Missing - A Chroniclers Tale Pt. 01

"What's the Fantasy 4 club? A dance club?"

The voice laughed, "No. It's ah, a sex club. Rather exclusive too and, it's a pretty penny to join."

"Really now" Jacob laughed. "Do you know if he saw you? Did you, um, interact with him at all?"

"No, I don't think he did. But, I know now why Sara is with him. The man has some stamina!" the voice laughed.

Jacob got the address of the club from the source. It would be another lead to check out, the sooner the better.

Angela looked like death warmed over when she got in a few minutes later.

"My source in OC hasn't heard any rumors, but he'll keep his ear out and contact me if he does."

"You look rough" Jacob said sincerely.

"Well, she does like to gab. I think it was after midnight before I got home. Anything new?"

"We're going to check out a sex club this afternoon?"

Angela chuckled, "Are you and Leah getting in to freaky shit now?"

Jacob snorted "No, an anonymous source called. They said O'Connell was at this club last Wednesday with two women."

Angela's eyes went wide, "No shit? I wonder if little miss innocent Sara knows?"

"I'm going to go with no on that. Though, she did finally call this morning. I have the bank information, so we can get the warrants today. But the thing is, when I said something about trying to get in touch with her yesterday and she said she was with the Senator...there was something in her voice."

Angela looked seriously at Jacob, "You know the old saying...power corrupts. But who?"

Jacob shook his head. They had leads going in various directions, hints of leads and a lot of dead ends. They also had a lot more to cover today.

Jacob and Angela spent the rest of the day sorting through the documents they did have, writing warrant applications and searching for any information about Patrick O'Connell in every database they could access. Lunch was brought to them, Chinese again at Angela's insistence. For someone who was half Italian and half African-American, Jacob wondered where she got the taste for Chinese from? Was it a case of nature verses nurture? Or something hidden deep in her DNA? Whatever it was, tomorrow he was ordering lunch.

The rest of the week, the routine was the same. They poured over all the information the had in the mornings, then hit the streets in the afternoon to talk to any leads they developed.

They talked to several people at the Fantasy 4 club. What they did find was of little value. O'Connell used to be a semi-regular visitor for a few years, but then quit coming some five years previous, until that Wednesday night. The timeline dovetailed with what they knew about his relationship from Sara and others.

Jacob felt clues were being left behind. Breadcrumbs on the trail they were supposed to follow. But who was leaving the crumbs and why?

Two interesting phone numbers turned up in O'Connell's phone records. One was a two hour call to the State Attorneys General office that occurred a week before O'Connell disappeared. When Angela called the number, the person who answered denied ever speaking to O'Connell. They escalated all the way to the Deputy Chief, but the office denied to him that a phone call ever took place. In and of itself, the call was intriguing, but the flat denial from the Attorney General's office that the call ever took place was cryptic.

The second call was placed a two weeks before O'Connell vanished. It was placed to a little known private investigation company in Laurel Maryland, a city whose next door neighbor was the National Security Agency. The company would not confirm or deny they ever had contact with a Patrick O'Connell.

His financial records were far more mysterious than at first glance. The records were slow to come in, but the pace was more than enough for Donna Forrest, the forensic accountant, nominally a detective, provided by Chief Takahashi, to keep up with. Donna was in her late forties and kept herself fit. Her second husband and her blended family kept her going. She pretty much kept to herself, crunching numbers and looking for any clues that could provide leads.

Three weeks after Sara Anderson entered the lobby of the 1st Precinct house, the three detectives sat in a conference room with all the information they had spread out. Jacob was certain there was more hidden in what they had at hand.

After a few hours of sifting and brainstorming, Angela's frustrations boiled over.

"I'm certain O'Connell is just ghosting Anderson. I'm sure she's up there in Albany, probably screwing Stevenson and half the legislature. Patrick finds out, says fuck it, I got cash out the ass, I'm bouncing. And off he goes into the sunset. He's probably fucking his way across the Orient or across Europe while we're sitting here, spinning our wheels and he's fucking laughing at us. And her!"

Jacob sat at the conference table rubbing his temples.

Donna spoke up quietly, "I think Angela is more right than wrong Jacob. Based on everything I've been able to see and this paper trail is very hard to follow; I'm absolutely convinced this is only the tip of the iceberg, O'Connell is worth well north of five hundred million dollars, probably way, way more. His plane? He sold his old one off a few months ago and he's supposed to take possession of a brand new Gulfstream V in a few months. That order has not been canceled. And his boat? That was sold off a few months ago too and he has another being built in the Netherlands. That order has not been canceled."

Donna sat back and shook her head, "That right there tells me that he's out there. He's up to something and his 'disappearance' is all a great big smoke screen for someone completely fucking blind or a complete idiot."

Angela started laughing and slapping her knee. Once she caught her breath "I never heard you cuss before Donna. It was...cute!"

Donna smiled and started laughing, which set both Angela and Jacob off.

After a few minutes, the three got themselves back under control. While Angela was wiping tears from her cheeks, Jacob stood up and wandered over to the window.

"Have you found anything else out in his financials?" Jacob asked Donna.

"Well, actually, several I saw yesterday...I think" she said as she sorted through her pile of paperwork. She pulled several pages with yellow highlighter marks on them from the stack.

"Here and here...and here." She pointed to several highlighted lines, "This one is for a train ticket from the city to Albany. Friday the 15th, a month before he vanished. And, he stayed at the Hilton."

