Queen's Gambit by Bradley Harper

Author:Bradley Harper
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Queens Gambit
ISBN: 9781645060079
Publisher: Seventh Street Books
Published: 2019-08-19T16:00:00+00:00

That afternoon, when the custodian submitted a copy of the form verifying the work on the boarding school had been completed, a clerk in the dean’s office found no record such work had been requested. He sent a strongly worded note to the address listed on the form denying payment, mentioned it in passing to the dean, then promptly forgot about it.

26

Tuesday, June 15, cont.

Once we’d reached the entrance to the apartment building, I was surprised when I found a package in my mail drop. “Looks like a book,” Elizabeth said.

I examined the address written on the package. It had been forwarded from the postal office closest to my previous apartment. I accompanied Elizabeth to the Ethington flat to store away my peace offering to James before opening the package. Inside, as Elizabeth had predicted, was a book, this one containing poetry. I noted a bookmark leading my eyes to John Donne’s For Whom the Bell Tolls. The inscription gave me pause, “May these words bring you as much pleasure as they do me.” The sender had signed the inscription only as H.

So that’s how he found me. I thought. God bless the Royal Mail. They brought him right to the front door. I looked at Elizabeth. And her.

“What is it, Margaret? What’s wrong?”

“I know how our assassin found me.”

“All this from a book? Explain, please.”

“Let’s go inside, in case the killer is loitering about. Then, Detective, you can study the evidence and tell me what you make of it.” God, I miss Bell right now.

Once inside my flat, Elizabeth carefully studied the book and the wrapping, her brows knitted in concentration.

“Don’t tell me what you deduce,” I said. “Not yet. Just describe what you see. If you jump to a conclusion too soon, your mind will filter out anything that contradicts your hypothesis. Look. Analyze. Then deduce. Professor Bell taught me well. You could find no one better to emulate than him.”

“The package was forwarded from your apartment’s address.”

“Too soon. You’re making deductions. First, describe the handwriting on the cover.”

Elizabeth took a breath, then studied the addresses again. “Two different hands. One bold with heavy strokes. The other lighter, precise.”

“Which address for the bold hand?”

“Your previous apartment. The lighter hand for the one here.”

“What does that tell you?”

“Heavy Hand didn’t know your forwarding address. The lighter one is probably the Post Mistress.”

“Good so far.”

Elizabeth sat back, her eyes looking far away. “He watched her write the address down. That’s how he found us.”

“Precisely. By leaving a forwarding address, I left a trail straight here. Straight to you and your father. I am so very sorry.” Suddenly I felt exhausted. “My first instincts after the attack were right. Ott is clever and relentless. I should probably leave for Australia on the next available ship. That would be the smart thing to do, but I’m not going to be scared off by this man, only to have him hunt me wherever I go. I do think however, that I should change my lodgings again until he’s caught, to throw him off my trail.

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