Andrea Donovan Pt. 08

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THE MYSTERY OF MISTER WH 01750

"Hinges must be rusted" Hans said after trying to open the safe's door with a vigorous effort by pulling on the handle.

"You think that you really did open it?" Indio asked, turning toward the safe now with his phone still in his hand.

"I believe I did, sir" Hans nodded.

"Tim, hand me that big screw driver and grab a tire iron." Ricky said, quickly walking toward the safe now.

I picked up a tire iron from off the floor and laid it onto the metal desk. Looking around then, I found the large flat tipped screwdriver that we'd discovered in the old desk a few days prior and handed it to Ricky now. I watched as my little brother flexed his huge arm muscles and began trying to find leverage within the safe's door.

"Here, put these on, you guys" I said handing Hans and Ricky each a pair of safety goggles from atop the old metal desk.

After Ricky and Hans donned the safety goggles, Hans took a step back as Ricky began inserting the screwdriver into the space between the safe's door and jamb again as the rest of us watched him for several more seconds. Ricky then picked up a hammer and began trying to force the edge of the door open slightly with the screwdriver.

"Billy pull on the safe's handle while I try to wedge the screwdriver in-between the door and the jamb" Ricky said, nodding.

"You're sure it's unlocked Billy asked, pulling on the handle.

"Be careful not to lock it again, don't turn the handle, Billy" I cautioned.

"I know the safe's unlocked because I felt the door move, you guys. If I can just... OK, got it wedged in there now - if I can somehow manage to..." Ricky began saying as there was the slight sound of rusted grinding of metal.

"The safe really is unlocked!" Andrea said excitedly.

Ricky and Billy had suddenly opened the door just enough to place a larger wedge, I noticed...

"Hand me the crowbar now, Tim" Ricky suddenly commanded as he dropped the screwdriver onto the metal desk with a clattering sound.

I handed Ricky the crowbar and stood back.

Ricky suddenly seemed to get just enough of the crowbar inserted in-between the door and jamb to give him some leverage, with a mighty pull of the crowbar the door opened a few inches. Taking another bite with the steel bar Ricky tried again and the door opened a foot or so with an ominous grinding sound of rusted hinges, two dull yellow canisters about the size and shape of pizza boxes, with rounded corners, now tumbled onto the floor with a metallic clattering sound. Looking downward I noticed half a pair of handcuffs attached to each of the canisters and there was also an open handle, similar to a suitcase, stamped into the tops of each canister where the handcuff half was fastened. I now noticed some paint-pencil writing on the canisters. I picked up one of the canisters and gently flopped it onto the metal desk like a suitcase; the canister was physically heavy, probably weighing close to thirty pounds. The bizarre canisters were in fact about the size of a pizza box but unlike a pizza box, the strange containers were about three and a half inches in thickness.

"...U.S. Marshall's Office is stamped on the solid bronze lock attached to the canister" I announced.

"What the hell are these things, fuck I hope they're not mines or some weird Army shit" Ricky said, suddenly on-guard.

"Maybe they're part of an exotic aircraft; they look like they could be part of an Air Force plane." Billy suggested.

"They wouldn't be anything Military, with U.S. Marshall's Office locks on them, you guys. The Military uses their own M.P.'s to transport valuables" Vic interjected, looking onward with the rest of us.

"Guess we can put away any hope of the safe being full of money, maybe these yellow things are stuffed with hundred dollar bills, that's why they're so heavy" I jested hopefully.

"I didn't really think the safe would be stuffed full of money, Babe." Andrea said as if speaking to a child.

"You're raining on my parade, lady" I said, sticking my tongue out at Andrea.

"What else is in there, Ricky?" Andrea asked, ignoring me and trying to position herself for a better view of the safe's interior.

"Two more of these weird yellow things with more writing on them, for a total of four - these have locks on them too. What's with the half a hand-cuff?" Ricky asked, reaching back into the safe and removing the third and forth containers by their handles.

"Who the hell is Mister WH?" I asked, looking at the paint-pencil markings on the first canister - what are these things anyway?" I asked.

Ricky and Billy now set the other three canisters onto the metal desk, beside the first one.

"They almost do look like they could have something to do with an aircraft, Billy" Indio said looking downward at the canisters. He then took some photos of them with his phone.

"Tim those are consecutive numbers, look, MR. WH 0175 (-0), MR. WH 0175 (-1), MR. WH 0175 (-2), MR. WH 0175 (-3)" Andrea noticed, reading the numbers out loud.

