The Woman That Called

1

I was sitting by the fire place in my dimly lit living room.  When the phone rang I answered saying "hello".  On the other end was a woman.  She seemed like she was upset by someone or something.  I did not recognize who it was on the other end.  I asked her how did you get my phone number.  She than answered saying her name was Sue.  She said she got my number from a friend of mine.  I than asked her why did you call me and why are you so upset.  She said crying that she thought that her boy friend had been cheating on her.  Than she paused for a minute and said that he just came up missing.  I had asked her how long he had been gone and she said sense yesterday morning.   I than asked her why she would be concerned about him being gone.  She than replied that he did not come home from work that morning.  I asked her if he ever had been late before.  Her reply was a short "no."2

OK I said let me get some information from you.  I asked her where he worked.  She responded by saying that he worked at a plant over by the Old Creek Mill.  I asked her if that was over off of Shaffer  Mill RD.  She replied yes it is.  I asked her if he had  been working there very long.  She replied he has been there for five years.  She said in all that time he has always called before he came home in the morning.She said when he did not call.  I got worried but I thought that maybe he had to work a little late that morning.3

She told me that she had just learned from a friend of hers.  That her boyfriend might have been cheating with a co worker of his.  She told me that her friend had seen the both of them talking and carrying on like something was up.  They were not acting like they were just friends.  She said she over heard my boyfriend say that he would.  Meet with the other woman after work the next morning.I asked her if she was sure of that comment being made.Or maybe she did not hear them right.I was only hoping by this point that my friend could have been wrong.  4

I told Sue over the phone that I would like to meet with her in person,  So I could get more information on her boyfriend.  She said it was fine and to meet her at a coffee shop over off of Hills dale Rd.  I told her that I would meet her about one o'clock this afternoon.  She said OK and I hung up the phone.5

Later on that morning I went by the Still plant.  Over off of Shaffer mill Rd.  I went in to see if I could talk to the ladies boy friends boss.  I had needed to see if anyone was missing from work on the twenty eighth of July.  I went in and talked with the receptionist.  I told her I was needing to talk to the shift supervisor on duty the twenty eight.  She asked why I told her that a guy came up missing and I needed to find out what his name was and what area he had been working in at the plant.  The receptionist said that the shift super would have been Mike Thompson.  I asked if she could have him come up and talk with me.  She said I would but he is not here right now.  He would not be back in until tomorrow.  I asked her if there would be anyone who was taking his position over while he was away.  She said that Sam Graves was working for him while he is gone.  I asked her if Sam would have the time cards for the twenty eighth.  She said that Mike would have them he was the one who kept them in his office in a filing cabinet.  I told her thanks for the info and I will come back in the next morning at eight am.6

Later on that afternoon I went over and met with Sue at the coffee shop.  She told me that her boy friends name was Tom and that he and she had been to gather for the past five years.  She said she thought that everything was going good between them.  She never would have thought Tom would have ever cheated on her.  I told her that she did not know rather if he was cheating or not.  That you can not go by what someone says and know it to be true or not.  I asked her if Tom had any close friends that could tell me maybe if he had been seeing someone else or not.  She said that there was this guy who Tom hang out with some times on the weekends.  She said that his name was Kevin.  She gave me his phone number.7

I called him later on that evening.  I asked him if Tom had said anything to him about going out of town or anything else that might be of some interest to the case.  He said that he had thought that Tom might be going out of town for the weekend with a lady named Sabrina Wilcox.  I asked him if he would know where they were going to?  He said he thought that they where going to Lagoona Beach near Ashton, Sc.I told him thank you for the info and I went home.  I called him back and asked him.  If he might know what hotel they might be staying in.  He said he thought it was the Pink Flamingo Hotel off of Harrison Ave.8

I hung up the phone and called the hotel.  I asked if a man by the name of Tom Steels was renting a room?  The desk clerk said that he had reserved a room but he never showed up.  She asked if I was the friend who was supposed to meet him at the hotel?  I said no and that I was a private investigator who was trying to find him.  She asked why I was trying to find him?  I told her that his girlfriend said he had come up missing two days ago.  She said if I see him I will call you.  I gave her my phone number.  I asked her if she would not mind not saying anything to him about me calling asking for him.  She said that she would not mind and we than hung up the phone.9

