And yet they keep on coming. I have received yet another letter from J.P. Nussbaum. I’m still uncertain why I was chosen to receive these. Mostly at this stage I’m becoming confused by the events surrounding my life and these letters. A recent series of events has taken my focus away from my quest to copy the family crest on the letterhead. Certainly, I would still love to have a copy of to show you.
Many of you may remember that my friend Mike has been helping me learn more about the letterhead. Last week, after I tried unsuccessfully to mail one of the letters to my friend Mia in Chicago, Mike and I started looking into what could cause a postal reroute. Mike decided to take the envelope which had a message to me emblazoned across it with him to work. After talking with his supervisor and showing her envelope she burrowed it and told him she would look into it.
We were both quite happy with this turn of events and hoped to learn more after she had a chance to investigate further. Everything was going along smoothly until Wednesday. That was when Mike arrived for work to learn his supervisor had been reassigned and Mike had been suspended. He has thus far been given no reason for it other than a question of mishandled mail.
Since then we have been spending more time researching the mysterious J.P. Nussbaum. I haven’t given up posting the letterhead, but for now I need to know who this man is. Our research started in the same place as all research, Google. Currently, the internet is failing me. Most of the Nussbaum’s I’ve found are young men living in the U.S. and I’m fairly certain J.P. is British; I’m not sure why I think this, I‘ve poured over the letters and thus far have found no real evidence to support the claim. There are pieces of his speech, ways of writing that trigger a very British feel in me.
To this end the only Brit we’ve found is a James Patrick Nussbaum who served the Royal Family prior to the Revolutionary War. There is precious little information on the man, he seems to have been some sort of messenger. Anything we find on his is sketchy at best.
Mike suggested I talk to his brother Keith, whose a bit of a research fiend. This sadly will have to wait until next week when he comes home. He’s apparently at a convention in Atlanta. I’ve left Keith a voicemail and hope he get’s back with me soon.
As with last week, I leave you with the letter sent me by J.P. Nussbaum. Hopefully, someone will recognize something and help fill in the missing information.
Dearest Mother,
I hope this letter reaches you with due haste. Do to recent events I have been forced to send this correspondence through a surrogate. Now that we are wanted by the authorities we’ve had to become very careful. We’ve changed cars a number of times, I won’t say what vehicle we are driving now incase this letter is intercepted by the authorities.
We’ve been traveling mostly at night and while staying in small inns and cottages by day. There was some discussion of staying in the youth hostels we were investigating but we decided against it. The fear that we might be recognized if we spent to long in such a public space was a genuine concern. Additionally, if one of the other teams were compromised it would be easier to discover us.
Currently we are unreachable as we destroyed of our phones and purchased disposable ones from a local petrol station. As a warning I should mention that Christina and I withdrew the traditional amount from the family emergency fund before fleeing the city. I believe we are currently ahead of the game, but this is without knowing our opponent, the pieces or even the board.
For the most part our journey has been uneventful, many of the places we’ve visited haven’t heard of Maria or the as yet unknown Schuler. Two nights ago we did have a lucky break. We found someone with a picture of the two of them. He was an Australian who had decided to hitchhike across Europe, a jovial man named Rhys.
Rhys had met Maria and Schuler a little over a month ago and the three had traveled together for a bit. He thought everything had been going well until one day he woke up and they’d left without saying a word. He had assumed the couple had wanted to be alone and thought nothing further of it until he met us.
During our interview, Lucia noticed that Rhys had several cameras and asked if he had any photos of the couple. He said he had and began cycling through photos of his journey thus far. It took him quite a long time to find one that showed Schuler’s face. There were several photo’s of the Rhys and Maria, but very few had Schuler in them. The he did appear in Schuler’s face was blocked by a drinking glass, someone’s shoulder, or Schuler making a peace sign to the camera.
However, there was one picture that Rhys had taken the night before they disappeared. It was a long distance shot of Schuler and Maria sitting under a tree with the sun setting majestically in the background. It seems Rhys had just received a new lens attachment for his cameras that would allow him to take clear photos in bright, direct light and he wanted to test it.
When asked, Rhys couldn’t remember Schuler’s first name. As far as Rhys could remember he had always been simply Schuler. We feel this and the lack of facial photos may mean a sinister motive on the part of Mr. Schuler. Of course, this could just be over caution and paranoia on our parts.
Each of us has sent a copy of the photo for facial recognition. I to our family contact in London, Christina to an old friend from Canada, and Lucia to one of her team. Hopefully this will net us results an we will soon have the good Mr. Schuler‘s name.
We did learn that Schuler and Maria spoke of Padau with Rhys before disappearing. He chose not to follow them feeling he didn’t want to seem like he was intruding, but it has given us our next destination.
Hopefully, my letter leaves you with a bit more confidence than you started with. I hope to write you again soon.
As always, my love.
Your youngest son
J. P. Nussbaum
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