Please Forgive Me by Melissa Hill Page A

mean?’
    ‘Hey I’m an investigative reporter, I do this kind of thing all the time,’ Alex said, with a knowing smile. ‘Seriously, it’s no big deal,’ she continued, scooping up some more chowder. ‘You can pretty much find anyone, once you know where to look.’
    Really? Well in that case … Leonie thought, immediately spotting the opportunity. ‘Alex?’ she began, ‘I think I might have favour of my own to ask.’
     

Chapter 9
     
     
    ‘You read somebody else’s mail? You know that’s a felony, right?’
    ‘So I heard,’ Leonie replied. Bloody hell, they were all so conscientious around here, weren’t they?
    It was later that evening and after they’d finished having dinner, they went back to Green St where Leonie showed Alex the letters. Earlier, she’d told her she could do with her help in trying to locate someone, seeing as she seemed to be a bit of an expert on that kind of thing.  
    Apparently well up for a challenge, Alex instantly agreed and while Leonie didn’t quite tell her the whole story, (about opening and reading the older letters), she did tell her about the one she’d opened by mistake.
    But now, with the pile of Nathan’s letters laid out on the table and two of them open, she really had no choice but to come clean with Alex about what she’d done.
    ‘I was hoping to find a return address for him, so I could return them to sender but then I sort of got sidetracked… Honestly, when I read the first letter, I couldn’t bring myself to stop.’
    ‘So how many have you read?’ Alex asked, sifting through the envelopes.
    ‘Just two, and I couldn’t help it,’ she reiterated again. ‘I suppose I was intrigued by the fact that she and Nathan lived here in this apartment. And of course that he seems so desperate for forgiveness.’  
    ‘It’s a bit of mystery for sure,’ Alex said, ‘although I’m not convinced that opening the letters was such a good idea.’
    ‘As I said I needed to try and find an address…’ Now she was almost sorry she’d taken Alex into her confidence, especially as she’d been certain the other girl would be just as intrigued as she (and to a lesser extent Marcy) already were about this. Not to mention the fact that Alex had lived in close proximity to the couple in question, so surely she would be able to shed light on a couple of things? ‘So what do you think I should do with them?’ she asked then.
    Alex shrugged, evidently not sharing Leonie’s sense of urgency. ‘Nothing you can do, I guess. Although wait, have you checked the postmark?’ she asked, peering at the front of one of the envelopes.
    ‘I’ve already tried that and look, it tells us nothing other than the letters originate in California. There’s no specific town or area mentioned but at the same time it looks a bit…official, doesn’t it?’
    ‘It is kind of weird,’ Alex went on, studying the postmark. ‘Looks like it could be some kind of crest … federal maybe?’
    Leonie’s eyes widened with amazement. ‘You mean from the FBI?’
    Alex laughed. ‘Oh boy, TV sure has a lot to answer for! No, no, federal simply means it could have something to do with a central government department rather than a state one.’
    ‘Oh.’ Leonie felt very gauche indeed. But then again what would she know about the different types of US government?
    ‘Even so, that still doesn’t give us a whole lot to go on in terms of where they’re coming from.’
    ‘Exactly. Which is why I had to try opening up another one, to see if there was anything else that would help identify this.’ Leonie felt a strong need to justify herself. ‘I mean think about it. All these letters and none of them have been opened. The guy is probably going out of his mind wondering why she hasn’t responded.’
    ‘Yet he doesn’t include a return address...’ Alex seemed to be thinking it over.
    ‘I know. That seemed strange to me too at first, but perhaps not when you’re writing informally to