I laid there that night in bed wondering if my friend at the plant was right.  She told Sue that she over heard her boyfriend and a lady friend talking about meeting up the next morning.  I just wounder if it was true if they where going to just take off from the plant site.  I also wondered if all of this might be a girlfriend over reacting to the situation.  The only thing is that all of this is just to coincidental. My friend who told Sue she over heard them talking and the fact that he had a room reserved at the hotel for the following day.  I got up out of bed and started to put the facts onto paper.  I drew up a time line.  OK so if he went to work at night and got off at eight in the morning.  He calls his girlfriend about seven fifty in the morning to let her know he is on his way home.  Well lets see he did not call her that morning.   Hm mm well OK so I have that down on paper.Now what well he was saw talking with a woman at the plant.I need to try and figure out who the other woman is.10

I called Sue up that morning and asked if her friend had called her the night before.  She said yes and that she had told her that the other woman was possibly an old girl friend of Toms.  I asked her if she had seen changes in Tom at all lately.  She no not that she could see.  She than said something that caught my attention.  She said that Tom had received a package in the mail earlier on that week.  She said that Tom had said something about the fact that we are going to be well off real soon Sue.  I asked him what he meant by that and he did not go any further with the statement that he had made to me.  I asked her if she would have any idea what would have been in the package.  She said "no" I do not know maybe it would be better off that way.  I asked her if I could come over and look for the package the next afternoon.  She said no problem but that she did not want to know the contents of the package and not to tell her.  I said OK and we then said good night.11

The next morning I showed up at the plant.  Mike was there I asked him if I could talk with him and he said that he already knew that I was coming and what it was about.  I said OK and I then asked him if he had saw any thing out of the ordinary out of Tom while at work.  He said he knew that he had a girl friend and that her name is Sue.  I said yes I know that what else can you tell me.  He said that he thought that it was real strange but not uncommon for a man to have a lady friend at work.  I asked him why he put it that way and he said that the lady friend and Tom where hanging around alot and holding hands in the break area at lunch time.  I asked him if there was anything else that he could think of.  He said that Tom needed to take the weekend off from work.  I asked him if Tom gave him a reason and Mike said that Tom said that he had some business to take care of out of state.  I told Mike thanks for the information and I thanked him for his time and then I left.12

Later on that afternoon I went over to Sue's apartment.  She said that she thought that To,m had put the package in the closet on the top shelf.  I looked in the closet and there on the top shelf was a brown envelope.  I opened the envelope to reveal what was inside.  I found a off shore bank account in Tom's name.  It looked to me that Tom had over a million dollars in the account.  It did not say what the account was for it just said that it was in the Canary Islands.  I took down the international phone number for the bank.I also took down the account information as well.13

The next day I called the bank up and a desk clerk came on the phone line and asked who I needed to speak with.  I told her who I was and what I was calling if reference to.  She told me that no body there could talk to me about the account.  I told her that the man who has that account has come up missing.  She then said that she could put me in touch with the accounts department and I could talk with the supervisor.  I said thank you to her and then she transferred me to that department.  I asked if I could talk to the supervisor and she said that she was speaking and asked me how she could help me?  I told her who I was and what I was calling in reference to.  She said that the account was for a man by the name of Tom Steels.  She said that he had sat up the account over seven years ago.  He had not touched the money until recently.  He said that he had a lady friend call and make a withdrawal on his behalf at least she thought that he did,  She said the lady had faxed her all the paper work that she needed to make the withdrawal on Mr. Steels behalf.  She said that she found it kind of odd that Mr. Steels did not call her himself.  He never had anyone else call on his behalf before.  she said that he always called himself to check on the account.That is the last she time she saw the money.  The lady withdrew all the money.14

