Chapter 9 chapter eight

Woke up the next morning with a sour taste in my mouth.I brushed my teeth and headed out for breakfast, I had to force myself to eat something, the coffee tasted metallic. Maybe it's arsenic poisoning, I thought.Maybe last night's salad had bits of green wallpaper in it. My second cup of coffee didn't taste as good as the first, but I drank it anyway, reading the newspaper while I drank it.The Mets won yesterday, and a rookie kid coming up from the Second Corps had four hits.The Yankees won, too, when Crowder Washington hit a home run in the ninth.As for American football, the Giants lost their best linebacker to a thirty-day suspension for a banned substance in his urine.

There was an incident in Harlem where a passing car fired on a street corner, and the newspapers judged by past evidence that it was a drug dealer.Two homeless men fought on the subway platform of the East City IRT line. When the car was about to enter the station, one pushed the other off the track. The result can be imagined.In Brooklyn, a Brighton Beach man was arrested for the murder of his ex-wife and her three children from a previous marriage. There wasn't any news of Eddie Dunphy, and there probably wasn't, unless the news was too light for the day. After breakfast I go for a walk to drive away the lethargy and drowsiness.The sky is overcast and the weather forecast says there is a 40% chance of rain. I don't know what that means. "Don't blame us if it rains," they seemed to be saying, "don't blame us if it doesn't."

I didn't pay attention to where I was going, and ended up in Central Park.I saw an empty bench and sat down.Opposite on the right sat a woman in a cheap coat, feeding bread crumbs out of a bag to the pigeons, which, on her and the ground around her, were covered with pigeons, there must have been two hundred of them. It is said that the more the pigeon is fed, the hungrier it will be, but I can't tell her not to feed it.As long as I continue to give money to people asking for money on the road, I shouldn't say anything about others. She finally finished feeding the crumbs, and the pigeons flew away, and so did she.I'm still there, thinking about Eddie Dunphy and Paula Heldtek.Then I thought about Vera Rossiter and realized why I woke up feeling so bad.

Instead of reacting to Eddie's death, I was with Vera.When I should have been sad about his death, I was excited and thrilled by what was going on between Vera and me.On the other hand, I did the same thing with Paula, only less dramatic, I've gotten some conflicting information about her phone calls, and then I've done nothing but have a romantic encounter. There's nothing wrong with that either.But both Eddie and Paula have been included in the file marked "Unfinished Events".If I don't find out, I'll continue to have a sour taste in my mouth and a metallic taste in my coffee.

I got up and left there, and when I got to the exit beyond Columbus Circle, a man with big eyes in a denim suit asked me for money, and I turned him down and kept walking. She paid the rent on July 6th and was due on the 13th, but she didn't show up.When on the fifteenth Florence Adeline knocked at the door to collect the rent, she did not answer.On the sixteenth Florence opened the door and went in. The room was empty and everything was taken away except bedding.On the seventeenth her parents called and left a message on the answering machine, the same day Georgia rented the room that had just been vacated and moved in the next day.Two days later, Paula called the phone company and told them to shut down.

The lady at the telephone company I talked to yesterday was Mrs. Cardio. We had a good time working together before, but when I went back to her, she immediately remembered me. "I really hate to keep bothering you," I said, "but I've got some inconsistencies from different sources. I know she called on July 20th to clear the shutdown, but I want to find out, she Where did you call from?" "I'm afraid we didn't keep a record," she said, hesitating. "We didn't know it in the first place, in fact—" "What's the matter?" "Honestly, my records don't show whether she called or wrote to ask for the downtime. Almost everyone calls in this kind of thing, but she may also write. Some people will , especially when they wanted to close the account. But we didn’t get her payment at the time.”

It never occurred to me that she might have written to request a shutdown, and for a moment it all seemed clear.She may have written the letter as early as the 20th, and according to the current postal situation, it may take a long time for the letter to arrive. But that couldn't explain her parents calling her on the 17th.I said, "Will all the phone numbers she calls from home be recorded?" "Yes, but—" "Could you please tell me the day and time of her last outgoing call? That would be helpful." "I'm sorry," she said, "I really can't help it. I can't access the data myself, and it's against the rules to do so."

"I think I should be able to get a court order," I said, "but I don't want my clients to have to go to all this trouble, to pay these fees, and it's a waste of everyone's time. If you can try to help me in your own way , I promise not to say it.” "I'm really sorry. If I could, I could make a little mistake, but I don't have the password. If you really need the records of her city calls, I'm afraid you'll have to get a court order to check them." I almost missed it, and I didn't remember it until she was halfway through.I said, "Local call, if she calls long distance—"

"It will be recorded on her bill." "Can you find out?" "I shouldn't have checked." I didn't say anything, and I didn't press her.After a while, she said, "Okay, I found the records, and I'll see what I can find. There has been no long-distance call records in July—" "At least tried." "I'm not done yet." "Sorry." "There was no long-distance call in July until the 18th. There were two calls on the 18th and one call on the 19th." "Not on the twentieth?" "No, only these three calls. Do you want to know the number of her three calls?"

"Yes," I said, "very much." There are two numbers.One number was called once every two days, and the other was only called on the 19th.The area code is the same, 904.I checked the phone book and it wasn't Indiana, it was North Florida. I went to a bank and exchanged it for ten yuan and twenty-five cents, and then went to the public phone and dialed the number she had called twice.A recording told me how much more I had to invest, and I did.After the phone rang four times, a woman answered and I told her my name was Scudder and I was looking for Paula Heldtek. "You probably made a typo," she said.

