by David Smith
“Would you mind zipping me up back here, Blain?” Malaysia asked as Blain got up from the couch.
“Love to,” Blain said as she turned her back towards him. Having washed out the brown color the night before, she held up her natural blond hair with both hands above the open zipper. Malaysia’s hair was still damp from the shower; Blain watched two droplets run down the length of her back and Malaysia arch her shoulders back feeling the cool drops of water against her skin. Goosebumps appeared on her skin as Blain felt something stir in him, looking down her bare back. He followed the drops of water until they thinned out; his eyes following her smooth skin lower, seeing the shape of her waist within the low, open zipper. “There you go, Mal,” Blain said after he had slowly moved the zipper up and clasped the small hook at the top.
Malaysia turned toward him. She put her arms on his shoulders. “Blain, I want to ask you something,” she said softly.
Blain put his hands on her waist. “Anything,” he said.
“Well,” she started, trying to find the right words. “You have had many opportunities to, shall we say, ‘take advantage of me,’ if you get my drift?” Malaysia said, thinking for a moment of her dress being undone just a second before and them being alone in her hotel room and her in the shower. Her mind also remembered the beach, the romantic fire they shared last night.
Smiling, Blain said, “Yesss?” offering Malaysia some encouragement since he could tell whatever she was trying to say was not easy.
Malaysia continued, “I have never kissed a man with as much feeling as I have you. And,” she paused for a moment thinking of the right words. “I can sort of tell that you feel some of those same feelings.” She looked into his green eyes, not knowing how to proceed. Finally she asked, “Do you find me attractive or desirable?”
Blain smiled and shook his head slowly, never taking his eyes off hers. “I honestly have never been more attracted, felt more passion, or…been as hungry for anyone as I have with you. I’ve felt nothing but desire for you since the first time we met. And, Malaysia, that hunger has done nothing but grow inside me every single moment since we’ve been together.”
“So…?” Malaysia said, confused, uncertain.
“So,” Blain started, holding her eyes with his. “To be honest, it is because I have so many feelings for you, and so much respect, that I somehow wanted to make sure you would go home knowing that is what I felt for you, not something less. It was more important to me that you knew that I didn’t think of you as what we would call a ‘one night stand’…even as in our case, what could have been a four or five night stand.”
Blain saw her eyes welling up with moisture but continued. “I know the odds of this…thing we have,” Blain added, tilting his head and looking deeper into her blue eyes. He then said softly, “Malaysia…how can I say this? You have become a very special person in my life,” Blain paused. “No, you have become the most special person in my life.”
Malaysia was touched. She had never met a man who showed so much sensitivity. Malaysia put her hand on Blain’s chest, caressing him as she continued to look into his eyes. She had never wanted a man so much in her entire life.
“Believe me, Mal, I’ve been tempted more times than I care to admit.” Blain ran his hands along her hips, feeling her shape, her curves. He moved them up higher, lightly grazing his fingers along her waist; she could barely feel his touch. It was driving her crazy, wanting to feel him touch her. But Blain just held her and then continued, “Also, I knew you were leaving in a few days. I didn’t want you to leave feeling regret, remorse, or guilt.”
Malaysia abruptly wrapped her arms around Blain pulling him against her body. She suddenly felt like crying. She held him tight.
“Thank you,” Blain heard her whisper against his chest.
Blain kissed the top of her head. No, thank you, he thought to himself. He had never felt this way before.
CHAPTER 35
Knowing the Secret
Wednesday June 30th, 2010
12: 55pm
“We are sorry to bother you again, Janet,” Blain said as they stepped into the Headmaster’s office at the Amodt School for the Blind for the second time in three days.
“No problem at all, Mr. Walters. Did you think of something else? I was a little surprised at getting your call this morning,” Janet Manfred said standing up behind her desk, greeting Blain and Malaysia.
“We think so. But we can’t be sure without checking something out first,” Blain said. “We would like to look at the lockers one last time. We promise to be quick.”
“Absolutely. It isn’t a problem at all.”
Standing in front of the set of lockers again, Blain, Malaysia and Janet looked inside locker number 18.
“I apologize, but I need to meet with a prospective parent,” Janet said as she noticed a man and woman approaching the school entrance with a young girl who was wearing sun glasses and tapping a white cane in front of her.
“Go ahead, we won’t take but a minute here,” Blain said.
“What do you think?” Malaysia asked, as Blain opened the locker door. They had waited for Janet to be across the campus before checking the inside of the locker again. Mounted on a raised footing, the lockers were up off the ground and locker 18 was right at chest level for Blain.
“Let’s take a look,” Blain said, pulling out a pocket flashlight from his pants. He shined the beam inside, focusing the light on the back wall. “I don’t see anything out of the ordinary, just two screws that attach the bank of lockers to the wall behind,” Blain said a little disappointed. He set the flashlight on the floor of the locker for a moment and knocked on the back.
“That’s funny,” he said, his voice sounding tinny from the surrounding metal walls inside.
