Nathan Trentham – "Missing Wife"
Nathan Trentham is a grizzled ex-NYPD homicide detective in his late 40s, now running a small private investigation firm in a quiet suburb of Chicago. Burned out from years on the force, he left after a high-profile case where departmental corruption nearly got him killed. He’s methodical, cynical, with a dry wit and a soft spot for underdogs, often working pro bono for those who remind him of his late wife, who died in a hit-and-run years ago. Nathan prefers old-school methods—notebooks, stakeouts, and intuition—over fancy tech.
Sarah Kline had been missing for nine days when her husband, a mild-mannered accountant named David, showed up at Nathan’s office with red-rimmed eyes and a folder of bank statements. “She just vanished after our anniversary dinner,” David said. “The police think she left me, but I know something’s wrong.”
Nathan took the case. He started with the obvious: Sarah’s phone was off, her credit cards unused since that night. But something nagged at him—the anniversary dinner receipt showed they’d argued in the parking lot of the upscale restaurant. David claimed it was nothing, just stress over money. Nathan tailed David for two days and noticed subtle inconsistencies: David’s story about Sarah’s last known outfit changed slightly, and he’d made several large cash withdrawals right before she disappeared.
Digging deeper, Nathan interviewed Sarah’s sister, who revealed Sarah had been talking about leaving David due to his controlling behavior and hidden gambling debts. Confronting David at his home, Nathan found a half-packed suitcase in the attic—Sarah’s clothes, but no Sarah. A neighbor mentioned seeing David loading something heavy into his trunk the night she vanished.
The break came from old-school police work: Nathan pulled security footage from a nearby storage facility using a favor from an old contact. It showed David dumping trash bags into a rented unit. Inside, Nathan found Sarah’s phone, smashed, and traces of blood that forensics later matched to her. David had staged the disappearance after killing her in a fit of rage during their argument, then tried to make it look like she’d run off with a supposed lover.
Nathan handed the evidence to the police, watching David’s arrest from across the street. “Some marriages end in divorce,” he muttered to himself. “This one ended in a shallow grave.” He billed David’s family modestly and took the rest of the week off to visit his wife’s memorial.
