BXBX NOVEL Chapter 295 - Finding Greg
Sunday AM, Sarah is on the phone with Sophia.
"How come they still didn\'t find him?" Sarah\'s irritation was obvious.
"I\'m not sure. Police chief assured me that they are actively looking for Greg, but they are not able to find him.", Sophia didn\'t sound very optimistic.
"They probably checked once in few places, and now are waiting for someone to spot Greg and tip them off..." Sarah was upset.
"Even if that is the case, there is not much we can do... How is Anna?"
"She is off the grid with Jeff. They should be back later tonight."
"Well, maybe this gets figured out by the time she is back.", Sophia sighed.
"Where did they look for Greg?", Sarah was obviously upset and disappointed that police didn\'t find Greg.
"His apartment, house, vacation house, usual hangouts... Like he is not there at all."
Sarah got an idea: "What if he is not in Seattle?"
"Hmm... can you check that?"
"I can check airports. Everything else is difficult to check. If he left Seattle with a car, unless he got a ticket of filled gas with a card, there will be no traces."
"Well, check the airports first and see if you find something."
"On it..."
Sarah hanged up and headed to her PC in the study room. Aiden was there in front of his PC and saw her coming in with a glum expression. "What is going on?"
"They still didn\'t find Greg... I\'m going to check the airport to see if he left Seattle with a plane." She sat on her chair.
"Let me know if you need help."
"Sure... thanks." Sarah powered up her PC and started her search.
...
Half an hour later Sarah cursed and got her phone.
"Did you find anything?", Sophia immediately asked when she picked up.
"Greg left Seattle on Thursday. Flight left at 11:35 AM... heading to Los Angeles."
There was a stiffening silence.
"Coincidence?", Sophia hoped that it is.
"I don\'t believe in such things... but I will check few more things and let you know of the progress on my side."
Sophia sighed. "Good thing that Anna is out of town."
"Yeah... one good thing..."
Sarah hanged up and called Aiden. "I need your help now... Greg came to Los Angeles on Thursday."
Aiden raised his eyebrows and looked at the search results on her screen. "He checked in for the flight... so he did come here. Where do you want to look next?"
Sarah thought for a second. "Let\'s see if he left Los Angeles. If he came with a plane, we can assume that he left in the same way. We should also check if he owns any real estate or cars here, his credit card data can tell us where he is spending his time and money... and we can track his phone for location, as well as any cloud storage where backup of his data is kept."
Aiden smiled. He can\'t get his eyes off of Sarah when she is focused, working on something. "Quite detailed. What do you want me to check?"
Sarah pouted seeing his carefree expression. \'Is he not aware that my sister might be in danger?\' But she was happy that he praised her plan as detailed. "Check real estate."
...
Some time passed and Aiden and Sarah compared what they found before Sarah called Sophia again.
"Tell me... " Sophia was waiting to hear back and getting more anxious by the minute.
Sarah gave a summary: "He didn\'t leave LA, at least not by plane. We didn\'t find any real estate or vehicles on his name. Also, his credit cards were not used at all since Thursday. He is smart... probably using cash knowing that he can be tracked."
"Huh..." Sophia sighed.
"Can you tell police in Seattle to notify Los Angeles police department?"
"Yes." Sophia confirmed.
"In the meantime, we will try few more things to get more information... but that can\'t be shared with police."
"Understood. Let me know if you find anything."
After the call, Sarah looked at Aiden. "Let\'s track his phone and check his online backups."
"I will do online backups.", Aiden volunteered.
Sarah started locating his phone, using GPS...
...
In Rebecca\'s guest bedroom, Greg is inspecting things that Rebecca got him earlier that morning, from her office where she performs plastic surgeries, and form her veterinarian friend. He looks pleased. Greg noticed his phone screen lit up on its own. \'That is strange...\' Suspecting an anomaly, he reached for his phone and powered it off.
…
"Shit! He powered off his phone!" Sarah fumed.
"I can guess that your reaction means you didn\'t locate him." Aiden teased.
Sarah grimaced at Aiden, and then sighed defeated. "It\'s somewhere in Beverly Hills area... but I could not find exactly where."
"At least you confirmed that he is in the Los Angeles area. We need to tell Jeff and JoAnna."
"I\'m texting them... as soon as they get in signal range, they will receive these." Sarah was sending text messages. "How about his cloud storage?"
"I\'m still working on it... few more minutes..." Aiden\'s voice drifted off as he focused on what he is doing.
Few minutes later, Aiden sighed. "Nothing here... he does not have automatic backups set up and is not uploading manually either. I guess he is not a very techy person."
"That would explain him turning off his phone." Sarah scoffed.
"Well, there are still some people who don\'t rely on electronics devices. It\'s unfortunate that Greg is one of those people."
"Unfortunate..." Sarah mumbled. "Let\'s call Sophia so we can talk this thought. She should know this."
Shortly after, they started a video conference. Aiden and Sarah shared their findings with Sophia.
"I have so many questions." Sarah paused. "He came to Los Angeles on Thursday, and he is still here. This is his fourth day. How is it possible that he didn\'t use his credit cards even once? He didn\'t rent a car? Stay in a hotel? Or did he pay for all those in cash? Why would he use cash? Who still uses cash these days?"
"It looks like he does not want to be found." Aiden concluded.
"That sounds on point." Sophia pondered. "But why would he keep his whereabouts a secret? If he left on Thursday, he should not be aware that the police is looking for him. Why would he come to Los Angeles?" Sophia got an idea. "You said he took flight at 11:35 AM... When was that tabloid published?"
"Thursday morning." Sarah confirmed.
Sophia nodded sharply. "There is a high chance that he saw the same photos, and because of that came to Los Angeles. I remember that article mentioned in few places that photos are taken in Malibu."
Sarah sighed. "I wish that I can reach Anna and tell her to stay wherever they are for some more time."
"Can\'t you use Eve to find him?" Sophia asked.
Sarah shook her head. "Eve can follow cars using traffic cameras, but we don\'t know how he is moving around and what to look for. I will get her to watch his accounts, and to alert us if he uses his credit cards or makes a withdrawal."
"Make sure Anna and Jeff are warned... and try to stay with Anna until this is solved. Even better, see if she wants to leave LA until things are resolved." Sophia instructed them.. "The only thing we are confident in is that he is in Los Angeles area, and there is a high probability he went there after Anna."