“What?” Malaysia said a little excitedly.
“The sheet-metal backing feels thin, too thin, in fact, to be suitable for use in mounting this entire bank onto a wall. Hang on a second.” Blain still had half his head in the locker with his hand inside feeling around the corners. Pulling himself out, he stood up and stuck a hand into the pocket of his shorts. He pulled out a few loose coins. Picking out a dime, he returned to the inside of the locker. Coming from inside the locker, Blain’s voice echoed as being inside a tin can again, “There are two large screws in the upper corners of the locker. I’m going to see if they can be loosened or pulled out.”
With a little effort, Blain was able to loosen the first screw using the dime as a flathead screwdriver. Working on the second one, he had to apply more force; there wasn’t a great deal of leverage available working with just a dime and inside a cramped space. “Ah ha,” Blain could be heard from inside the locker, as the second screw finally broke its grip and loosened up. Blain stood up and relaxed for a moment, beads of sweat forming on his brow. He rubbed his fingers from the pressure he had used to turn the screw.
“Need help?” Malaysia asked, wanting to do something. Malaysia reached out and took Blain’s hand and rubbed the tips of his fingers.
“Keep that up,” Blain said with a grin, feeling her soft hand massaging his fingers. “And I might just completely forget why we came here!”
“Just trying to help,” Malaysia said, giving his fingers a light kiss. “That should make them feel better,” she added with a smile.
“I know it makes ME feel better,” Blain said, moving the same fingers through her hair. “Better keep an eye out, I’ve almost got it. If there is something in here, I’d just as soon not try and explain what it is…considering we probably won’t know ourselves!”
Malaysia nodded as Blain went in and finished unscrewing the two screws. “Got it!” Malaysia heard the metallic voice of Blain’s resonate from inside the locker again. Blain popped his head out.
“Take a look,” he offered as he stepped back.
Inside the locker, the back metal wall—in reality, a machine-cut metal panel—had slid down about six inches revealing a small compartment at the ba
ck of the locker. Once Blain had removed the screws, the partition slid down through a precision cut opening in the bottom of the locker, sliding down through the top of the locker below it. Just like the Mystery Box Malaysia gave Blain, the back wall now revealed a narrow space just inside the true back wall of the lockers.
“I see something in there,” Malaysia said.
“Take it out,” Blain encouraged.
After adjusting the metal plate so that it would slide down further, Malaysia came out of the locker with a thin, very dusty, three-ring notebook. Excited, Malaysia looked at Blain who just raised his eyebrows. Malaysia turned the notebook front to back with a turn of her wrist; it was a very old five-by-seven inch notebook with three, half-inch rings, seated against the inside spin, holding sheets of yellowed paper between the plastic-coated covers. The thickness of the notebook was less than an inch wide.
Malaysia handed Blain the notebook; he ran his hand across the dusty cover. Blowing the remaining dust off, Blain revealed a yellowed notebook cover that was at one time probably white. On the aged, hardened plastic coating, Blain could make out the initials, N. D. in faded black ink. Blain could feel his excitement grow at the discovery.
“Let me see if there is anything else,” Malaysia said as she reached back inside. She ran her fingers along the narrow space, along the bottom and sides and along the top. “I don’t feel anything else in there. There is a lip on the bottom and the sides so nothing could have fallen out of the compartment in any direction,” she said.
“Let me close it back up,” Blain said, handing the notebook back to Malaysia. Back inside the locker, Blain quickly slid the back plate into place and threaded the screws back in the machined holes on the back surface. He used the dime to tighten the screws back firm.
“Put that in your purse and let’s go,” Blain whispered, as if fearful that suddenly someone would be listening in on their conversation. “I think we have what we came for.”
Malaysia turned away from the lockers.
Blain suddenly stopped her by pulling at her elbow. Malaysia watched Blain with an inquisitive look on her face as she saw him turn back toward the lockers.
“Hang on a second. There is something else I want to look at while here,” Blain said, looking towards the left side of the bank of lockers.
Malaysia put the notebook in her purse and watched Blain.
Blain remembered what Willie Riggio told him in the landscaping office at Disneyland; something about Locker #1.
Blain reached up to the top, left hand locker. Pulling the door open, he retrieved his flashlight out of his pocket again and shined it around the interior. The empty locker was non-descript, looking no different than Nathan’s locker except it didn’t have the two screws that were on the back panel like his did. Just as he was about to close the door and leave, his eye caught something written on the inside of the locker door.
Three letters, W E D were clearly visible, although faded from time. Blain smiled, running his fingers over the inch tall letters that ran along the bottom of the inside portion of the locker door. Knowing that Walter Elias Disney must have written those letters himself, Blain felt a chill run through his body.
Nathan slowly closed the locker. “Okay…Now we can go,” he said taking Malaysia’s hand and leading her towards the school office.
“Thank you, Janet,” Blain said, sticking his head in her open office door. “Wild goose chase. Sorry to have bothered you,” Blain said, nodding his apology to the parents and the young girl who smiled, even though she couldn’t see him.
