Miranda James - Murder Past Due

Kanesha nodded a couple of times. “I already have an appointment with her. She gets into Memphis late tonight and is driving down tomorrow morning.”

“Good,” I said.

“Why are you doing all this?” Kanesha regarded me, her eyes narrowed.

“You mean poking my nose into your investigation?” I said, trying not to sound too flippant.

Kanesha nodded.

“Natural instincts, I suppose.” I shrugged. “Librarians are trained to help find answers, and the identity of Godfrey’s killer is an important question. Plus I find myself involved because of Justin and Julia Wardlaw. I can’t believe that either of them killed Godfrey, and I want to do what I can for their sakes.”

I wanted to add—but knew I didn’t dare— And because your mother asked me to, and I couldn’t figure out a way to say no .

“If anything you’ve done compromises my investigation in any way, you are going to be in a lot of trouble. Are you clear on that?”

I resisted the urge to salute. Kanesha sounded like a drill sergeant dealing with a bunch of raw recruits fresh out of the cotton patch. I hadn’t expected her to turn suddenly effusive with gratitude, but I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised she was taking a dim view of my “interference.”

“Yes, I am,” I said. “But let me ask you this: If I had called you the minute these boxes of papers arrived, what would you have done? Would you have rushed over and impounded them, or whatever the term is, for your investigation? And would you have gone through those disks the way I did? Do you even have a computer that can handle old floppy disks?”

“Whoa.” She held up a hand. I had gotten a bit carried away. “You might have saved me some time on these disks, but I still can’t be sure that you haven’t destroyed other evidence. Frankly, how can I even be sure that you didn’t create this stuff about X yourself as a smoke screen?”

Aghast, I stared at her. Never would I have thought she’d react this way. I didn’t know what to say.

“By not letting me know the minute these papers arrived, you basically tainted the evidence—if any of this could be called evidence. If I could have been assured that the contents of these boxes were untouched once they arrived here, I’d feel a lot more comfortable with all this. But you took it on yourself to investigate, and now I’m left with a difficult situation.”

“I’m sorry,” I finally managed to say. I had never thought about any of this, and I realized I had goofed big time. “I really don’t know what to say other than I’m sorry.”

“Where are the disks?”

They were still in the box back by the other computer. I retrieved them without a word and handed the box to Kanesha. She looked inside.

“I see what you mean about old disks,” she said.

If that was some kind of olive branch, I’d accept it.

“I’ll take them,” she said. “If you can make out a receipt, I’ll sign it. But these need to go with me.”

“I’ll do that,” I said. “But what about the rest of Godfrey’s papers?” I realized suddenly that I should tell her about the unauthorized person who had been in my office Wednesday night. She was going to be even happier with me.

“Where are the rest of the boxes?” she asked.

“In a storeroom down the hall,” I said.

“Is it secure?”

“It is now,” I said. “I have something else I need to tell you.”

“Go ahead.” She had one of those pained What now? looks on her face.

As briefly as I could, I related the facts about the unauthorized visitor.

“And you still didn’t call me.” She examined me like I was an exotic insect that she found distasteful.

“No,” I said. “But I made sure the locks were changed that day. There are only three sets of keys. I have one, of course. Melba Gilley, the library director’s assistant, has a set, and Rick Tackett, the head of operations for the library, has the other set.”

Kanesha continued to regard me like a specimen.

“By the way,” I said, feeling more uneasy by the second, “did you know that Godfrey had a half brother? It’s Rick Tackett. Do you know him?”

“I don’t know him,” Kanesha said. “But I knew of the relationship. You might find this hard to believe, but I did make an effort to find out as much as I could about the victim and his family right off the bat.”

“Sorry,” I said, abashed.

She simply stared at me, and I tried not to squirm. Feeling like a delinquent ten-year-old was a new experience for me.

“For now we will move these boxes into the storeroom with the others, and I will seal the room until I can send someone here to pick them up and bring them down to the sheriff’s department.”

“Okay,” I said. “Sounds like a good idea to me.” I wasn’t going to argue. If the college for some reason had a problem with this, I would deal with it later.

I had an inspiration. I found some of the cotton gloves I used to handle rare books and offered her a pair. She accepted them with a nod, and then we moved the boxes from my office down to the storeroom.

Diesel, very curious about where we were going with the boxes, followed us back and forth until we completed the move.

“Since we’re here,” I said, waving a hand to indicate the storeroom, “why don’t you have a quick look at some of the contracts? That would answer one question pretty quickly.”

“Meaning you want to know, so you want me to do it right now and tell you before these boxes are removed.” Kanesha didn’t smile, but I could have sworn she was the tiniest bit amused. That was a surprise.

“Well, yes,” I said.

“Go get the inventory and the box of disks, and I’ll stay here,” Kanesha said. “I’ll have a look at the contracts.”

I nodded and went back to my office to retrieve the inventory. Diesel remained with Kanesha. He was prowling around the boxes as I left the room. I thought Kanesha might object. She ignored him, however.

I came back with the box of disks and the inventory. “The contracts are in box twelve,” I said. “I looked already.” I set the box down on the floor.

We both turned to hunt for box twelve. Kanesha spotted it first, at the bottom of a stack of four. I helped her move the three on top, and she pulled box twelve out of the way.

“It’s pretty light,” she said, frowning up at me.

She squatted down and removed the lid.

It was empty.

TWENTY-SEVEN

If I could have crawled into that empty box and pulled the lid over me, I would have. Kanesha’s expression was implacable enough to stop a charging rhino in its tracks.

She stood after replacing the lid on the box. She walked out into the hall, and I fancied I could see the anger in every step she took. She turned and waited for Diesel and me to join her in the hall.

“Please lock the door,” she said.

When I had done so she held out her hand for the keys. “I’m sorry,” I said as I complied.

She didn’t respond. Instead she walked down the hall to my office, unlocked the door, and stood pointedly by the door. Diesel followed me as I went down the hall and into the office.

“I’ll be back in a few minutes,” she said. “I’ll return your keys then.” She headed for the stairs.

I went to my desk and sat down. I had really screwed things up, and Kanesha had every right to be furious with me. I had let myself get too caught up in the situation and hadn’t thought things through clearly enough. I wasn’t one of the Hardy Boys, happily assisting my famous detective father.

As a basically law-abiding citizen, however, I had interpreted what I saw as my civic duty to assist the deputy in her inquiry a little too broadly. I did think I had helped her in some ways. How long would it have taken her to find the letters on those disks, for example? But did that outweigh my blunder in allowing someone to steal a whole boxful—if not more—of Godfrey’s papers?