Chapter 41

I spent my time over that weekend between my bike rides, and being Addie’s unpaid handyman. I moved sofas six inches to the right then moved them back again. Her green plant, which I paid for, got moved from one corner of the reception area to another.

I attached a toilet paper holder to the wall of the former laundry room. Addie and Lillian worked on where to put Addie’s many pieces of art, and her antique knickknacks. We did finish by 6PM Sunday, so I allowed Addie to take us out to dinner at one of the highway motel restaurants. I had no trouble leaving Lillian and Tiger at the Spa with Addie while I went to bed early. They were getting thick as thieves, but I didn’t see the harm in it. I was nervous that Addie would have ‘the talk’ with Lillian, but short of moving I couldn’t stop her.

Sometime Monday Addie got a call which led to my new client. The job was to find Lois Murray. Lois was the recent widow of Issa Murray. Issa Murray was a dealer in the Persian rug trade. Yes antique Persian rugs, and also a few modern rugs made in the traditional ways. Now I know nothing of Persian rugs. I knew neither antiques, nor Modern knock offs, but I did know about missing fifty plus year old women in good health. Especially those who inherited large sums of money recently. Usually they could be found in a hot tub with a twenty something year old young man.

In this case her thirty five year old step son was searching for her. He needed her to sign some legal papers for the company. That usually meant her lawyer had told her to leave town till he cooled off. Then again he was the client, so we were forced to be nice to him. He chose Addie because she traveled in the same circles as Issa and Lois Murray.

He presumed she would have some idea where to start looking. Addie did know where to start. She started with Lillian and me. I suggested Lillian check her credit card statements, which Addie had the evil step son provide for us. I didn’t expect too much, since it was likely that she had more than one clandestine card.

The same was true of cell phones, but Lilly did look at her cell records. Again nothing of interest except she had a gym membership. We already knew that, but she called the gym a little too often. I got into touch with the owner/manager when I drove to the Triangle Gym and Light Lunch Bar. I made a note of his name in my new electronic notepad. I did that because there was no way I was going to remember his name. I asked him, if he remembered Lois.

“I don’t have much interaction with the clients,” he said. “for that you need to consult my wife.” Next he called her into the office. She was the gym’s client representative and point of contact for new information and complaints.

“Hi, I’m Ginger,” The mid twenties blond said. “What can I do for you?”

“My name is Selfridge, and I’m a private investigator. Lois Martin’s kids are worried about her. She seems to have gone missing. Would you happen to know who she hangs out with while she is here?” I asked.

“She seems to be pretty close with one of our personal trainers. His name is Lamar, but he isn’t here right now. As a matter of fact he hasn’t been here in a couple of weeks. The trainers come and go when they get the urge, if you know what I mean.” She said it with what on a man would have been a leer.

“I see. I’ll need his contact information.” I advised her. She exchanged the leer for a look of concern.

“Listen Lois’s kids don’t want a lot of publicity, but if you don’t cooperate I’m going to have to go to the police and make a report. Then there will be all kinds of questions about the relationships of your employees and clients.”

“If I give you access to the information, do you promise to keep us out of the investigation,” she asked.

“Cross my heart,” I said knowing it was a lie. It did get me a look at his employment application and some notes he and Ginger had exchanged concerning schedules. I photoed them, then we went to his locker. It was empty, not even a bottle of Tylenol. The hot tub theory looked better all the time.

Before I left, I asked Ginger one more question, “If I check his cellphone records, what am I going to find?” I asked.

“What do you mean?” she asked answering me with a question.

“Will there be calls from you at odd hours?” I asked.

“Not since I married the gym’s owner,” she replied.

“So what was her personal trainer into?” I asked.

“He helped her with her weight control. Women her age freak when they gain a single pound,” she said. “His training methods were a little unorthodox.”

“Like how?” I asked.

“I have said too much already, you can ask around. I can give you a list of his clients who had ‘one on one’ sessions with him,” she replied.

