Geoff loved his job. He described himself as a ‘finder’ - it made him feel mysterious and powerful. His qualifications for the job included his excellent brain and exceptional ability to lie.
He had had the perfect training while working in an investment bank. Speculating with other people’s money absolutely requires you to be ‘economical’ with the truth. Lots of people in his field tried to disappear - both colleagues and clients – leaving eye-watering debts. Geoff had become involved in finding those people – tracing their credit card payments, investigating their phone records. At first he had some help from a private detective, then, gradually, he began to work by himself.
He left the bank and became a private finder – a rich one. Geoff always found his target and the finder’s fee soon eliminated any guilt about the consequences.
Once you had someone’s phone number, the job was simple.
‘Hello, I am courier, I have package for... er.. Ben Goodman.’
Geoff was an excellent mimic and he could imitate a variety of accents.
‘You mean Ben Goodhall? He’s not here. I’m the cleaner.’
Geoff’s trick to get confirmation was to make a deliberate mistake in the name.
‘OK. You know when he come back? I need signature.’
‘No, sorry.’
‘OK, I send back package. Mr. Goodhall he reorder, yes?’
‘No, no, don’t do that. He’ll be here around 5pm.’
Bingo! When Ben Goodhall opened the door at 5pm he would find, not a courier from a delivery company, but the police, or Geoff’s client, or some thug, ready to break his legs.
Then one day Geoff stopped being a finder and became a loser.
He was in a café making fake phone calls, when he suddenly noticed the woman at the next table. She took three new books out of a paper bag. The titles were: How to be Invisible; Keep your Finances Private, and Costa Rica, the Escape Manual. Geoff knew instantly what the woman was planning. He also knew that she would fail, because when she took out the receipt he saw she had paid for the books by credit card.
She was very attractive and Geoff suddenly wanted to help her.
‘Excuse me!’
The woman looked up; the expression in her large beautiful eyes was suspicious.
‘This sounds crazy, but I know what you’re trying to do.’
She moved her chair back slightly.
‘Look, I could find you really easily from your credit card transactions.’
The woman’s face went so white, Geoff thought she would faint.
‘Can I sit down? I really can help you.’
She nodded, weakly.
Over coffee, Geoff explained how every credit or debit card transaction was a little digital footprint that would enable someone like him to find her. As an expert, he could tell her exactly how to disappear without trace.
At last she relaxed and told him her story. Her name was Emily Brayton Hurst and she was a very wealthy young heiress. Unluckily she had married the wrong man. Her husband was an abusive drunk and had lost a lot of her money gambling. He had convinced her to take out life insurance with him as the sole beneficiary. Now she was sure he was trying to kill her.
Emily’s huge eyes filled with tears as she told her story and Geoff felt his hard heart softening. She was still rich. He could ask for a large fee and … maybe disappear with her.
Over the next few months Geoff explained to Emily how to hide her money in off-shore accounts. He instructed her to pay only by cash and to contact him with a series of prepaid phone cards and an old cell phone. They became very close.
When she went to South America, Geoff bought train tickets in Europe in her name. Emily travelled and Geoff organized disinformation to cover her movements. Every time he heard her soft voice in his voicemail he dreamed of following her, perhaps to Costa Rica.
At last he received her final message.
‘Goodbye, Geoff. I’ll call you.’
He had no idea where she was, but he was sure that one day she would tell him.
A week later, he saw the newspaper headline:
Wealthy tycoon Oliver Brayton Hurst found shot dead in his home.
Reading on, Geoff discovered that the police were urgently seeking Brayton Hurst’s wife, Emily, a former actress, who had emptied their joint account and transferred most of his funds into her name before disappearing without trace.