Nancy's drive to the Palo Alto Public Library was uneventful. It gave her some time to think about Talisent and Spike. She was wondering if her doubts about Talisent were really justified. Nancy got herself all worked up about it. It got to the point of talking to herself. It was an old habit that a former boyfriend had attributed to insecurities. But that's another story.

When Nancy asked for help at the library, they pointed her to the reference section and showed her the old phone books and city directories. There were no phone listings for Eric Barker in 1969 or 1968, but going back to 1967 produced a white pages entry for Eric Barker at 2338 West 11th Avenue. She took the address down and went to the city directory. It listed the owner as Henrick Barker, Eric's true legal name. Jumping to the public records microfilm archive, Nancy looked up the name Henrick Barker in each successive year beginning with 1968. In 1972 a real property sale was recorded for the 11th Avenue house. Then, in 1974 a death notice was on file. Cause of death was listed as "trauma suffered in automobile accident." No surviving family. Location of death showed St. Joseph's Hospital, San Jose. Nancy was getting tired of this. With Barker dead, she wouldn't have anything on that Ambassador character. She wanted to put that guy in his place fast.

One last thing to do before giving up on this dead-end was read the obituary. The newspaper microfilm took Nancy back in time to the day following the San Jose car accident. That's when the dead-end turned to paydirt as the spinning microfilm reel stopped on the photograph of Henrick Barker and his obituary column. The face was twenty years younger, but it could not be mistaken as anyone but the man who now called himself, the Ambassador. She had him!



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