Rick Mofina - Into the Dark

That’s why Julie had turned to Thorsen.

He’d been a Calgary cop for twenty-eight years. He’d worked in Homicide, Major Crimes and Intelligence before retiring to start his one-man P.I. agency. Thorsen’s reputation as a detective was well-known, Julie told him when they first met in Washington, D.C. at an international investigators’ conference.

He turned to the red flags Julie had noted in her search.

A verification of education showed nothing. Where the heck did Bowen go to school? Some databases showed different dates of birth for Bowen. Thorsen, like all investigators, knew that data entry errors were always possible but discrepancies indicated areas of concern.

A troubling picture was taking shape.

Robert Bowen’s records all appeared to dead-end in the U.S. around 2010, as if he didn’t exist prior to that date. How did he maintain his pilot’s license? Thorsen wondered. The TSA in the U.S. was supposed to be tough on screening and security of the certification of airline pilots.

Did he fall through the cracks?

When Bowen married his wife, Claire, in Mexico, he supplied his divorce decree. According to his current spouse, it was supposedly from Montana. A check with Mexican officials was futile. They could not supply a copy for verification and claimed they were unable to locate it. Did he actually supply one? Was it genuine? Or did he bribe a Mexican official? Because a check with all counties and court records in Montana revealed no marriage or divorce for a Robert John Bowen to a woman named Cynthia.

An update in the file from Julie indicated that new information had recently arisen when Bowen revealed that he and his first wife had lived in Canada and were married there.

Thorsen removed his glasses, rubbed his eyes and dug into his work. He paged through the handwritten list in his notebook, an old detective habit he’d kept.

Since Julie had contacted him on Bowen, he’d already initiated much of the same probing in Canada as she had done in the U.S.

He’d checked through a range of databases, criminal, civil, court and social. He’d made calls through his network of sources.

Thorsen’s detective radar was giving him a vibe about Bowen.

His life on paper appears to start in 2010. So what was he up to before then? Sure, it’s common for divorces to be dripping with acrimony. People want to start fresh and scrape the past from their lives. Amputate all links to their ex. But for Bowen and his professional certification, there are huge security issues. Maybe he cleared everything with the TSA, with all the government and industry security gatekeepers?

Thorsen shrugged, replaced his glasses and reviewed his queries.

Like Julie, he’d also initiated a second name check and had contacted his sources in all provinces and territories for legal name changes. He’d submitted Robert John Bowen for them to check. In Canada, legal name changes are published unless there’s an overriding concern about personal safety.

Ontario, the largest province, had nothing on Bowen for Thorsen. Neither did Quebec, British Columbia, Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan. Then a friend in Edmonton, Alberta’s capital, sent an email.

Stand by, Milt, I think I have something for you.

“Hear that, Tip? We could have something?”

The cat yawned, still nursing hurt feelings at being rejected.

“Get over it,” Thorsen said as a new email from Edmonton arrived.

He opened it to a page from the provincial government’s Alberta Gazette, going to the official record for the department of Vital Statistics: Notice of Change of Personal Name for November 2009.

Thorsen scrolled through the page.

“There it is.”

Elliott, Leon Richard to Bowen, Robert John

“Bingo,” Thorsen said. “Gotcha. Now we have some real work to do with Mr. Leon Richard Elliott.”

He reached for his phone.

San Marino, California

Stiff from a fitful sleep, Claire stepped into the shower. As the water streamed over her skin she prayed for Amber.

Please keep her safe.

Claire was grateful that Julie had spent the night. She was already up and had busied herself in the kitchen making coffee, pouring a cup when she saw Claire.

“Milk, no sugar, right?”

“Yes, I see you’re still the early riser.”

“Just like the old college days.”

“Thanks. For everything.”

“Did you get any sleep?”

“Not much.”

Julie set a steaming cup down for Claire then said, “The L.A. Times had Amber’s case on its website, and it was on this morning’s local radio news.”

“Did they find her?”

“No. They just said that she’s missing under suspicious circumstances and they’re looking for her.”

“I’m praying she’s alive,” Claire said.

“We can’t give up hope.”

“This is my fault, all my fault.”

Claire’s despondency surged and Julie went to her.

“Stop blaming yourself.”

“I should’ve done more.”

“What more could you have done? You had the creep arrested when he attacked her in your parking lot.”

“It’s that letter. It was a violation for him to contact her and I should’ve reported it but I thought I’d helped her see that the best thing for her was not to go back to him.” Claire stared at nothing and shook her head. “I should’ve told the police that Eric had contacted her.”

“Amber told you about the letter under patient confidentiality. You said it was an ethical call.”

“But I could’ve encouraged her to report his violation. If I’d done that, he might’ve been arrested and jailed and none of this would’ve happened.”

“He would’ve gotten out in a heartbeat. He would’ve been mad as hell and he would’ve looked for her.”

Claire massaged her temple as a new realization dawned on her.

“My God, the burglary! Maybe that was Eric searching for Amber’s address. What if it was disguised to look like a break-in, just like that detective suspected?”

“Claire, stop this.”

“When we checked my computer, it appeared someone had tried to access it. Why didn’t I report that letter?”

Julie took hold of Claire’s shoulders.

“This doesn’t help,” Julie said. “Stop punishing yourself. You did everything right. Speculating is futile. Until we know the facts, we don’t know anything. We have to let the police do their job, okay?”

Julie was right, but it didn’t assuage Claire’s guilt.

“Think positive.” Julie smiled. “You reached Robert last night. He’s on his way back to L.A. Maybe you should stay home today.” Julie glanced out the window to the backyard. “Work off your worry in your garden. It’s beautiful. I love those new planter boxes.” Julie looked out the window to the backyard but Claire didn’t.

She looked at Julie. Something was up.

“What is it, Julie?”

“What do you mean?”

“I get the feeling there’s something you’re not telling me. Did you ever find out anything more about Robert and Cynthia’s life in Canada?”

Julie searched Claire’s eyes for a long moment as if looking for the right words.

“Nothing yet,” Julie said. “We’re still working on it with the subcontractor in Canada. We’re still checking things out.”

“What sorts of things?”

“You’re dealing with a lot right now, Claire, and we’re still in the early stages of confirming Robert’s history in Canada.”

“What sorts of things, Julie. Tell me.”

“Records, that kind of stuff.”

“What about the records?”

“There might be some confusion on whether we are looking at the right Robert Bowen. It’s going to take a while and we need to confirm things.”