Donna pointed to another, "This is a commercial flight three weeks earlier, also a Friday and returned on a Sunday from Rochester. He spent the weekend in a hotel."

"And this one" her finger jabbing at a final highlighted line, "another train ticket to Albany on the Friday before he vanished. Again, he stayed in a hotel."

Donna looked at Jacob and Angela, "These are the only ones that really stick out. We only have a few months from his personal account, so there's no way to see if there's a pattern, but, these are suspicious to me."

Jacob looked at his watch and then picked up his phone, he dialed Sara Anderson's cell.

"Good Morning Detective, have you found anything new?" Sara asked Jacob right away.

"Ah Miss Anderson, do you have a few moments to talk? I have a couple of questions" he asked.

"Sure, I don't have anything scheduled for another hour."

"When was the last time you saw Mr. O'Connell?"

Sara didn't hesitate, "Two weeks before I last talked to him. I went down to the city and we spent a long weekend together. Why?"

"You didn't see him the weekend before?" he asked.

Sara hesitated, "No...There was a, um, reception I had to attend out of town."

"With Senator Stevenson?" Jacob asked.

"Not directly, just trying to swing some votes the Senators way" she replied. Jacob thought the tone of her voice changed dramatically. He could sense sadness that wasn't there before.

"Were you in Albany, about a month before you last talked to him?" he asked.

"No, I was with the Senator in Toronto. We got back Saturday night" she replied, there was curiosity in her voice. "What's with the dates Detective?"

"Nothing important, we're just running down some leads. It'll help us find the right trail to get on Miss Anderson" Jacob said. He tossed his note pad on the table and pointed at what he wrote to Angela. "That's all I have for now Miss Anderson, I'll be in touch soon. If you can think of anything else that might help our investigation, please call me. Any time, day or night."

"I will Detective. And, thank you so much for taking this seriously. I really do need to find him. He's been my rock for so long, I just, feel adrift now" Sara sadly replied.

After he hung up with Sara, Jacob shook his head and ran his hands down his face, "More breadcrumbs."

"O'Connell vanishing has everything to do with Sara" Angela mused quietly.

Donna observed, "There's two ways to think about this, based on what I see. One, Sara is mixed up with some powerful, probably corrupt people in Albany. O'Connell found out or suspected and was doing some snooping. Maybe these unknown people found out he was snooping and, took care of their problem."

She paused and sorted through the papers in front of her, "Or, second. He found out something was happening to Sara and he's putting an end to it his way. If he exposes the corruption, he might take his girlfriend down, but those that caused the problem will go down too."

Jacob sat back, "He's threading the strings and pulling them as he needs to?"

Angela mused, "If he thinks were his puppets, we aren't powerful enough to take down anyone in Albany. It's not our jurisdiction and not a case we can go after."

Jacob looked at Angela, "Perhaps we aren't the only puppets? Maybe Long Island was deliberate? What did Sasha say? Something about anyone who tried to hurt him would 'rue the day'."

"Or someone he loved. You know, I have mentioned the case to several of my Organized Crime contacts. If Long Island was deliberate, maybe there is something more than just his phone pinging out there." Angela added.

Donna questioned, "Contracts out on politicians?"

Jacob thought for a moment, "No, I don't think so. Embarrassment, humiliation, punishment. I don't think O'Connell is looking to get people wacked, just their dreams taken away."

"One thing that is really bothering me is O'Connell's background. His state tax records only go back seven years, before that? Nothing. His drivers license? Only for the last seven years. Where was he before? We don't even know where he was born, where he went to school or where he was before seven years ago" Jacob's frustration evident in his voice.

"We have no proof he left the country if he is alive, at least, Patrick O'Connell hasn't left the country. Homeland Security says they have no record of his passport being used. And, his passport is only seven years old as well" Angela brought up.

Donna shuffled some of her papers, "It's like we're staring into a black hole."

Sara stood in front of her bathroom mirror looking at her reflection. Her makeup was perfect, her hair just right and her little black dress clung in all the right places. She hated what she saw and only wished she could find her rock again. She felt that if she could just cling to it for a moment, things would be better.

Since her rock vanished without a trace, she was starting to see the things it had taught her, to have faith in herself, to find the strength that was in her. While she hated the version of herself that led her to this point, she remembered something her rock said repeatedly, that change was inevitable, so make changes for the better.

She walked out to her small apartment living room and faced the man sitting on her couch. He smiled at her but before he could say anything, Sara held her hand up.

"No more Jackson. Patrick is gone, so you don't have a hold over me anymore" she said firmly.

He stood up, crossed to her and placed his hands firmly but, gently on her arms. He leaned in closely, "Only two more to go Sara, then you're free to go back to your life, back to New York. Hell, I'll grease the wheels for you any where in the city."

"No, I'm not doing it" she replied firmly.

"Yes you will. You wouldn't want your Mom or Dad, not even your sisters to see your face splashed all over the tabloids in the city. Certain tapes on every porn site? Maybe Patrick did find out something and he's run off to curl up and cry. That's OK, but, Sara you have no choice." he said with menace in his voice. "Two more and you're done."

Sara sniffled back a cry and wiped the tears running down her cheeks.

"Go fix your makeup dear, we need to leave. We can't leave Senator Di'Amigo waiting."