Third Time's the Harm by Loran Holt

Author:Loran Holt [Holt, Loran]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Acorn Publishing
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

P

O

kay, back to the list. I filled Uncle James in on what I had been thinking without him hearing.

I’m moving Brigham Bryson to the top, I announced to Uncle James.

Hmmm. I’ll admit he’s not my favorite person, but I have difficulty seeing him soiling his hands.

He knew about the letter. I reminded my uncle.

It seems to have been even a more open secret then I imagined.

I think Graber knows, too, although he didn’t come out and say so. He certainly wanted me to know he was a “hard biscuit” as Uncle Zalman put it.

Uncle James’s laughter proclaimed his delight.

That’s two, and I’ve decided Dennis and his Dad make four. How about the will witnesses? Doubtful I guess, but I’ve put them down for five and six. The out-of-town book dealers you told me about are seven and eight, even though they never inquired about any “correspondence.”

And Zalman, put in Uncle James, reluctantly.

Try as I might, I just couldn’t see Zalman, the Gnome King (I apologized in my head, but really . . . ), knocking Uncle James on the head, dragging his body to a car, driving to the house, dragging Uncle James out again, and into the office. I said as much to Uncle James.

He might have had help, Uncle James offered.

What from, a forklift? I inquired sarcastically.

Don’t get mouthy with me, young lady, admonished my uncle with obviously pretend indignation. It came to me that he must have felt we had a real relationship if I thought I could “talk back.”

I reluctantly added Uncle Zalman to the list.

I would have to suffer a broken heart for eternity. Another broken heart, he amended after a pause. For eternity, he said again, as though I didn’t get the time span the first time around, if it were Zalman.

I sighed. “Was the letter worth it?” I wondered that aloud, but thinking, Another broken heart?

I thought it worth a great deal, my dear, but one death, particularly mine, he added ironically, and two “almosts”—never.

How did you come by it, Uncle James?

I purchased some books from the estate of an elderly gentleman, who had no heirs who could be found. Improbable as it may sound, I found the letter while I was looking the books over. It was inside a volume of the Man in the Iron Mask. Not a particularly valuable book, but a client of mine wanted an old copy for his daughter—a child who actually likes to read, and historical novels, at that. She already had the other D’Artagnan romances, and, her father wanted to complete her collection with a fairly inexpensive, but at least vintage, copy.

I marveled at a child of that caliber, before I asked, what were you going to do with it—the letter, that is?

Publish, was my uncle’s succinct answer.

Elaborating, he went on, As I mentioned, the letter, if genuine, would confirm a number of historical rumors, as well as put a number of noses out of joint. Plus, make something of an uncomfortable change in history books.

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