The New Case

Elise stretched her arms and looked at the time. Almost 7 o'clock. She still had a couple of minutes before her last appointment of the day. Finishing a few bites of her sandwich, she saved the document she was working on and pushed her laptop to the side. Her last report was for a client who hired her to find out if his wife was cheating on him. As a private investigator, at least 70% of her assignments were related to suspicions about an unfaithful significant other.

Opening the top drawer of her desk, she grabbed her little black book. This is where she wrote all the details about her clients. She reached a blank page and wrote Axel Mathis, Tuesday October 13th, 7 pm, missing person. Axel had reached out to her by phone 2 days ago, he wanted to hire her to find a friend who had disappeared a year ago. In her 7 years as a licensed PI, Elise had seen many missing person cases too. At 7 pm, a small knock on the door was heard. ‘’Come in,’’ she said.

A tall thin man with blond hair and green eyes walked in. He was wearing khaki pants, a blue shirt and carried a brown leather shoulder bag. He glanced around her small office. She gestured to Axel to sit on the visitor chair across her desk and offered him something to drink. He politely refused as he sat down. He searched through his bag to pick up a file and opened it on her desk. The file contained information about a man named Oscar Boone. Among the many documents was a picture of him and Axel smiling, holding beers.

Axel spoke in a low quiet voice. ‘’ I am looking for this man, Oscar. We met in college and we were friends for many years. We stayed close even after school. I started to work in finances and he became an IT engineer. We met maybe once a month, to grab drinks and catch up on our lives. I met his girlfriend Ana and we even took a trip to Vegas together. But a little over a year ago, he became distant. He seemed tired and stressed when I spoke to him on the phone. And suddenly, no news. He did not return any of my phone calls and emails. I reached out to Ana who told me they had split up and she did not know where he was now. I tried to go to his place, but he was never there, and he even quit his job. I’m afraid he ran into some trouble and I would very much like to find him. Are you up for it?’’

Elise took a short breath before answering. ‘’Yes, I could look into this. I will need all the information you have on him including his social media accounts, a list of mutual friends..’’

‘’I have already detailed everything I know in this file,’’ Axel interrupted.

‘’Good, so here’s how I work. I will look at your information and do some preliminary searches to determine if this case is doable. We can make another appointment for Friday when I will have a contract ready. I charge 85$ per hour plus additional fees if I need to travel or buy specific equipment. Once you sign it, I will do what I can to find your friend and will keep you updated once a week’’

Axel stared at her for a couple of seconds before reaching inside his bag and pulling out a large bundle of 100$ bills.

‘’Here’s my offer. I will give you 10 000$ now, and I will give you another 10 000$ when you find him. I want an update every day. You can text me anytime, I will answer as fast as I can.’’

Elise looked with surprise at the huge amount of money. In her past jobs, she had met many wealthy clients who were willing to offer her more, expecting her to work faster and give them many updates. Usually in cases of a missing child or relative. So this offer was not a first to her, what was new is that Axel was willing to pay before she even did the preliminary searches. These were necessary because, being a PI, she did not have access to the same kind of resources as officers of the law. Therefore, she needed to determine if she thought she would be able to successfully and legally perform the job.

‘’You must miss him a lot. I will take your money today, but only start using it after the contract on Friday. You can decide to drop the offer anytime before we sign the contract. I charge 250$ for the preliminary searches so that amount would be deducted from the reimbursement I would give you.’’

‘’Fine with me. I miss him dearly, please hurry and do everything you can to find him.’’

With this, he slowly got up and offered his hand, Elise shook it and said ‘’Friday night, same time.’’

During the next two days, Elise focused her time on research, prioritizing her new highly paying case. She established a chronological order of events with the information she had, adding locations and contact names. She went on Oscar’s social media pages, and noticed he had stopped posting shortly before the last time Axel had news of him. Why would someone suddenly break all contacts, quit his job and disappear? She used the typical online resources and found out Oscar’s driving license was still valid and it still was registered to the same address Axel gave her. Elise found the apartment owner’s information online and gave her a call. The lady, named Bertha, told her that Oscar had moved out suddenly, breaking his lease. He had paid the amount due in full and moved out. Since then, she had rented the apartment to a new tenant.

Axel came back to her office on Friday night, she had the contract ready. She told him what she had found out so far.

