"These belong to a young girl, maybe 12 or 13 years old. I found a box of sanitary napkins under the sink in the bathroom, so I knew there was definitely a female living here."
"Let's call John Wilson and see what he knows about his old tenant before we let our imaginations run crazy." He pulled John's business card out of his wallet and dialed the number. After the third ring, he was greeted by a young female voice.
"Wilson Industries how may I help you?"
"Hello. Is John Wilson in?"
"Yes sir, may I tell him who's calling?"
"This is Charlie Watson. I purchased his mobile home about a month ago."
"Just one moment Sir."
After a few minutes John come on the line. "Hello Charlie, I hope they put the mobile home in the right spot."
"Yes, John, everything was set up and all of the utilities connected when we got here yesterday. Thanks for handling the move."
"My pleasure, I'm so glad you saw the ad I posted."
"Jenny and I are cleaning the place up and finding some strange things. What can you tell us about your old tenant?"
"Strange things?"
"Well, maybe yes, and maybe no; we don't know anything about him or his family."
"Hold on, Charlie, let me pull his application out of the file." A few minutes had passed and John was back on the phone. "As far as his application reads, Robert Porter was single, no family mentioned when he signed the lease in April. He wasn't required to tell me if someone moved in after that time."
Charlie made a note of the name and date. "John, have you had other tenants here?"
"No. Robert was the first. We used it as a getaway place. My son and his family used it mostly, but they are out on the east coast now so I decided to try leasing it for a while."
"I know you said it was furnished; did you have eye bolts installed in the bathroom floor for any reason?"
"Eye bolts? Mounted in the floor? No, we didn't install anything like that."
"There was one in the small bedroom also, and we found evidence of a young woman living here. Can you tell me anything about this Robert Porter; his age, where he's from, or might have gone?"
"I understand why you're concerned. A young woman, you say. I never met Robert, but he was in his fifties. It's not so farfetched these days, a young woman living with an older man. It might be nothing. I used Marina Reality as the property managers, to show the property, screen tenants and collect the rent. I have her card somewhere… Oh, here it is, Stacy Richards was my agent. She has the original application on file and received the rent from Robert. She might be able to calm your worries. I'll call her and tell her you might drop by."
"Not a young woman…a young girl. Jenny figures she's about thirteen."
"Maybe his girlfriend had a daughter?"
"Thanks, John, we hope you're right. Can you give Stacy a call right away as Jenny and I just want to get rid of this bad feeling we have?"
"Consider it done. I'm sure there is a reasonable explanation. Hey, you two enjoy your new home in Marina." John hung up the phone.
Charlie saw the questions that were written all over Jenny's face.
"No family that he knows of, but there is someone in town we can talk to." Charlie filled her in on the rest of his conversation as she looked through the closet, chest of drawers and a small night stand hoping to find something, anything, to shed light on what they found.
"Would you mind if we went now to talk to the agent? I don't know, maybe there is nothing to this but my gut says don't give up yet. What do you think Charlie?"
"Well we don't have any answers yet. It's time for a break here anyway. Let's go into town."
Chapter 16
Jenny called directory assistance for the address of Marina Reality during the drive into town. It was a big enough office to warrant a receptionist that greeted them as they walked through the front door.
"Hello, may I help you?"
"Hello," Charlie returned. "We'd like to speak to Stacy Richards. Is she here?"
"She is but talking to a client at the moment. Can someone else help you?"
"We need to talk with Stacy, thanks," Jenny said.
"I'll let her know you're waiting, if you want to have a seat. Can I get you something, coffee or water?"
"No, we're fine thanks," Jenny replied.
Charlie read the name plaque on the desk then asked, "Mary, does the name Robert Porter ring a bell with you?"
"Hmmmm, let me think. No not really," she replied.
"In his fifties," Charlie continued, "he was renting a mobile home through your office."
"Wait a minute, Porter… is he medium height with short hair? You know, like in the military. I'm pretty sure he's the one that lived in the mobile home that we managed."
"Well we've never met him," Charlie answered. "We bought the mobile home he was living in and he left some personal things in it. We thought he may want them."
"Oh, you're not friends of his. I think the guy was kind of off. He never returned a hello, but maybe he was just always in a hurry when he came in to pay his rent."
"Did you ever see him with someone, like a young teenage girl?" Jenny asked.
"No, he was always alone when he came in. He would pull his van up close to the front door and I don't recall seeing anyone in the passenger seat.
"It sounds like you do remember him," Charlie said.
"I guess I should explain," she continued. "My boyfriend in high school had the same pale green VW van, so it always caught my eye. At first I thought it was him, but then I saw the Nevada license plate and knew it wasn't."
Mary's phone buzzed and she picked it up. She turned to them and indicated that Stacy was on her way up.
They saw an attractive woman in her early thirties walk into the room.
"Hello, I'm Stacy Richards. Are you, by any chance, the Watsons?"
Taken by surprise, it took them a moment to answer.
"Well, yes, we are. You must've gotten a call from John Wilson," Charlie said.