"Don't hang up. I'm calling from New York. I believe a woman named Paula Heldtek called this number twice in the last month. I want to know where she's been since." She was silent for a moment, then said, "Well, I don't know what's going on, this is a private home, and I haven't heard your name." "Is this 9041555-904?" "No, the number here is—wait a minute, how much did you just say?" I repeated it again. "That's my husband's shop," she said, "and that's Plesaki's Hardware." "I'm sorry," I said.I just misread the number on my notebook and mistook it for the one she only called once. "Your phone number should be 82819177." "How did you get another phone number?" "She called both numbers." "Really, what did you say her name was?" "Paula Heldtek." "She called this number and the phone number in the store?" "Maybe I'm remembering wrong," I said.When she hung up the phone, she continued to ask questions. I was walking towards my suite on 54th Street when I passed a stubble-faced young man in jeans asking for money, he looked like a burnt-out wreck, that's what some drug guys look like .I gave him all the quarters I had left. "Hey, thanks!" he called after me. "You're awesome, man." When Florence answered the door, I apologized for bothering her again, and she said no.I asked her if Georgia Price was there. "I don't know," she said, "haven't you talked to her yet? But I don't know how she can help, and I wouldn't have rented the room to her if Paula hadn't moved, so she How did you know her?" "I spoke to her and would like to talk to her again." She waved her hand toward the stairs.I climbed one flight of stairs and stopped in front of the room where Paula used to live. There is the sound of music coming from inside, with a strong rhythm.I knocked, but I'm not sure she heard over the music, and I was about to knock again when she opened the door. Georgia Price wore a dancer's leotard, her forehead glistening with sweat.I guess she was just dancing, practicing steps or something.She looked at me, eyes wide open as she asked me in.She backed away reluctantly, and I followed into her room.She said something, then stopped and turned off the music.She turned and faced me, looking terrified and guilty.I figured she had no reason to feel either way, but I decided to put pressure on it. I said, "You're from Tallahassee, Florida, aren't you?" "It's around there." "Price is a stage name. Your original name was Plesaki." "How do you—" "There was a phone here when you moved in, and it wasn't switched off." "I didn't know I couldn't use it. I thought the phone was rented with the room, like in a hotel. I didn't figure it out then." "So you call home and call your father's shop to find him." She nodded.She looked very young and very frightened. "I'm going to pay for those phone bills," she said, "I don't know, I thought I was going to get a bill or something. I couldn't find someone to come and install it right away, and they weren't coming until Monday, so I waited until Monday." Just disconnected the original phone. The person who installed it just came to pick up the original phone, but changed the number, so I didn't get any calls from her. I swear I didn't do anything wrong on purpose." "You did nothing wrong," I said. "I'd be happy to pay those phone bills." "Don't worry about those phone bills. You're the one calling for the shutdown?" "Yeah, did I do something wrong? I mean, since she doesn't live here anymore, so—" "You're right," I told her, "I don't care how many toll-free calls you make, I'm just looking for a missing girl." "I know, but—" "So you don't have to be afraid of anything, and you won't get into trouble." "I didn't really expect to get into trouble, but—" "Is there an answering machine attached to the phone, Georgia? An answering machine?" Her eyes flicked involuntarily to the bedside table, where there was an answering machine next to the telephone. "I should have returned it before you came," she said, "but I forgot. Last time you just asked me a few quick questions about if I found anything in the room and if I knew Paula." , Has anyone come to look for her after she moved away? I didn’t think about the answering machine until after you left. I didn’t keep it on purpose, but so what if I don’t keep it, it’s already here.” "It doesn't matter." "So I used it. I was going to buy it, but there was already one here. I just wanted to use it and buy another one when I got money. I wanted something that I could call back from the outside and listen to the message. Yes, this answering machine doesn't have that kind of function, but it's okay for temporary use. Do you want to take it with you? It will be disassembled soon." "I don't want that answering machine," I said. "I'm not here for an answering machine, or to bill you for long-distance calls in Tallahassee." "Sorry." "I just wanted to ask you a few questions about the telephone and the answering machine, that's all." "it is good." "You moved in on the 18th, and the phone didn't go off until the 20th. Has anyone called Paula during this time?" "No." "Didn't the phone ring?" "It rang once or twice, but it was for me. I called a friend of mine before, gave them the number here, and she called me once or twice over the weekend. It was a local call, so it didn't matter. What money is spent, at most twenty-five cents." "I don't care if you call Alaska," I told her, "you can rest assured that the call you made cost no one. Paula's deposit is more than her last bill, so the call will be free of charge. It will be deducted from the money refunded to her, but she is not here anyway, so she will not receive the refund." "I know I'm stupid," she said. "It's okay. The only calls that came in were from you. What about when you were out? Did she leave a message on her answering machine?" "Not since I moved in. I know because the last message was from her mom saying they were going out of town or something, and that message must have been a day or two before I moved in. As soon as I knew that It was her phone, it was not rented out with the room, and the answering machine was removed. After about a week, I don't think she will come back to get it, so I should be able to use it, because I need an answering machine. I Listened to the message on the answering machine once before plugging it in and resetting it." "Aside from her parents, is there anyone else's message?" "A few calls." "Is it still there?" "Washed off." "Do you remember the content of those messages?" "Gosh, don't remember. A few calls just dropped. I played the message again just to figure out how to get rid of the old one." "What about Paula's original recording, that is, the one who asked the other party to leave a message when no one is home now? There should be Paula's words in the answering machine." "Have." "Did you wash it off?" "When I record a new message, the old one will be erased automatically. When I use this machine, I re-record it to change it to my own voice." She bit her lip, "Is this wrong?" "No." "Is that message important? It sounds like a normal, 'Hi, this is Paula, I can't answer the phone right now, but you can leave a message after the beep.' It's kind of like that, I don't always Remember every word." "That's not important," I said.It really doesn't matter, I just want to have the chance to hear her voice.