Surveillance was normally completely mindless work.  Slouching down in the front seat of his old car, sipping stale, lukewarm coffee as he tried to both watch for his mark and read his most recent crime novel, it was the sort of task where minutes could easily stretch into hours and days before anything interesting happened.  Even though it was almost always uneventful, it was the sort of uneventful that Jonas didn't mind.  Being hired for surveillance meant that he was being paid to do one of the things that he would normally have done anyhow.  If there had been a way to bring a miniature television into his automobile without the flickering screen catching attention,  he would have never taken on any other kind of job.

However, as much as he enjoyed its Muggle counterpart, Jonas had quickly discovered that surveillance in the magical world was a completely different beast.  Going anywhere in his automobile was completely out of the question.  He felt much more exposed out in the open, especially in Knockturn Alley, where he had stationed himself today.  The area around the Shodding Arms Hotel unfortunately didn't offer much in the way of natural camouflage.  With the exception of the usual hags peddling human teeth or those individuals who were known to be naturally inclined to passing out drunk in the street, Jonas assumed that any sort of constant presence was bound to attract attention. 

Just lurking about was out of the question, so he had grabbed a paperback out of the office and headed out to find somewhere less suspicious to wait.  He had settled on the stoop of a nearby shop under a leathery sign that proclaimed that the usual shopkeeper had gone to lunch.  Judging by the declaration's faded state and the thick cobwebs decorating the windows, the lunch break could begun days or even decades ago, which suited his purpose perfectly fine.  The private investigator would much rather deal with some passerby informing him that the store had closed indefinitely than be plunged into discourse with a returning shopkeeper, in which case he could only hope that he could talk his way out of having to buy any of the giant spiders displayed in the window. 

For now, though, his position offered the perfect vantage point to keep watch on the sagging hotel down the street without being too obvious about it.  The book he'd grabbed had unfortunately proven to be one of Lexus's new witchy Slytherin novels, which was decidedly less interesting than any of his mysteries.  He had given up trying to follow the plot after the first few pages, and was now just bemusedly skimming through it, keeping a mental count of the number of ways that the protagonist would have gotten arrested if her misadventures had happened in reality.

"Nineteen.  Is that even possible at Hogwarts?" he asked out loud, shaking his head amusedly at one particularly ridiculous passage.  If anyone had tried anything like that back in his school days, the Potions Master at the time would have skinned them alive.  "At least no one's reading this for the bloody realism."

James was shopping for potions ingredients to make some more hangover cures.  All he needed now was some acromantula hairs, and he would be done.  Not really planning on going anywhere, he thought he saw the person with Lexus at the Black Chimaera.  He could not remember if he was her employer or something else, but James did remember that they were private investigators.  Wondering what a private investigator would be doing in this area of town, James ambled over to him.  Especially since that was his last stop anyways.

“I do not see you around often.  What brings you here today business or…reading?” James asked clearly surprised at the investigator’s choice of literature.  While James knew that the books were extremely popular, he had thought of them as most males think of romance novels:  An adequate substitute for kindle or could be used as scrap paper in a pinch.  Though James was trying to keep a straight face, he was having a hard time succeeding.  Any man caught reading tit-lit had to be mocked repeatedly and openly.  Ideally, all of Jonas's best friends should be here as well to make fun of him, but James would make do by himself.  Since James hardly knew the guy, he could not judge him…much. 

“You know, I am fairly sure a library would be a less conspicuous place to read those novels if you do not want your friends to know you enjoy them,” James offered, figuring that the suggestion would not be too out of place.  He did have to wonder why the investigator chose this particular location to read that novel, rather than his office or house.  As he tried to gauge the man, he wondered if he realized that there was only a thin pane of glass separating him from a bunch of spiders.  James figured that he should probably point that out as well, since he was subbing in for captain obvious today. 

“Also, I am not sure if that glass is enchanted, you might want to move a bit further away from the giant spiders.  A wand is not much use if they get the jump on you,” James commented wondering if the book was really that good to distract from a man from a bunch of flesh eating & poisonous arachnids, or if the investigator had failed common sense 101.  Deciding that he had done his good deeds for the day, James waited to see how thankful the inspector was for pointing all of this extremely useful information out to him.  James thought he might even be able to blackmail ask nicely for Jonas to help him purchase the acromantula hairs for his hangover cures.   

Jonas was halfway through twenty or twenty-one (he wasn't sure if two illegal acts happening at once should count twice or just be tallied as a particularly good one) when his perusal was interrupted.  He glanced up, his forehead creasing as he took in the flyboy from the Black Chimaera a month before.

"Oh, I'm not reading it," he assured James cheerfully.  Which was, of course, technically true - reading took a greater degree of concentration than skimming through with an eye out for criminal acts.  "It's more research.  Y'know.  A pop quiz.  Got to keep the instincts up."

Forrester went on to caution him about the dangers of sitting too close to oversized arachnids as well.  Frowning, Jonas lowered the book and glanced behind him, wondering if he'd missed one that had escaped.  From what he could tell, they were all still firmly contained behind the pane of glass.

"Yeah, or the drop on you," Jonas replied, brows knitting as he glanced back at the other man.  "Didn't reckon they could apparate, though.  I would've thought that the eight legs makes it harder not to get splinched.  Appreciate the advice, though," he concluded cheerfully, giving James a lopsided smile.  "A regular hero, you are, looking out for all of us lowly denizens.  You just feeling generous today, or does Knockturn Alley have a neighborhood watch program that no one's told me about yet?"

