Power

Gone with the wind

Jeff hadn't always been in private security. The switch to this career hadn't been made lightly, before this, he was on the president's detail in the Secret Service and for many years he faithfully executing his official duties diligently giving everything to this incredible job but something about this new president was off he seemed disingenuous.

 Three years ago, the White House had traditionally hosted a gathering of CEOs from prominent companies and economic foundations to act as special advisors to the elected president. This event would be the first time he met Robin, but the circumstances would be far from perfect. Suddenly, a passionate argument had broken out between the frustrated president and the billionaire, Jeff quickly jumped in and spirited the billionaire away. I'm sorry sir sometimes the president gets excited, I don't want to seem rude, But I overheard your uncomfortable conversation, I completely agree with you, this president is too loyal to his Country Club crowd to see common sense anymore. 

Yesterday after Robin left for "think week" Jeff went over to Peter's modest house, in the quiet part of town to figure out what had happened to the missing scientist. The house was in darkness, obviously no one was home. Jeff swiftly crossed the street and entered the convenience store. At the front counter sat a heavyset middle eastern man taking deep puffs from a hookah pipe and watching a Turkish TV drama on his phone. Jeff pulled out a recent picture of Peter and rapped on the glass divider. Excuse me, sir have you seen this man? While still staring at his phone, he snapped, I don't want any trouble, buy something or get out. Jeff had to try another method, Hi, my name is Mike the man in this photo has a recently dead uncle and his family has hired me to track him down to claim a rather large inheritance. The shop keeper's head snapped up instantly, he had become suddenly interested just by hearing the word inheritance. Do you want to give him money? Yeah, I know this guy Peter something, he's a good guy a bit weird. Every day he comes to my shop at 5 o'clock for a pack of cigarettes, but he hasn't been in for two days now. Do you mind if I have a look at your cameras? Sorry mate those are fake, it's just to scare away the hipsters we get a lot of break-ins around here, Jeff quickly scribbled down his number on a scrap piece of paper. If you see anything or someone else comes looking please could you give me a call? I promise to make it worth your while.

Jeff walked slowly around the outside of the house checking for any signs of a break-in. The front door was locked but packages and mail were littered across the front step. In the back yard, he noticed a  large boot-print in the mud outside the window and traces of mud on the window sill. Someone had entered the house repeatedly using this window. Jeff pushed the window open and climbed in. Hello, Is anyone home? Peter, it's me, Jeff. The abandoned house stood in a composed way, as if it had chosen solitude for itself, as if residents were a luxury it could forgo. The floors had once been a highly polished. The walls stood firm, the window frames strong, glass triple glazed. All in all, it looked like a movie set, a place waiting for life to come. The only give-away was the odor, well, that and the dust. It was musty and dry. Dust lay over every surface like dirty snow, dust bunnies the size of bowling balls tumbled across the floorboards, free papers piled up on an ornate desk and cascaded down, old teacups lay on a coffee table thickly encrusted with dried up mold, dust-covered mirrors, the smell of mildew, stale air, thick with dust, shafts of light bursting through gaps in the boarded-up window, light streaming through the gaps in the heavy velvet curtains, absolute silence, not even the hum of a refrigerator, the houses only occupants weaved their webs between the spindles of the stair banisters and from the ceiling to the wall, old cobwebs billowed in the draft.

It was clear no one had lived here for quite some time even before Peter had gone missing. It sort of seemed like he was actively avoiding to be found. It was time for Jeff to leave, he took a few pictures of the place on his camera phone and then he needed to make some calls. It was time to call in some favors with his guy at the FBI. Hey, Mike, it's good to hear from you listen mate I need a favor can you run the name Peter Maslow for me through all your databases, include hospital, morgue and local police records. Sure no problem, what's up is this guy missing or something? Jeff replied absent-mindedly, yeah it's kind of important can you help me out with this bud. I need to call you back, his other phone was ringing. It was Robin.