“Sounds like something that would be helpful,” I agreed.

I sat in my car outside of a McDonald’s restaurant in Durham NC. I had to organize my thoughts. What better place to do that than a McDonald’s with a cup of their coffee. I was pretty sure that I was on a monumental wild goose chase. Then again at two hundred a day plus expenses, why the fuck not.

From the information on my pad, I gleaned Lamar’s address and his cellphone number. I called Lillian and gave her the information from his employment application, then I pulled up the driving directions application. He lived in one of those bright and shiny new cardboard apartments buildings.

I checked the outside for an alarm system, then picked the lock. There were absolutely no cars in the parking lot, except mine of course. That being the case, I figured I was safe. The second clue that something wasn’t right was the notice on his door. It said that two weeks worth of mail had accumulated in his box at the office. Once I picked the lock, I put on rubber gloves and went through the tiny studio apartment. I photographed everything I found. I got his credit card information on a paper statement from the company.

I checked his closet before my five minute window was closed. At the close of that window, I got the fuck out of there. When the alarm in my shirt po ket showed my five minute window had closed, I was in the car headed back to another restaurant with WIFI in their parking lot.

Lillian took a half hour to get a report ready for me. She had to have it perfect, so I allowed her time. I did that by moving to a different restaurant for a chocolate/chocolate muffin and more coffee. I sat in the parking lot thinking I could have had a plate lunch at Tonya’s for only a few coins more than that stupid muffin and coffee had set me back. I did however hold onto the receipt.

When the Email came in with the results of Lillian’s checks, I drove back to Siler City. I was in no hurry to finish the case. I needed time to let the information percolate. So I layered up and went for a long ride that got me back home after dark.

I still had questions after my ride, but they were better organized. I wondered why Lois hadn’t used one of her many credit cards during the last two weeks. Why had she dropped off the Cyber grid? What was Lamar’s involvement in all this? What was she using for money, if she was still alive?

One of the answers came when Lillian found a new title application for Lois’s Porsche. It was dated the day after Lois was last seen. I had the file from her last banking transactions. There was no deposit for the twenty grand cash she had received for the car. She obviously was using the cash to finance her vacation off the Cyber grid. That vacation likely included Lamar her personal trainer.

That is when I remembered that there were no cars in the parking lot of Lamar’s apartment. I immediately asked Lillian to check the DMV records for any car registered to him. About twenty minutes later, I struck pay dirt. Well Lillian struck pay dirt.

“Lamar bought a 2012 Buick two weeks ago,” Lillian explained.

“Okay, it was a spur of the moment thing,” I said thinking out loud. “I sure hope neither of them are the criminal types. We might get lucky and neither has ever heard of prepaid visa cards. Check Lamar’s credit card, and his cell phone usage for the last two weeks.”

Lillian and I stayed at it until 11pm, but we finally got a hit on his credit card. Which led us back to his bank account. The Buick was under ten grand and he paid cash. No doubt that was from the sale of the Porsche. So that meant he and Lois had about ten grand to live on till it was gone. One thing about North Carolina you could drive east or west and find anonymous resorts in both directions.

Lillian got a message on her smart phone. She went to my computer and checked her email. “Lamar called his parole officer yesterday. He wanted to move his appointment back a week,” she said.

“Come on Lillian where did he call from?” I asked.

“Wrightsville Beach North Carolina, I don’t know which hotel, but it pinged on the tower there,” Lillian informed me.

“Well if we leave now, we can start work in the morning. We should find them by lunch,” I suggested.

“I can’t go. I promised Addie that I would do some research for her tomorrow,” Lillian said. “But if you call, I can work this case as well.”

“Okay, will you take care of Tiger. You can stay here, if you want,” I suggested.

