Murray Hill || A Superhuman Tale - 1

Chapter Twenty-Seven

After a quick shower, Tommy switched into his favorite duck t-shirt, which he recovered from an inner jacket pocket. He then started with Amy's bags, first her suitcase, carryon, and suit carrier.

His friend had good taste in clothes. All the top-name labels were there. Tommy breathed in heavily, reminding himself of her scent, and a powerful tremor swept through him when he did. If he ever caught wind of her fragrance again, he knew he could follow her anywhere.

Otherwise, there was nothing of any interest in or on her luggage. Tommy's keen eye went over every fiber. Everything was meticulously cared for, but there was no hint of anything out of place. He repacked the bags and set them aside. These would go via common carrier back to Linda, tomorrow.

What remained was a computer/tablet bag, purse, tote, and Amy's sketch pad.

He'd already pulled the tablet from the computer bag and turned its contents over to the care of Philly, and there was nothing interesting in the purse, beyond a small notepad, which Tommy placed off to the left for further examination. Her wallet had a few dollars, an Arizona driver's license, credit cards, and a few small photos, including one of Amy and Sam that Tommy had taken many years before.

Amy often carried quite a lot of cash, but it usually was in a money belt she kept on her person, along with a spare credit card or bank card. She was a savvy and careful traveler, a fact that Tommy knew firsthand from years gone by.

The only other items of interest in her purse were two or three post-it notes, in a wallet pocket, with numbers on them. Those went to the left., along with a few items from the tote: three work-related notebooks and what looked like a small day planner full of papers and wrapped in a rubber band.

After pondering for a few moments, he decided to examine what he'd placed to the left and leave the sketch pad for last.

A careful examination of the notebooks from the tote found nothing. They were all carefully written, evenly spaced notes and ideas for projects. All were in Amy's perfect cursive hand. Tommy read several portions repeatedly, turning them over and over in his mind, hoping for some insight. Nothing.

The day planner was altogether different. It was much less organized. There were various notes, ideas, recipes, phone numbers, and names. He pulled a piece of paper from the desk and wrote down all the phone numbers. His exceptional memory—near perfect recall was a Gift he'd acquired from an old qadi he'd met in Iran in the 12th century—recognized about a third of the numbers. They were for friends of Amy with whom Sam or Tommy already had been in contact.

The remaining numbers were for companies, all of which seemed to be the type with which Amy did business. He called the last few numbers: they were for dry cleaners, restaurants, ticket brokers, and other such things. He jotted them all down to send to Philly for inclusion in her dataset.

Finally, the planner had some random words and numbers that Tommy couldn't figure out. Some appeared to be passwords and PIN numbers. He copied them all for Philly, with a note suggesting she ask Linda if they held any meaning.

Five of the entries stood out.

The first four were odd because of their repetition: GSA4482HG14, GSA0989KG11, GSA6636KG11, and GSA4494AG11. Alone, one of those might have seemed a random number. Together, there was a clear pattern. He just didn't know what it was. A simple Internet search told him nothing.

The only other interesting item in the planner was the word VALHALLA, written in bold capital letters on a loose, note-sized slip of paper near the front of the planner. He looked the paper over carefully. There was no watermark or embossing. It was the kind you might find on any office desk. Only that single word was on the paper, and the word was carefully underlined three times. The conventional meaning of the name was clear for anyone with the slightest knowledge of Norse legend, but Tommy did an Internet search of it anyway. The first five search pages showed nothing of any interest.