The Girl and the Secret Passage by A.J. Rivers

Author:A.J. Rivers [Rivers, A.J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Emma Griffin FBI Mysteries
Publisher: A.J. Rivers
Published: 2023-11-23T16:00:00+00:00

“The books were found in two different used bookstores in the city. Both locations are owned by the same people. The book with the torn page was found at the on-campus bookstore where students buy and sell their used textbooks. They’re accustomed to books coming back with some damage, so they tried not to put too much thought into it when they noticed one of the books they were processing back into their system had a piece missing from one of the pages.

“They also own a general used-books bookstore off-campus. The book with the blood underline was found on a shelf that had been on display for a sidewalk sale. But it wasn’t from their inventory. It had been placed there,” Detective Tarrant told us when we arrived at the police department, ushering us into the room where she had both books sitting on a conference table.

“So whoever did this brought that book to the bookstore and slipped it into a shelf,” I said.

“That wouldn’t be all that difficult,” Jackson said. “It’s been cold out, so people are wearing coats and heavy jackets. It’s not a very big book. They could have easily snuck it in from inside their coat.”

“We’ve missed a victim. There’s a body that we haven’t found. And we have to find them,” I said, feeling sick to my stomach that this happened under my watch. “Have you been able to interpret the torn paper to find the passage being highlighted?”

“No, I called you immediately when they came in. The only thing that’s been done with the books is processing them for fingerprints,” she said. She touched the cover of one of the books. “This one has the torn page. Mary Shelley. Frankenstein.”

We immediately ran an internet search to find the exact copy of the book so we could locate the words. After twenty minutes of searching and comparisons, we were able to isolate the passage.

“‘Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful’,” I read. “How about the other one? The bloody passage?”

Detective Tarrant flipped through a copy of L. M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables and slid the book toward me when she’d settled on a specific page. “‘Isn’t it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?’” She made an appreciative sound. “That says a mouthful.”

“But what does it mean?” I asked. I whispered the words from the damaged page to myself several times, kind of trying to get them into my mind so something might come to the surface. “‘Fearless and powerful.’ That doesn’t really mean anything. That could be anybody.”

“What if it isn’t the words?” Jackson asked. “I mean, not those words specifically. What if it’s the book itself?”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Frankenstein,” he said. “Maybe the clue is Frankenstein. Like a monster.”

We thought for a few seconds, trying to decipher what that could mean.

“The creature mural?” Detective Tarrant suggested. “In the old neighborhood at the very edge of the city. There’s that huge mural.”

“It’s a start,” I said.

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