Forgive me for I what I have done

It was late, again.

I had just finished submitting the last report for the day, as per usual, I was exhausted. Work had been more challenging than before, I was tired and worn out. Shower, eat and maybe pet my cat Achilles I thought as I was getting in my car ready to go home.

I turned my car and the engine was doing that thing again. I hate when it does that, damn it! I kept switching the power on and off in hopes that it might start the engine. I’ve had this car for as long as I could remember. It’s not working, I start panicking as I see the last car leave the lot, why today? I just need sleep!!!

I attempted to “fix” my car as best as I could but did not get very far, I had to park on the nearest street and walk my way home, 20th street is not far and I could use some fresh air, although I am wearing heels and it’s cold out.

The walk is nice, it’s helping me daydream of living in a faraway island, sipping cocktails and having better days than today. As I am walking I come across a small briefcase, odd I think. Some instinct in me tells me to look inside, it looks fairly clean and it could have some identification or contain something important. I open it and to my surprise there’s only two items in there a little black leather book and a fountain pen. I look at the book and only see numbers, they don’t look like dates or phone numbers. Could it be a serial number to something, maybe the book belongs to an accountant, there’s no id or anything that can point out to who it can belong to. I keep searching in the briefcase and only find the name of the briefcase manufacturer. I’m uncertain if I should take it with me and find its owner or if I should leave it there. I’m too tired to think so I leave. Maybe whoever it belongs to will notice its missing, I think.

I finally get home, extremely exhausted from the day that had just been, I start running the shower, but I cannot stop thinking about the little book, the numbers just seemed odd. I let it go, take a shower and go to bed.

Shit! I can’t sleep now. I keep thinking of the briefcase, my car and everything else, but specially the book, it’s too late to be out but I decide to take a walk back to that street and see if I can find the book, sure enough it was still there, this time I grab the briefcase and go home. Maybe I can finally sleep now.

The following morning, I have a hard time waking up, the alarm keeps going off and I can hear my cat crying because he is hungry, half asleep I turn the alarm off and go feed Achilles. The briefcase is sitting on a chair in the living room, I stare at it and take another look inside, maybe I missed something. I still cannot find anything, I search the manufacturer and to my surprise it is a home based leather artist and this briefcase was not available, I can’t even find it on the items for sell, it must be a custom item, if this is the case then maybe locating the owner would be easier than I thought, at this point I am determined to find out who it belongs to, it will have to wait, I noticed the time and I am running late for work.

I call my boss and let her know that my car was not working and I need to Uber to work, she gives me the option to stay home so I can find a mechanic. Awesome! I am beyond tired anyway and I can focus on my silly briefcase search.

The mechanic was easy, they towed my car to the shop and told me the engine was blown, not what I wanted to hear. I don’t have much in my savings specially to get a car, I began to stress out but the mechanic will not charge me for the towing, we make a deal to sell the car for scrap and I go home.

I start looking into loans for a newer car, the payments are high but I may not have another option, I could bike but it snows here so that’s out of the question. I shift my attention to the briefcase and the notebook, this will distract me enough from my car situation. The artist doesn’t have anything but his Etsy and Instagram account. I don’t even know if this person is a man or a woman so I contacted the artist through both, maybe this person can shift me in the right direction.

While I wait, I once again look through the little book, it’s made from leather, and it almost looks new, I can smell the fresh leather and ink. I type in one of the sequence numbers online but no results are shown, instead I look at number sequences but I still cannot make up the numbers, it’s not coordinates, it’s not an accounting thing, they almost look made up.

There’s a knock at my door, it’s a strange old man. I refuse to open the door, who is he?

“Excuse me miss but I believe you have my briefcase”

What?!... I stay quiet, is it the artist? I think.

“Miss? I think you have my briefcase” he repeats.

I am so confused, I put the chain and slightly open the door, he is a very small man, no taller than me, I am 5’0, he is extremely thin, but is very well dressed. He must be at least in his 60s

“Miss I am so sorry to disturb you, but I believe you took my briefcase, it was on 20th street between two bushes, do you have it still?”