‘A pop quiz?’ James thought, somewhat incredulous.  James thought the man was a private investigator, not a school girl.  Still, it would not be the first times James had misjudged somebody.  James thought he could have gotten a better read of Jonas, but he was somewhat distracted by Lexus last time they had talked.  James let the comment slide for the time being, deciding he could look into it later if he really cared.  Not that it was likely, but on the off chance he needed something else to do.  "…does Knockturn Alley have a neighborhood watch program that no one's told me about yet?” Jonas asked him.  Not being muggleborn, he had no idea what a neighborhood watch was, but figured he should answer as best as he is able.

“Well, people on this part of town watch out for Aurors.  Usually they also signal to the…less legal people found in this Alley to lay low for a bit.  Not sure what a neighborhood watch is, but that’s about the only thing people in this section of town look out for,” James commented, wondering if the investigator would explain it to him.

“So are you researching crimes against literature or are you actually doing some investigating?” James asked, somewhat curious.  Not that it was any of his business, but it looked like the shop keeper would not be back for awhile.  Therefore, James figured he could at least keep Jonas company until he made his purchase.  Of course, James could always comeback later, but he did not feel like making another trip to London unless he absolutely had to. 

The Quidditch player was a veritable font of information.  It was too bad that Jonas couldn't really pry about how they signaled, not that he would necessarily want to pass the information on to anyone on Level Two.  He was feeling more and more of a sense of sympathy for the inhabitants of Knockturn Alley, who for the most part seemed to just be doing their best to get by.  Survival was definitely a goal that he could both support and sympathize with.  After spending so long on the run, he couldn't help feeling like he ought to pitch in with the underdog.

Forrester, though not acting entirely suspicious, seemed curious enough about why he was there.  Admitting that he was snooping on a Knockturn inhabitant was out of the question, especially since the younger man seemed to be friendly with Wiedman. 

Jonas chuckled, flashing the other man a quick grin of appreciation for his accurate assessment of the reading material.  "Neither, actually," he replied, giving a shrug.  It was time to fall back on his back-up excuse.  "Was waiting for the shop to open, actually, but it doesn't seem like the bloke who owns it is going to drop in anytime soon, so I'm stuck."  If the shopkeeper did return, Jonas was going to have to hope he could quickly assess why the bloody hell anyone would need to buy a spider.  Maybe he could claim he was hoping to stage a particularly realistic rendition of Macbeth?

"What about you?" he asked amiably, changing the subject.  "On your way to the Chimaera?  I didn't realize you spent a lot of time down this way, mate.  Reckon it must be a nice break after all the work you blokes probably put in during practice."

“Coincidentally, I actually need to buy some potion reagents from the gentleman who owns the shop.  The stuff on Diagon just never seems to be up to his quality.  It is a little bit more expensive, but I think that the price is worth it so I do not blow up my flat making a hangover cure.  As long as I am here though, I will probably look to see if he has anything worthwhile to modify or create a new nutrient potion with.  I have had some success with that, but the supplies are inconsistent.  Understandable, given that he deals with monsters.  Anyways, what are you here for? ” James asked, having no idea that they shopped at the same place.   He was also somewhat surprised by the fact that the investigator was not…investigating, but James hardly knew the man.  He did wonder why he stood so close to the glass if he was knew about this shop, but figured he had already commented on it. 

As James struggled to remember what he knew of the man, James recalled that his name was Jonas and he was Lexus’s employer.  Since James did not plan on seeing Lexus again unless they met by chance, James decided that was one subject he should stay away from.  As James struggled to think of what else he knew of the man, James came up empty.  Deciding this was as good an opportunity as any to get to know the man, James decided that he should keep up the small talk for the time being.  Especially since it appeared that they would probably running into each other a fair amount.   James imagined that a private investigator would eventually have more reasons to come to Knockturn rather than just to procure a pet spider, but saw no reason to comment on that one way or the other. 

There had been a time when Jonas had felt relatively confident in his potions-making abilities.  He had successfully made it all the way through the NEWT-level Potions class at Hogwarts, which he had found to be quite the educational achievement at the time.  Unfortunately, most of his knowledge of potions had since been lost to the sands of time, and after the chemistry volcano accident with Gwenna a couple of years before, he had sworn off ever mixing two items together ever again.  Forrester might as well have been speaking Greek.

"Ah, the same," he replied airily.  "The first one you said.  Potions reagents." 

Vague memories of using bits of spiders in Potions class were flitting back to him, but what kind and why, he'd never be able to recall.  It was much safer to soldier on and change the subject.

"So, you seen Lex recently?" he asked cheerfully.  For all he knew, the Quidditch player was spending every night at his assistant's apartment; he hadn't asked, and Lexus hadn't volunteered the information.  But either way, this was a much better topic of conversation.  "She mentioned she was keeping an eye out for you at the Chimaera when she headed into town.  Said you were a right charmer, she did.  Can't go wrong with company like that."

"Ah, the same," Jonas replied airily.  "The first one you said.  Potions reagents." 

James wondered what a private investigator would use potion reagents for, since he only kept up with it because it was a necessary part of his profession.  He was about to ask what particular potions he would be using it for investigating, but Jonas changed the subject pretty quickly.  Unfortunately, it was the one subject James had wanted to avoid.  James was also surprised with his word choice about not being able to go wrong.  Wondering if there was some verbal trap there one way or the other, James figured he needed to change the subject.  That, and James did not really care to talk about Lexus’s personal life in front of her employer, so James decided for a neutral reply. 

“I have not seen her around lately.  If I do though, I will be sure to say hello.  But enough about her.  How have you been?” James asked, hoping that the investigator would take the hint.  If not, James could always revert the conversation back to potions.  It appeared that the investigator had some interest in the subject, and James wondered if it was personal or professional.  After all, it would make sense for the investigator to know the signs of polyjuice, and James was not above sharing alchemical recipes if he thought some benefit might come of it.