pressed the button for the fourth floor also. After a short period of time the doors opened, signaling the fourth floor. Clint took one step and heard a gunshot. Clint hung his head, turned around, and pressed for the first floor. On his way out, he told the doorman to call the cops and an ambulance. After all this commotion, Clint noticed that dawn was beginning to streak across the sky. Knowing his apartment to be too far to walk to, he started back for the office. There, he lay down on his green couch. His green-grey eyes looked around the room once before he drifted off into sleep.
He awoke to Tobias shaking him. “What’s the matter, Bub?”
“This.” He tossed a paper at Clint. Clint opened it slowly, as he was still groggy. The front page had the title, “MAN MURDERED- P.I. MIGHT HAVE OFFED HIM.” Clint quickly scanned the page. It mentioned his name and connected him to the murder as a possible suspect. While reading, there was a knock on their office door. Clint and Tobias both stood and went to the door. Staring through the peephole, their buddy on the force was standing there, smoking a cigarette. Cid Barker always gave them a heads up. They gave Cid a heads up. Both benefitted. They opened the door.
“How the heck am I supposed to keep them offa your back, ya’ bastard. I could barely slip away and come here. What happened? Better tell me the truth, or your sorry behind will be making cozy some piece of concrete.” His grey eyes, like the smoke that he was exhaling, were searching his friends up and down.
“I didn’t kill him.”
“Like hell you did. Why’d you kill him?”
“I didn’t.”
Cid stared at him. “All right, then why were you there? You’d better be telling the truth.”
“I had a hunch.”
“For Christ’s sakes! I have hunches but then I don’t go around and get accused of murder.”
“You just believe me.”
“Whatever, you’d better find out soon enough.” Cid left. Tobias turned to Clint. Clint just shook his head.
“So, Tobias, what happened last night?”
“Want to know all of what happened last night?”
“Ya dog, just tell me what I need to know.”
“Nothing. No one was following her and not much else happened. She bumped into a guy, and he got spooked, but then nothing. He went back to looking like he did before.”
“Where is she right now?”
“At her apartment, where I left her.”
“Let’s visit her.” After a cab and a short walk, they arrived at her apartment complex. They went straight to her room. The door was slightly ajar and the men walked cautiously towards it. Clint pushed in the door. The room was empty. “You sure this is where you left her?”
“Sure as can be. Whatever though, it doesn’t concern us anymore. She is outta our hair and we got paid to babysit for a couple of hours. I’m going home.” Tobias walked out of the door. Clint couldn’t shake the feeling that something was out of place. He looked high and low around the apartment. At last, he spied a card tucked in between two books. It was for another apartment complex. On the back were two words, “Call Q.” He hurried down. He walked briskly towards a cab that was waiting outside and told the driver the address of the other complex. Just a little bit of time later, he was there. He walked in.
“Is a Mister Q in the building?” He asked the doorman.
The doorman stirred from his spot on his seat. His corpulent body jiggled when he tried moving. “Yeah, want to see ‘im?”
“Sure, tell him I’m coming up.” Clint went into the elevator. Q met him in his penthouse.
“Ah, the fabled murderer. How are you? It seems that you decided to bump off a man of mine. Now, tell me. Where is my key?” Q was a slim man. He had a receding hairline and his voice was soft. His reddish brown eyes were hidden behind his glasses.
“Yeah, the key. I can give it to you, but not now. What do you want with it? I suppose it isn’t that pretty anyway for a key.”
“The key is just a key. Keys usually open things, like this one does. Now, when can I have it?”
“Later, Bub. I’ll come back and give it to you. What do I get for it?”
“I’ll help you out of your problems and give you something on the side.”
“How much?”
“Enough.”
“I’ll get it to you later today.”
“Good.” Clint left. He returned to his office, whereupon he found Ms. Aran. She looked more distraught than last time. Her blue eyes searched the room more and more. “I know everything. What is your part in all of these shenanigans?”
“Oh, Mr. Gats, you wouldn’t understand. I just thought it would be the best course of action. It was just easy money, and not really hard to find. I-I thought that after I left they would just leave me alone. B-But they wouldn’t and didn’t. Oh, what am I to do? I need your help Mr. Gats. Please, take pity and help me. I-I…” He took her into his arms. “I-I have this, but, I don’t know whether or not I should give it back to Mr. Q.” She handed him an unsightly looking key. He palmed it quickly.
