Hi all, my story is set in L.A. in 1992 and involves a couple of private detectives, one good and one bad. I have some questions regarding the plausibility of some of the procedures I've outlined for them.
The Good Detective: He digs up background information on several characters, reporting to my MC details about these people and their backgrounds. Pretty straightforward stuff I envision he got from public records, newspaper articles and so forth. What concerns me is a scene in which my MC wants to trace a license plate on a motorcycle to find out the identity of the owner (the MC doesn't want to go to the cops since he figures the cops won't tell him who it is and he wants to investigate on his own). He asks the good private eye to check it out and let him know the identity of the plate owner. Is this possible/realistic? Even there was an ethical issue involved, let's say my MC offered a sufficient bribe for the information - could this detective offer the details or would that pose too much of a risk to his private eye license to be worthwhile?
The Bad: This is a private eye working on the wrong side of the law. His goal is to try to rip off my wealthy MC. He researches my MC's life and finds out his history and address, breaks into my MC's apartment/car and taps the phone line/plants voice activated tape recorders, finds out my MC has a registered handgun in his name and tries to get access to my MC's banking records. I guess the 2 factors that I wonder about are: could this detective find out my MC has a registered handgun, and is it possible for him to tap my MC's phone so as to be able to listen in on all incoming/outgoing calls from a nearby spot? This is a key plot point and I would prefer to have this detective eavesdropping with a handset or something similar rather than repeatedly visiting the MC's apartment to retrieve audio tapes.
Thanks for any advice!
The Good Detective: He digs up background information on several characters, reporting to my MC details about these people and their backgrounds. Pretty straightforward stuff I envision he got from public records, newspaper articles and so forth. What concerns me is a scene in which my MC wants to trace a license plate on a motorcycle to find out the identity of the owner (the MC doesn't want to go to the cops since he figures the cops won't tell him who it is and he wants to investigate on his own). He asks the good private eye to check it out and let him know the identity of the plate owner. Is this possible/realistic? Even there was an ethical issue involved, let's say my MC offered a sufficient bribe for the information - could this detective offer the details or would that pose too much of a risk to his private eye license to be worthwhile?
The Bad: This is a private eye working on the wrong side of the law. His goal is to try to rip off my wealthy MC. He researches my MC's life and finds out his history and address, breaks into my MC's apartment/car and taps the phone line/plants voice activated tape recorders, finds out my MC has a registered handgun in his name and tries to get access to my MC's banking records. I guess the 2 factors that I wonder about are: could this detective find out my MC has a registered handgun, and is it possible for him to tap my MC's phone so as to be able to listen in on all incoming/outgoing calls from a nearby spot? This is a key plot point and I would prefer to have this detective eavesdropping with a handset or something similar rather than repeatedly visiting the MC's apartment to retrieve audio tapes.
Thanks for any advice!
