Detective Sam Kidwell

I'm back in my office going over my notes. So far, I have three people of interest I need to interview: Grace's ex, Lance Crawford, and Travis Johns. Easton had mentioned that he had his assistant look into John after Faith told him that he made her uncomfortable. According to Easton, his assistant couldn't find that this guy even existed.

I had Faith show me to Johns' desk. I got out an evidence bag and put on a glove. I placed his mug, stapler, keyboard to his computer, and anything else that Johns might have touched into the bag. I dropped everything off at the lab. They're going to dust for fingerprints. I WILL find out who this guy is.

I pick up my phone and call Entrepreneur Magazine.

The receptionist answers, "Hello? Entrepreneur Magazine, how can I direct your call?"

"Could you please forward me to Lance Crawford?" I ask.

She responds, "Let me see... Mr. Crawford has not checked in today. Would you like his voicemail?"

"Do you know when he'll be in the office?" I inquire.

"He had yesterday and today marked as an office day, but he never checked in yesterday or today," she explains.

"Go ahead and give me his voicemail," I sigh.

She forwards me to Lance's voicemail. I leave him a brief message to contact me as soon as possible. I disconnect the call. After hanging up, I check his personal information on the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) database. While there, I also get the information for Grace's ex, Jeremy Miller.

I call Crawford's number, but still no answer. It went right to voicemail, so I left him another message. I then dialed Miller's number.

He picked up on the second ring, "Hello?"

"Mr. Miller?" I confirm.

"Yes?"

"My name is Detective Sam Kidwell. I'm investigating the disappearance of Grace Henson," I begin.

He interrupts, "What did you say? Is Grace missing? Oh, my god! What happened?"

"If you would be willing to come to my office and answer a few questions, I would gladly fill you in on Miss Henson's case," I explain.

"Of course. Is now okay?" The concern is apparent in his voice.

"That would be fine," I reply before we hang up. I sit back and place my hands behind my head. My gut tells me that Jeremy Miller is not my man, but some people are very good at acting and deserve Academy Awards!

Thirty minutes later, the front desk officer is escorting Mr. Miller into an interrogation room, and then he lets me know that Miller has arrived. I grab my tape recorder, notepad, and pen and enter to see Mr. Miller. He looks about as upset as he sounded on the phone. I reach out my hand to greet him, and he stands and places his hand into mine. We shake.

"Please have a seat," I say as I wave my hand towards the chair. Mr. Miller sits back down, and I sit across from him.

"Please! Please tell me what the hell is going on with Grace!" he pleads.

"When's the last time you saw Grace?" I question.

He lowers his head, "It's been about six months."

"What happened six months ago?" I already know that Miss Henson told me that her sister caught him cheating with his now-wife.

"Um, well, Grace and I broke up." He responds with his eyes still looking down.

I press him, "Why?"

He finally looks up at me, "Why?"

"Yes, why did you and Miss Henson break up?" I repeat myself.

He sighs. "Grace caught me with another woman."

"Your now wife?" I say, and he raises his brow, surprised I know that information.

"Um, yeah, how did you know?" He asks.

"I'm a detective." I smile. "Miss Henson's sister told me."

"Of course Faith did," he says with a scowl.

I raise my brows, "Did you and Faith not get along?"

"She never liked me." He shrugged.

"How did you feel about her?" I asked.

"She was okay when she was keeping her nose out of Grace's and my business. She never thought I was good enough for Grace," he paused and lowered his eyes. "I guess Faith was right. I never did deserve Grace. She's beautiful and so talented. One drunken night was all it took for me to fuck up the best thing that I ever had." The poor guy looks sad as hell.

"Um, but you're married now, correct?" I question him because it sounds like he's still in love with Grace.

"Yeah. Lauren got pregnant on what I was chalking up as a one-night stand, but Grace refused to even talk to me, and then Lauren dropped the pregnancy bomb. I thought the right thing to do was to marry her and raise our child together." He says without an ounce of care in his voice, and I'm starting to feel bad for his wife. He doesn't love her. This marriage is just him trying to do the right thing for his child.

"So you haven't had any contact with Grace since she broke it off?" I inquire.

"Just the first month after our breakup when I was begging her to take me back. She'd have none of it. Then I found out about the pregnancy, and that was it; I knew I screwed up and decided to do the right thing with Lauren." He looks at me with tears in his eyes." Can you please tell me what the hell happened with Grace now?"

"I have one more question. Where have you been for the last twenty-four hours?" I ask.

"Wait! Do you think that I had something to do with Grace's disappearance?" he asks incredulously.

"At this point, I want to rule you out. Will you please answer the question?" I request.

"Okay, well, yesterday morning, I was at work from 8:30 to 5:30, then went out afterward with some guys from work. I got home around 11 p.m. and went straight to bed then went to work this morning till you called me."

"Can you please give me the names and phone numbers of the co-workers you were with?" I slide my notepad and pen over to him.

"Yeah, sure." He begins to write names and numbers on the pad. "So Grace has been missing for over twenty hours?" he asks while he finishes writing.

"Yes, no one has seen her since yesterday morning leaving her office." I try to tell him as little as possible.

"Can you tell me what happened?" he asks.

"All we know right now is that she went to work yesterday morning, left after a meeting, and no one has seen her since." I leave out the part about her ransacked home.

He passes the notepad and pens back to me. "Please let me know if there's any way I can help."

"Do you know of anyone who would want to harm Grace?"

He responds by shaking his head no.

I stand, indicating that our meeting is over. Miller stands, too. "If you think of anything, no matter how small, that could help with this case, please let me know." I hand him my card.

"I will, and I would appreciate it if you keep me informed as the case unfolds."

I nod, and he reaches out to shake my hand.

"Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to meet with me." I escort him to the front lobby.

After Mr. Miller leaves, I call and check his alibi. Everything checked out. We remove Grace's ex from the people of interest list.

Now, to find Lance Crawford and Travis Johns.

*****