"Those numbers do almost seem as if they could coincide with aircraft" Hans nodded.

"Who is Mister WH?" Ricky asked, repeating my own question.

I walked over to the large stand-up tool cabinet and grabbed an old hacksaw that had been lying around the Texaco.

"This blade is pretty dull but these are brass locks, I'm going to cut the first one so we can see what's inside these things" I said.

"Tim maybe we should call someone first, they do say U.S. Marshall's Office on them" Andrea cautioned.

"Vic, what do you think?" I asked, looking at the younger man with the hacksaw poised in mid air.

"Go ahead and cut it if you want to, Tim. I'll witness it" Vic replied, looking on with as much intrigue as the rest of us.

"Andrea, that OK with you, Hon?" I asked.

"Yes, let's see what they are, Tim" Andrea nodded.

"I think I can explain the hand-cuffs or half hand-cuffs" Vic suddenly said.

"Do the hand-cuffs have anything to do with a U.S. Marshall transporting something valuable? like an expensive painting, secret code or something where the commodity is actually hand-cuffed to the individual Marshall transporting it, Vic?" Brenda asked Vic.

"Exactly, Brenda, that way no one can take it from the Marshall and those guys are always armed. Large beverage companies sometimes hire the Marshall's Service to transport secret recipes or anything else deemed valuable. Sometimes companies would rather hire someone trustworthy to transport a valuable document or company secrets than use the internet or Postal Service. A friend of mine has literally travelled the entire Country, chained to a briefcase that contains nothing more than a single fuel injector for calibrating Cummins fuel stands. That one fuel injector is calibrated perfectly and used as a company standard throughout all dealerships. Large companies are serious about keeping secrets" Vic replied, nodding.

"Maybe these things are worth money, whatever they are" Ricky pondered as he watched me begin sawing the lock.

"They almost look like they could contain early computer reels or something" Brenda suggested.

"Maybe they're stolen, that would explain why the locks are still on them" Indio speculated.

"If they're so valuable why would someone bury and forget them, then?" Hans asked, looking at the recently cut concrete floor where Indio's orange cones now stood.

"Maybe it had something to do with patents" Andrea said speculatively, watching me saw.

Who is Mister WH, I wonder and why is his stuff here under a Texaco floor hoist?" I asked as I finally cut through the brass lock.

I flipped the brass lock off the canister and then set down the hacksaw and lock onto the old desk. Looking at the canister more closely, I inspected the fastener which the lock had previously secured. The fastener wasn't much different than the kind used on a small toolbox I noticed. Flipping open the fastener, I suddenly realized that the strange container opened like a pizza box. Putting on a pair of safety goggles I carefully opened the container a quarter inch and looked for anything suspicious as I really didn't know what I was looking at. There was now a slight chemical smell associated with the canister as I opened it, I noticed.

"Hope this thing isn't booby-trapped somehow, I can smell some kind of chemical odor" I said a little hesitantly, hoping that I didn't sound too overly dramatic.

"I can smell it from here" Billy acknowledged, a few feet away.

"Let's do this, Tim. Let's rig up a piece of overhead wire to open it. Then we'll all stand behind that wall and yank it open with the wire. We really don't know what the fuck this thing is and I'd feel better doing it that way" Ricky suddenly suggested with a serious face.

Everyone nodded an agreement.

"Good idea Ricky. I think we have some bailing wire around here someplace, we'll just throw it over that pipe up there and then run the wire behind the wall then" I said looking above me.

"There's a roll of insulated car wire in the bottom of the metal cabinet, I think, Tim" Ricky said as he turned toward the cabinet.

Ricky came back a minute later with some red colored wire, he then threw the tangled mass over the upper water pipe and caught it again as it came down.

"I do smell a slight chemical compound, Tim, smells acidic. Maybe you should wipe your hands with a Tough-Towel now" Ricky acknowledged, nodding his head.

"Fuck, what are these things?" I asked a little on guard and reaching for the Tough-Towel bucket.

"We're about to find out, Brother" Ricky said, tying the wire to the upper portion of the handle.

"Let's get behind the parts room wall now, you guys" I said wiping my hands carefully and nodding forward toward the parts room.

Ricky now began unwinding the tangle of wire and slowly making his way toward the parts room doorway. Watching him, it suddenly occurred to me that he almost appeared like a demolition expert at a major gold mine somewhere and preparing to detonate a string of charges.

