5th TICKET. BUSTER LEE

As I was pulling out into mid-morning traffic my cell rang. I answered it without looking. “Hello?”

“Jimmy, Jimmy, it’s, Buster Lee. His voice was shaking. They found Melissa.”

Stunned, I pulled over to the side of the road or, I should say, the car pulled itself over. By that point I wasn’t driving anymore. “What did you say, Buster?”

“They found her, Jimmy, they found, My baby.” He was hollering and crying, hardly holding it together.

Traffic was flying by, I was trying hard to put all my emotions back in the box I had assigned them to when she first disappeared. I knew before I left Mills Melissa was Gone for good, probably dead. I don’t know how I knew but feelings in my heart and mind were so overwhelming and a voice that kept repeating, let her go. “Where, Buster, where did they find her?”

“Buster said, “Cincinnati.”

“Cincinnati? I thought she was in Alaska?” I imagined her remains would be found by hunters.

Buster moaned, “and she was alive up until last night. She was working in a pizza store.”

“Pizza store? What do you mean alive until last night?”

“That’s right,” Said Buster, ignoring the question. “She was making Pizza, serving pizza too. And I’m sorry to tell you this, Jimmy but she was married.”

“To who?” I asked. “When did she get married?” And when did she die?”

“Jimmy this is all just as much a mystery to me as it is to you. I’ve been on the phone with a detective from the Cincinnati police since five am and I’m still in the dark.”

“I thought, hold it, you told me Alaskan authorities were conducting a search.”

“They didn’t do nothing. They claim she wasn’t even there. Besides Jimmy this was how long ago? You went to see her in, what, 92’

“November 8, 1992. She left town, I mean Mills, the next day around ten pm. Red Ball sent a car to pick her up.

“Jimmy, my gal was in touch with Red Ball Energy after Melissa left for Alaska on the 9th. And we hadn’t heard from her for two weeks.”

“Who’s your gal Buster? Sorry I’m confused.”

“Jenny Holland, private detective out of Bozeman.”

“And she called Red Ball Energy?”

“She called and discovered that Melissa had turned in her resignation on the 7th of November. Something was in the works before you even got there, Jimmy.”

“Did they say anything about running a secret drilling operation?” I wanted to know.

Buster Laughed. “No Jimmy they never said anything about that. Keep your tin foil hat on, son."

“Did your gal even ask?”

“That wasn’t her area of investigation. We were trying to find, Melissa, not some big oil company scandal.”

“What’s her husband’s name?”

Buster said, “Jenny? I haven’t got a clue. Don’t even know if she’s married.”

“No Buster, Melissa’s husband, what’s his name?"

“Oh, Oh yeah, guy by name of Catts, Roy Catts. He owns, Catts Pizza.”

Why did that name sound familiar? I wondered. “Have you spoken to this Catts guy, Buster?”

“No can do, Jimmy, he’s in police custody”

“Did Catts have something to do with her death?”

“Cop told me blunt force trauma to the head. Catts claimed she was hit by a garbage truck at One am taking out the trash. The detective I spoke with said they were skeptical of Catt’s story. He’s definitely a person of interest.”

“Buster did you know about Melissa’s disappearance? Was she in touch with you or the family after November 9th? After I lost touch with her?”

Buster hesitated. “I don’t...Jimmy I wish…I wish...I wish, I know what your asking, Jimmy, I do. I just wish Melissa was here to tell you herself. But she can’t. She’s gone Jimmy.” He started balling and hung up the phone.

I drove home, fell into bed trying to fall asleep. I was torn up inside and exhausted after talking to Buster. He was lying about something. I felt sure Mel was still in touch with him long after she stopped contact with me. The old man sounded conflicted and was probably in shock. Not only would I be mourning her loss for a second time but trying to unravel a mystery. The mystery of Melissa. Right now, however, I turned off my phone, buried my head in my pillow and screamed.

WOKE UP THIS MORNING

I cried and screamed myself to sleep. I woke up exhausted the next day at five am. I wanted to go back to sleep but that wasn’t happening. Checked my phone. Mom had called, my brother, Tom had called around midnight, dad tried getting in touch around ten and, I’ll be damned, Roy left a message.

I had gotten over, Melissa once. I thought I had put her behind me, evolved. I Got a teaching job which I liked by the way and taped up my boxes of notes that I kept while trying to unravel the mystery of her disappearance. I reached out to everyone. Made hundreds of phone calls, wrote letters, emails, text messages. I had no regard for time differences and woke people up in the UK and Europe at all hours. I actually made a lot of enemies but I didn’t care. I was on a mission to find someone I loved.

During my first investigation I talked to Mel like she was in the room with me. I argued with her when I came up against a dead end. On some occasions my love turned to anger and I felt betrayed, on other occasions I cried myself to sleep asking for her forgiveness. Often, like almost every night, before falling asleep I prayed that I would dream of her. Perhaps in a dream some tidbit of information would become clear and lead me to her, where ever she might be. I organized my memories by time and date, wrote every thought no matter how inconsequential. In two years I had enough material to write a book and thought seriously of publishing. This in a last ditch attempt to find her. I had this daydream that I’d be doing some book signing and she comes forward with her copy. She would say, ‘Make it out to Mel, love Jimmy’ I look up and there she is. Of course a happy reunion follows and then marriage and off into the sunset. I probably had a hundred variations of that daydream. Then one day everything stopped. The date in my journal: 9/11/01.

TBC

Thanks for reading.