Extinguishing dreams Ch.50

50.1

Hailey and Laura had now been missing for two weeks and the police were now aware of the potential seriousness of the situation. Hailey’s mother – Mrs. Parsons, was also still flying below the radar. Detective Ozan, an attractive, tan skinned gentleman of Turkish descent, was heading up the investigation. With Matt out of the country and the mother missing, the only lead they had was Matt’s sister Eleanor. She had been forthcoming, pleasant even, in fact, if she weren’t wearing a ring, and if it did not interfere with his investigations, he would consider asking her out. Fate however, as it often did during these instances, conspired against him.2

Detective Ozan had originally wanted to be a historian or a diplomat. He had studied hard at University and passed with honors in his business with language degree. He had taken his education through to Masters Level, but had not finished his PHD. His final piece was entitled ‘Mohawks as precursor to democracy,’ and centered upon the Native American’s advanced forms of government and how the Europeans and eventually what came to be the American government, adopted their systems. Ozan was multi-lingual speaking upwards of ten languages fluently and numerous others to a functional level. He’d always had an aptitude for language and was particularly interested in ancient/dead or dying languages including Huron-Wyandot, Mohawk, Welsh, Coptic, Old Church Slavonic and Sanskrit. 3

He was only three months into his PHD when a life changing event took place. His father, an ex-military man involved in the troubles in Cyprus had recently died leaving his mother alone and vulnerable. Ozan had gone ahead with his University placement at the insistence of his mother, despite not wishing to leave her alone. He had felt a tremendous sense of guilt but she assured him she would be fine and that his education was important. One day whilst he was studying in the library, he had received a call from a neighbor telling him that his mother was not answering her door and asking his permission to break in.4

Ozan’s mother had mobility issues and rarely left the house relying on the kindness of friends and neighbors for her shopping and house maintenance when Ozan was away. Ozan had immediately given his permission for the break-in and requested they call him back as soon as they had news of his mother’s whereabouts and condition. Minutes later they had called back, the house had been ransacked and his mother was no where to be seen.5

After the police had arrived and Ozan had returned home, it became apparent that nothing had actually been stolen. Two years later and Ozan’s mother had still never been found. The case remained open but sat gathering dust as it was no longer priority and according to one particularly compassionate detective, his mother was old and had probably died by natural causes if she hadn’t been murdered by whoever ransacked her apartment.6

From the day he received the dreadful news, Ozan never returned to his University and never completed his PHD. After just over two years of his mother’s disappearance, he became a cop. He was under no illusion that he would succeed where the previous detectives had not and find his mother, that chapter of his life was over. He reasoning behind sacrificing his dreams to be a historian, or interpreter or diplomat etcetera, was due to logic. He had spent the last two years thinking solidly about his mother’s disappearance, running background checks on potential suspects, visiting Northern Cyprus where she had hailed from and quizzing family members and old neighbours, building character profiles and reading up on psychology books and theorists. His hunt had become obsession and he felt like he knew nothing else. 7

So far Detective Ozan’s search for the missing mother and daughter (not to mention husband and grandmother…) had found only dead-ends. He was tired of asking the same people the same questions. Today however, he felt some excitement as he often did when his gut told him his latest lead was a good one. He had just been to visit Eleanor (under the pretense he was looking for news on Matt’s whereabouts when in reality he simply grown accustomed to her company) and she had provided him with a new avenue for exploration.8

The team was not looking at Matt’s disappearance as coincidence; there was evidence that produced a convincing case as to his inherent involvement if not sole guilt in his family’s disappearance. There was the blood found in the bathroom, although not in huge quantities, it was suspicious, the house was found in a state of disrepair as if a fight/struggle had taken place – and Laura’s mother had mentioned to him (on numerous occasions) how Matt and her daughter – Laura - had a particularly volatile relationship. 9

One day before Mrs. Parsons had herself disappeared, she had informed him of how Matt had ‘abducted’ his own daughter and fled to the coast. He had refused to notify his wife of their whereabouts and his recent behavior had apparently given Laura cause for concern. She was not convinced her child would remain safe under his sole parentage. Mrs. Parsons had prevented Laura from calling the police – despite the safe return of Hailey later that night – it was a decision she had come to regret.10

Despite all of the evidence pointing at Matt as guilty party, something about this case did not sit right. Maybe his fondness for Eleanor was affecting his judgment, but her adamancy that her brother was not involved and in no way would harm his wife or child, was convincing. Backing up her case was Matt’s clean record, no history of any crime let alone violent crime tarnished this man’s history. Interviews with his friends and colleagues had suggested much the same story.11

It was clear he was a hard worker, working longer and longer hours - no doubt in search of some illusive promotion, but by all accounts an entirely personable and mild mannered man. Again this characterisation did not back up Mrs. Parsons’ damning portrayal of a man on the edge, aggressive and unpredictable, but that is not to say she was wrong. 12

Detective Ozan had been in the job long enough to know that sometimes it was the person you least expected that was caught ‘with the knife,’ as it were. He could be living a double life, pleasant calm and seemingly in control in his work environment, but aggressive, violent and out of control during his personal life. Alternatively, the stress of the job and long hours he had been undertaking could have caused a mental breakdown. Ozan had seen this scenario rear its ugly and sometimes violent head on more than one occasion and the professional side of his brain informed him Matt fit this profile. Once again something in his gut told him this was not the case, profile match or not.13

Despite numerous visits to Matt’s family house and the detailed search that entailed, Ozan and his team had neglected to place significance on a pile of unpaid parking fines. This seemingly extraneous detail could in fact provide an opportune clue, Eleanor pointed out. Each of the tickets were for the same place and dated bi-weekly for the past four months, another thing of significance was that the tickets were for each of the family cars, one belonging to Matt and the other his wife. Of course it was entirely possible that either Matt or Laura had borrowed the other’s car, but the likelihood was they were both involved in some sort of activity that required each of them to visit the same area, twice a week, yet on separate days and at separate times, and stay there long enough to receive a ticket.14