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Back Murder Past Due Save as PDF
Chapters (36)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Page
  3. Acknowledgements
  4. ONE
  5. TWO
  6. THREE
  7. FOUR
  8. FIVE
  9. SIX
  10. SEVEN
  11. EIGHT
  12. NINE
  13. TEN
  14. ELEVEN
  15. TWELVE
  16. THIRTEEN
  17. FOURTEEN
  18. FIFTEEN
  19. SIXTEEN
  20. SEVENTEEN
  21. EIGHTEEN
  22. NINETEEN
  23. TWENTY
  24. TWENTY-ONE
  25. TWENTY-TWO
  26. TWENTY-THREE
  27. TWENTY-FOUR
  28. TWENTY-FIVE
  29. TWENTY-SIX
  30. TWENTY-SEVEN
  31. TWENTY-EIGHT
  32. TWENTY-NINE
  33. THIRTY
  34. THIRTY-ONE
  35. THIRTY-TWO
  36. THIRTY-THREE

Here’s the manuscript I told you about when you were here a few months ago. Thanks for taking the time to read it. I hope you’ll like it enough to want to help me get it published. It’s different from your books—a lot darker and harder-edged—but you said you liked thrillers when you talked to the group. I call it Count the Cost, but that might not be the best title. Any suggestions you have about that would be appreciated, too. I know a catchy title seems to be important, but you know more about the business than I do. At least for now, that is. I’m hoping to know a lot more about it one of these days. Thanks again. I’m looking forward to hearing what you have to say.

There were no real clues to the letter writer’s identity, not even a hint of the gender. Two things might be helpful: “when you were here a few months ago” and “when you talked to the group.” There was no date in the text of the letter, but then I got the bright idea of looking at the date stamp in the directory of files on the disk.

Before I did that, however, I printed a copy of the letter. Once that was done, I called up the directory and looked at the date: August 3, nineteen years ago. The last time the file had been altered was nineteen years ago.

Nineteen years ago. I thought for a moment.

Justin was eighteen.

Godfrey would have been in Athena roughly nineteen years ago.

Could this mean the letter writer lived in Athena?

He or she must. There had to be a local connection to Godfrey’s murder. Otherwise, why was he killed here and not somewhere else?

Slow down, I told myself. You’re jumping to conclusions pretty fast.

I did a screen print of the directory and clipped it to the letter.

Before I examined any of the other disks, I wanted to check something. This computer was not connected to the Internet, so I went back to my desk. Diesel appeared sound asleep in the window when I glanced at him. I connected to the library’s online catalog and searched for Godfrey’s name. I wanted to check the publication dates for his books. The library should have all of them in the collection because he was a local writer.

No doubt Godfrey had a website that provided the information, and I would check that later. But I preferred the information from the catalog—it was probably more accurate than the website.

I performed the operations necessary to create a brief citation list of all of Godfrey’s titles and printed it out. The citation included publisher and date of publication.