Meantime, the murder of Bobby Smathers remains an open case. In the homicide unit where Mr. Brooks worked and his colleagues still pursue the case, the detectives now say they are seeking justice for two victims.

"Far as I'm concerned, this is a double murder," said Lawrence Washington, a detective who grew up with Brooks and was partnered with him in the homicide unit.

"Whoever did the boy also did Jumpin' John. You can't convince me any different."

I straightened up and glanced around the newsroom. NO one was looking at me. I looked back down at the printout and read the end of the story again. I was stunned, almost to the same degree as the night Wexler and St. Louis had come for me. I could hear my heart beating, my guts being taken in a cold and crushing grip. I couldn't read anything else but the name of the story. Usher. I had read it in high school and again in college. I knew the story. And I knew the character of the title. Roderick Usher. I opened my notebook and looked at the few notes I had jotted down after leaving Wexler the day before. The name was there. Sean had written it in the chronological record. It was his last entry.

RUSHER

After dialing the editorial library I asked for Laurie Prine.

"Laurie, it's-"

"Jack. Yes, I know."

"Look, I need an emergency search. I mean, I think it's a search. I'm not sure how to get-"

"What is it, Jack?"

"Edgar Allan Poe. Do we have anything on him?"

"Sure. I'm sure we have lots of biographical abstracts. I could, "I mean do we have any of his short stories or works?

I'm looking for 'The Fall of the House of Usher." And sorry to interrupt."

"That's okay. Um, I don't know what we would have right here as far as his written works go. Like I said, it's mostly biographical. I can take a look. But, I mean, any bookstore around here is going to sell his stuff if we don't have it."

"Okay, thanks. I'll just go over to the Tattered Cover."

I was about to put the phone down when she said my name.

"Yes?"

"I just thought of something. Like if you want to quote a line or something, we have lots of quotations on CD-ROM.

I could just plug it in real quick."

"Okay. Do it."

She put the phone down for an eternity. I reread the end of the Times story again. What I was thinking seemed like a long shot but the coincidences in the way my brother and Brooks had died and in the names of Roderick Usher and RUSHER could not be ignored.

"Okay, Jack," Laurie said after picking back up. "I just checked our indexes. We have no books containing Poe's works in whole. I've got the poetry disk in, so let's give it a whirl. What do you want?"

"There is a poem called 'The Haunted Palace' that is part of the story 'The Fall of the House of Usher." Can you get that?"