Duskwood Mysteries

Part 32

Not wanting to sit idle, neither wanting things to "escalate" between me and Richy, I stood up. "What?" Richy asked. "I don't care what Jake thinks. The problem remains the same, Hannah is still missing. I spoke to one heartbroken mother about her child, I don't think I can do that with anyone else's family. Plus I don't think your secret disappears by just sitting around. If it means to work in an uncomfortable situation then so be it." I said. Richy sighed, "You are very stubborn sometimes, Jade." I shrugged and walked outside, Richy following closely behind me. Jake was at the table working on his laptop when he saw me. The same cold expression in his eyes. Maybe he was possessed. I sat down at the table and Richy did the same. Jake didn't say a word. "You may not believe this but I really want to help find Hannah. I thought I was doing it for her but I think along the way I was doing it for you. Which was wrong. Now that that's done I am going to do it just for Hannah and Richy." I said. "Of course, you would say that." Jake snapped. I flinched as I knew what he was implying. Richy groaned, "Can we be cordial and just work together Jake? You can threaten us all you want but Hannah is still my friend. Let's just do this right together as a team." Jake nodded and pushed a stack of papers towards me. He pushed another stack towards Richy.

"Everything that we found is in these papers. I thought we could go through it and try to find something that we might have missed." Jake said. We both nodded and got right to work. I had to say that the papers were impressive. Detailed accounts of incidents, possible speculation, Hannah's drive information, everything was neatly put together. I went through everything and I saw both the guys doing the same. Even though everything was put together neatly, nothing seemed cohesive. Nothing seemed to connect. We threw theories but nothing made sense. Richy said, "Did we find anything on Andy?" "No, we don't have any details on him and his name might not be real." Jake said. Richy thought for a while, "Maybe we should ask someone." "Who? We thought Mrs Sully might know." I said. "I doubt it. If this was 10 years ago then this Andy guy might have been older than us. Maybe he ran around in different circles. Didn't Mr Oakley say he was doing something illegal or shady? Have you asked Phil?" Richy asked. "Just because it is something shady so Phil will be involved?" I asked. "No just because Phil is older so I think he may have some information." Richy said shrugging his shoulders. Jake looked at me, "It's worth a shot."

I sighed and dialed to call Phil. "Speaker." Jake said. I put it on speaker. One ring followed two followed by three when I heard Phil pick up. "Jade. Hi." He said. "Hi Phil. I just needed to ask you something. Do you know anyone named Andy? He used to work at the pawn shop as a temp 10 years ago?" I asked. There was a pause, "I know the guy working as a temp but I didn't know his name was Andy." Jackpot. "Do you know where he is now?" I asked. "No clue. He used to hang around a lot of entitled guys because they were ready to pay for his services." He said. "What do you mean by that?" I asked. "Drugs mostly." He replied. "Do you think anyone knows where he is now?" I asked. "No I don't think so. He probably bolted after he got kicked off from the job and the guys he used to hang out with no longer live in Duskwood." Phil said. "Okay Phil. Thanks that helps." I said. "Anytime Jade. Bye." He said hanging up. Another dead end. "What about finding the person who bought the bracelet?" I asked. "You mean Hannah?" Richy responded. "I think she means the original buyer." Jake retorted. "Yeah I mean that could be a lead." I said hopefully. "As plausible as it seems, we cannot track it down. We don't even know which jewelry shop it was purchased from." Jake said. "Maybe the bracelet may have a marking for the shop?" I offered. "Possibly but again we looked at it from every angle, only the initials were there. Nothing else." Jake said. It was frustrating at this point. We had nothing. We all got back to the papers. I started feeling like I was facing tunnel vision. My neck was hurting from looking down at the papers and I felt like my eyes were going to fall off.

"What's this?" Richy asked waving a paper with a list of names on it. I strained my eyes to look at it. "Its Hannah's call log from the day she disappeared." I said. "Yeah I see that but I see names everywhere except one." He said pointing to the last number on the list. "I tried calling it but no one answered." Jake said. "No voicemail? Did you check it with the Duskwood directory?" Richy asked. Jake and I looked at each other. "No it just got cut off. I did cross check but no, it came up as empty. No one was registered to that number in Duskwood or for the matter of fact even to Hanson's town." Jake said. "Its weird that she spoke to this number for almost 10 minutes that day. Did you try calling it again?" Richy asked. "No, I didn't think the person would pick up." Jake said. "No better time than now to call it," I said. I started dialing the number, but I didn't get very far when I saw that the number was already saved in my contacts. "I know this number." I said. Both Richy and Jake looked at me. "What? How?" Jake asked. I slid my phone towards Jake and Richy glanced at it as well. The name said Edelson, Parker & West. "Edelson, Parker & West? Who are they?" Richy asked. "It's the law firm where my father worked as a criminal defense lawyer." I said as Jake looked at me. I couldn't process this. Dad's office was the last place Hannah had called? Wheels started turning in my head. "Do you think Hannah wanted to speak to your Dad?" Richy asked. "That's not possible. Her dad passed away 2 years ago." Jake offered. "Oh, I'm sorry Jade." Richy said sadly. "Maybe Hannah spoke to someone in the office. Someone who knew your dad?" Jake said. I sighed, "Everyone knew dad in the office. But there is one person who can help us figure this out. Johnson West. He was mentored by my dad." "West as in West of the Law firm's name?" Richy asked. "Yes he is a partner now." I said. "Can you call him now?" Jake asked. I looked at the clock. It was getting late but Johnson would pick my call nonetheless. He would probably find it strange that I was calling so late but he would pick up. "Yes I can." I said dialling Johnson's number. 4 rings later he picked up, "Hello Jade?" His voice was a welcoming change. I hadn't spoken to him in a while but there was a time when Thursday night dinners were a ritual at his place. His wife and kids were adorable, and he always considered me to be the sister he never had. Probably because dad treated him like a son.

"Hi Johnson. I'm sorry to be calling this late but I was wondering if you could help me with something." I said. Warning bells probably went off in his head as he asked, "Are you in any kind of trouble?" The time of the call and his profession probably pushed him to the conclusion. "No. I am not. I just had to ask you something about a friend of mine." I said. "Shoot." He said. "A friend of mine named Hannah Donfort called the office a few weeks ago. Would you know who she must have spoken to?" I asked. "That's tricky Jade. Do you know who she was trying to connect with? Because the calls would go through their assistants." Johnson said. "Oh ok. Can you find out? I have her number here...." I started. "Hang on Jade. Is your friend Hannah Donfort the Hannah girl who is missing in Duskwood?" he interrupted. Crap. Why did I mention her full name? Jake shot me a look and shook his head. "I don't know what you are talking about." I said sheepishly. After a long pause, Johnson said, "Let's have lunch tomorrow." "Johnson I can't do lunch..." I started. "I'm not asking Jade. Tomorrow. Lunch. Either you come in here to talk to me or I find my way." Johnson said. "I'll be waiting. Bye." He hung up. "What was that?" Richy asked. "That's family," I said. "Alright this means I have to get going." I said standing up. It would take me almost the whole night to drive back home. "Richy is going with you," Jake said. "Richy is?" Richy asked surprised at Jake's statement. "I think it is a 2-person job. You can keep each other out of trouble. A little too well I might add. Now hurry up. You don't wanna be late. Chop chop." He said.