I heard a small sound, as if something had fallen onto the floor, and looked up. Diesel, from the top of one tier of boxes, chirped at me and began grooming himself. What had he knocked over?

On the floor in front of the boxes I found the folder containing the inventory of Godfrey’s papers. As I bent down to pick it up, I frowned. What was it doing on top of the boxes? I was sure I had left it on my desk yesterday.

If it had been on my desk, Diesel couldn’t have knocked it off onto the floor in front of the boxes, I reasoned. He was a clever feline, but even he could not have picked it up off my desk and then dropped it onto the floor.

The more I thought about it, the more convinced I was that the inventory had been on my desk when I left the office yesterday.

That meant someone had been in here meddling last night or early this morning.

I went back to my chair and placed the inventory on the desk. I examined it, and it was intact, no pages missing.

Who could it have been?

Had the intruder tampered with the boxes? That was an unpleasant thought. If the intruder had taken anything, I would never know, because the inventory wasn’t detailed enough.

I got up and examined the boxes. They appeared to be intact. I went down the hall to check the boxes in the storeroom. They also seemed to be undisturbed. I also checked the locks on both doors, and from what I could see, no one had forced them.

Back at my desk, I considered the problem. As far as I knew there were only three sets of keys to the office and the storeroom. I had one set, Melba had one, and the operations staff had the third.

I couldn’t imagine Melba or any operations staff member coming in here after I was gone to poke around. I should check with Melba, though, to make sure she still had her set of keys.

And what about the extra box?

I was relieved to find it where I had left it, untouched as far as I could tell. It was a good thing I put it out of the way, I thought. I went back to my desk.

How many people even knew that Godfrey’s papers had arrived here? Rick Tackett or some of his staff could have mentioned it to someone, but I couldn’t see that it would be that exciting a bit of conversation. Peter knew, naturally, and so did Melba.

Then I remembered the odd incident yesterday, when someone had eavesdropped on my conversation with Melba—a conversation about Godfrey’s papers.

Was that who had done it?

If so, that put a different spin on the incident.

Someone was interested in Godfrey’s papers but didn’t want anyone else to know.

Why?