“I’m sorry” I said, “but how did you find me? and if you don’t mind me asking, why was your briefcase in between two bushes?”

“It’s a long story, may I come in?”

He just asked to come in, who is this man? Why is he here?

“Sorry sir but I am not comfortable doing that, could we talk outside instead? there’s a bench couple houses down”

He agrees, I lock the door behind me. The book is in my pocket.

The man, is a retired mathematician, he used to work on the town’s university. He tells me about himself, his family and the book.

“You see miss, whenever I have an anxiety attack I would write odd numbers in my little notebook, somehow this helped control my anxiety. My wife was ill and before she passed she gave me the briefcase with several black notebooks to write down my numbers, there really isn’t anything special about my notebook, or the briefcase, I only came to collect what little was left from my wife.”

This still did not explain how he found me, so I asked.

“Well, yesterday” he said “I had a terrible anxiety attack as I was walking home, and long story short the cops were involved, they sent me to the hospital, my briefcase was dropped in the process and when I went back to collect my possessions it was gone, a sweet family was able to capture you in their cameras walking a couple of times in the evening and I followed the camera pattern as best as I could, your tracks stopped near here” as he pointed to my street.

“So, have you been knocking on every door?” I asked.

“Yes ma’am. I started my search this morning after being discharged, in fact I have the other pen from the set, you see here, there’s a small engraving of my initials”. The initials read DL

He had no reason to be lying and it was starting to make sense, as I was reaching towards my pocket he handed me a check.

“What is this?” I asked.

“For your troubles” he said.

It was a check for $20,000! I could not accept this, take advantage of an old man’s misfortune and use it in my favor, but I did need the money.

“Please sir, there is no need for that” I said.

“I insist dear, please, you must be having a hard time if you were walking in heels late at night, it’s the least I could do”, he insisted for me to take the check, so I did.

I reached toward my pocket and handed the book, I asked for him to wait while I went to grab the briefcase. As I was walking back to the bench with the briefcase in my hand he was gone, I felt slightly conflicted but went home, if he wants his briefcase he now knows where I live.

I waited a couple of days to cash the check, the whole experience was very odd and I needed a day or two to make sure I wasn’t going insane, I had no issues cashing the check. This definitely helped with my vehicle debacle.

I managed to get a used car for less than what I now had, I even bought tickets for a small weekend getaway, after all, I had been working very hard.

A few days after finding the briefcase with the little black book I got a message request on my Instagram, it was the artist!

I had explained the situation and that the book went to its rightful owner, the artist stated that it was impossible as the original owner of the briefcase was dead, I thought maybe he meant DL’s wife. Shortly after he sends me a picture of the person who it belonged to, it was a very young man.

I was more confused than ever, and send my phone number to the artist. She calls me seconds later, ok she’s a woman.

She tells me her name, it’s Alice, she also tells me that she knows the owner of the briefcase, his name was Damian Lucas, her brother. She had made the briefcase shortly after Damian graduated from college, it was his gift and that’s why it wasn’t on her website, she even sent me a picture with her brother and the briefcase.

Alice had questions of her own, so we meet for coffee, she lives nearby. I drive to her and apologize about the confusion, she is glad to have the briefcase back, it was missing when they found her brother.

“What do you mean found him?” I ask.

She told me her brother had graduated from university about a year ago and had been struggling financially, he somehow came to a lot of money and had been acting very odd. He went missing about a month before I found the briefcase and his body had been found around a week or so ago, I began to question everything and told Alice everything I knew even the check. This excited her and wanted to see who the wrote the check.

We went to my bank and they were able to print out a copy of the transaction record, the check was written by Damian Lucas. Impossible we thought.

Alice wanted to know about the book’s contents. I told her that the numbers made no sense and that I tried searching a sequence number for any luck, she asked me to look through my searches so she could take a look herself.

Something in her eyes changed, they were dates, dates that were all scrambled together but they made sense to her, she told me to not go home alone and to be careful of my surroundings, I told her that I needed to get Achilles. She went to my house, but when we arrived my house was ransacked. Who were these people?