"Think this'll work?" I asked Ricky as all eight of us jammed ourselves into the parts room together.

"Ought to" Ricky said as he now yanked the wire.

There was then a loud clattering sound from within the main foyer but nothing more.

"Well nothing went ka-boom ...I don't smell anything strange either, do you?" I asked Ricky a second later.

"Not yet" Ricky said peeking around the doorframe.

"What is it?" I asked as Ricky relaxed a little.

"I guess I yanked it a little too hard, it's on the floor now. It looks like a movie was inside it" Ricky said.

"A what?" Brenda asked.

"It looks like an old fashioned movie that you play on a projector, like we had in school, remember?" Ricky asked walking out into the foyer again with the rest of us in tow.

"Maybe Brenda was right, maybe these things are old fashioned computer reels, maybe they're F.B.I., C.I.A., N.S.A. or some other secret agency with letters for a name" I said a little humorously.

No one laughed at my outlandish comment and I suddenly wished that someone had...

The canister was now empty and sprawled open on the Texaco's foyer floor like a discarded pizza box. Lying a few feet away was a large reel which the canister had contained. This large reel was also yellow in color and as all of us walked closer; it quickly became apparent that it was in fact a reel with movie film. The reel had movie footage wound completely to its top and there was, what appeared to be, a red plastic seal of some kind which was pushed through a hole at the reels top. I speculated that this red seal was used to hold in-place the very beginning of the movie footage so it would not to be damaged when a projectionist handled of the reel.

"It is a movie, Brenda" I said looking down.

Looking closer now, I realized that the movie reel was different than any I had ever seen before. First off, the movie footage itself appeared to be much wider than all the other films which I had ever seen and the reel itself was substantially larger in diameter. The reel also wasn't made from a flimsy metal either; the metal in this movie reel was a full eighth of an inch thick and very rigid. The side of the reel looked the same as any normal movie reel, with round and oblong holes cut into it. Yet instead of having a normal square cut drive hub hole, this reel had a round hub hole and four, quarter inch, outer holes around the hub like a small four lug car wheel. Stepping forward now I silently stood beside Ricky and looked down at the reel. MR. WH 0175 (-0) was neatly written in paint-pencil upon the reel just as it was on the canister itself. Ricky bent down and hefted the large movie reel off the floor. Walking over to the metal desk, he laid down the reel and all of us began examining it.

"This is totally weird" Brenda said looking at the reel.

"I've never seen a movie reel like that before" Hans said.

"Either have I" Vic nodded.

"Why is it so large?" Andrea asked.

"Maybe it was an experimental type of film that didn't ever work and the idea was discarded" Billy speculated.

"But WHY was it buried here? Experimental cinematography film and gas stations go together about like horse shoes and ping-pong balls, what's the connection?" I asked dumbfounded.

"Indio, you knew Juan Lane, any ideas why the guy would have buried this stuff here or where he may have gotten these?" I asked, nodding at the reel and canisters as I glanced at the large man.

"No idea, Tim. When I worked here it was just a gas station" Indio replied shaking his head and looking at the yellow reel.

"Let's unwind it some, maybe that will tell us more" Andrea suddenly suggested.

"Good idea, Honey! Put on some rubber gloves first though, I have some of them in the Chevy at the ranch" I said heading for the doorway.

"I have some in my truck" Indio quickly interjected.

"I'll get'em, Boss" Billy said, nodding and walking briskly past me out the door.

I now turned and walked further into the office and grabbed two of the old grey fold-up chairs. I carried the chairs into the foyer and placed them, side by side, and facing the open doorway just as Billy was walking back inside the foyer with several pairs of the rubber gloves. Looking down, I picked up a rusty alternator bolt off the floor and then donned a pair of the black gloves, from Billy, as I walked back over to the desk and hefted the reel up like a spare tire. I slid the bolt through the center hub hole and then carried the reel over to the two fold-up chairs, carefully setting the reel down between the two fold-up chairs and now supported by the steel bolt. Taking my knife then, I carefully cut the red plastic seal. Ricky, wearing a pair of the black rubber gloves now, gently took the film's starting end and we began unwind the reel.

"Billy, give Andrea a pair of those gloves, please" I said.

Billy silently held out a pair of the gloves for Andrea.

"Thank you, Billy" Andrea responded as she slid on the gloves and walked toward Ricky.

