Chapter 11:
The Newspaper Article
I held the envelope in my hand so tight that my fingers started to cramp up.
I'm not even sure why I was so curious to see what was inside. Joe suggested
that he should be in the room when I opened it up and I secretly was grateful
to have him there. Not that I thought anyone was going to jump out of it, I was
afraid there might be a dead rat or something in there. It wasn't very heavy so
my guess was it was just a letter. I was wrong. When I opened it up, there was
an old crumpled up newspaper article in there and nothing else.
"Looks like it wasn't our crazy
gal after all Nick, Maybe this belonged to one of the engineers and they missed
the garbage and accidentally left it by your bag." I nodded at Joe's words
even though I was sure it was the Mizpah lady. When Joe left I sat on the floor
of my hotel room staring at the article looking for a hidden clue of some kind.
Who am I now? friggin Joe Hardy or something. I'm an asshole. even as he had
those thoughts he couldn't tear himself away from the possibility that the
article had something to do with him. The paper itself was yellow from age and
the print was slightly faded but if you concentrated real hard, you could make
out the gist of what the words said. One side there was an article about the
Mets winning the World Series and how New York was beside itself with glee. The
picture was of the team huddled up on the field jumping all over each other.
The headline read WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS. Hmmmm what year did that happen? Let's
see they were in the world series two years ago but they didn't win, I don't
remember them ever winn...oh yeah wait a second that happened in the mid 80's
what the hell year was it though? shit I paced the room with my eyes closed
hoping the year would pop out at me but finally gave up. Sports trivia was
never my thing, Brian would know, there was no doubt in my mind. When it came
to sports trivia there was nobody who could even come close to Brian. Brian,
God why didn't I just go out to dinner with them, I can't avoid the guy for the
rest of my life. Maybe dinner would be a good thing. He shook that thought away
and flipped the article over to see what was on the other side. The opposite
page was even more warn than the Mets side but it seemed like there was just a
bunch of advertisements and a few small articles. Nothing big. Then something
caught my eye. At the very bottom right hand side of the page there was the
beginning of an article about a missing person.
Young Man President of his college
class missing since last Thursday. Police report finding his car abandoned on
the Bronx River Parkway with the keys inside. There was blood on the steering
wheel and on the front seat but there appeared to be no damage to the actual
car. The police expect foul play...
That's as far as this page went. The end of the article was ripped off. I found
myself worrying about this guy who was missing over 15 years ago. I hope they
found him. Nick paused from his investigative work to answer his cellphone.
"Hello?" after a moment of silence he repeated himself yet again
"Hello? You know I'm getting tired of this shit!" I was just about to
throw down the phone when I heard music playing on the other end of the line.
it was playing very softly but I could clearly recognize the song. It was one
of my dad's favorite songs from the 80's and on long car rides he would burst
out with the song kind of as a sign to the gaggle of children in the car that
we were almost home. Take Me Home by Genesis. "Dad is that you? Is this
some kind of joke or something? Hello?" The person on the other end hung
up leaving me completely baffled. Okay now that was totally strange. First an
article from the 80's,then a song from the 80's...maybe I've entered the damn
twilight zone or something...he thought while emptying the contents of his
backpack on the bed I've gotta stop thinking about this for a minu...wait what
the hell is this? He said pulling out a little package wrapped in newspaper. it
was at the very bottom of the bag and was not there when he packed this
morning. He quickly unwrapped the newspaper and found a picture frame. The frame
was porcelain and had angels all around the corners. Nick let out a gasp when
he saw the picture that was inside. It was of him and Howie sitting on the
floor of D's living room from last night. The picture had black graffiti all
over it and a picture of a devil drawn over the image coming from the
television. My face was circled several times and the words See You Soon! were
written right above my head. I tore the picture from the frame and looked on
the back to see if there were any clues sitting there
waiting for me. Unfortunately nothing was there. My thoughts quickly shifted
back to the wrapping my strange present had around it. I picked it up and
examined it carefully. Written in red marker the entire length of the paper
diagonally was the word MIZPAH. I wasn't shocked or horrified this time. I had
actually expected it. I was just about to throw it in the trash when I
remembered what Joe had said about throwing away threats, so I went to fold it
up when I noticed a disturbing headline in the bottom right hand corner.
Missing College Student Turns Up Dead
The body of Robert Wexman 21, who had
been missing since November of last year has been found in Pelham Bay Park just
miles away from where he had disappeared. The cause of death has yet to be
determined but judging from the condition of the corpse, he had only been dead
for about a day or so. Robert who had just been voted as class president
shortly before his disappearance, is survived by his mother Linda and his
father John.
Nick sat there silent letting what he just read sink in to his brain. What is
going on? he thought outloud. He then picked up the articles, picture frame and
picture and placed them in the top drawer of his nightstand. He wanted to keep
these things to himself for now. Maybe he would tell Joe about it later, for
now he just needed to get his mind off of things so he picked up the phone and
dialed Howie and invited himself to dinner. He was willing to risk having to
see Brian. Dinner with him couldn't be any worse than all the weird things he
saw today. Could it?
***
