Past Due

Rick Conwright, fired from his job as an investigative journalist for stepping on too many influential toes, has started over as a private investigator. He did not know his new brother-in-law, Vince Langlow, all that well. But when the prominent Portland business leader and his Lexus suddenly vanish, Rick's sister implores him to find her husband. Rick discovers that Vince, sitting on a charitable Board, had recently confronted the charity's business manager concerning his probable embezzlement. And then there is the angry former employee who is off his meds and blames Vince for losing his job. Just as Rick is convinced those suspects could not be responsible for Vince's disappearance, a ransom note is delivered. Thus starts an elaborate hoax that forces payment of $100,000 to two sophisticated con artists. By the time Rick and the police realize that these men never had Vince, the cons are gone. The police start investigating the scam, but now Rick must work even faster to make up lost time. Rick digs into Vince's murky past, and discovers a web of persons who had been involved in a long-discontinued mining operation. But these former associates of the missing man all have reasons for wanting the past to remain buried. Unable to convince the police that this is more than a missing-person case, Rick travels to the British Columbia wilderness. There, he checks out the old mine and hunts for persons who might remember the mining operation and Vince and his partners. From there, the trail leads him to a foundry in California's Mother Lode country. His race against time fills in a picture of two untimely deaths and a secret trust coupled with greed, obsession, and vengeance. Along the way, Rick works with a police detective whose career he once saved in his days as a journalist. He encounters a minor Portland underworld figure with a haunting secret, but a redeemable soul. Rick also has to confront - and gain the trust of -- the operator of a chop