Will sat across the desk from the large, imposing man in the tailored suit, reading the stack of papers in the cream file folder, then closing it and looking up.
“The terms seem reasonable,” Will said. “I’m not sure what I’m being hired for, exactly.”
“Mr. Harrington,” the man began, leaning forward, his blond hair perfectly styled without a strand out of place. “My son has been missing almost three weeks now, and last night, they finally found his car.”
“I heard about that,” Will said. “Do they suspect foul play?”
“They don’t suspect anything,” Mr. Wittman said. “In fact, the police are dragging their feet on this, claiming that George wanted to disappear, which is why the GPS was disabled before he left his home. The sheriff believes it also explains why the car was left in a remote wilderness parking lot at an area that isn’t patrolled.”
“They don’t really check the parking lots since funding was cut last year,” Will explained. “I’ve seen a few abandoned cars sitting there for months before they’re towed, so I’m really not surprised. I guess I still don’t understand what that has to do with me.”
“My George didn’t run away,” Mr. Wittman said, leaning further forward. “Something happened to him in those woods.”
He sat back suddenly, reaching into his desk and pulling out a thick envelope.
“I had some of my interns helping with the search efforts,” Mr. Wittman began. “Mostly printing up flyers with the latest information and such. One of my interns decided to take it one step further. You see, these kids are always on their phones now, and even winning a prized internship with the ADA doesn’t curtail that obnoxious behavior. But this time, her social media addiction paid off.”
“I don’t understand.”
“She went on the instant gram thingy,” he said, and Will held his tongue, not wanting to derail the conversation to correct the older man. “And she looked up posts from that area around the time he went missing, and not only did she find a picture that we believe to be him, she found your account.”
“I didn’t see your son out there,” Will said, suddenly wondering if he’d stepped into a bad situation. “The places I go require a permit, and I didn’t encounter a soul the entire hike.”
Mr. Wittman waved him away.
“I didn’t think that,” he said, turning his laptop to show Will the picture he was talking about. “But as you can see here, that’s my George in the background of this picture at the trailhead near the parking lot, and he’s with a woman.”
“It’s the back of someone’s head and the left of someone who looks like a woman, but the hiking clothes are pretty unisex. If I could see their faces, that would help, but the arm in the foreground covers the companion’s entire head and that man could be anyone.”
Mr. Wittman shook his head.
“That is George, and I think that could be his ex-girlfriend. She is really into nature and was always bothering George to go hiking with her.”
Will scoffed.
“You just described half the women in Seattle,” he said. “Hiking is a big thing here. What are the chances that these people are actually them?”
“That’s why I’m hiring you.”
His assumption that Will was interested in his proposal was irritating, but he was willing to hear the man out for the obscene amount of money being offered. Will could deal with arrogant when there were that many zeros involved.
“Your pictures came up a lot under something called a hashtag, and it’s obvious that you’re very familiar with this area. I want you to look for my son. Start at the head of this trail and maybe you can even track him or something. I don’t know, but I’m sure that he’s there, somewhere. Or he was. I’m looking for clues so I can figure out where to look next, and this is our only lead.”
“Did you call the ex-girlfriend?”
“My wife reached out to her, but the reception was cold. They parted on difficult terms a few months ago, and the woman is really just a horrible witch.”
“Why don’t you have her brought in for questioning?”
Mr. Wittman laughed.
“This isn’t television,” he said. “And I’m not going to tip my hand without something more than what I have. If you can find proof that she was there around that time, even better. But right now, I have exactly nothing to go on, and bringing her in won’t change that. If we scare her now, she may lawyer up and we’ll never get anything out of her. I need proof.”
Will sighed, pushing the folder back across the table.
“There are hundreds of square miles to cover, and there’s no guarantee I’m going to find anything.”
“That’s alright, too,” Mr. Wittman said. “At least we can rule it out.”
“Why not just hire a search party?”
The man sighed.
“It’s a delicate situation,” he said. “And like bringing the ex-girlfriend in, calling attention to this area might give whoever hurt my son a chance to get away. I need this done quietly and right.”
“And if I find nothing, do I still get paid?”
“Yes. You get what’s in this envelope now so you can fund the search, and when you find him, you get the rest and a bonus.”
“And if I don’t?”
“I’m a reasonable man,” he said. “At some point, I’ll have to accept that George isn’t out there somewhere, alone and scared and maybe in need of medical help, and I’ll call the search off. You’ll get paid everything minus the finding bonus.”
“What if he’s dead?”
“If you find him, alive or dead heaven forbid, you will receive a bonus. My wife is beside herself with grief. He’s her only child. She will not rest until he’s home, and if he’s already gone, that’s something we’ll have to work through.”
Will considered it, but something in the back of his mind was screaming at him to walk away. This wasn’t going to end well, and he was starting to think that the money wouldn’t be worth it.
“I don’t know,” he said.
“I could hire your competition,” Mr. Wittmann said with a smile. “From what I gather, it doesn’t look like the man needs any more money, but I’m desperate here.”
