BooksBarbecue
Back Murder Past Due
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

When the printer finished, I examined the sheets. I had sorted the citations in ascending publication order, so I could trace Godfrey’s books as they were published, from the first one to the most recent.

His first five books were published within four years, and then there was a four-year gap before his sixth novel, Count the Cost. It was published seventeen years ago, and that meant a two-year gap, roughly, between the date stamp on the disk and the actual publication of the book.

Godfrey’s first five books were different in style and tone from the later books. Light, amusing, fluffy, they featured a bickering duo of amateur detectives who fought their attraction to each other as they stumbled over dead bodies. Count the Cost signaled an almost radical change, and if I had thought about it at all, I probably assumed Godfrey did it for commercial reasons. He wasn’t a bestseller before, as far as I was aware, but Count the Cost made the bestseller list. He had been a fixture there ever since.

In that letter was the reason for the abrupt shift in Godfrey’s work.

It wasn’t his, plain and simple.

But was that the only one? What about the other fifteen books published in the years since Count the Cost?

Diesel stood up from his perch, stretching and yawning. I reached over to rub his head. He rewarded me with a couple of happy chirps. He jumped down and accompanied me as I took the list of Godfrey’s books back to the other computer. The book published the year after Count the Cost was entitled Abide with Me. I checked the box of disks, and there were three labeled “Abide.”

I inserted the first one into the drive and looked at the list of files. Only numbers. I checked the second and third disks as well. Same thing. No letter this time. Diesel rubbed against my legs a few times before he wandered off to prowl around the office. He was not usually destructive so I let him have free run in the room.

I checked the next book on the list: Dead Men’s Plans. There were four disks for this one. This time I put the disk numbered four in and checked the contents.

Bingo. Another letter, again addressed simply to G. No signature. That was frustrating.