by Stan Grist

Working on the first witness, I quickly determined that the subject was in the process of moving the day he witnessed the accident. The address he gave the investigating police officer was the address he was moving from that day. The former landlord was kind enough to look up a forwarding address that the subject had left with her when he moved.

When I contacted the landlord at the apartments to which the subject had moved on the day of the accident, I learned that the subject had lived there for one year and then had moved out about three years previous to my phone call. That landlord had no forwarding address. Motor Vehicles had no recent information on my subject, nor did any document searches produce any helpful information.

Next, I decided to contact the subject's former neighbors at the apartment building from which he had moved three years previous. I obtained these names and addresses from the Numerical and Street Address Directory and Henderson Directory, published the year that he had moved. Before anything, I had to trace about six of these former neighbors to where they now lived, because they had also moved during the three year period.

Several hours later all my leads had hit dead-ends except for one. For two days I called the only possible phone number that could help me. No one would answer the phone. I looked up the phone number of the next door neighbor and found out that the lady to whom I wished to speak, was due to return home that very evening. I left a message with the neighbor and several hours later I received the phone call that I hoped could help me.

I explained my purpose in trying to locate this lady's former neighbor (my subject) and asked if she even remembered him. To my surprise she responded that he had been like a son to her. She not only remembered him, but was able to tell me where he went to work in a town several hours away from Calgary.

Early the next morning I phoned the employer whose name I had received from the dear old lady. They were immediately familiar with my subject and connected me with a gentleman who would know more about where my subject was now living. I was told that my subject had worked with their company for six months and then had accepted a job offer in Paris, France.

Just as my heart was sinking, the gentleman added that he knew a representative from the French company who lived in Alberta. He said he would contact the man to find out the status of my subject and then call me back the next day.

Just as promised, the call came the next day and the voice at the other end of the telephone said, "I have some rather interesting information for you Mr. Grist." As I listened and wrote in my notebook, I was shocked at what I heard. The man explained that my subject worked in Paris until only two weeks earlier. Since then, he had returned to Calgary and currently was living only two blocks away from me. My incredibly helpful contact gave me an address and telephone number.

Two minutes later I was actually speaking with my illusive subject. When I explained who I was and the purpose of the call, there was dead silence. Then my subject blurted out, "How in the hell did you ever find me?" I told him it was a trade secret, but if he would allow me to serve him a subpoena to attend court as a witness to the accident, I would be happy to discuss the matter with him.

He agreed and I stopped by to see him that night. Over a couple of beers we became good friends and he went on to help my client in court several days later. I also was able to locate the other witness to the accident, living on a secluded acreage in the Province of Saskatchewan. That's another interesting story. However, my client, the lawyer, decided to use only the one witness

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