Chapter 61

Since I had worn gloves while I Checked his apartment/dorm unit, I wasn't too worried about the cops searching the place. I was pretty sure that his disappearance had a low priority, but the report would allow me to ask questions. That's why I made it. I also agreed to meet the officers at the site to check it out.

Of course it was patrol officers who contacted the campus security office to open the dorm unit. I had to explain that I had been hired by the family, since they had not been able to get in touch with Antonio. I also explained that the neighbors hadn't seen him in over a week.

The city police, the security officers from the private university, and I were standing by when the door when it was opened. I stood in the doorway with my hands in my pockets. "Officer is his toothbrush here?"

"Yes ma'am it is," the patrol officer said.

"How about his closet and clothes cabinets, are they empty?" I asked.

"No ma'am, they are all here. It doesn't look like he went on a trip."

I didn't point him toward the drugs they just found them. "If he was on medication and hasn't been here in a week, maybe we should look at this as a crime scene," I suggested.

I watched the officer carefully to be sure he didn't find the kid's cell phone. They didn't find it. "It doesn't look good," I suggested.

"No ma'am it doesn't," the patrolman said.

"The missing cell phone and the missing pictures are contradictory." I told Wilson, when I called him. "If they were laying a false trail the cell phone should be here as well as the photos. If he was running, he took his phone but didn't call his dad for help. He took the photos, because for some reason he didn't plan to come back. It really makes no sense. The Marshals would never let him carry the cell phone. What did you get on the trace."

"The phone has been disabled. Either temporarily or permanently," he said. "Somebody tossed it in the river, but why were the picture taken? Why would he take the picture and the cell phone just to disable it."

"Maybe he was trying to confuse us?" Wilson suggested

"Why he doesn't even know us?" I asked not expecting an answer.

"Maybe he is just relocating and dropped his phone," Wilson suggested.

"You don't do a voluntary relocation and leave your meds and toothbrush. If he is on the run, why did he take the family photos." As usually happens a thought came from nowhere. "The photos got tossed in the trash before he left. He is on the run and didn't want them to be used to identify him. But if he watches TV, he knows the cops can get a DMV photo. It wasn't cops he was running from. He takes the phone, then someone reminds him it can be traced, so it goes in the trash after the card is removed."

"Maybe he leaves willingly and then it goes south and the cell phone is junked," Wilson said.

"I'm going to check into a motel, while you run down his girl friend and his Sampson friend. When you get me a location I will go talk to them." It was a mom and pop, turned Paki motel which I checked into. I dropped my bag and laptop off in the room, then went to look for his girlfriend.

"So Wilson what is the deal with Ruth Paulson?" I asked.

"She is a waitress in a local restaurant. A high school drop out as a matter of fact. Hardly the kind of girl this kid would run with." Wilson said.

"Well, I'm not going to know till I talk to her," I said.

Twenty minutes later I was in the restaurant where she worked. At first I thought she wasn't in. The only woman waiting table in the small dining room had to be fifty years old. Then I heard someone call her Ruth. Wilson obviously knew her age, I was gonna kick him in the ass, when I got home to New Wales.

Ms. Paulson my name is Sylvia Porter is there somewhere could we talk please. It about Antonio Garcia, and it is important." I said.

"It will have to be here unless you want to wait till 10PM." I didn't want to give her time to alert Antonio just in case she knew where he was. If you don't mind these people overhearing your business with Antonio and Mr. Sampson fine." I said.

"I got a break coming so come on out to the back where I smoke," she said.

I followed her out. Once we got outside I went right into it. "So Ms Paulson, how do you know Antonio?" I asked.

"Tony eats here some," she said.

"Is that why his mom thinks you are his girlfriend?" I asked.

"You know about that huh?" she asked.

"Yes, they are worried sick about Tony. He just disappeared from school two weeks ago. So the next people to call will be the cops or worse." I said.

"You mean some of his dad's men. I can handle them," she said. She probably believed it.

"Ms Paulson, I don't mean to frighten you, but you can't handle them. I'm asking and you can chose not to cooperate, but then I have to report to Tony's mother. I will tell her what I have learned and what I did not learn. She will no doubt tell her husband, and then things will go downhill very fast from there."

"Yeah that's what Tony said. He said someone would come asking questions. He didn't say it would be a skinny broad." she said.

"That's because he doesn't know me," I said.

"He was convinced he could fool his father. Put off the discovery his being gone a couple of more weeks. Then he planned to convince his father he had gone into the witness protection program. He said his dad would be so worried about what he knew, that he would be to busy covering his tracks to try hard to locate him." she said.