Chapter Fifty-Five
Amber
Someone in Declan’s office made the first phone call.
At twenty-seven years of age, he had passed away.
There was an accident, and Declan died at the scene.
The first person to find out called another co-worker, and with few people having Declan’s contact information, the endless game of phone-tag began.
The primary contact in his personnel file, in the event of an emergency, was Declan’s mother, but her number was no longer in service.
An office manager was contacted, but she didn’t have the information needed to make the next call.
Instead, a few more calls were placed to others that were higher up in Declan’s circle of friends.
One of them had his mother’s new number, and so the woman “in the know” placed the call.
Naturally, nobody answered. The message left said to return the call immediately upon receipt.
While time passed, word began to spread.
News of a colleague's sudden demise left a bad taste in the office’s collective mouths.
More details were not available, and tears began to fall.
Who knew that when everyone wished Declan a good weekend, it would be the last time anyone would see him?
What would everyone have said if they knew he would not be returning?
Was he going to be missed? Now that Declan was gone, did everyone know what they had in him as a friend? As a family member? As a co-worker?
A couple hours after the message had been left on her machine, Marion Roberts retrieved and returned the urgent call without any delay.
The messenger made an inquiry regarding Declan’s health.
Somewhat confused by the entire ordeal, his mother stated that, to the best of her knowledge, he was doing well.
The messenger began to question Marion's certainty, and asked her if Declan owned a motorcycle?
Even more confused at that point, she responded with a resounding, “no.”
After telling Marion Roberts that her oldest son had supposedly met his maker a couple towns over, denial became the response.
Still unsure about what made Declan’s mother so certain, the caller asked her how she knew that Declan was okay?
It was at that time that Marion explained a recent phone call she’d had with her son Declan between the time of the first message and the returned call.
Declan never owned a motorcycle, nor did he consider owning one.
However, on that day, there was an accident in Uptown.
A middle-aged gentleman was killed when his motorcycle struck another vehicle, and the impact shredded his body like cheese in a food processor.
As the police went to inspect the rider’s belongings, Declan’s business card was discovered among them.
How that led anyone to believe he was the one harmed will forever remain a mystery.
He never told me about this.
I exit the article about the mis-reported death and return to my web search, looking for answers to the many questions about my newly mysterious fiancé.
I decide to get a cup of coffee at my favorite café, the one where Declan and I connected for our first official date.
They have free Wi-Fi, and I'm running low on energy.
I click another link, which takes me to a news report.
This time Declan really was involved in an accident.
A passenger train struck his car, which had stalled on the tracks, and before he could exit the vehicle, the train sent him flying more than a hundred feet. I shake my head in shock.
I continue clicking away, article after article, eventually finding one I simply can’t believe.
Man’s body missing after terrible accident.
Local authorities have no answers.
Declan Angus Roberts presumed dead.
Nothing is adding up. In one article, Declan was thought to be dead, but it wasn’t him. Then he was in another terrible accident and determined to be dead before paramedics could help. Now the papers say his body went missing.
Disgusted with everything I see, I write down the names of all the newspapers that published anything relating to the stories I found online, and finally it backhands me across the face. The articles are all dated nearly ten years ago.
Certain there’s a better explanation, I do what virtually nobody does anymore. I get in my rental car and head for the local law library.