Ethan drove to the front of the residence and parked the car outside. He turned to Cole who eyed him, knowing a question was coming.
"I forgot to get your briefing on the interview that you conducted on the wife and son. So, give me a brief summary of what I'm walking into," Ethan urged him.
Cole took a seat back, pulling a small notebook that he used to write down short notes and points to note when he was talking to O'Daniel's wife.
"Here we go. The wife is a pretty chilled woman, in her mid fifties and the have one son. Asher O'Daniel, the son, is thirty years old, has his own family but came to visit his parents for Thanksgiving.
Money isn't a problem for the O'Daniels, they are loaded. So, that took out any motive for either the wife or son being behind the disappearance of David.
Mrs O'Daniel talked about how her husband was. He always left work in the evening and within an hour, he would be home. She claims that in all of their years of marriage, her husband has never slept outside, so that's why she called in for his disappearance when he didn't go home that night,"
All this while, Ethan was listening to Cole while looking at the O'Daniel's residence and down the street. The Heights District was known to be home to all the top guys in Gryfton. They were the untouchables, well so they thought they were.
The news was yet to make headlines but Ethan knew that it was just a matter of time before the story made it's way to the media. Gryfton P.D was going to be the centre of the investigation and Ethan knew very well that there would be no room to breathe.
"He did have a rather odd car for someone living in The Heights," Ethan commented.
"I asked about that. Apparently, it was a reminder for him from where he had come from to where he was. The man basically climbed up the ladder of success and was doing his job as a hobby. He loved the labs and that's why he kept going back, it was never for the money.
I also asked the wife to show me bank statements dating back to over ten years ago, they were nowhere close to bankruptcy. In fact, they were getting richer each year. That took out the possibility of David going under the rader because he ows anyone money.
No record of a gambling problem or alcohol and drug addiction. This man has no reason to just walk up and walk into the sunset and disappear. All fingers point to him being taken," Cole finalized.
"Let's confirm that theory before we walk into those doors," Ethan said in a low tone as he took his phone out and dialed back to the office, "Maya, please tell me you have something on his credit cards that indicates to an abduction."
"I'm sorry boss, there's nothing on this end. Everything looks clean. This man is a systematic spender. All his transactions are all near identical in the past few years. I've tried matching his transactions to the bills he could be paying plus insurance, food and all of that, nothing is amiss." Maya responded from the other end, sounding disappointed.
"Nothing on the credit cards," Ethan updated Cole.
"Well, someone paid one grand in cash for his car to get cleaned, ask her if there's been any recent withdrawals that amount to that figure," Cole suggested.
"Did O'Daniel make any recent withdrawals or sent someone cash of up to around one thousand dollars?" Ethan inquiried, hoping to get a lead.
He knew that if there was such a transaction, it would mean that O'Daniel was the one who paid for the cleaning. If there wasn't such a transaction, then it meant that someone else did that.
"No hit," Maya replied after a short silence, "there's no record of such a charge from his card or bank."
"Then he didn't pay for his car to get cleaned," Cole said out loud.
"The question is, who was it? And did O'Daniel even drive his car to the The Heights District?" Ethan questioned loudly for all of them to hear.
A brief silence followed, clear indication that none of them could come up with a theory that matched what they had found out so far.
"What about the CCTV footage from his place of work? Did Jenna find anything?" Ethan asked, remembering that they had not even confirmed that O'Daniel had left work, aside from fact that they confirmed he checked out.
They needed to be sure that O'Daniel left work and took his car and was taken just a few blocks from home. Without actual proof that he took his car from the parking lot, they wouldn't know where the kidnapping took place.
"This case is on a roll to test out patience. The Research Facility where O'Daniel works, does a CCTV footage sweep every three months unless there is footages that needs to be used. And guess what?" Jenna asked, her voice sounding a bit far from the phone.
Maya had put the call on speaker.
"They did a footage sweep just recently," Cole guessed, feeling his blood already start to boil from rage.
"It was done the morning after O'Daniel didn't make it home. And everything is gone, they don't keep backups so we have no way of telling if O'Daniel took his car," Jenna answered, her voice filled with frustration.
"I swear this case might just be the end of me," Ethan grumbled, scratching his forehead in frustration.
"One more thing, I found O'Daniel's secretary in his residence. She was there to check up on them," Cole added as Ethan was preparing himself to talk to O'Daniel's wife.
"It seems odd for the secretary to come all this way just because her employer has disappeared. If he was deceased,I would understand." Ethan commented.
"I thought the same. So, are you ready to go in?" Cole asked, removing his seat belt.
"Sure, thank you both," Ethan responded as he ended the call and got out of the car.