Message In The Snow

Michael left his apartment for a short walk to his local convienient store. It had been snowing heavily but let up as he trudged through it. A block from home he noticed a small black book That had been dropped, must have been recently as it was not covered with the snow. He picked it up, continued on his trek then returned home. The book was a distinctive Moleskin with the elastic band to keep it closed. Opening it he found page after page with numbers in groups of three, five, seven and nine, an obvious code of some sorts. Michael had a backround in math and decided to try to break the code.

Later that day he made his way to the library selecting books on codes including a history of the Blechly Park team that had eventually cracked the Nazi code regarding the Enigma project. Unemployed, he had all the time to work on the code using the library's resources. He looked for patterns in the numbers and started to substitute letters for numbers. It was a difficult effort; he took many breaks to walk the streets pondering the meaning of it all. He even employed DaVinci's notebook code using a mirror to see if that worked. It did and he proceeded to start over using that method. This was the breakthrough he needed.

The words began to be revealed: "To 'M', I don't have much time left in this world, am coughing up much blood and am weak from it all. Was I poisoned or was it the the many years of smoking and drinking? The package is in a post office box at the Lake Street station; the money is in $100 bills. The number is on the key." It all went on with the writer's intention to donate the money to his church, one that was close by. Michael knew it well, an old established church attended by many well placed families of the city.

Michael pondered going to the church to find out if a $20,000 donation had been recently made. He dismissed this plan as it might be taken as suspicious on his part. He then considered a trip to the city morgue to see if a body had been recently found in the local area. In all, it occupied his thoughts, even his dreams which were vivid in the sense of, mainly, disasterous outcomes. He decided to give it all a few days during which he thought about it all and even prayed which was something rare for him.

He decided to go to the morgue after concocting a story of a friend who had gone missing. He also had to decide whether his inquiry involved a man or a woman choosing a man in the end. He also considered the fact that he had no name to go on, deciding in the end to say that he only knew the man by sight, a loner who had agreed to have coffee with him once. Their conversation was one sided as the man remained silent throughout.

The trip to the morgue was difficult as Michael struggled to tell a tale regarding this anonymous person. The morgue attendant was suspicious asking many questions for which Michael had little information. In the end Michael left the morgue without leaving his name or address. He then became paranoid over the whole matter wishing he had never found the notebook. He considered burning or shredding it but was consumed by all his efforts desiring an end to the events that now took up his entire life. He spent his time in his apartment. The notebook rested on his nightstand. He took many walks and was sorry that he had no friends to share this with dismissing even that as he did not wish to confide in anyone.

One night as he was in bed, sleepless he recalled that Moleskin notebooks had a pocket in the back. Sure enough the pocket held a key with the number 147 on it. Deciding to see it through he went to the Lake Street post office. Looking around to see if he had been followed he then opened the post office box. There was a thick envelope inside which he tucked into the inner pocket of his coat with the feeling that it was burning him. He then hung around the post office lobby observing those who came and went, eventually heading for home.

Bolting and chaining the door he put the envelope on the kitchen table and sat staring at it for some time. Finally he opened it and found $20,000 in hundred dollar bills. Now he became loath to spend it thinking that the bills were marked or recorded in some way that would implicate him in, what, a robbery or worse yet a murder? Then he was inspired to take the money to the church and carefully place it somewhere where it would be noticed. He then went to the church, spent some time sitting in a farmost corner. He noticed a collection box at the exit of the sanctuary. Looking around carefully to see that no one was there he forced the thick envelope into the box sweating profusely then left and hurried home.

Michael spent the next few days considering it all then went to the bookstore and bought himself a new Moleskin notebook with intentions to journal the entire event albeit in code.