‘’I want to make sure you understand the situation here. I will use my contacts and my expertise to find him, but if he moved out of the country it might be impossible. Also, from the notes you gave me, I understand you had started a project together, shortly before he disappeared. Can you elaborate on this?’’

‘’Yes,’’ Axel gathered his thoughts. ‘’We decided to invest in this new startup, an old acquaintance wanted to start his own building contractor firm and needed some funds to start. Oscar and I had good jobs, we had money to spare so we decided to help. At the very last minute, Oscar backed out, shortly before he disappeared. Our partner was not happy and I decided to cover for Oscar’s share as well. The funds were needed, there was no time to look for new investors. This event hurt me financially, but I eventually got back on my feet. I was angry with Oscar for bailing on us, but I was even more worried with his disappearance.’’

‘’Seems odd that we would leave the project at the last minute. Do you think he had money problems? It could be a reason for disappearing without explanation.’’

‘’I don’t know, maybe. I’m realizing I didn’t know him as much as I thought. Do you think he moved out of the city? Did he change his name? Is he still alive?’’

‘’I will do my best to find out,’’ gently smiled Elise.

She thought about their conversation for a while after Axel left her office. The idea that he had changed his identity started to grow on her. Picking up her cellphone, she called a contact she had in the city police department. It rang twice and a warm male voice answered.

‘’Elise! What do you need this time?’’

Always straight to the point thought Elise with a smile. ‘’Hi Pete. I’m on a missing person case, it’s possible he changed his name. Can you find out if he did it legally?’’

She gave him the information she had and Pete promised to call her as soon as he found something. She spent the next hours looking through social media and the internet, trying to get more details on the business investment. She found the website of the contractor’s company, they seemed to be doing exceptionally well for a company that started only a little over a year ago. The financial help must have been huge.

Elise spent her weekend trying to get in contact with everyone who knew Oscar. She reached out to Oscar’s mother and his ex girlfriend but none of them could provide Elise with new elements. Axel texted her everyday, she updated him on the situation each time but she could feel his frustration with her lack of results. Pete finally got back to her on Wednesday.

‘’Hey Liz, I think I found your guy. He did not fill any legal document to change his identity but I called his bank and cellphone company.’’

‘’OK I owe you one! I did not dare to ask as I know you must be busy, but thank you for taking the extra step. What can you tell me?’’

‘’Well, I looked through several weeks of his calls, most of them were work colleagues, his mother and a woman named Ana March.’’

‘’His ex-girlfriend,’’ added Elise.

‘’There was one number I couldn’t identify with his contact list. He made 4 calls to that number, the last one being 2 days before he stopped using his cell. I was curious so I called the number, a guy answered but hung up quickly as soon as I said the reason I was calling. There was also a call made to a used car dealer. That same day, he made a withdrawal of 8 000$ from his bank account.’’

'’I’m starting to see where this is going.’’

‘’Mm, I called them and had to use a bit of police authority. A certain Lenny Scar bought a car in cash, for 8 000$ that day. He showed a driver’s license for identification. I have a home address to give you.’’

Elise thanked him then hung up and put the address in her GPS. The location was 7 hours away. Her phone rang, Axel was calling. Elise told him about the conversation she just had.

‘’That’s great Elise, I can’t believe you found him, and he doesn’t live that far, I could drive there during the weekend.’’

‘’I’d prefer it if you wait. I will take the trip there this weekend and get back to you as soon as I can identify him.’’

Axel seemed reluctant but he agreed to let Elise handle it during the upcoming weekend. Elise was pleased with his answer, it would give her time to make sure she had the right guy.

However, on Friday morning, Elise was surprised to find an envelope waiting for her at her office. It contained 10 000 $ in cash and a piece of paper with 2 words on it; ‘’thank you’’. Puzzled, she gave Axel a call but he did not answer.

Pouring herself some coffee, she sat down in front of her computer to look at the morning news. She came across an article that sent a chill through her body. With shock, she read that police officers had found a body in the same city she had planned to go this very weekend. Swallowing with difficulty, she read the entire article and all colors left her face when she read that they had identified the victim as Oscar Boone.

Her hands were shaking, she grabbed her phone and tried Axel’s number again. He did not answer.

A horrifying thought crossed her mind, had she been hired to assist in a murder?