1.16 - Syd, Part 2

Hello listeners. It is midnight in Mercy Mountain once again and I, Julian Glass, am here to steady your nocturnal souls.

[intro]

Tonight’s broadcast is the continuation of a story. A story about local sharpshooter and newest Missing Persons Investigator, Syd Jones.

Syd spent the day calling the witnesses and checking whether the salesman came into any of the stories for the remaining missing people. Disappointingly, not everyone had seen the salesman near the missing people or had heard of him stopping by. This was partly due to some missing people living alone, as there were no others in the home to witness the visit. This was partly due to the possibility that there was no connection to the salesman.

But every single person who had been visited by the salesman and then vanished had done so within a week of the visit, give or take.

Syd talked to zir boss and asked for permission to request from the public that anyone who had been visited by the salesman contact Syd. Permission was granted, so Syd reached out to Mercy Mountain Radio and the Daily Dispatch. Both places agreed to send out the message to the public.

In the meantime, Syd needed to look for the salesman himself. How was ze to begin?

Perhaps it was time ze asked for advice. Syd swallowed anxiously at the prospect.

Who was the most approachable? Or rather, the least unapproachable? Martin Richards was okay, but Syd was rather averse to being open with him in any capacity. Nils Gustafsson was missing; Syd had never met him. That left Kalina Kamińska. Kalina, the large, gray-haired woman who constantly scowled. Though, behind her expression, there did seem to be…not a kindness, but rather a lack of actual hostility.

Syd waited for Martin to leave the bullpen before ze wheeled over to Kalina’s desk. “Can I ask you for some advice?”

Kalina looked over from her computer screen, her face as grumpy as ever. “Ask away,” she said brusquely.

Syd explained the situation as concisely as possible.

Kalina seemed interested. “I heard on Midnight on Mercy Mountain last night that he was on Basilisk Avenue. I would try that area first.”

“What do I do if I don’t find him there?” Syd asked.

“Didn’t you ask MMR and the Dispatch to send people who saw him your way? Just wait until tomorrow.”

Duh, Syd thought. Should have thought of that. Cringing inwardly, ze thanked Kalina and returned to zir desk to pack up for the evening. Ze would get dinner and a tarot reading to-go from the Bean Throne and cruise around the Basilisk Avenue area.

The long evening and night proved fruitless and boring. The most interesting thing was a whitetail deer racing into the middle of the road, where it stopped, nostrils quivering, eyes blinding white from Syd’s headlights. Syd went to bed at 2am, feeling ze had failed the missing people and those that loved and depended upon them. Ze woke up at 8:00am feeling much the same.

At 9 on the dot, Syd got a call from a number ze didn’t recognize. “Investigator Jones,” ze answered.

The voice on the other end was stiff and practiced. “Hello, Investigator. My name is Anne O’Connor. I heard your request on the radio last night and would like to tell you that the salesman visited me two days ago.”

“Hello. Is Ms. O’Connor an acceptable way to refer to you?”

“Yes.”

“Ms. O’Connor, thank you for calling. I would like to speak with you about your encounter with the salesman. Would you be willing and able to come in to participate in a short interview?”

The two hashed out a time for Anne to come in, which would be in two hours; she could not leave her job as an office manager until then.

Syd hoped that Anne would not disappear. Syd hoped ze would receive many more calls in the meantime.

Ze received two. One from a Pedro Diaz and the other from the mayor herself, Stephanie Vaughn. Pedro could not come in until after the workday was over, but Mayor Vaughn could come in at 1pm.

Syd contemplated next steps as ze waited for Anne and Mayor Vaughn to come.

11:00 arrived, then ticked by. At ten minutes after, Syd called Anne using the same number Anne had used to call zem, but there was no answer. Syd left a brief voicemail and set down zir phone as worry rose in zir throat. At half past, ze looked up the number for Anne’s place of work and called there. When ze asked to speak to Anne, the person on the other end said she had left over half an hour before.

Syd kicked zemself for not getting some basic information about the encounter over the phone earlier. To pacify zemself, ze decided to stop by Anne’s house after work. But ze still had to wait for their next two interviews. So until then, Syd sat rubbing zir temples and staring at the computer screen.

“Investigator Jones?”

Syd looked up to see Mayor Vaughn standing next to zir desk. Ze greeted her and asked her to sit. “Thanks for coming. Are you ready to begin the interview?”

Mayor Vaughn nodded.

Syd took a deep breath. “What can you tell me about the visit from the salesman?”

The mayor’s story was typical. The day before, the salesman had rung her doorbell. She had let him inside. She could not remember what exactly had happened after that, not even whether she had bought anything.

Syd then asked questions about the mayor’s statement, but nothing new came to light. At least not until Syd asked if Mayor Vaughn had seen the salesman at any other point. She had once seen him hanging around the haunted vacant lot on North Paris Green Street.

Excitement sparked inside Syd. Ze suddenly wanted to usher out Vaughn as soon as possible, but ze needed to finish the interview.

Unfortunately, nothing new was revealed.

After Mayor Vaughn left, Syd gathered up zir things in preparation to head out to take a look at the haunted vacant lot before Pedro Diaz came in. Ze was stopped by a shadow falling over zir desk.

Syd looked up to see a man sporting a gray jacket, gray slacks, a gray tie, and a gray hat. He carried a gray suitcase. His skin was neither dark nor light. His eyes were neither light nor dark. His hair was similar.

The salesman had come to visit.