"Just hung up the phone. Why don't you come back to my office?" She pointed back towards her office and they followed her back. Charlie and Jenny took the available seats facing her desk. Stacy walked around her desk and faced them.
"So John mentioned you have some questions about Robert Porter?"
"Yes," Charlie began. "As you know, we bought John's mobile home a month ago. We just got back into town and started cleaning it out, and well, we found some eye bolts in the floor, and evidence that a young woman was living there also. The eye bolts looked like they were used as restraints. Mary, your gal up front doesn't recall ever seeing a young woman with him. Do you know if he had a daughter?"
"Oh, that would concern me as well." She turned her attention to the computer to bring up a file. "I only met him once when I took him out to see the rental in April and then we came back here to sign the lease agreement. I've seen him in the Safeway store a few times, but he was always alone. There is no mention of family in his file."
"Mary said he had short hair and was less than six feet tall. Is that him?" Jenny asked.
"Yes, that sounds like Robert, but I don't know how I can help you."
"Do you have children, Stacy?" Charlie asked.
"I have three." She smiled and turned a photo on her desk towards them. Her expression softened. "So you're thinking you want to find him to see if there is cause for concern on not?"
"We just can't let the feelings go that something is terribly wrong here, Stacy," Jenny said. "If there is anything you can tell us that can help us get answers…it's not for us, it's for the young girl that once wore the small pair of jeans and blouse I held in my hands this morning."
Stacy appeared to be thinking about the situation. "When the lease ran out the end of last month, I drove out to the property and found it vacated. As the lease was paid two months up front with proof of financial ability, we waived the security deposit. Robert was in the office on September 1st to pay the
last two months on the lease."
"Do you have any idea where he went? Did he have a job here?" Jenny inquired.
"Nothing indicating where he went, and again, with the bank statement he showed me, there was no need for a credit check or employment verification. Sorry there is little I can help with."
"Is there anything in his file to indicate where he came from?" Charlie asked.
"Look, I never got a warm fuzzy feeling about Robert. If there is any chance you two are right about this, I couldn't live with myself if there is a young girl out there looking for help." Stacy paused a few moments. "You didn't get this from me. I could lose my license if you told anyone." The printer came to life behind her desk.
"Thank you," they both answered.
"We won't betray your trust," Charlie added.
Stacy handed them the printed pages of the lease agreement and a copy of Robert Porter's driver's license. She then handed them her business card. "If you have any questions just call me. And please, let me know what you find out, OK?"
"We'll do that, and are still hoping for a different explanation," Jenny offered, shaking her hand.
Jenny looked over the copied pages back in the truck and studied the driver's license photo.
"He has short hair, blond and graying. In the shower drain I pulled long brown hair from the drain screen. It must be from the young girl. Oh God, Charlie. What can we do to find her?"
"What state is the driver's license from?" Charlie asked.
"Oregon, the address is in Bend."
Charlie opened his door. "I'll be right back."
He walked back into the real estate office and asked Mary, "You told us the license plates on Robert's van were from Nevada; are you sure?"
"Yes. Like I said, I always did a double-take when I saw the van."
"Thanks Mary. It was a VW van, right?"
"A late 80's VW Vanagon, pale green with blacked-out windows in the back, just like my old boyfriends."
When he slid back in the truck seat he told Jenny about reconfirming the van license plates were from Nevada and added the new information.
"We know there was a brunette living there and that there was some young girls clothing. We need to dig through the bags and see what else we can find and take this to the police," Charlie said.
"I agree, they have to find her."
Charlie started the truck and, instead of driving back towards their property, he headed out of town towards John Wilson's property where the mobile home had been.
"Where are you going?"
"We need to see if there is anything left there before we go home." He parked the truck and scouted the area for any information they could find. The trash cans held only the bags they had removed from the kitchen on their last visit here. Charlie started walking in circles around where the mobile home had been studying the ground for tampered soil.
Jenny grabbed his arm with tears forming in her eyes.
"You're looking for a grave, aren't you?"
"We can only hope and pray she is still alive and with him, Jenny."
They searched for an hour, making larger circles until they were about 50 yards out from the starting point. They were relieved at not finding a shallow grave, but they quickly realized the only answer received was that she wasn't buried there.
They drove back home in silence. Charlie brought in a table and chairs from the semi trailer and placed them in the small bedroom to screen through the trash that was left in the mobile home. Jenny started a list of what they knew so far and started going through the trash bags. She had just pulled the plastic liner out of the bathroom trash can and hadn't noticed before that in that liner bag was a large amount of brown hair, about eight inches in length, and a box of blond hair dye. Jenny put both in a separate plastic bag. "Look at this, Charlie."
He was putting their refrigerator in place in the kitchen when he heard her call out. He quickly went to see what she had found. "What is it?"
"Looks like he was trying to disguise her appearance to short hair, dyed blond." She showed him the bag.
"That's encouraging in two ways. It means he took her with him and that the abduction was recent enough that he was worried she could be recognized." He sat beside her and looked at the two lists; one was headed "Robert" and the other headed "Hope".
