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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 could easily have sat in the chair and finished the book in another couple of hours, but my curiosity over Godfrey’s boxes won out. I got up from the chair, stretched, and approached the bed.

“Come on, boy, let’s go.”

Diesel yawned and rolled over on his back. I reached down and rubbed his stomach. He purred loudly in appreciation.

“I’m not going to stand here and do this for the next two hours.” I gave him a final rub and withdrew my hand. “Come on.”

A few minutes before two, I unlocked the door to the archive storeroom. Rick’s assistants had delivered the boxes, and there was little open space left in the room now. I did a quick count while Diesel sniffed around the boxes. There were forty-four of them, all numbered. Boxes one through ten should be in the office.

I pulled Diesel away from his perusal and headed down the hall to the archive. Inside, the lights on, I dropped Diesel’s leash, and he began inspecting the boxes stacked on the floor in three piles in front of my desk. Diesel hopped on top of the first pile of three, and then I realized there were eleven boxes, not ten. The other two piles had four boxes each.

Then I noticed that ten of the boxes were numbered, one through ten, but the eleventh box didn’t have a number.

That was interesting. It had to be part of the shipment, because Rick didn’t mention any other delivery for the archive today.

I moved forward to pull the eleventh box from the bottom of the center stack but my cell phone rang. I pulled the phone out of my pocket and glanced at the number display. It was the sheriff’s department. I answered and identified myself.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Harris.” Kanesha Berry’s voice was cool and professional. “I’d like to talk to you right away. Can you come down to the sheriff’s department please?”

Dang. I really wanted to delve into the boxes, especially the oddly unnumbered one. But I didn’t think putting the deputy off would be a good move. I might as well get it over with.

“Okay, I’ll be there in a few minutes.” I ended the call, stuck my phone in my pocket, and got Diesel down from atop the boxes.

“Come on, boy. Off to jail we go.”

SEVENTEEN

SEVENTEEN

I parked a few spaces down from the front door of the Athena County Sheriff’s Department. If I had ever been inside the building, I didn’t remember it. The building dated from before the Second World War, but there was a new jail behind it, built about five years ago.

“This will be a new experience for both of us,” I told Diesel as we approached the door. Diesel’s nose twitched in anticipation. He was always curious about strange places.