Episode 9: Life's A Puzzle
by Toni Walker
by Toni Walker
She was getting tired of looking at the blank hospital walls. So, to waste time, she rooted through her purse and found the item that had been perplexing her for nearly two years... a wooden puzzlebox. No matter which way she turned the nobs or tried to loosen the boards, nothing happened.
Charlie Cooper sighed and screamed inwardly. "Why does he torment me like this? He knows I suck at figuring out these things!"
She wanted to throw the damn thing across the room, but it was the last gift Paul had given her before his death, aside from the silver bracelet sporting the heart-shaped locket.
All she wanted to do was get the box open and find out the contents of the last message Paul had ever left her.
"Damn puzzlebox!"
Charlie picked up the nearest unbreakable object, which was the water container sitting on the side table in her hospital room. She heaved it across the room nearly hitting a man who had the misfortune of chosing that moment to poke his head in the door.
She winced. "Sorry. I didn't think anyone was there... except me, of course."
Charlie grinned at the stranger sheepishly thinking he was some kind of doctor. "I don't usually throw things at visitors."
Jaxx Sinclair grinned back. "That's okay. I expect I deserve it considering I nearly ran you over this afternoon.""That was you?"
"Unfortunately, yes."
Both of them tried to talk silmultaneously, clearly revealing the guilt each felt over the incident.
"I don't know what happened. One minute I was standing there and the next I was lying flat in the middle of the road."
"From my viewpoint, it also looked like you had been shoved into the street. Neither one of us was at fault."
"I'm just lucky that you have quick reflexes and didn't hit me. Me and all my bones thank you for that."
"Are you sure you're okay?" Jaxx asked glancing at her medical file.
"Yes, fine. I feel stupid more than anything." She fidgeted on the bed. "Right now I'm just waiting for my mother to come and pick me up. The doctor's don't seem to want me to drive myself home tonight."
"I can understand why with that concussion and all."
Charlie glanced out the window. "Knowing my mother, she's probably at some corny seance. It's the perfect weather for it."
She laid back and fluffed her extra pillow. "I guess I'd better get comfortable cause Mommy Dearest probably won't get my phone message until late tonight." Charlie was about to consider taking a cat nap once the stragner left, but then realized she didn't know this man's name.
"Jaxx. Jaxx Sinclair," he answered in response to her question.
"Joy's brother?"
Jaxx was taken aback that Charlie had even heard of him considering how non-social Joy truly was.
"Did you know my sister?" Maybe Charolette Cooper was the lead to discovering what really happened that night to his sister."
"Sure. Paul, that's my late husband. She was his assistant. She used to come over to dinner all the time. They worked late a lot, expecially at the house. His study is still quite a mess. They were a part of a team at Wayne McKenna's corporation. I think they were close to a break through when the accident happened."
***
"It's me," the man whispered. "There's a possibility that the missing piece to the sequence could be at Cooper's house. The girl still hasn't cleaned out his office at home."
"Why has it taken this long to find the last sequence?" Wayne McKenna was tired of waiting for his ultimate weapon to be unleashed. The L300 would make him millions, if not billions."The team was comprised of hundreds of individual researchers. It took us this long to discover that Paul Cooper was indeed the one who was keeping the L300 out of service and back on the drawing board.
Wayne was direct and to the point. "If you can't find the sequence, we'll have to find a way of making the beautiful Mrs. Cooper more forthcoming."
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