“Oh, for Chrissake, Darla.” He cut her off. “It’s not exactly top secret information we keep back there. Every single one of those newspapers has been on sale to the general public at some point, remember? Now, please, help Jessica find what she’s looking for.”

He gave Jessica a cheeky wink and returned to his desk. Darla sat still for a moment or two as though debating whether to carry out his request. Or maybe she was just waiting for the red mist to settle. Finally, she stood and motioned brusquely for Jessica to follow her through the back office toward a glass door at the rear of the room. As Jessica passed by the reporter’s desk, he plucked a business card from a leather tabletop holder and handed it to her.

“In case you do find anything interesting during your investigation.”

She looked at the card. It read, “Garrett Thomas, Senior Reporter, the Eagle Rock Reformer.” There were numbers for his direct office line and his cell phone. She said, “Sure, no problem, Garrett.”

The library was actually a large windowless storage room with floor-to-ceiling metal shelves on three walls filled with bound volumes of every past issue of the Reformer filed by year. A polished wooden table with two leather-backed chairs on either side took up most of the space in the middle of the room. The place smelled musty, like old paper. It reminded Jessica of hanging out in real libraries when she was younger.

“What date do you want?” asked Darla.

“October 1992.”

Jessica pulled out one of the chairs from the table, sat down, and dumped her bag on the floor. When Darla didn’t move, she looked up and saw the woman was rooted to the spot, and all the color had drained from her face.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

Darla blinked a couple of times. “Yes, I’m fine. I’ll go find those files.”

She walked over to one of the shelving units and studied the spines for a moment before pulling out a large, heavy leather-bound volume with July–Dec 1992 printed in gold letters on the spine and front cover. She placed it in front of Jessica on the table. The woman’s hands were shaking. “I’ll leave you to it,” she said, heading quickly for the door.

Jessica waited until Darla pulled the glass door shut behind her before opening the book and carefully turning the pages until she came to the front page she’d seen in the picture frame in the reception area.

MANHUNT AFTER EAGLE ROCK WOMAN KILLED—CHILD STILL MISSING

By Jim Johnson, Staff Writer

Police were searching Wednesday for a knifeman they said stabbed and killed a local woman inside her Eagle Rock home.

The victim, identified as Eleanor Lavelle, 25, was pronounced dead at the scene. It is understood she suffered blows to the face and multiple stab wounds.