Nothing Can Be Heard

Nothing can be heard if you refuse to listen.  The whispers of doubt had been trying to catch my attention for days earlier but I turned a deaf ear to their pleas.  The inconsistencies that lay scattered throughout my office had tried to catch my eye but I pretended not to see.  I wanted to believe he was innocent but the truth lay, no longer beneath the surface, but fully exposed for anyone to see on the front page of the Oregonian.  If only I had looked.  If only I had listened.

John Timley had walked into my office three weeks ago.  He claimed to know Ross, who I had just spend three years training with, and had a very convincing story about trying to locate a long lost cousin.  It seemed simple enough, and he didn't blink an eye when I quoted him my hourly rate.  I figured all I needed to do was run her name through a few databases and it'd be an easy $300 bucks.  Standard PI stuff I could run from behind my desk.  My recollection is tainted by what happened but I don't think I suspected anything that first interview.  I know I didn't double check with Ross which was pure laziness on my part.  Stupid really, and lazy.  I'd pay for that later.  But in my defense, there really weren't any red flags going off in my mind so I took her name and his info and promised to be in touch.

Finding her wasn't easy.  That was probably the first whisper of unease ignored.  Portland is a small town and there are are so many ways people get tagged.  Car registrations are the easy ones to search but there are also boat regs and hunting licenses.  Add to that liens and mortgages, business licenses, even web site URLs and you can usually get a hit somewhere.  But this cousin was seriously well hidden.  I had to meet John twice more and ask for more on her before I managed to locate her.  Each time, he was charming and concerned.  Ross always teased that I was a sucker for a sob story and I guess he was right.  John spun a very convincing yarn about meeting Danielle one summer at a family gathering but then losing touch as time passed.  He said his dad had recently died and that got him thinking about losing family.  He claimed he wanted to surprise her after all these years.  He stressed the surprise element and asked that I not tip her off to the fact that someone was looking for her.  Yeah, I know.  Those whispers were getting much louder.  Maybe it's because I lost my own parents when I was young and liked the idea that there was some family out there searching for me.  Or maybe I'm just a sucker at heart.  Whatever it was, I unearthed Jessica McGowan from where she had buried herself and handed her right over to John.

I read about her body being found three days later and knew I was in trouble.  I'm still trying to dig myself out of this whole mess but this is how it went down.