Buried Treasure by Vincent Madison

Chapter 4

Mr. X.

Detectives Reid and Gibson were walking along a foot path which wound its way beside a river. They had grabbed a typical cop lunch, vendor hot dogs in the park. Tom finished up the remains of his lunch.

  "OK, so Steve was telling the truth. That box has got to hold some answers. I'm not sure why you let him have the film. Our lab could have easily restored it."

Kate polished off her dog, wiping some mustard off the side of her mouth.

  "Honestly Tom, I'm not sure that Steve IS being completely honest, and I don't care about some moldy old film. I just used it as leverage to get him to do some spying."

Tom thought about it for a moment.

  "So you still don't believe there was a real wormhole and the box traveled through time?"

Kate laughed.

  "No Tom, I don't. I don't go for your wacko time travel theories. I like to stick to facts and evidence."

  "Well.." Tom hesitated in his step and turned to her. "I'm going to prove it to you somehow."

Kate grinned, but in a friendly way.

  "I'm sure you will, if you can Tom."

They continued walking. A girl passed by jogging, and a man walking his dog. Tom waited until they were out of hearing.

  "So Becker is going to want a report on this case. What do we tell him?"

  "We tell him the truth. That there is no evidence to suggest anything other than an old rusted box with a fake 60 year old newspaper in it and some old junk."

 Tom was still not satisfied.

  "That newspaper doesn't bother you? Who would go to the trouble to fake a 2008 newspaper 60 years ago?"

Kate thought about it.

  "It IS the piece of the puzzle that does not really make sense. Maybe we should take another look at it."

Satisfied that he had made even minor progress, Tom was elated.

  "Now you're talking!" he had a huge smile.

Across the road from the foot path, a tall bald man sat on a park bench watching them. He pulled out his cell phone and dialed it.  Tom and Kate were in the distance still walking.

The mystery man spoke.

  "I don't think he will be any trouble. Easy as leading a sheep."

He listened to the person on the other end before responding in a firm, low monotone voice.

  "Yes. She is more of a concern. She is smart a just a little too curious."

 Something the other person said seemed to annoy the man and his tone got even more serious.

  "Keep doing what you are doing until we tell you otherwise. Don't forget why you are helping us."

He then picked up the old newspaper that was from the box, which had been sitting on his lap.

  "Don't worry." He said as he casually dropped the newspaper into a trash bin beside the bench. "I have already taken care of the loose ends. We'll be in touch." He snapped the cell phone shut without waiting for a response.

On the other end Lieutenant Dennis Becker slowly closed his cell phone.