Sometimes the sounds are not always in their heads

So, I have this one new client, Dear Reader, let's call him Dinesh. Not his real name.

Dinesh is a somewhat eccentric, if not effete, Indian male living alone in a block of units for low-income earners.

Dinesh has a problem with his neighbours, apparently they are keeping him up at all hours with knocking on the walls day and night in an attempt to, well, I don't know what .  

Anyway, Dinesh is looking at getting incontrovertible proof from an independent third party (that would be me) that this is occurring, so he can take it to the relevant local body authorities who administer the units. Supposedly, they had not been very responsive to his complaints to date. 

You might remember the mixed results from my last feuding neighbours caper.

Well, trying to keep an open mind, I have made several visits to Dinesh's unit and there is more skullduggery going on than a BBC production of a Cold War espionage drama.

What do I mean by that, you ask?

For a start, Dinesh believed that the main culprit was being aided, if not abetted, by the neighbour on the other side of his unit. He recounted a number of incidents with this neighbour where they expressed an undue interest in his activities, and he believed that they alerted the other neighbour when he had visitors.

Because of this, Dinesh requested that I make my attendances covertly so that neither neighbour would be aware of my presence. This meant that most attendances were conducted late at night or, in one case, early in the morning. Dinesh would leave one of the doors to his unit unlocked after I had texted him of my arrival, and I would then make my entrance via one of the two possible routes onto the L-shaped estate under the cover of darkness.

Except for that one time.

I had arrived at a nearby street and had sent Dinesh a text that I was nearby, as per our protocol. He informs me that the problem neighbour had been lurking around in the dark outside earlier. I decide to slink onto the property from the less-obvious route and as am approaching his unit spot the Asian female standing in the driveway. Rather than approach Dinesh's unit I continue onward out to the street and note that she is now following me. I make my way to a nearby restaurant and inform Dinesh of what had occurred and we agree to reschedule.

Several hours later, however, Dinesh calls to state that the police had come to his unit making enquiries. It appears that the neighbour reported hearing gunshots and seeing several strange men milling around.

Well, I guess they would both be me. No gunshots, however.

Anyway, despite this batshit crazy turn of events, I continued with the investigation as originally intended and have compiled the evidence which has been submitted to the Client. 

He's not mad, the sounds certainly are not in his head - as I may have unkindly initially assumed - and he has had his meeting with the management who seem to have taken his complaint seriously.

So a good result but strange little case.