On Tenterhooks (18 page)

“I don’t know, Martin
. T
hat’s a pretty big leap for me,”
he admitted
.

“I’m not asking you to ‘know
,
’ Steve
.
I am asking you to consider that it
might
be
a possibility. Seems like w
e’re somehow connected here,
you and me,
and I want to know who I’m dealing with.” 

Martin
smiled.

Steve re-opened the letter and show
ed
Martin
the last line
s
.

“See that line?  That’s from a song
called
“
Better Together
,
”
a
Sex ‘N Cigs
song,
it was kind of
our
song
.
Nobody knew that but
Julie
.”

“Mmm
-hmm
,” said Martin nodding
.
He leaned back in the booth. “There you go.”

Steve closed his eyes and sighed.
The waitress returned with their meatloaf
,
and they paused the conversation long enough to thank her for the meal
.
As they started to eat, Martin pressed Steve
again
.

“Look,”
he
pointed out
,
between bites
,
“I am not suggesting that I don’t question this whole thing
.
I don’t understand it myself
.
But I am telling you right now that
it
was
my daughter’s voice I heard the other night. I don’t know how
,
and I certainly don’t know why, but it was
Maggie
—
no question about it.
But boy
,
it threw
me for
a big loop
.
Then
right after that, you came along with your story and your ideas on
it,
and I see how
this all
affects
you.
”

He pointed across the table at Steve with a forkful of meatloaf.

“
I have
a lot
of questions, like you
.
I want to know what the heck is going on here, like you. And I’m still trying
to deal with
losing someone I love very much
.”

Steve smirked and shook his head slowly.

“I can’t explain it either
, but
you’re right
.
It seems w
e’ve got a lot in common
all of the sudden. W
e’ve both got some serious q
uestions burning up the brain.”

Martin nodded.

“
You seem so confident about what you heard
.
But I am still so skeptical about my letter.”

“Regardless,” Steve continued, “
it looks to me like we’re both after answers that might come from the same place.
Let’s see what we can do to get it figured out.
”

“My man!” said Martin, extending
his hand
.
Steve took
it
,
and the two men shared a firm handshake.

“You were right
,
Martin,” said Steve, mouth full of food. “This has got to be the best meatloaf I have ever had.”

“
I toldya!
Okay
,
w
hat
do we do first
?”

“Well
,
h
ere is th
e list I pulled off the site. T
his is how I found you.
I’ve
added my own notes too.” 

He slid a copy across the table to Martin
, who
studied the list in front of him:

Abigail
Nikko
—
dec.
Zachary
(bro)- football
—
SA,TX
—
online
San Antonio???
Killed by a football?

Veronica
Ryder
—
dec. Helen(mot)- SCUBA
—
NYC,NY
—
phone
scuba diving?
No obit?

Martin Abingdon
—
dec.
Margaret
(dau)- OD
—
SFK,VA
—
radio
Suffolk
—
overdose?
Osteochondritis dissecans?
No obit?
   

Steve Connor
—
dec.
Julie
(wif)- auto
—
CLT, NC - letter

“Okay,” said Martin, “s
o we’ve got you and me, and these two others
—
Abigail and
Veronica
?”

“Right
.”

“And th
at’s all that was on the list?”

“Well, that’s all that
was in the file I downloaded.
I couldn’t find anything else
.
And believe me, I tried.
”

“Okay.”

“And my notes
—
I was trying to figure out the commonalities,” said Steve, pointing to his handwritten additions. “My wife was killed in a car accident
.
The list says ‘auto
.
’
Your daughter
—
I wasn’t sure if it was osteo whatever it is. It
’s
a kind of joint
—“

“Yeah
.
Osteochondritis dissecans
.
It’s a condition
i
n which cracks form in the
 
articular cartilage
 
and the underlying
 
subchondral bone. In other words, the ends of your bones get brittle and break off
,
because the flow of
blood is interrupted.”

“Wow
.
That’s a mouthful.”

“Yeah,
I’ve got a couple
customers
with the condition
.
They come in regularly for pain meds. It can be painful at times
, but
not usually
life-
threatening.
And that’s not what got my
Maggie
,
anyway
.
She was taken by the other OD. I still can’t explain exactly why.”

He paused.

“But make no mistake,” he said angrily, bunching his fist
,
“
i
t was an accident
.
It was NOT on purpose!”

He stared at Steve, challenging him to argue.

“Martin, look man
,
I am not here to pass judgment. If you say it was an accident, then it was an accident, okay?”

Martin
looked down at his clenched fists
.
He breathed deep
ly
and relaxed
,
opening his hands to rest them palms-down
on the table
.

“Sorry
,
Steve
.
I
don’t want people thinking badly about my
Maggie
.”

“It’s forgotten
.
Let’s move on,”
Steve
said, gesturing toward the list.

“So
,
we’ve got our names
here and
the names of those who died
, apparently
tying
us together
somehow
,” said Martin.
“
It tells us how they died, sorta, where
they are
and—
what is
this
last part
?
L
etter, radio, online?”

“My guess is that is how we
received replies
back
.
I got this handwritten note, you heard your daughter through your radio
. . .
”

“And so Abigail got it online and
Veronica
heard it through
email,”
said Martin, completing Steve’s sentence
.

“Or will get it
.
I don’t know if those two others have
seen anything
yet
.
This might be a master list of what they will do
or
what has already happened.”

“Yeah
,
okay,” Martin nodd
ed,
“
that
makes sense.”

“I got your number pretty easily
.  There
only t
wo Abingdons listed in Suffolk,
you and one other.”

“Yep.
M
y lovely and independent ex-wife.”

“Right, okay.
I got a long list of
Veronica
Ryders in New York, but I brought it with me. And
I didn’t find anything specific to Abigail
Nikko
in San Antonio
,
except a
social networking
page. But I did find this. It’s from a college newspaper for South
west
Texas Tech
.”

Steve slid
several printed pages
across the table to Martin:

There was a picture of a smiling kid, Martin guessed him to be in his early
twenties
. He
had short blond hair and he was wearing a football jersey. He
had a crooked, charming smirk that looked like he’d just gotten away with a harmless prank
.
Next to it, a headline:

S Tech
’s Zack Nikko Dies in Freak Sideline Accident

The
S Tech
community mourns today for the passing of one of our best and brightest. Last night
,
after leading the
Armadillos
through
three strong quarters
against
the Jersey College Devils
in a home game
, starting quarterback Zack Nikko was injured on the sideline
.
Eyewitness accounts say he was struck on the head by his own helmet
.
He was rushed to Southwest General Hospital
,
where he
was later pronounced dead.

Nikko was a junior in the department of Animal Science
,
planning
for
a career in
veterinary
medicine.
Friends have already established a makeshift memorial for him at the stadium, leaving notes, flowers and pictures of Nikko
.
The University has announced that a candlelight vigil will be held Wednesday, beginning at 8PM on
Botten
Field.