Arsenic And Old Books

“Not at all,” Mrs. Long said. “I was curious about the trunk Beck found the others in, and I had a little time after dinner. So I went up to the attic and dug around in it a bit more. I discovered there was a false bottom in the trunk, and this fifth volume was in it.”

“I wonder why it was hidden and separated from the others.” I stared at the tote bag. Could this fifth volume be the reason there was such interest in the diaries in the first place? Did it contain the elusive secrets that lay behind this whole bizarre situation?

SEVENTEEN

I decided I was a little too prone to flights of fancy not grounded in fact. There was no telling who originally placed this one volume in the false bottom or what the motivation was. Because of everything that had occurred in the past couple of days, I was overthinking this.

“Thank you, Your Honor,” I said. “This volume will be stored safely in the more secure room next door when I leave tonight.”

“Excellent,” Mrs. Long said. “Now I really have to be on my way. I’m already late for a meeting.”

Kanesha added her farewells to mine. Once the mayor was gone we sat again.

“Are they going to do anything about the lock on this door?” Kanesha asked.

“I’m sure they will now,” I said. “I think they ought to put cameras up here, too. Probably nothing like this will ever happen again, but it sure would be nice to have the added security.”

“I’d be willing to bet Chief Ford has already mentioned that to your boss,” Kanesha replied. “This building is way overdue for a security makeover.”

I tried to keep the bitterness out of my tone when I spoke, but I doubt I was successful. “Yes, it is overdue, but the college administration has different priorities. If it were something involving the football team, you can bet it would have been addressed long ago. A piddly little thing like an archive with rare or irreplaceable documents doesn’t rate beside a sports team.”

Kanesha frowned. “You’d think they’d get a better return on their money on the field, if they’re spending so much of it on sports.”

Our college football team hadn’t had a winning season in three years now, and the alumni were not happy. The administration kept shifting money to scholarships for athletes in an attempt to lure gifted ones to Athena. So far it didn’t seem to have worked all that well.

“You’re right about that,” I said. Time to get this conversation back on track. “I’ll pack the diaries in a box. I’m sure you don’t want to wait until I make new boxes for them.”

“No, we don’t have time for that.” Kanesha nodded. “Use those cotton gloves, and touch as little of the surfaces of the books and those boxes as possible. I doubt we’re going to find any fingerprints, but you never know.”

“I’ll be careful.” Her instructions irritated me a bit because by now, I thought, she surely ought to realize I knew enough to be careful. I found an empty box in the supply closet and brought it back, along with the four large manila envelopes the mayor had used to contain the diaries before.

I slipped each book into an envelope with great care, then sealed the metal clasp on the envelope and placed it in the box. When I finished, I said, “I’m going to pray that the techs at the crime lab will be that careful as well.”

“The mayor will see to it,” Kanesha said. “She knows the right people to make sure of it, even though she didn’t sound all that confident talking to us.”

“Okay,” I replied. I really hated to see the diaries leave my office again, but I knew it had to be done. “You know, we got sidetracked right away with the sudden reappearance, and then the mayor coming in with her surprise. You never did ask me what you wanted to know about Marie.”

“I hadn’t forgotten.” Kanesha settled back in her chair. “Take me through any encounter you had with Dr. Steverton during the past couple of days.”

I took a moment to marshal my thoughts. Then I launched into my recital of events. There was an interlude of about three minutes when Kanesha’s deputy arrived to pick up the four diaries. Once he left with the box, I resumed my narrative.

Kanesha did not ask questions until I finished. I appreciated that about her. She was patient and listened, rather than interrupting and perhaps making me forget something.

“I’ll be interviewing Ms. Grimes sooner rather than later,” she said. “Obviously she and Dr. Steverton were at cross purposes with each other.”

“Yes, they were,” I said. I recounted my experiences with Kelly Grimes, the ones that didn’t directly involve poor Marie. “She impressed me as being as eager as Marie to get hold of the diaries. Did you search her house?”

“Apartment,” Kanesha said. “We did and turned up nothing. Based on our searches, I had to conclude that if either woman took those diaries, they managed to hide them real well. Maybe in another location.”

“What about Jasper Singletary?”