Love Letters from the Skeleton Kingdom of the Moon - Part 2

Cable turned the envelope over again in his gloved hands.  Even through the supple black leather, his fingers could feel the low heat that constantly emanated from it.  Ms. Jones had given him the flimsy envelope an hour ago, and an even flimsier set of facts attached to it.  He eyed the shape of it, categorizing it's elements in his mind.
The envelope was envelope-shaped, eight and a half inches wide and about half as much tall.  One side had Verity Jones' address written on it in neat, old-fashioned script, black ink on slightly yellowed paper.  The other side could not be seen, completely covered in stamps perhaps three layers deep.  Every part of it was a constant one hundred and four degrees precisely.  The return address was listed as 8° 59' 29" S, 15° 30' 52" E.  Cable had looked it up; the coordinates were in the middle of the mountainous wilderness of northern Angola.
"My mother received a letter like this every Valentine's day since before I was born," Verity had said to Cable, her eyes drifting off into the past.  "She would light a few logs in the fireplace before going out to get the post, and after coming back inside she would immediately throw the letter into the flames.  I never saw her open even one."  Cable had sat back in his chair and not replied, waiting for her to explain the reason for her visit.  "Last August my mother died.  And last week Tuesday this was waiting for me under my door."  Tuesday had been February fourteenth.       
Verity had paused for an extended time.  Usually Cable let his clients dictate the pace of conversation, but this time ambiguity had gotten the better of him.  "What is is, exactly, that you would like to retain my services for Ms. Jones?"  She looked at him directly for the first time in many minutes, her mind now fully back in the present.
"When I saw that letter on Tuesday morning, I thought I would finally find an answer I had felt certain was forever lost.  But the way it looks now is the way I picked it up."  Cable pressed the top and bottom of the envelope together with his thumb and forefinger,  The right side, torn open, yawned to reveal an empty interior.  "Somebody knew that letter was going to arrive on Tuesday, and they got to it before me.  In my house.  And then, to spite me it seems, they put it right back where I would find it instead of keeping it like any halfway decent larcenous cretin would have done."
Verity had fought back tears and Cable had offered her a paper towel.  She blew her nose into it and composed herself.   "I want the contents of that envelope, Mr. Meridian.  I do not care what it costs."
Cable had leaned back again, genuinely studying the envelope for the first of what would be many times.  He tilted his head to one side, and adjusted his fedora.  "Is there anything else you can tell me?" he had asked his client.  Verity nodded, silently.
"Once when I was young, I asked my mother who it was that sent her all those letters.  She was a gentle woman, but became very irate... 'he's dead and more's the better', she told me, and then sent me to bed without dinner for nosing into business that wasn't my own.  But now it is my business.  This letter was sent to me, and I have to know... I must know, Mr. Meridian, the secret behind it."
Cable had narrowed his eyes and looked at her in a measuring way.  "Meet me here in a week," he had told her.  "At this time.  Bring as much money as you can reasonably fit into a hard-bodied guitar case.  And come armed."  Her perfect eyebrows had risen behind her delicate white veil.
"Do you expect risk, Mr. Meridian?"
Cable smiled a little smile, like an inside joke.  "You are on a hunt for truth, Ms. Jones.  It rarely comes quietly."

- J