The Letter - Chapter 16

“Okay, Jennifer, show me what you’ve got,” Liz said, looking at me expectantly.

“I don’t know how much of this stuff will be useful to our case,” I said.  I reached into my backpack and pulled out papers and a book.

“Our case!” Liz’s eyes widened. “ I like the sound of that – like we’re real detectives, right?”

“Well here’s what I’ve got.”  I spread the materials I had gathered on top of Liz’s bed.  She got up from her desk and came over to look.  “Here’s the letter itself and the envelope that it came in.  There’s my dad’s old high school yearbook.”  “Here’s the program dad picked up at the basketball game with the Jaguar’s schedule and information about the players.  And here’s my English composition paper with the A+ grade and the note from Mrs. Cook, saying ‘Excellent work, Jennifer!’  Now how did that get mixed in there,” I said, picking it up with a flourish.  Oh, I don’t know.  I don’t have a clue!”

“Cute, Jen.  You’re such a show-off!  I worked my butt off and only got a B+,” Liz pouted.

“Well, I suppose I come by it naturally, since my dad’s a published writer,” I said, giving Liz a wink as I put the paper back into my backpack.

 

Liz walked back to her chair and I sat down on her bed with the clues.  Liz gave me a sly smile.

“By the way, I’ve got something that will make you jealous, Miss A-Plus Excellent Work Jennifer.”

“What’s that?” I said.

“Guess who’s been invited to the Sweetheart Semi-Formal?”

“You, Liz?!”  That’s so exciting!  Who?  Is it Mikey?”

“Yep, Mikey Lanza.  You are a promising detective, Jen.  How did you figure that out?”

“Oh everyone knows he has the hots for you, Liz.  Don’t try to play coy with me.”

“Are you going yet?  The rumor is Pete McCaskey has a crush on you.”

“No one has asked, but it’s still a few weeks away.  Pete’s nice, but he’s so shy.  Maybe I’ll just go stag.   Anyway, we’re here to work on my dad’s love life, not mine.  What I’ve laid out on your bed are all the clues I’ve been able to discover so far that might lead us to finding this mystery woman.”

“Let me see your dad’s yearbook,” said Liz. 

I picked up the thin black book with the embossed head of a jaguar on the front cover and handed it to her.  Liz started to thumb through it.  “Hey, your dad was kind of cute.  A little nerdy maybe with the Buddy Holly glasses.”

“He doesn’t look nerdy!” I exclaimed pretending to be offended.  “My dad was just a hipster before his time.  Anyway, I’m not sure what clues we can get from the yearbook.  It’s from his senior year, so there’s no way to figure out who was in his sophomore English class.”

“Yeah, I guess we just don’t know enough to hone in on the mystery woman based on this. I was thinking about that game we used to play called ‘Guess Who?’ where you asked your opponent questions to eliminate suspects.”

“I loved that game.  One player would say, ‘Does the suspect have blond hair?’” I intoned in my best mock detective voice. “ No!” I answered gruffly for the opposing player.  “Then you’d flip down all the suspects that have blond hair.  No, our case is more complicated than that game, unfortunately,” I said, taking the yearbook back from Liz and putting it into my backpack.  “Let’s take a look at the envelope that the letter came in,” I said picking up the envelope and walking over to look at it with Liz.  We studied it under the light of her desk lamp. 

“The cancellation is very light – like the machine was running out of ink.  And what’s there is smudged like it went through the machine too fast.  It looks like the state abbreviation ends in ‘A’.”  Liz squinted at the lavender envelope.

“Do a search for state abbreviations on your computer, Liz.  Let’s see how many states we can flip down on our Guess Who board.”

Liz typed in “state abbreviations” and found a site called 50states.com.  “Wow, it looks like we can knock a lot of them off our list,” she said as she scrolled down the page with her mouse.

  

“Yes.  It looks like we can narrow it down to eight states – California, Georgia, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Washington.  That’s great detective work, Liz!  I’m keeping you as my trusted assistant.  Can you make out any of the numbers of the zip code?”

Liz picked up the envelope and brought it within an inch of her eyes.  “I’m  having trouble making anything out.  Wait a second.”  She opened her top desk drawer, pulled out a pair of glasses and put them on.

“Lizzie Henderson!  Since when do you wear glasses?”

“I got them a month ago.  I haven’t had the nerve to wear them at school yet.  Don’t tell my mom.”

“So who’s the hipster now?  You look adorable!  Do they help you see better?”

“Actually, yes.  Much better,” Liz said with a sheepish smile.  “Do you think Mikey will have second thoughts about inviting me to the dance when he sees me wearing them?”

“God, no way!  You look fantastic both with and without them.”

“You sound like my mom.”

“Your mother knows what she’s talking about.”

“Okay, you’ve convinced me.  I’ll start wearing them tomorrow.  Now let me take a better look at this envelope.”  Liz held it under the light and stared at the postmark. “No, I still can’t make it out.  I wish I had a magnifying glass.”

“Your wish is my command, madame” I said with a deep bow.  I reached into my backpack and pulled out a magnifying glass.  Liz and I looked at the envelope through the glass.

“The first number looks like a 9,” I said.

“You’re right, Jen, definitely a 9.”  Liz continued looking through the magnifier.  “And the next two are 8 and 0.  Yep, I’m sure of it.  See?”

I looked at the images where Liz was pointing.  “I think you’re right, Liz.  Eight and zero.  See, those glasses are just the thing.  What about the last two?”

Liz looked closely, squinted and wrinkled her nose.  “I’m sorry, Jennifer.  I can’t make them out.”

“Me neither,” I sighed.  “Well, see if you can figure anything out with those first three digits.”

Liz typed “zip code 980.”  Then she clicked on one of the sites that popped up on her search engine.  “Look, it’s an area in Washington.  It’s just outside of Seattle.”

“Washington is on our list.  Lizzie Henderson, you’re a genius!  Wow, we’ve really made some progress. But it’s getting late,” I said looking at the clock on Liz’s nightstand.  “And neither of us has even started our homework. I’d better get home.  My dad is probably getting ready to send out the police after me.”  I pulled out my phone and quickly texted him that I was leaving Liz’s house and would be home in fifteen minutes.  Then I gathered up the clues I had brought and gave Liz a hug.  “You’ve been so helpful.  I know we’re going to find this lady.  Let me know if you think of anything else we should look into.”  I bounded down the stairs.  “Goodbye, Mr. and Mrs. Henderson!” I yelled toward the light in the kitchen.  “Thank you for dinner.”

“You’re always welcome, Jennifer,” I heard in reply as I walked out the door.