I called Sue and asked her if she knew of this account and she said she did not.  She said all she thought that Tom had as far as money was what he brought home from work.  She said that Tom was always real tight with money.  He said that we do not have that much and he was trying to save up for taking me on a cruise or something to that effect.  I told Sue that I thought something happened to Tom, But to what happened I was not sure of.  I would do more searching into it and let her know.  I told her to give me a few days and then I would call her back.  I said that if anything came up any sooner I would call her then and let her know what I had found out.  I could not even imagine what was going on in Sue's head right then and there at the point. All I could think of was the worst maybe I could be wrong and I hoped that I was wrong.  I would only hope that this case would end up having a good ending to it.I do not like bad endings and having to tell the client.15

I went down the next day to the police station and talked to the Sargent on duty.  His name was Sargent Phipps.  He was a old friend of my dads when my dad was a detective for the southwest unit.  It was a really bad area in Boston.  There was alot of drug running in that area and alot of murders as well.  I just hoped that someone there could help me on my case.  Maybe look some information up for me on there computer database or something.  I gave the Sargent a description of Tom.  I told him all the things that Sue had told me.  I also told him of the off shore bank account info that I had found out about.  He said that he would do some checking and let me know something as soon as he could.  I said OK and then I went over to the plant again.  to try and talk to some of the co workers of Tom's.  I knew that alot of them would not say anything even if they knew anything.  So I went in with that understanding.  The first guy that I talked to was Frank Nalestol.  He and Tom worked in the Cutting department.  He said he did not know much but what he did notice is that Tom had been acting kind of weird lately.  I asked what he meant by that and he said that Tom made the statement that he and his lady friend were going to be heading out of town to go and look at some property down in South Carolina.  I asked him if he was sure he said that he was sure and left it at that.  He told me that most of the other people here at the plant do not get involved with other peoples business.  I asked why he was involved and he said that Tom came to him asking him to make sure his place was OK while he was away. He said that Tom would have rented a car from the local car rental dealership in town.16

I made it a point to go over and talk with the rental clerk.  He said that a gentleman by the name of Tom Steels had put a car on hold.  He said that the guy never came in to get the car though.  I asked him if I could look at the car he said sure, but I do not think it will help you solve your case any more or any less.  I went out and took a look at the car. It did not seem to be that fancy of a car or anything.  I looked to see if I could notice anything out of place nothing that I Could see was out of place. So I thanked the clerk and went on my way.  I was really at a dead end.  I only had one lead and that was the bank account in the Canary Islands. I really was at my whits end by this point.  Well all I could think of doing was taking a trip to the islands myself and talk with the Account's Manager.  I booked the next available flight out of Boston.  I would be leaving at seven AM. the next day. All I needed to know was if the lady that took the money out of the account was taking it to Tom or not.  I did not know if the manager was going to able to tell me that or not but all I could do was try. I had nothing to loose at this point in the game.  I took off the next morning.  I booked a hotel room on the beach. This way I could take the time to sit back and relax and go over my case in my head.  I got down to the islands about three or so in the afternoon.  I took a taxi over to the hotel and put my things away.  I got ready to go and took off towards the bank.  I reached the bank about four o'clock.  I went in and asked the receptionist if I could talk to the manager in charge of the off shore accounts department.  she said that she would see what she could do and let me know in a few minutes.  I sat down and looked at a magazine that was lying on a table near by. She came back and told me that it would be at least eight minutes before he could come and talk with me in person.  I said thank you and I went back to reading.  The manager came over to me a little while later and said that he was sorry that it took longer than he expected and he apologized.  I said no problem and we then went into his office and sat down.  He asked me how he could help me and I told him the situation at hand.  I told him that the gentleman who had the account had come up missing.  He asked me what he could do about that. I said well you see it has come to my attention that a lady friend of the man whom has come up missing a few days ago.  Faxed papers to this bank and had all the money withdrawn from the account.  He said that the lady said that she was the man's wife and that he had signed all the paper work for the withdrawal.  He did not second guess the woman and went ahead and gave her the OK for the money wire.  I asked him at that point if he could tell me where the money had been wired to back in the states.  He said it was wired to a Bank of America in Boston.  I told the manager thank you and I left the bank.  I headed back to the hotel.  I got back to my room and I noticed that I had a phone message.  I called the operator and asked her who called while I was out.She said that a police Sargent from the states had called.I asked her if he had left a message.  She replied with a yes and told me that he said for me to call him as soon as I came back in to the hotel.That it was very important that I called it was regarding a case that he was working on.  I said thank you and went ahead and called him back.17