I got out of the house about 1AM. It was supposed to be a three hour drive, but as always it took me longer. Probably because I drove slowly and stopped for coffee along the way. The convenience store near Hope Mills, outside of Fayetteville, charged me two bucks to fill up my thermos cup. It was equal to three cups of coffee, so it was fair. The coffee was hot and strong, so it kept me awake more or less all the way into Wrightsville Beach. I ate breakfast a few miles before I arrived in on the island. I ate in the city of Wilmington. I left after breakfast with my thermos of fresh coffee and a slightly lighter wallet.

I started by going to the Wrightsville Police department. It was a small department, so I expected a lot of blow back when I went into the police station to ask for help. I showed the duty sergeant my ID card, I also gave him the card of Detective nice ass of the Siler City police department. Then I explained what I needed and why.

“If you have a rookie, or somebody you can spare for a couple of hours it would make my life easier,” I suggested.

“Let me give your hometown cops a call, and check on your background,” he suggested.

He came back after twenty minutes and said, “Well you check out fine, but I still can’t afford anyone for more than an hour,” he said. “Are you sure your runaway is here.”

“I’m pretty sure. I spoke to someone, who got a call from her companion. The companion called from here yesterday,” I said. “The person who got the call didn’t ask what motel or hotel they were using.”

“Give me the name, and we will make some calls,” he suggested.

“I can’t do that Sergeant. If the name gets to them before I do, they will be in the wind again. That’s why I wanted to get a ride along of an officer. We can clear this up with a ten minute conversation. I just need to know that Lois is not in any danger,” I replied.

“How about this, you do the job you are being paid for, and if you get into trouble call. You might want us, if you confront Lois and her alleged boyfriend. Then we can legally get involved, and keep you out of trouble,” he suggested.

“Sounds fair,” I said. What I had really done was give him a heads up that I was in town. Just in case someone called to complain about me asking questions.

It took me asking at five hotels on the ocean side of the Island before I came to the right one. It was called the Blockade Runner. The room clerk looked at their pictures.

“So what’s it worth to you to know what room they are in?” the hard looking older woman asked.

“Twenty bucks, same as a blow job in a parked car,” I said.

She went back and made me a copy of the registration card. I had stayed in this same hotel with Lucy and Tasha, but not the same room. I went up and knocked on the door. Lois came to the door.

“Lois Murray, I presume?” I said taking a cellphone photo of her. She tried to close the door in my face. “If you do that the cops will be here in ten minutes to question Lamar. I’m a private investigator, so tell me your story and I’ll tell your stepson to fuck off.”

“Come on in,” she suggested. “So what is going on at home, and how the hell did you find me. Lamar said no one could find us.”

“It wasn’t easy. You two covered your tracks pretty well for amateurs,” I suggested. “So are you ready to go home, or are you in love?”

“I am ready to go home. I’ll pack and ride with you, if you are okay with it. Lamar left me yesterday and took the car I paid for. I was looking for an excuse to head home anyway,” she said.

“I’ll carry your bags,” I said. “So how was the vacation?”

“Better than an old lady cruise,” she admitted. “Of course I’m sore now and in a lot of new places. It had been a long time since I was with a man, even then his tools were much smaller.”

“Too much information,” I said. We headed out a few minutes later, I drove straight home. We did stop for dinner at a fast food restaurant of her choice. It turned out to be a Subway sandwich shop. The drive was long and boring. The conversation was minimal. Lois mostly sat and smiled. I really didn’t mind that. I was thinking of Lillian and Addie often, but mostly I missed Tiger.

At 7PM I sat in Lois’s fancy town house and convinced her to make up a story to cover her ass. She hadn’t done anything criminal, she just needed the story to save her from embarrassment.

We recorded the statement on my cell phone. I convinced her to say that she sold the Porsche, because it just felt wrong to drive around in a sports car after her husband’s recent death. She used the cash to take a trip to the North Carolina beach resort. She stayed there for two weeks enjoying the solitude. Then she was found by a private detective. He explained that her family was worried. So she immediately had him drive her home.