“I need to check it out,” Page said, “This is important, and I think Mr. Halsey will want a report tomorrow.”
“Oh,” the janitor stopped the elevator at the basement, saying, “It’s on the left.”
Page almost ran down the corridor. In front of the incinerator were several large laundry baskets, two of which were nearly full.
“What’s that?”
“Paper waste not yet destroyed.”
“I thought you said everything had been burned.”
“Oh, the waste from your office has all been burned.”
“How do you know which office these came from?”
He started to get flustered, “Oh, I believe these two baskets were brought from the lower floors.”
Page nodded to Kimberley, then dumped the contents of the baskets onto the floor and began searching through them, picking out letters, memos, newspapers, scraps of paper, and all sorts of miscellaneous items accumulated in the office, throwing them aside.
“We don’t need to look at the stuff that hasn’t been shredded,” she told Kimberley, “I tore that letter into tiny pieces. And you don’t need to bother with anything typed. This letter was handwritten in ink.”
They tossed back the larger pieces into the baskets. As they sifted through to the smaller scraps, Page suddenly exclaimed with joy, “Found a piece,” she said, holding up a triangular piece of paper.
“Here’s one too,” Kimberley said.
“Here’s another,” she found another. Kimberley then found a fourth.
“This one has part of a postmark,” he said, putting it together with the others.
“Oh my, you’re right. The postmark was stamped at 5:30 PM yesterday. But I told you, no one knows…” Page looked into his eyes, then gave a meaningful glance towards the janitor, who was watching them with a mixture of confusion and suspicion. Kimberley nodded and continued searching intently.
Finally, they had checked the last piece of paper on the floor. They had retrieved 4 pieces of the torn envelope and 6 pieces of the letter.
“I think that’s all,” Page said, “Let’s go back to the office and piece these together.”