He ended up saying that he had found out that the lady friend that Tom had been with was an ex-con.  She had served time in a state prison back in Arizona.  She served time for aggravated assault on her ex husband who also came up missing after he had come into some big money.  Well this sheds new light on the case I told him.  He agreed with me and then we hung up the phone.  I do not know what to tell Sue.  I will have to go back to the states and check with the local hospitals to see if anyone by the name of Tom Steels had come in or possibly was checked in.  I left the following morning.  I got back to Boston's Logan Airport. I left the airport and went straight to the nearest hospital to where Sue and Tom lived.  I went in and checked with the receptionist in the Emergency Room.  She said she did not see him in the ER. logs that she would do some checking and let me know something real soon.  She came over to me in about an hour or so.  She said she did not have good news to tell me.  She asked if I was a family member I told her no that I was a Private Investigator and I was searching for Mr. Steels on behalf of his wife. I showed her my badge and asked her to tell me what the bad news was.  I already had a feeling that he was found down in the hospital morgue.  I was right he had been shot in the head at close range by a twenty two caliber rifle.  I went down to see the body to make sure it was him and not someone else.  Sure enough it was  Mr. Steels he had been shot and was brought in the same night that the money was taken out of the account back in the islands.18

I went to the Police Station to let the Sargent know the information.  He said that he had just learned of it and that was not all.  He also found out that the lady friend of Mr. Steels did not go by the name she had been giving people.  She actually went by Amber Lawless.  Her rap sheet was a mile long.  She had everything from the aggravated assault to armed robbery.  Spanning from Florida to Arizona where she ended up spending eight years behind bars.  I did not know how I was going to tell Sue that her boyfriend had been murdered.  Actually I had to tell her more bad news on top of that. I also had to tell her that all of the money that was in the account had been totally wiped out.  I could not even imagine how is was going tell her.  Do I just tell her straight out or should I be more of the.  I have something to tell you and you are not going to like it at all.  Well any ways I have to end up telling her no matter how much it will hurt her.I am also hoping that we can end up getting the lady that did this to confess and be tried for murder, but that is going to take some time.19

I ended up calling Sue just to make sure that she was going to be home.  I apologized to her for the fact that I was a day late.  I had told her that I was going to come over and talk with her in about two days or so.  I told her that I had to go out of town.  I told her that I would be there in about thirty minutes.  I ended up at the Coffee Shop over off of Hills dale Rd.  I brought some coffee and Got some pastries for me and Sue.  I arrived at Sue's house and went in.  She asked if I was there with good news or bad?  I asked her if she wanted some coffee and something to eat.  She said that she would take some coffee and did not feel like eating at that time.  I told her that maybe she would rather sit down on the sofa and we could talk then.  She sat down but instead of sitting back she sat right on the edge of the sofa.  I could tell that she was already waiting for me to tell her that her worst nightmare had come true.  The only thing is that is not all I had to tell her. In my mind I was trying to decide what to tell her first.  OK I said I need to tell you that the bank account has been wiped out.  She did not seem to surprised by that comment.  She said that she thought that he had ran off with the money and was not going to come back to her.  I said well I do know that he is not coming back, but what I have to tell you is not something that you would even think of Sue.  She asked me what it was and I told her that Tom had been murdered the same day that the bank account had been cleaned out.  She just set there like she was wanting to say something but it was like something had got a hold of her vocal cords and she could not speak.  She sat there just speechless for about fifteen minutes not even moving a muscle.I asked if she was OK I knew that she was not but that is all I could think of to say to her at the time.  I felt really dumb right then and there.  She just looked at me like the deer in the head lights look. I could not even guess rather she was wanting to cry or just scream out in hurt and bewilderment.  I did not try and tell her that is was going to be OK because I knew that is was not going to be OK for quite some time.  I gave her my card and told her to call any time day or night if she needed someone to talk to.  I also talk her that I would be working with the police.  So we could catch the woman who was responsible for his murder.20

