Assisi & Brannan #15: Following A Lead

“What are you saying?” Peter gave me a look that bordered on irritation and curiosity.  “You are obstructing the case.  Did you know that?”

“Peter, she’s not missing!  I got a text from her.”

“How do you know it’s her?  Anyone could have sent you this text.”

He was right.  It could’ve been a temporary, throw away phone that’s untraceable.

But what are the chances that she would have had texted me after I met Matt?

“There’s something going on, Peter.  Gene is hiding something.  The neighbor saw him leave at 2:00 a.m. in the morning.  He left the children home alone to do something that was so important.  Can’t you get Gene’s phone records?”

“Look Garnet, someone’s playing with you.  You get a text that you believe is from Sarah Dinh, a person who has been missing for over a week.  You are making some serious accusations against a man who has no other evidence against him.” He was immovable.

“Fine.  That is dicey. But tell me why he would leave at 2:00 a.m. on the day his wife disappears?”

I didn’t hear from Peter till the evening.

I was jumpy the whole day. The message I got after the party also haunted me like a gloom I could not shake. I knew I had to confront it sooner than later. If I could just get some answers to Sarah’s story then I could look back at that case.

The weight of the accusation was so great that I talked to Bruce about it.  He ate a donut while listening to me without interrupting and convinced me to report the incident to Peter. I said I would. He left the office soon after for a rare lunch.

Bruce came back to the office late that day when I was proofing the last story I wrote.

“I just spoke to Peter who said they picked Gene up.”

“What?” My skin pricked with a terrible feeling, hating the idea that I was right all this time.

“I met him for lunch just to see where he was with the case. It turned out that they did have the phone records but it was your persistence that made him look at the records again. Congratulations, you helped them more than you know.”

I was on the phone and got Peter’s voice mail.

Peter called me back and I held my breath as I listened to him.

“You were right, Garnet. Gene made a couple of phone calls before 2 a.m. that day to a number that is registered to a Matt Vu. There had been several calls to Matt over the last months from the same number. Gene is under investigation now. He still claims he does not know where Sarah is.”

“It’s not the whole story, Peter. Sarah is in trouble for a reason we don’t understand. Who is going to look after the kids?”

“Sarah’s mother had been named as guardian if both parents were unavailable. She has them now.”

It was all fitting very well.

I was tired. I said goodnight to Bruce and headed back to my apartment.

© Jocelyn Uma 2014. All Rights Reserved.