Real-Life Decision Making -- Solution
You tell the client what you've discovered.
It seems reasonable to tell him what you've learned. After all, he hired
you to find the answer to a question, and now you have the answer.
However, a private investigator has other responsibilities. The man's anger
should be reason for you to be cautious. After all, what is he going to do
with this information?
You have to consider his wife's safety, especially since the husband is
suddenly displaying unexpected, and possibly unpredictable, anger. You should
try to determine how the husband will respond before you share the information.
Of course, you can never entirely predict what a person will do.
Private investigator Carl Franco had a case similar to this one. Tragically,
the husband killed his wife as soon as he learned where she was.
Police officers swarmed Franco's office. They said he was a party to the
crime, since he had provided the man with his wife's whereabouts.
However, Franco showed the officers a declaration that the husband had
signed before Franco had agreed to take the case. It said that the husband
was undertaking to not apply any force, and that he would contact his wife
through their children and not directly. The police agreed that Franco had
taken the proper precautions, although in the end, it wasn't enough to prevent
a tragedy.
"I showed them the document, the precautions I took. Showed
them where he undertook not to [engage in] any violence," says Franco. "Then
they congratulated me, [saying], 'We wish all the investigators were like
this.'"