Something rather unusual happened last night. I know some of you enjoy a bit of mystery now and again, so I decided to share it here.
It was nearly midnight when the doorbell rang. I’m something of a night person, but I seldom have visitors so late. I was quite surprised to find a young woman at the door with a large, paper-wrapped box at her feet. The tag on her light blue uniform identified her as “Lisa”, an employee of some courier service. Lisa seemed relieved not to be facing a grumpy, freshly-awakened resident and chattered on as I signed her delivery form. I gathered that her firm specializes in emergency shipments, and that the sender had paid a premium for such a late-night delivery.
Needless to say, I was curious about the package by this point, and reached for it as soon as Lisa went on her way. It was surprisingly heavy, and much too solid to be cardboard. The return address specified an agency of some sort in Chicago; I didn’t recognize the firm. Brushing aside the scattered debris of other projects, I set the box on my desk and tore away the coarse brown paper.
It was a strongbox, about a foot and a half in every dimension. It was a pretty good one, too—steel walls, internal hinges, and an excellent lock. No wonder it was heavy. I sifted through the wrappings to see if there was any sign of who sent it. Nothing.
Did Lisa look nervous?
Did she say anything that really didn’t fit in with the rest of the conversation? Such as something that could be taken as a password for the transfer of the package?
Have you googled the firm? The company Lisa works for? Are there any notes or anything inside or outside of the package that might possibly contain directions or a clue as to where you would find a key?
How can you tell that it is a strong box? What can it lift? Is there some sort of international standard of strength for boxes? I’m sorry but I just don’t understand.
I did 'sign Lisa’s ‘delivery form’ once. That was neat.
Googling got me the agency’s phone number, and I gave them a call during lunch. I got their voice mail and left a message.
The package was addressed to me.
Lisa didn’t seem particularly nervous. She didn’t say or do anything weird. Well, nothing beyond delivering a mystery box to me at midnight, anyway.
I’ve got meetings all afternoon, but I’m going to try to get the box open tonight. I’ll update when I get it open, or when I get a call back from the company that sent it.
