"Hey, George – What's up?" Ron Hartnell greeted the occupant of the large, sunny corner office the group barged into.
"These are agents from the FBI and they are looking for information on Hutchens Island," he continued. "Specifically, we need a topographical map."
"All the maps have been moved into the vault, along with the rest of the records from the old 3H & J Company," George Hughes replied. ""We'll have to get Freddy to get in there."
"Wait a minute," Rossi interrupted. "What did you just call the company?"
"The original name of the company was 3H & J, later shortened to just H & J," Wayne Hayward explained. "Because the original partners' names were Hayward, Hartnell, Hughes, and Jewell."
"And the partners today are?" Rossi asked.
"Well, the three of us are still partners with equal shares," George Hughes began. "However, Freddy Jewell's family hasn't been so lucky over the years. On several occasions they ran into financial difficulty and were forced to sell percentages of their ownership to the rest of us. Currently, we each own 31% of the company while Freddy owns 7%."
"And how does he deal with that?" Lewis asked curiously.
"Well, he does occasionally make jokes about being the 'poor relation'," Wayne Hayward said thoughtfully. "However, he mostly just does his job, collects his salary, and goes home at night. He never really says much."
"Does his job include overseeing Hutchins Island?" Rossi questioned.
"Well, yes," Ron Hartnell replied. "He handles the contract with the security company that keeps an eye on it, and he also arranged for the survey when we were considering putting a small resort on the island."
"We get reports from the security company all the time," George Hughes added.
"What is the name of the security company that inspects the island?" Rossi asked.
"H & J," was the shamefaced reply.
"I have been an idiot – That guy was lying through his teeth!" Rossi declared. "Where is this Freddy? We need to talk to him - Now!"
"I also need to call the San Juan police," he added as he pulled out his cell phone. "They need to detain someone for questioning."
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
When the group arrived at Freddy Jewell's office, they weren't surprised to discover that he was missing and that his office files had been cleaned out.
"He left early yesterday afternoon," his assistant explained. "And I haven't heard from him at all today."
"He's making a run for it," Cruz declared. "But where is he going?"
"He probably took his boat," Ron Hartnell said.
"And that means he has the whole Caribbean as well as the eastern coast of Central America to choose from," Wayne Hayward shook his head sadly. "And we never saw this coming."
"What do we do now?" The three partners looked at each other.