The mere mention of Lincoln made Will angry. He knew he was being played, but the thought of Lincoln walking away with that much more money than he already had was the push he needed to decide.
“Alright, I’ll do it,” he said. “But I’m going to need everything you know about George and this woman, even the ugly stuff.”
Mr. Wittman nodded.
“I’m assuming anything that paints my son in a negative light will stay between you and me.”
“Of course,” Will said. “You’re hiring me to find him. Everything else is just noise.”
Mr. Wittman smiled.
“I’m glad we understand each other. I know that George wasn’t perfect, but I don’t want my son’s name dragged through the mud in the process. The search for a missing person can be,” he paused, searching for the word. “Invasive at times. If he is alive, I don’t want his dirty laundry aired for all to see. If he’s gone, I don’t want my son’s memory tarnished.”
He gestured at the envelope and slid a pen to Will.
“If you choose to accept my offer and sign the contract, what’s in the envelope is in addition to what’s outlined in the contract.”
“How much is in the envelope?”
“Fifty grand,” Mr. Wittman said. “That’s the startup bonus. Like I said, you’ll get the rest paid out as you go, and once you find him, you’ll get the remainder and the bonus.”
Will’s heart skipped inside his chest.
“I’ll need everything you have on the ex-girlfriend.”
“I have her name and some pertinent information, but not surprisingly, George erased all their pictures from his social media when she dumped him.”
“Have you tried recovering them from his computer?”
“I don’t want his computer searched if we can avoid that. Like I said, my son is entitled to his privacy.”
“Isn’t it standard procedure to look into lives of missing persons?”
“It is, which is one of the many reasons I decided to hire you instead.”
He nodded, looking at the envelope and wishing that he could be dishonest enough to just take the money and do what the man was asking. But he couldn’t, not without laying it all on the table.
“I’m just a guy with an outdoorsman vlog,” he said. “I’d love to help you. I just don’t see why you think I would be a good fit for this. I have no search and rescue experience. I’d basically be flying blind.”
But Mr. Wittman was already shaking his head.
“I know your credentials or lack of, as it were,” Mr. Wittman said. “Trust me when I say that a man like you is exactly who I need.”
Will sat in silence for a moment longer, then grabbed the pen before he could change his mind, signing the contract, which included a non-disclosure agreement.
“There, was that so bad?” Mr. Wittman said. “You can count the money before you leave if you like.”
“I don’t need to do that.”
The man nodded, the pleased smile planted on his face so practiced and perfect that it looked fake.
“You’ll receive your first installment in a week. I’ve divided it up by 12 weeks, but like I said, if you find him sooner, you’ll get paid the remainder.”
“If we don’t find him within twelve weeks or he’s found somewhere else?”
“You’ll get paid everything regardless of who finds him, and if you haven’t found him after twelve weeks, we’ll regroup.”
“Fair enough,” Will said, standing and taking Mr. Wittman’s outstretched hand. “I’ll let you know as soon as I find anything.”
“Thank you. Everything we know is in that file, so you’re on your own from here on out. And another thing. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you, but I don’t want you hiring outside help on this.”
“Understood,” Will said.
“The fewer people involved, the easier it is to keep things private.”
“I completely understand.”
“Good,” Mr. Wittman said. “I knew you’d be the right man for the job. And thank you. I can’t tell you how much this means to me and my wife. George is all we have.”
Will nodded then left the room, knuckles white from gripping the envelope so tightly. When he got out to his car, he drove down the road and pulled into an empty parking lot. He opened the envelope and gasped when he saw the money. He counted the money quickly, still shocked that there was so much.
He put the money back into the envelope and stuck it in the center console, putting the car in gear and heading home. It was too late to start the search, but first thing in the morning, Will would be on the trail, starting with the trails that could be accessed from the trailhead in the picture.
It was a lot of ground to cover, so he needed to be well-rested. But first, he was going to find out everything he could about the ex-girlfriend, including any pictures of her on social media. He knew that wouldn’t be hard to come by, since everyone seemed to have a digital footprint nowadays. But with so little to go on, it might take some time to find out who she was. He certainly couldn’t tell much of anything from the picture of the two of them caught in the background of someone else’s selfie.
Then there was the file photo that Mr. Wittman had given him. It was a professional shot with the family, and Will knew from personal experience people could look wildly different in a photo studio than they did out on the trail. It was going to be hard get people to connect the tailor suited, clean-cut George with someone decked out in their finest hiking gear.
A picture of him in a more natural state would have been better, but Will had already accepted that this job was going to be a pain. Between trying to track George’s movements on well-traveled trails, to trying to find people who had been in the area around Labor Day, he was fighting an uphill battle. Finding George’s car in the parking lot made it more likely that he had actually been in the area, but Will hadn’t run into him, and truthfully didn’t know where to start. So, he would start with his followers and find a way to quietly ask around without calling attention to the Wittman family. Just because Will didn’t see the pair on the mountainside that week, didn’t mean someone else hadn’t. If George was on that mountain, Will was determined to find him.