Ricky and Andrea now began to slowly make their way out the front door as I gently unwound the reel of film.

"Anything yet?" I asked as everyone followed Ricky and Andrea out the doorway.

"Nothing yet, Tim. Vic, Ricky and I need to be in front, you and Hans take the end of the film and head toward the gate now. - Guys, if you're wearing gloves, help hold up the film that we reel out and keep it off the ground, let's try to gently support the film without breaking it" Andrea suddenly instructed everyone.

I slowly began playing out the film now almost like a fisherman's net. Andrea was directly in front of me; Ricky was next in-line and then Vic and Hans behind him. Now as I reeled out footage the entire procession began walking toward Sunland-Gin road. Soon Billy stepped up and stood between Vic and Ricky.

"We've got writing now" Andrea suddenly announced, looking downward at the film.

"What's it say, Babe?" I asked Andrea.

"Wilson and Holbrook Studios - something ...Oh, OK, Wilson and Holbrook Studios - presents." Andrea said, looking downward and squinting at the film.

I noticed that Hans, placed at the films very beginning, was now forty feet away from me as I continued to slowly and gently unwind the yellow reel from within the foyer.

"What's it say?" Vic asked, peering toward Ricky and Andrea.

"Wilson and Holbrook Studios - presents" I answered, raising my voice slightly, so he could hear.

"What's it say?" Hans asked loudly from his end of the film.

"Wilson and Holbrook Studios - presents." Andrea called back to Hans, just as loudly.

"Oh, OK" Hans yelled back, as I continued to reel-out more film.

Brenda and Indio were the only two not wearing gloves. Everyone else was lined up and holding the film off the ground now as the footage heading out the door continued to get longer and longer. Brenda soon came back inside the Texaco and grabbed a large handful of paper towels; she then headed quickly back out the doorway again without saying anything to me. Soon Brenda and Indio were in-line with everyone else and holding portions of the film with the paper towels. Hans and Vic were almost to the fence line of the little Texaco now. People driving by and glancing toward the Texaco would probably think we're nuts, I thought to myself as I continued playing out more footage.

"Mildred Mayfield!!" Andrea now yelled, turning to Hans and looking up from the film.

Hans placed his open hand by his ear and shook his head no.

"MILDRED MAYFIELD!!" Andrea bellowed, her voice echoing within the Texaco now as I rolled my eyes at the absurdity of it.

Hans smiled and nodded yes now.

I kept reeling out more footage, some of it was touching the ground now with the longer distances between film bearers, I noticed.

"Here ...here we go, Belle of Autumn, it says" Andrea said straightening up now.

"Belle of Autumn?" I asked.

"Yes, Belle of Autumn with Mildred Mayfield." Andrea answered with great satisfaction for having discovered the movie's title.

"...Damn, I just read something about that film, only a few days ago, I think" I said, trying to remember.

"BELLE OF AUTUMN - WE'RE GOING TO START REELING IN NOW HANS!!" Andrea yelled at the top of her lungs as she made an overhead gesture toward the Texaco.

Hans smiled again and nodded that he understood, he was now at the Texaco's gate.

"What'd you say, Tim?" Andrea asked and turning toward me again now.

"I said, I think that I just read something about that film, a few days ago, Andrea." I replied as I gently began reeling the footage back onto the reel.

"Can we get the Deuce ready now, Brenda and I need to go, Tim" Andrea said as she fed me the returning film.

"Yes, I'll have you ready to go in a few minutes Honey" I replied.

Fifteen minutes later Andrea and Brenda drove off in the little green Deuce Coup as I began draining the car's used oil into a couple of empty anti-freeze jugs. Belle of Autumn's first reel, MR. WH 0175 (-0), was now rewound and placed within the canister atop the old metal desk once more, the other yellow canisters beside it. Billy and Indio took their floor hoist measurements and then quickly left with a promise to remove the second floor hoist and also assistance with disposing of the second safe within the following week. Vic took several photos of the strange film canisters and then left in Brenda's Camry, saying not to hold any dinner for him.

"Tim, can we have the Chevy for a few hours? Hans wants to get a bite to eat and buy some new boots in Casa Grande; I'm planning on going to go with him. You want to come along?" Ricky asked me now.

"Sure, grab the Chevy but I'll stay here, you guys go ahead Ricky. I'm going to finish pouring this used oil into jugs and clean up here. I want to squeeze in a quick bike ride in a few minutes." I answered.