The Paper Mirror by Dorien Grey

Author:Dorien Grey [Grey, Dorien]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery
Publisher: Untreed Reads
Published: 2016-08-25T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 8

I felt a little guilty, Thursday morning, that I hadn’t tried to reach Wayne Powers the night before, so I tried as soon as I got to the office, even before making coffee. No answer. The more I thought about the case, the more I wanted to talk with him, to see if he could shed any light on Scot McVickers’ relationship with Morgan Butler, and by extension, on the missing letters and what might be in them. I assumed, admittedly without reason, that Powers and Scot had gotten together sometime after Morgan’s death, so I couldn’t be sure that Powers would know anything at all about it. Some guys don’t like to bring up past loves to current partners.

Okay, I know that it seems I was going in two different directions at once here. I was supposed to be concentrating on whether Taylor Cates’ death was an accident or not. But if it wasn’t an accident, I’d have to find out who did it and why, and the “why” kept snapping me back to Morgan Butler.

The thoughts that had been flitting around the periphery of my mental vision were becoming much more clear, and certain pieces of the puzzle were showing themselves to me, as if saying, “Go here, stupid!” I sat at my desk drinking coffee—I hadn’t even thought about reading the newspaper yet, which was very unlike me—and going over the pieces of what I knew, comparing them with the pieces of what I suspected.

Morgan Butler was a writer, and from the looks of at least his unfinished manuscript, a darned good one. But I’d bet the farm that what was in the Burrows Collection was not everything he’d written.

Well of course there were more manuscripts, one of my mind-voices observed casually. You’ve just been reading one.

Of course! How stupifyingly dense could I have been? How could I not have seen it the first time I came across the two manuscripts left in the Collection? Why didn’t I catch on the minute I checked the spelling of “Scot” in Fate’s Hand? Of course there were more manuscripts! And they were being published with Evan Knight’s name on them!

Evan Knight had worked for Chester Burrows; he had ready access to everything in the collection. He had to have come across Morgan Butler’s papers and found the manuscripts and simply stolen them! Who was to know? Who could prove it even if they suspected it? How could I prove it? Morgan Butler was long dead and it’s probable that the only person he ever told about his writing was Scot, who was also now dead. He certainly wouldn’t have told his homophobic father, or admitted his homosexuality to his wife.

With all the principals involved either definitely or most likely dead, Knight had gambled—at excellent odds—on Morgan having been so uptight about anyone finding out he was gay that he not only would never have tried to have his books published, but probably would not even let anyone else see them.

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