Murder Misdirected by Andrew MacRae

Author:Andrew MacRae [MacRae, Andrew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mainly Murder Press
Published: 2012-11-05T00:00:00+00:00

Nineteen

We met in the same conference room and with the same people, and we all sat in the same places. About the only thing different this morning was the color of the other men’s ties and the lack of Miss Yee spilling anything.

Riley began the meeting by giving Olsen and me some news. “It turns out the hotel maids weren’t completely thorough when they cleaned Sorensen’s room. Agent Kruger here found a piece of paper behind a desk.” He turned to Kruger, who continued the report.

“It’s just a scrap, a page cut from a book.”

“Do you think Sorensen hid it there?” asked Olsen.

“No,” replied Kruger. “When I showed it to the maids, they said there were lots of scraps just like it in the wastebasket. It looks like when he threw them away, one fell behind the desk where he couldn’t see it.”

Hundreds of pages cut from a book. What was Sorensen doing?

“May I see the page?” I asked.

Miss Yee answered. “It’s at our lab. We’ll have a report soon.” She looked at Riley, who nodded. “I’ll make certain you get a copy of the report.” Kruger looked pained as usual. I didn’t care.

“I really want to see the page itself,” I pressed.

“You think you’ll do better than a fully equipped lab?” asked Kruger.

I ignored him and turned to Riley. “I know a bit about books, don’t forget.” Riley thought for a second then nodded again.

“No problem. Miss Yee, please arrange for Mr. Smith to take a look at the page when the lab is through with it.”

Miss Yee nodded and, brushing her hair from her face, made a note. Kruger just sighed. I didn’t like to think what he would have done had she spilled her coffee again.

Agent Riley turned now to Olsen. “Mr. Olsen, tell us about Pitr. We can’t find anything on him in our database.”

Olsen shrugged. “I’m not surprised. I’ve only spoken with him the once, on the telephone, but it sounded like he was new in town and maybe new in the country. His accent sounds like he may be from the Ukraine. As I told The Kid, my guess is that he had some trouble with his bosses back home and needs a big score to get back in good graces.”

Cochran spoke up. “We’ve checked with Interpol, the Russian police, and other agencies. So far no one knows anything about him.”

A mobile phone chirped. Miss Yee excused herself and answered it, getting up from the table and moving away. The conversation was brief. She hung up and returned to the table, as usual having to brush her hair from her face. I wondered why she wore it that way, given the trouble it caused.

“They’ve figured out what book the page is from. It’s The Woman in White by …” she closed her eyes, trying to remember.

“By Wilke Collins,” I finished for her.

“Yes,” she said. “They don’t know what edition yet. They’re going to try analyzing the paper.”

“You know that book?” asked Olsen.

“Yes,” I replied. “It’s a classic mystery story written back in 1868.

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