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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

I was about to back out of the parking space when my cell phone rang. I shifted back to park and pulled the phone out of my shirt pocket. Glancing at the number on the display, I frowned. Someone from the college was calling, but I didn’t recognize the number.

“Hello, this is Charlie Harris.”

“Hey, Charlie, it’s Rick. How you doing?” Rick Tackett was operations manager for the college library.

“Doing fine, and you?”

“Pretty busy,” Rick said. “Got a big delivery for you, and I wondered if you wanted it up in your office maybe? Or somewhere else?”

“How big?” I asked, puzzled. I wasn’t expecting anything.

“Fifty-four boxes,” Rick said. “Pretty heavy. Maybe somebody’s papers or something.”

Papers?

For a moment I couldn’t remember any recent agreement to take someone’s papers for the archive.

Then it hit me.

Could these be Godfrey Priest’s papers?

SIXTEEN

SIXTEEN

Who else could the papers have belonged to? Godfrey had estimated he had fifty or sixty boxes of papers and books to give to the college archive.

But when had he shipped them?

“Charlie, you still there?”

Rick’s voice brought me back to the conversation. “Yeah, I’m still here. Just a bit stunned, that’s all.”

Rick chuckled into my ear. “Yeah, it’s a huge shipment. And pretty heavy, too. Probably cost a coupla thousand bucks, I bet.”

“If they belonged to whom I think they did, he had plenty of money.” Yeah, the papers were Godfrey’s. He must have called someone and had them shipped right after our conversation yesterday.

“Must be nice.” Rick laughed again. “Anyway, they’re here on the loading dock. Oh, and there’s a letter, too.” There was silence for a moment. When Rick spoke again his tone was somber. “Return address says it’s from Godfrey Priest. I heard he died last night.”

“Yes, he did.” What should I do with Godfrey’s boxes? The sheriff’s department would probably impound them if they knew about them, though I couldn’t imagine what use they would be to Kanesha Berry. Technically they were now the property of Athena College, although I didn’t think Godfrey had signed anything to that effect yet.

Maybe there was something in his letter that stated his intentions.

“I’d better come over there. I’ll meet you on the loading dock in a few minutes.”

“Sure,” Rick said. “I’ll be here.”

I ended the call and stuck the phone back in my pocket. Diesel butted my elbow with his head.

“No, I didn’t forget about you,” I told him. “But we’ve got to take a detour. Sit.”

Diesel sat in the passenger seat. I’d been meaning to get him one of those pet car seats, but since I mostly just drive around town, and pretty slowly at that, I kept putting it off.