WHO: Sam Arquette and Eddie Wolfe. WHEN: Early September. WHERE: Wolfe Investigations. SUMMARY: Sam decides to seek expert advice on the tape she found. WARNINGS: None that I can think of.
"Mr. Wolfe?" Sam rapped on Eddie's door, her fingers around the tape from the fire department. She was hoping that he might be able to help her with what to do with it, even if there wasn't anyway to do clean-up on it.
A second later a reply came, distracted at first as Eddie slowly retreated from his monitor and pushed aside the details he had been reading. “Yes? Come in.”
“If you have a minute? It’s not work related,” Sam told him, stepping through the door. “Well, it’s possibly mystery related but nothing we’re working on,” she amended, raising the tape so that he could see it. “I found something. It’s pretty … well… it’s damaged and I wasn’t certain if there was any hope of cleaning it up. Or even what to do with it.”
“I have a minute,” Eddie usually had a minute, especially when his interest was piqued as it was now. He gestured towards the rooms empty chairs opposite his desk while studying the tape in Sam’s hand. “It could be possible to clean it up,” anything was possible, “how old is it?” And a second later. “What is it?”
“It has no date information that I can tell. It was in a box at the Fire Station that had 90’s scrawled on the side, and that would fit the tape itself. It could be from anytime in the 90s but, well.” She sat down. “Why don’t you play it,” she handed it over.
Eddie turned the tape over in his hand before reaching to open a desk drawer and remove an ancient walkman. “All right …” There was really only one thing of interest that had happened in Fall City in the 90’s, especially if the Fire Station was involved. As he put the headphones on, Eddie raised his eyebrows before pressing play. When the tape ended he rewound, turned up the volume, and pressed play again.
Sam listened, her eyes on Eddie as he listened. "It's still a bit muddled in there," she said when it had finished. "And I didn't know if we could possibly get something more from it." She hesitated, then added. "I didn't know exactly what I should do with it either. But it felt as if it maybe should go somewhere besides 'archived in the Fire Department'."
“I think you made the right call.” Eddie answered after a seconds hesitation. “I have a friend who might be able to clean it up.” His eyes drifted to his computer as he wondered if sending that email now would be a good idea or if a phone call would be better. “It might be easier to figure out what to do with it once it’s cleaned up. It was really just sitting there?”
Sam nodded. "Well, it was in a box with a lot of other papers and files that had been dumped in a legal box for later. And later never came, I guess." There was a beat and then she added: "The book always said there was a tape."
“It did,” Eddie sighed. It had admittedly been a long time since he had read that tome but he could recall certain details. The fire had been as of much interest to him as it had been to many Fall City residents at the time. “It’s just interesting that later never came …”
Sam cocked an eyebrow and nodded, pressing her lips together as she did so. "I said I would help file things, didn't realize that was the sort of thing I would be sorting through. I suppose if we can get it cleaned up, it might tell us more." She hesitated. "Do you think it was Alice on the tape?"
Eddie considered. He had met Alice March more than once, but if he was being completely honest with himself most kids sounded awfully alike at that age unless they were your own. “It could be … it’s hard to tell, at that age, and with the sound quality but it’s a possibility, a sad one.”
Sam tilted her head, chewing on her lower lip for a moment, but if she had any further thoughts on that she kept them to herself. "You know, speaking of Alice… I had someone tell me something the other day."