“Thanks, Doll.” He stood there, with her in his arms for a bit of time. He then separated from her. “Go get some rest.” After she left, he went back to the Wheel to talk with his informant. Jane was in as always and her hazel eyes seemed to light up when he produced the key he had in his pocket.
“That’s the Egyptian Key. Supposedly, it is the key to a chest that was held in a famous Egyptian’s tomb. The chest was stolen some time ago, but no one has had the key before. I don’t know the whereabouts of the chest, so that is up to you. Where’d you get the key from?”
“I found it. Thanks Jane for the info.” Their eyes locked for a moment. “I’ll see you later.” Clint left. He travelled to Lindsay’s house. After knocking on the door a couple of times, Lindsay finally answered.
“What do you want?”
“Hold this for me.”
“Why?”
“’Cause I’m your boss and this isn’t the time to argue. Now take this dang key, and be ready when I call for it. I’ll call you later.” Clint turned around and left. Lindsay was staring after him, her brown eyes trying to figure him out. He was gone before she could figure anything out really about him. Clint reached a phone booth and called Cid. “Cid, I need you to be ready whenever I call within the next hour or so. Can you…? Why…? Cid, you don’t you just… Fine, just wait for it…” He hung up. “Hello, Tobias? I need you to get Ms. Aran. Meet you back at the office. ‘Kay… Be quick, ya’ hear? See you then…” “Mr. Q? Yeah, I got the key. Meet me in an hour and a half. My office. Yeah… Bye…” After making all the necessary calls, Clint put down the phone and breathed a sigh of relief. He muttered, “I hope to God this works.”
Tobias arrived first with Ms. Aran. Both seemed slightly confused. Mr. Q then arrived. As soon as he walked through the door, Ms. Aran began to squirm next to Tobias. Clint, in order to alleviate the sudden stress in the environment started speaking, “Now, ladies and gentlemen, we are gathered here together to commemorate our…”
“Just get on with it.” Mr. Q was anxious for the key.
“All right, don’t worry Mr. Q.”
“Actually, I’ve had something brought here. I wanted to see as soon as possible. Now, where is that key?”
“I’ll send for it right now.” Clint walked over to the phone. “Lindsay, darling, bring it over now, please.” To Mr. Q, “She’ll be here in about 15 minutes. But, I do need to know one thing. Ms. Aran, you killed the man in the apartment. That’s why you got the key. I don’t know why you needed it, or how you knew him, but I have it now.”
“I never did such a thing.”
“Now,” Tobias wheeled her around, he seemed to get his partner’s drift as soon as Clint started talking, “You’d better tell the truth, or else. See, I got to know too. You told me something completely different than what is occurring here right now.”
“I never even met him!”
“Look, we all know you did something, and we need to know what.”
“I- I don’t even know how to use a gun…”
“Then what else could you have killed him with that makes the exact same noise as a gun, leaves a wound such as a gun, and looks like a gun?”
Her blue eyes were downcast. “Fine, I only did it because he threatened to kill me if I didn’t give him the key. It was self-defense, I swear.”
At this point, Mr. Q’s men had arrived. Lindsay also came at the same time. Clint handed over the key and Mr. Q brought it to the box his men had brought. He opened the box, and in it, was a chest. It was most intricately inlaid. “This, my friends, is the stuff dreams are made of.” He lifted the key to the hole, but suddenly, Cid and some other cops busted in.
“Party is over ladies and gentlemen.” Turning to Clint, “Sorry, Clint, but I couldn’t wait any longer. But now we got all of them. We heard everything. We’ll wrap this up.” After about an hours worth of effort, the office was empty, except for Clint, Tobias, and Lindsay.
“I’m going home.” Said Lindsay
“Same. G’Night everyone.” Tobias replied. They both left. Clint grabbed his coat, and hat, and walked out. He went straight to the bar.
“Hard day?” Asked Jane with her caring hazel eyes.
“No, just like any other. Your Clint’s just a detective, and today was a normal day.”
[/COLOR]

Well, it's all in red, and there is a lot of text, so I didn't necessarily read it...
But it's okay if it goes past 9 pages. If it does, then you can publish it! (But not in red.)
I'm just skimming, and it seems interesting, although I've never watched/read the Maltese Falcon.
Why is it called the Egyptian Key? If you are gonna stop, stop after at least explaining the title.

Sorry all I see is Red.

I just named it a random county and item, just like the falcon in the book. I believe you can also turn off other people's font colors in your user cp.

Ah. Does the Maltese Falcon ever mention anything avian-related?
If they do, so should you. (cool, that rhymes.)