Found Missing: Day 5

 Word Count: 30,263

Summary of Events:

Dallas was disappointed when he was assigned back to traffic duty, but still wanted to see if he could determine whether the basement matched up with the size of the upper floor on Mrs. Hardwick's house anyways, so, after asking his uncle who worked in renovation for advice, he purchased a stud finder to see if there were any irregularities behind the drywall, but found none, and his efforts to check dimensions were hampered when he was called to respond to an accident. Work on traffic duty kept Dallas from having anything more to do with the case for the next two weeks before he arrived at the detachment and was approached by an elderly man in the parking lot who explained he was Mrs. Hardwick's brother and thought he might have some helpful information regarding her disappearance . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

“How about I start by telling you what I know?” Mr. Scheffler asked.

“That works,” Dallas replied. “We can start there.”

“My daughter called me on Tuesday and told me that she had seen Vivian over the weekend and learned from Vivian that Zelma disappeared in January, and that the police suspect that she has been kidnapped because of signs of forced entry and ransacking in the home, but no thievery of obvious valuables, such as money. Vivian is not convinced, but, at the same time, is not convinced that her mother would have just wandered off either.”

Dallas nodded. “We believe the kidnapper was after something specific, as there were specific parts of the house that were searched, and, failing to find it, they kidnapped her in hopes of getting her to tell them where it was, but we don’t know what it was.”

“Well, if I were to guess it to be anything, it would be the gold chain Mutti gave her when she got married,” Mr. Scheffler said.

“Why?” Dallas asked.

“Because the older something is, the more valuable it can be,” Mr. Scheffler replied.

“And how old was the chain?” Dallas asked.

“I don’t know,” Mr. Scheffler replied. “But it looked very old. Mutti seemed to consider it valuable, and so did Zelma, she only wore it on the most special of occasions, and loaned it to each of their daughters for their weddings.”

“But why would someone want it?” Dallas asked.

“I don’t know,” Mr. Scheffler replied.

“Well, where did it come from?” Dallas asked.

“I don’t know exactly,” Mr. Scheffler replied. “But Vater bought it for Mutti, from what I understand, or stole it maybe, I don’t know. It was the war, after all.”

“The war?” Dallas asked. “Like, the Second World War?”

“Yes,” Mr. Scheffler replied. “My whole family was born in Germany. My father was a Nazi.”

Dallas startled.

“Since the Nazis robbed from the Jews and others during the war, it is possible that the chain was stolen from someone by my father and given to my mother,” Mr. Scheffler said. “And that is why I have come. I think the person, or their descendant, who was robbed of this chain wants it back, and since the law was broken to take it from them, they see no reason not to break the law to get it back.”

“But you have no guesses who it is?” Dallas asked.

“None, unfortunately,” Mr. Scheffler replied. “I hope I am not leading you on a wild goose chase, but I figured you should know that it is a possibility.”

“Yes,” Dallas said. “Thank you for coming Mr. Scheffler. And if you have any other ideas or clues that could give more weight to this hypothesis, don’t hesitate to let us know.”

“I won’t,” Mr. Scheffler said.

Dallas showed Mr. Scheffler out, wondering if he’d done enough, but, at the same time, also feeling stunned by what he’d just learned. Mrs. Hardwick was the daughter of a Nazi.

Pronunciations:

Mutti: U is pronounced as in mush

Vater: vahter