"Hope?" he asked.
"I had to give her a name. It's getting personal."
"We'll put together what we can and take it to the police. But for now we need lunch and the move-in grocery shopping still needs to be done. Let's pick this up after a trip into town."
"Let's grab a bite at that internet cafe on Reservation Street, we don't have cable here yet and I can look up Robert's name online and see what comes back." She grabbed the folder and they drove into town.
Jenny found the house in Bend, Oregon, that was shown on Robert's driver's license. It was sold just over a year prior in August of 1994. It had the listing agent as Nancy Waters of Bend Real Estate. Jenny printed the listing and put it in her file. She looked through the photos of the property listing. She saw a photo with the VW van in the driveway with Oregon license plates on it. There was something in the rear window of the van, a sticker of some kind, but she couldn't make it out. She tried to zoom in but it became fuzzy.
Charlie looked over at the screen. "Zoom out a little." When she had done that he said, "NRA member. I found a copy of the American Rifleman in the master bedroom. We can look at it, when we get home."
"Great, now we know he's armed."
"I was thinking more about the address label as there was no postal service out where he was living. Was there a mortgage amount shown on the property listing?"
"It just says "none". What does that mean?"
"With no mortgage it could mean he was there for a while or it was passed down from his parents. Either way, he has the money to move around without need for a job. What did it sell for?"
"$139,500."
"I'd have purchased a new van with that kind of profit. Does anything come up under, Robert Porter?"
"I'll check." Jenny clicked away on the keyboard and scanned the returns. "Let me add Bend, Oregon and check that," she suggested, while searching again. "Only the property address, he sold...Wait, here's an article in The Bulletin, a local Bend newspaper. Apparently he 'took an early retirement' from Bend Unified School District in June of 1994. The article implies it was not necessarily a voluntary choice. He taught at Bend Junior High for over 15 years. It doesn't say why he retired."
"I wonder if he's getting a pension check for 15 years of teaching?" Charlie asked. "If so, that would be one place I'd file a forwarding address."
"But, with a network of ATMs these days, his checks could be automatically deposited in any bank, anywhere, and he'd always have access."
"You're right. I use one all the time myself. Damn dead ends. The police can track the ATM usage down. Print the article and let's go stock our house with food…using my ATM card."
Once the cabinets and refrigerator were stocked, Charlie continued replacing the old furniture with the furniture they'd brought with them. He checked everything that went out very closely and took anything of interest to Jenny.
Jenny went back to the small bedroom and called Nancy Waters, the real estate agent that was on Robert's property listing. She was not only able to confirm that Robert was single, but Jenny was able to pry out of the agent some of the rumors about his retirement. Nancy indicated that there were multiple complaints from parents for inappropriate contact of their daughters in his 8th grade classes. Nancy went on to say that the way she heard it, Robert, was faced with either resigning or being under a full investigation. Jenny noted all this, and thanked Nancy for her help.
She resumed sorting through what Robert left behind. At the end of the last bag, Jenny had a page and a half of notes on Robert Porter, but very little on Hope. Charlie returned to the little bedroom, sat down beside her and kissed her gently. "Ok, what have we got?"
"Very little on Hope. I figure she's between the ages of 12 and 15. She had long brown hair and is probably a short-haired blond now," Jenny responded, frustrated.
"She probably wasn't abducted in Oregon in 1994 as that was a year ago. Maybe either Nevada or California more recently," Charlie commented.
Jenny pulled her sheet on Robert over in front of Charlie. "Much more on Robert, but everything is past. I haven't found anything to indicate where he is now…where he has her now." Jenny's eyes welled up with tears of defeat.
"Jenny, we've done what we can. We'll take it to the police in the morning and let them run with it. We came here to build a dream remember?" Charlie took her in his arms. "Dinner is ready in that other world."
"So you can cook?" she asked with a budding smile.
"I can microwave; chicken or beef dinner?"
They stood and walked into the dining area as Charlie closed the door to the small bedroom behind him.
Jenny was amazed with all the setting up Charlie had done while she was digging and sorting to find Hope in the small bedroom. "This is wonderful." She ran through the mobile home to check out the master bedroom and bathroom. She returned to the kitchen. "Sorry, I wasn't much help with all of this."
"Well you don't get off that easily, after dinner your job is to help me mess up our bed."
Chapter 17
The next morning they went to the Marina Police Department to pass off the search for Hope. It was a small Police Station, but only a few years old. The entrance was all glass with a set of glass doors that allowed the sun light to brighten the area. The walls were painted a light blue-gray and seemed to have a calming effect in an environment that could have moments of high stress. The filing cabinets were an off white and all matched lining the walls, interrupted only by a couple windows along one wall, a few office doors on the side wall and small kitchen counter in the back. Three of the desks in the center were occupied two by young patrolman in uniform busy with paperwork and beside the kitchen counter and set apart from the others desks appeared to be a plain clothed detective. Everything was in its place and orderly, conveying a sense of pride in their jobs and station.
Watson Manor Eventually (Watson Manor Mystery Series Book 1) Page 10