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bottom sign and traded him an `N and an 'E' and an 'S' for a 'D'
and an 'R' and an `M. The letters have screws in the back that go
through pre-drilled holes in the Plexiglas panel part of the sign.
He gave me twenty-five hundred for the bottom sign and cleaned
this one. That's why the name. Simply economics."
Hi Dad,
I just got home. And I'm tired. So I won't bend your ear too
long. We've been so busy lately that no one has had time for
anything except work. Something spooky is going on. We've
gotten three target requests (Have I told you that a target is office
slang for anyone we are searching for?) from the same person. I
believe that the voice is that of a man, but I'm not sure as it s a voice
that could be either, requesting that only Jim do the search. All three
of the women targets are local missing persons, but all from
different counties. 'The Voice' is paying with the credit card number
of one of the women.
Jim and I worked on the case for several hours tonight, (That s
why I'm just now home from the office) without coming to any
conclusions. I imagine that Jim will work all night and probably
tomorrow too on this one. Nellie says that Jim is the best there is at
finding ghost people--ones who don't want to be found. But they all
leave a shadow and Nellie says that's how Jim finds them. He looks
for the shadow. Nellie says that everyone else (including her) looks
for the person while Jim goes beyond the person and looks for the
shadow they left. He sometimes works as many as twenty files at
once. I have no idea how he keeps them all straight. He'll get a call
on someone he'd been looking for two weeks before and the files will
be thirty deep on his desk. He'll say 'Yeah. Female. Twenty-four.
Hispanic. Gone from Salem three weeks. May be in the company
of one Dennis Trout. That's the kind of recall he has. Also I don't
think he was telling me everything that he was thinking about on
STIX 57
this case. He pretty much keeps to himself. The other women that
work for him don't even know that he has a fabulous garden right
on the other side of the back wall. The back wall of his private office
is all glass with an electrically- operated solid wood screen about
four feet beyond the glass. There's a fern garden between the screen
and the glass. Anyone in his office assumes that it is the back of his
lot. As near as I know he never opens it except when he is alone in
his office. He opened it tonight, because I, of course, knew about his
garden from last weekend. I haven't told anyone except you about
it. Jim didn't say not to, it's just a trust thing.
I have to tell you; on Monday Janice came in and accused me of
trying to steal Jim from her. It was GREAT. Another woman
considers ME a threat. That has to be the best compliment I've had
since the plane thing, Dad. She's not really very bright. I kinda feel
sorry for her. Her husband gambles away everything he makes,
leaving her to take care of two kids (and him, I imagine). She is so
worried about losing her job that she practically attacked Jim at least
twice a week. He doesn t have anything to do with her any more.
EXCUSE ME!
What happened between Jim and me was between two
consenting adults. It had nothing to do with my job! And besides, I
think I like him, a lot.
Sometimes you are almost over the line with your accusations!!!
I am now going to bed.
Even if you are a grump, I still love you. Keep the bench warm.
STIX
Chapter Six
Jim walked back into his office to shut the lights off and found
that Detective Cooper had faxed him all three police reports on
the missing women. He started to make a list sitting at his desk
then changed his mind and shut the lights off. He waited until his
eyes adjusted to the near darkness then, taking the reports, a
legal pad and mechanical pencil, opened the curtain-covered
French doors that led out into his garden and wandered over to sit
at the base of the waterfall where he began a new list on the
three missing women. Actually it was a series of lists. First he
wrote the date of abduction in the hand margin. Next he listed
the victim s name, age, address, and why they were where they
were when they were nabbed. Beside that he listed the counties
from which they were abducted. Then to the side of that were
the cities or towns.
He stopped writing and watched as a Life Flight helicopter
hung just southeast of his place and probed the ground with its
searchlight. Jim knew that it was waiting to land in a parking lot
catty corner across the street from the Hillsboro hospital
emergency room. That meant that both St. Vincent s and OHSU
up on Pill Hill were either fogged in or too full of emergencies to
take another victim. He didn't have to see the scene to know that
there would be seven or eight ground support personnel below,
first to cordon off part of Hank s Supermarket parking lot and then
to run the patient across the street and into the ER. He let
himself be distracted while his mind flicked over the probable
areas from which Life Flight might have made a retrieval. He
settled on the summit of Highway 26, one of two main routes to
the coast from Portland. It would be freezing up there tonight.
Black ice and booze were a lethal combination and drivers quite
often met their match on the pass. It could have been Highway 6
60 DAVE MEAD
at the summit, but Jim was betting on 26. It always had more
fog, and heavier traffic.
His bare feet were beginning to feel the cold as were his arms,
but he stayed where he was until he'd reviewed what he'd
written, then stripped and climbed into his hot tub. He said,
"Ouch!" when the hot water engulfed his ice cold feet. He leaned
back, closed his eyes, and tried to 'find' the three women. The
caller had to be involved, which meant that the abductions were
related. The Voice, that was Stix name for the creep who'd called
(since she'd made first contact, she had the right to name
him/her), wanted recognition. So The Voice would have to leave
a trail. It wouldn't have to be a good trail, but it had to be a trail
of some kind. Otherwise there was no use calling. And why
Sandstorm? Why not the cops? Would the Voice call again?
Probably not. He'd have to know that Jim would be recording
any and all conversations once he got on the trail? But what trail?
He hadn t planned to take this case as far as he had. It was
well past time to hand it over to the cops and go about his
business. But Stix was right. There was a connection between
him and the perp. For some reason, probably one he didn t want
to think about, the perp wanted him involved. And probably he
would begin killing the victims, if indeed they were still alive, to
force Jim into playing his game.
He sat there awhile longer then climbed, naked and steaming,
up the stairway to his apartment.
He turned the radio on to see if he could catch the news, then
took two cold pork chops and a wedge of sharp white Tillamook
cheese out of the refrigerator, selected a bottle of whole berry
Pinot Noir from the wine rack that he'd built into the pantry, and
started back down to the hot tub just as the local news came on.
He stopped and, setting everything down, turned the radio up.
The announcer promised Jim, and whoever else was listening,
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