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Chapter Seven: Research

In his research, Magnum found the link he'd been expecting: Baldwin had a personal connection to the shipping company he'd contacted prior to his disappearance. The summer before he'd started college, the man had worked for Port-to-Port Shipping, LLC, and had managed to maintain, to this day, at least one of the friendships he'd made in that job.

It would explain how the architect had managed to get all the way to Hawai'i without leaving an obvious trace for the police or for TruBuild to find. He wouldn't be surprised if Baldwin had driven himself across country in an 18-wheeler before being smuggled to the islands as part of the crew on one of Port-to-Port's freighters.

In large, metropolitan cities such as Chicago, the police had far too many cases to follow up on to spend as much time as he could on an investigation and track down numerous possible theories. In such cases as missing persons, the odds favored theories such as self-harm rather than a conspiracy, which was likely part of the reason Annie Baldwin had yet to hear much of anything definitive from the detectives assigned to the case.

It was nighttime by the time he and Rick had finished researching the phone numbers and Thomas had shared his latest theory. The club was definitely hopping if the muffled sounds of the music were anything to go by. He was just thankful the owners had sprung for sound proofing for the back offices. Without it, they would've had a difficult time getting anything done.

With the local shipping company office closed for the day, they agreed to meet up the next morning after Rick finished getting some things done at the club. Thomas would've preferred heading out earlier, but his theory about Baldwin discovering some sort of malfeasance made him wary of going alone.

Plus, he still had the nagging feeling he was forgetting something, but every time his mind tried to recall whatever it was, the thought would flit away again.

With Rick helping him, Magnum gathered up the pages they'd been working with. When Rick suddenly stopped helping and smacked Thomas in the stomach with his stack of papers, Magnum had to scramble to make a grab for them or risk them, and his own stack of papers, falling to the ground. Rick grinned at the glare Thomas sent his brother's way before walking towards the office's door and opening it.

Noise assaulted him, but it wasn't the usual thump-thump-thump of the club's dance music. Instead, it sounded like sharp claws raking slowly down a metal chalkboard. It sent a lightning bolt of pain through his head and—.

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The pain had jolted him back to the present.

It took him too long to realize that the pain-inducing sound had come from somewhere nearby. He tried to force himself to focus and listen for additional sounds, but couldn't concentrate enough to do a good job of it. He had no idea what that sound had been either.

Was someone looking for him? And why did he have the feeling only the bad guys, or whoever had hurt him, might have an inkling of where he was?

After what felt like hours but was likely only minutes, the pain in his head decreased back down to about the level it had been before – the constant dull throb he'd unfortunately started to become used to since he first woke up wedged in behind some wooden crates. He was thankful there hadn't been another sound to batter his senses.

When the relative quiet persisted for a while longer, Thomas tried to remember – and wasn't that a tad ironic? – where he'd left off in recalling the Baldwin case. He still had hopes it would lead him to more recent memories like how he'd ended up with a head injury bad enough that even the thought of moving his head more than a fraction of an inch made his head pound.

Something about the shipping company? Maybe?

He decided recalling every single, boring detail of the case wasn't all that necessary and started to mentally fast-forward through his memories of the next few days.

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The visit to the shipping company had only strengthened his theory about Baldwin's method of disappearing. The manager of the facility had said there were no new employees before he'd even asked about the possibility, Magnum having assumed the architect had moved on or was in hiding somewhere on one of the islands. Highly suspicious and something he definitely needed to follow up on.

Thomas considered asking Juliet to help him hack into the company's records, but he could tell she was still angry with him for using her laptop without permission, if the growls from Zeus and Apollo which came his way when he tried to approach her were any indication. It meant he'd have to look into any new employees the old-fashioned way – breaking in and checking the records himself.

With Rick's help, they easily bypassed on-site security, but weren't able to get into the computer due to his limited ability to hack into them. Unfortunately, no one had been careless enough to write down their password somewhere he could easily find, making things more difficult.

While he'd been attempting to get something from the computer, Rick had discovered the company had yet to go completely digital. His friend found several lists of names for crews coming in from the mainland over the past month. Sam Baldwin's name, nor any of its variations, had not been on any of the lists, but at least they had a place to start.

Magnum still had the feeling he was forgetting something as they continued to work the case, but what it was remained elusive.

With more legwork – both physical and digital – they were able to narrow the list down to one name: Hank Thompson, who seemed to be a ghost, lacking any real records. The address listed for the man was completely bogus, so they decided to stake out the company and hope to get lucky.

Unfortunately, any luck they had quickly ran out.

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Next time: Chapter Eight: Spotted

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Many thanks to Celticgal1041 for proofing. Any remaining mistakes are my fault.

Thanks for reading!