Mystery Mondays

Flash 2 - Something Lost and Forgotten

The smell of the room wasn't offensive, per se, but it sure as hell wasn't pleasant—a combination of old paper, binding glue, and a damp carpet. The abandoned office building smelled like the decay of corporate America to Greg Hanover but all he had to do was get the evidence his client needed and get the hell out.

Yesterday the client had finally come through with a solid lead. '... a folder with all the evidence we need is on the third floor of the old Thompson building...'

Greg leaned against a slowly rusting filing cabinet, " A folder she said!?" The third floor was a maze of shelves and drawers of files, some stacked on shelves leaning precariously close to expending all of their potential energy and coming to rest on the moist, slightly squelchy, carpet. Others shut in deep cabinets with squeaky pulls.

Greg took a deep breath and focused on remembering the conversation where the client had finally said a name that wasn't an obvious decoy. Finally, the surname Jameson came to mind and he sprung into action.

Well, sprung might be a bit of a strong term. There was definitely a bounce to his movements as he began to search the filing cabinets for the Js. Luckily they were in alphabetical order. Greg found the drawer labeled 'JA-JE' and pulled it open slowly. To be honest, slowly was probably a mistake since it didn't prevent the ancient metal from screeching out the song of its people, rather it prolonged it. 'Jameson, A.' came into view and Greg snatched it out. An unofficial copy of a marriage license. He grabbed the one behind it 'Jameson, De.' Same result. After two more he took a look around the dilapidated office. Three rows to his left, hanging in the air, was a sign that read

'Marriage Licenses'

Two rows later another sign

'Birth Certs'

Above the far wall hung another dusty sign that still spelled

'Deeds and property

Greg massaged his temples with the two middle fingers on each hand. He was struggling to remember what the contents of the documents were. It had to do with some inheritance or real estate deal if he was remembering rightly. He didn't like the feeling that his own mind was starting to fight against him. Not as bad but just as noticeable was the blurring at the edge of his vision. It must have started at the same time but he was finding time a bit slippy too.

"Greg Hanover's no quitter. Greg Hanover gets the job done." He was muttering under his breath trying to keep his mind together and focused.

The wall of cabinets seemed to stretch beyond the point of reason. The world was starting to rotate a little too much and it was making him nauseous. But swirling in the center of his vision was a title card 'Deeds and Property: Ja-Jc'. Greg flung open the drawer and fumbled through the files. No time for subtly anymore he grabbed every file with the last name 'Jameson' and made it for the stairwell. Struggling to keep his feet beneath him he made his way out the service entrance he came in through.

Greg pulled himself up and tried to look more in control of himself when he saw who was leaning against the hood of his 1990 Mustang.

"Mrs. Jameson. I thought we were to deliver the package on Sunday. What's changed?"

"Oh, I am sorry Mr. Hanover, I simply lack the patience. Are those them?"

"What? The patience for... Are what the what? Oh, I'm sure your documents are somewhere in here." He brushed past Mrs. Jameson and opened the driver's side door. "I'll drop these off to Gracie and let her know it's a rush job. She'll probably insist on some upcharge for the inconvenience, but what will you do?"Mrs. Jameson stepped in front of the wine-colored sports car, hands on her hips and a look of defiance and annoyance on her face. Greg sat still for what seemed like an hour, it was really three minutes. Then He looked up at Mrs. Jameson, winked, and backed up until he could perform a 3-point turn. Now he was curious. What the hell did he just grab? And why did he feel like the world was trying to crush him using his own body weight there? Gracie would probably have some answers.