Booked to Die by John Dunning

Author:John Dunning [Dunning, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, General, Mystery & Detective, Police Procedural
ISBN: 9780743261401
Google: 0idLaOviqVAC
Amazon: 0743410653
Publisher: Scribner
Published: 1991-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

23

I had come to the store late that day after a tough round of fruitless bookscouting. The days were getting shorter: we were off daylight saving time and darkness had fallen by five o’clock, the time we normally close for the night. Usually I tried to get in by four—Colfax is a rough street and I didn’t like leaving Miss Pride to close up alone—but that day I had scouted Boulder and had run later than expected. It was almost five when I pulled up in front of the place and parked. I saw Miss Pride, alone in the front room, adding up the day’s receipts. When I came in she rolled her eyes toward the back rooms, and when I came closer she held up the calculator to show me what she’d done that day. The total was $1,425, my best day ever. I gave a little whistle. “Couple of high rollers,” she said. “They’re still here, in back.”

She showed me the receipts. They had bought John Stephens’ Incidents of Travel in the Yucatan, a very nice 1843 first edition in the original boards, and the expensive Louise Saun-ders-Maxfield Parrish Knave of Hearts, which I had bought from a catalog only last month. The tariff for the two items came to almost $1,200.

“Just an average day if it wasn’t for them,” I said.

“They are definitely strange ducks, Mr. Janeway,” she said, keeping her voice down. “But when they spend this kind of money, who’s going to quarrel?”

“Strange how?” I asked.

“Well, they came in here about three-thirty. The one did all the talking. He asked for you right off. When I told him you weren’t in, he asked when you’d be back. I said probably before five. He asked to see the best books in the house. I showed him the Stephens and the Parrish. He said, I’ll take these, just like that. Paid with hundred-dollar bills.” She cocked the cash drawer open slightly, so I could see the wad of money. “Then he wouldn’t take any change. He gave me twelve hundred-dollar bills and said keep the change. I told him it was against policy, we didn’t accept tips, but he went on as if he hadn’t heard me. I thought he was going to leave but he didn’t. He walked all around the store. Like I said, he’s in the back room now.”

I shrugged. “No accounting for people, Miss Pride. I’ll take his money.”

“I thought you would.”

I sat where she had been sitting and started looking through the other sales. “You can take off now if you want.”

“Oh, I’ll hang around a bit. Mr. Harkness is coming by in a few minutes to take me to dinner.”

I sat up straight. “Jerry Harkness?”

“Something wrong with that?”

I went back to my bookkeeping. Far be it from me to tell her who she could see. But yes, dammit, now that she mentioned it, there was something a little wrong. She was a sweet young girl and Jerry Harkness was a relatively old man.

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