Secret Work Keeps Sleuth In Business

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Alice Byrne is a private investigator, complete with trench coat and revolver. But, she says, she doesn't get caught in shoot-outs; her specialty is "thinking investigations."

One of the few women in the country who own and operate private investigation and security guard businesses, Byrne runs her Ambassador Special Services Ltd. out of Brooklyn, N.Y. Her first assignment as a security investigation specialist was for El AlIsrael Airlines in 1973. Since then, she says, she's gained an impressive list of clients through word of mouth. The company pulled in $1 million in sales last year.

Ambassador's security services range from day-to-day retail store and warehouse property protection to armed undercover investigations. At $20 to $25 per hour, Byrne's trained security couriers transport "top secret" packages for companies like Revlon and Charles of the Ritz. For riskier adventures, like "riding shot-gun" behind trucks to prevent hijacking, or chauffeuring wealthy executives, Ambassador guards command up to $100 per hour or more.

Byrne, a 37-year-old former registered nurse, does a lot of the work herself, though she employs 70 people full time and another 25 on a part-time basis. She admits that the majority of investigations can be done from her office in New York over the telephone, but occasionally her work allows her to be a sleuth-in-the-street investigator. Ambassador recently recovered a stolen Canadian yacht in New York, for instance, but investigators had to track the thief from New York to Greece to Tel Aviv.

One of her specialties is tracing missing persons. She offers a low-cost program ($250) for families who have lost their children and are getting little help from local police departments. She made headlines in 1980 for locating the body of a missign oil heiress, and late last year found a two-year-old child who had been kidnapped to Nairobi.