David Baldacci - True Blue

“That won’t be happening,” said the man pleasantly. “The mayor should be e-mailing you-”

Beth’s BlackBerry started buzzing.

“Right about now,” said the man, smiling.

Beth checked her device. The mayor was polite and diplomatic but the message was clear. Back off now.

“Can I expect copies of reports?” she asked.

“No.”

“Can I see the body?”

“Same answer,” said the fellow.

“Will you tell me when and if you find the killer?”

“We’ll expect you and your people to be gone in the next two minutes.”

The men turned and left.

Beth looked at Lanier. “Do you hate them as much as I do, Steve?”

Lanier said, “Oh, even more than you do. Trust me.”

“Care to give me their names? I’m assuming you remember them from the driver’s licenses.”

“Sorry, Beth, I got my marching orders too.”

She stalked back to her car. At least she’d be having dinner with her sister tonight after all.

AT THE SOUND of the knock Roy looked up from a contract he was reviewing.

“Yeah?”

The door opened and a young man dressed in corduroy pants, striped shirt, and a cheap paisley tie stood there holding on to the front bar of a mail cart. It was old-fashioned, but even in the digital age sometimes lawyers still needed materials that were actually contained in books or written on real paper.

“Special delivery,” the young man said.

“Just put it on the desk, Dave.”

Dave came forward clutching the book. “Creepy.”

“What’s creepy?’

“Ms. Tolliver.”

Roy shrugged. “I doubt whoever killed her is going to come back.”

“Not what I meant.”

Dave put the book down on the desk.

Roy leaned back in his chair. “Okay, don’t keep me in suspense.”

Dave tapped the book. “This is from Ms. Tolliver.”

Roy snatched up the book. “When did she put it in the mail room?”

“Don’t know.”

“Why don’t you know? I thought there were procedures.”

“Most of the time folks call and we come and pick up the package. They have a delivery sheet filled out and we put it in the pipeline.”

“So why don’t you know when this book came in?”

“It was just in the mail room with the sheet filled out. She must’ve done it herself. I checked with Ms. Tolliver’s secretary and she didn’t know anything about it.”

“But she was killed Monday morning. It’s now Tuesday afternoon and I’m just getting this?”

“We didn’t deliver the mail yesterday because the police were all over the place. Just getting to it now. I’m sorry.”

Roy examined the cover of the book. It was on contract law, an out-of-date edition. Lawyers never sent old textbooks to each other. What would be the point?

“Did you see it in the mail room on Friday?”

“Don’t think so.”

“But you’re not sure?”

“No. I’m not.”

“Okay, but did you see it in the mail room on Monday morning?”

“Can’t really say. It was so crazy around here. But it had to be there on Monday morning. I mean, she couldn’t have done it after she was dead.”

“If she was the one who put the book in the mail room, Dave. We have no way of telling if she physically did it or not.”

“Oh, right.” Dave looked at him nervously. “Am I in trouble?” Roy sat back, his sudden flame of anger gone. “Probably not. Thanks, Dave. Sorry I got testy. I guess we’re all a little stressed out.”

After Dave closed the door, Roy looked at the mail slip clipped to the book. It was in Diane’s neat handwriting that he’d seen on many documents. The mail form had a date and time-of-day box to show when it had gone into the system; however, Diane had not filled in this information. The form did have his name on it as the recipient, so the book was meant for him. There was no reason for her to send it to him. But she had. He flipped through some pages, but it was just an old book.

His phone rang. “Yeah?” His mouth formed a smile when he heard the voice.

Mace said, “You must’ve billed nearly a hundred hours so far today.”

“I told you this is a humane law firm. We don’t have to lie by the hour.”

“You got time to talk?”

“Sure, when?”

“How about now?”

His door opened and Mace waved to him. Roy shook his head and put down his phone. “Are you always this weird?”

“You haven’t begun to see my weird side.”

“That is truly terrifying.”

“I know. I get that a lot.”

MACE CLOSED the door behind her and sat across from him. “Thanks for repping me last night with old Abe.”

“Just wait until you get my bill.” He held up the book. “Diane Tolliver sent this to me in the office mail.”

“Okay?”

“Like very recently. But she had no reason to. It’s an old textbook.”

“Put it down. Now!”

He quickly set the book on his desk.

“Who else has pawed it, other than you?” she said severely.

“At least one other, the mail room guy.”

“Great.”

“He didn’t know any better.”

“But you should have known better.”

“Okay, maybe I should have. But I didn’t. So now what?”

“You got a hanky?”

“No, but I do have some tissues.”

He handed some over. Mace used one to open the book slowly. “I glanced through a couple of pages, didn’t see any cryptic writing. But we could pour lemon juice on it and see if the invisible ink is revealed.”

“Or we could just do this.” She held the book by the spine and swung it back and forth, the pages flapping open.

A small key fell out and landed on the desk.

“Don’t!” Mace cautioned as Roy reached for it.

Using the tissue, she picked up the key by its ridged end.

Mace said, “Not a safety deposit box key, maybe a post office box.”

“That narrows it down to a few hundred million. And we don’t even know if this key came from her.”

“She ever mention a post office box?”

Roy shook his head. “No.”

Mace stared down at the key with such intensity that it seemed that she expected the bit of metal to suddenly confess all its secrets. “And you had no other communication from her?”

Roy started to say no, but then he stopped. He clicked some keys and turned the screen around for her to see. “She sent me an e-mail late on Friday night.”

“Do the police know about this?”

“Yep, because they already questioned me about it today. I told them I didn’t know what it meant.”

Mace read the line. “You sure nothing rings a bell?”

“No, but it’s awkwardly phrased. ‘Focus in on’? Why not just say ‘focus on’?”

“I don’t know. You’re the guy that gets paid by the word. Any viable candidates for ‘A’?”

“Too many. But I didn’t think you were on the police force anymore.”

“There’s no law that says a private citizen can’t investigate a crime.”

“But-”

“Getting back to the key and e-mail, any thoughts?”

“Well, you can’t hold me to anything.”

“Just tell me, Roy.”

“Chester Ackerman. He’s the managing partner of the firm. I spoke with him yesterday. He was really nervous, upset.”

“One of his lawyers got stuck in the fridge, there’s a lot to be upset about.”

“I know, but, and this is just my gut, he seemed scared beyond what the situation would compel, if you know what I mean.”

“Like he was scared for his own skin?”

“And I think he was lying about something too.”

“What?”

“I don’t know. Just something.”