I went down to the Police Station the very next morning.  I talk with the Sargent on duty.  I told him who I was and that I had been working on a missing persons case.  I told him all the information I had gotten about the case and asked him if there was anything else I could due to help the police out any further.  He said he would call me or have the other sergeant give me a call if they needed me for anymore info.  I went home that night and I talked to My best friend and told her what I had tell to Sue.  I could not even sleep that night.  what I had to tell Sue just kept repeating itself in my head all night long.  I did not know which is worse.  Having to look for missing adults or missing children.  It does seem to me that both are just as hard, but I would have to say that children have to be the worst. When you have to go in and tell the parents that their child has been found and that the child is no longer alive.  I would have to also say that in my twenty five years of being a Private Investigator I have not had a case like this one.  I can say that there has to be more cases that are alot worse than this one, but this has taken it's toll on me.  It is so hard to sleep some times after certain cases, but this was hard on me because my best friend had been involved.  I can only imagine what that would have been like for me to have to do a cases that involved my best friend and her boyfriend or husband. It was about twelve o clock in the morning when the phone rang. I picked up the receiver and on the other end was the Sargent. He said that he wanted to see me in his office in the morning bright and early.21

I woke up about eight in the morning.  I got up and took a shower it felt good to have a shower that I could just stand there and think over the case in my head.  I took off down to the coffee shop and got a cup of coffee and a pastry to go.  I headed down to the Police Station. I walked in and the Sargent was there waiting in his office.  I asked him what he wanted to talk to me about?  He said that they had found the lady who was responsible for Mr. Steels death. She had been seen trying to get a plane ticket out of the United States.  She was trying to go to France,but as far as what part we are not sure of.  I asked him if they had gone down to arrest her and he told me that is where I came into the picture at.  I asked him what he mean by that and he said to me that he needed me to go and identify her as the woman that was seen talking to Mr. Steels.  I said that I could but that  I was not an eye witness to them talking that it was my best friend who worked with them at the plant.  He asked if I could get a hold of her and have her come in to talk with him in person.  I said that I would try that she would be at work.  I called her at the plant she said that she could not break away from there until about lunch time.  I told the Sargent and then I told her that we would meet with her at the Airport about twelve thirty.  She said that would be fine and for me to have something there for her for lunch I laughed and said no problem. It twelve thirty and we where still waiting on her to show up for the meeting.I had her lunch there as well.  We waited until two o clock.  She still did not show so the Police Sargent said that he was going to go down to the plant to see what the deal was on her not showing.  He took off to the plant.  I was right behind him in my car just in case he needed me there.We arrived at the plant just in time as the paramedics where taking my friend to the hospital.  I ran up to her and asked her what happened?She said as she was about to leave one of the co workers for the lady came up from behind her and stabbed her in the right shoulder blade.I asked her did she say anything to you before she did this and all my friend could say was.  She made the comment that this is for listening on conversations that have nothing to do with you. I told the Sargent that we needed to go over to the Airport again and arrest the lady who is involved in all of this.  He said that he was going to, but first we need to go in and arrest the lady who was responsible for the stabbing of my friend.  The officers went into the plant and arrested a lady by the name of Amy Goodin.  We all went back down to the Airport and the officers went in and arrested Amber Lawless.22

Two years have gone by and the trial foe Amber Lawless is in effect.  She is being charged with first degree murder of Tom Seels and first degree money laundering and also first degree aggravated assault on my best friend at the plant.  The lady who actually did the assault was sentenced to five years in prison over a year ago. Sue said to me just yesterday that no matter what the trial out come.That Tom will not be brought back to life,but she can have a little closer and be able to rest a little easier at nigh knowing that the lady that caused all of this is going to be behind bars for quite some time and that she will not have the freedom that she is used having.  After this case was over I decided that I was going to retire and head off to the Hawaiian Islands and just take it easy for at least five years or so. Maybe me and Tom Selick can end up being a P.I. Team lol.23