“Oh, I’m sorry, Mr. Walters. Please feel free to call if you need anything else,” Janet said.
“Thank you,” Malaysia said, and waved through the open door.
After driving for a couple blocks, Blain pulled into a near-empty parking lot of a public park.
Shutting off the engine, Blain turned to Malaysia and said, “Let’s see if Nathan has left something of importance.”
Malaysia pulled the notebook out. “Are you as excited as I am?”
“At least as much!”
The notebook contained only a few loose pages. At first, it almost looked like some attempt at drawing a comic strip. There were hand-drawn rectangles with dates listed in the top corner of each box. Within the areas there were drawings, handwritten sentences, and short, descriptions written with a pencil. The paper had yellowed quite a bit and the writing was faint but legible.
There were also notes scribbled by hand at the bottom and top of each page. On the first page, there was mention of a “pendant” and a drawing that revealed a large, heart-shaped pendant mounted on three converging semi-circles that reminded Blain of what people often call, “Hidden Mickey’s.”
“Look at that,” Blain said.
He pointed to a heart-shaped object. It was drawn with crisscross lines representing facets over what looked to be some kind of gemstone with two of the gold mounting circles perfectly positioned over each rounded portion of the heart and a third half circle centered at the pointed bottom of the heart-shaped stone. It was an intricate drawing, one done with care and with purpose.
“Looks like a pendant,” Malaysia said.
Blain nodded. “It does. Look at the chain drawn here,” he said using his finger tip to trace the drawing of what appeared to be a braided chain.
Then Malaysia read the words below the pendant. The sentence was preceded by a date:
June 15th, ‘66
Powerful visions. Heat. Magic. A Portal to the future. Walt’s apartment.
I touched the stone and it showed me things…
In another blocked box, two lines of hand-printed text:
Sept. 23rd ‘66
“I have seen the future. I’m sure of it. This must be how Walt Disney did it. The pendant is the key.
Bags, white and heavy. Saw them in the vision. Saw them today at Cash Control. I know how to get them…
Blain looked at Malaysia. “THE Walt Disney?” Malaysia said almost reverently.
“It would appear so,” Blain said. “And his mention of the bags, I assume bags from cash control; that would confirm that Nathan was tied to the stolen money that I read about.”
Blain turned the page. Nothing was on the back of that page but the next page was most intriguing.
Oct. 12th ‘66
Lynie did it! Working now in Cash Control. It can be compromised from inside. Have to do it early before the truck comes. Don’t know how much she can get out. Worth the try. Will need to find somewhere to hide it. Won’t be able to leave with it. Hide it somewhere in the Park. I think I know where.
The next line was even more interesting:
Dec. 2nd ‘66
Was able to get the lock. Finished installing the base. Meeting Lynie at 5:30 sharp. Everything is ready.
“I don’t know what that means,” Blain said. “Installing the base? Getting a lock? Why would Nathan need a lock? It would seem to me that he would want to be opening a lock if he was stealing something, don’t you think?”
Malaysia nodded. “I have no idea but maybe there is something more.” Malaysia turned the page.
They read what looked like the last journal entry:
Dec. 3rd ‘66
What a high. Four bags. Heavy. Got them hidden. Will have to find a way to move them later. Now for the Pendant and then we are home free!
Blain turned the last couple of pages which were blank, wondering what Nathan might have written had he not been electrocuted. Of course, if he hadn’t been killed, the notebook, the money, and the pendant—whatever that was—would be in his hands…and probably long gone by now.
The exciting thing that Blain was thinking was that in finding the notebook, its discovery would suggest that whatever had been taken, was probably still hidden somewhere. But where hidden, that was still a mystery.
Malaysia said, “Look Blain.” When the last page was turned it revealed the back, inside cover of the notebook. Malaysia was pointing to the small
pocket in the back of the notebook. The pocket was cracked with age, the yellowed plastic now feeling like thin porcelain. When Blain put his fingers in it to see what was inside, the pocket nearly disintegrated with bits of plastic crumbling apart, pieces falling onto the Camaro’s center console between Blain and Malaysia. Blain figured the notebook had to have been hidden in the compartment for at least forty years. That long would have made the plastic harden with age. But, the pocket was still intact enough to hold something.
Within the old damaged plastic pocket barely holding itself together, Blain and Malaysia found what looked like an even older and very tarnished brass key.
2:20pm
Sitting inside a McDonalds a few blocks from the school, Blain and Malaysia ate a quick lunch of chicken sandwiches, fries and a couple drinks.
“We have what I figure to be two of the three pieces of what I would call a treasure map,” Blain said, taking a sip of his sweet tea.
“Treasure map? What do you mean,” Malaysia asked before taking a bite of her sandwich.
“We have the top half of the note from Nathan’s wallet. We have the second key, which I believe is the key he is referring to in the note…But, what we don’t have is the bottom half of the note,” Blain explained. “We don’t know what the key opens. It might be something at Disneyland or someplace else.”