True Blue

CHAPTER 27

AT THE SOUND of the knock Roy looked up from a contract he was reviewing.

“Yeah?”

The door opened and a young man dressed in corduroy pants, striped shirt, and a cheap paisley tie stood there holding on to the front bar of a mail cart. It was old-fashioned, but even in the digital age sometimes lawyers still needed materials that were actually contained in books or written on real paper.

“Special delivery,” the young man said.

“Just put it on the desk, Dave.”

Dave came forward clutching the book. “Creepy.”

“What’s creepy?’

“Ms. Tolliver.”

Roy shrugged. “I doubt whoever killed her is going to come back.”

“Not what I meant.”

Dave put the book down on the desk.

Roy leaned back in his chair. “Okay, don’t keep me in suspense.”

Dave tapped the book. “This is from Ms. Tolliver.”

Roy snatched up the book. “When did she put it in the mail room?”

“Don’t know.”

“Why don’t you know? I thought there were procedures.”

“Most of the time folks call and we come and pick up the package. They have a delivery sheet filled out and we put it in the pipeline.”

“So why don’t you know when this book came in?”

“It was just in the mail room with the sheet filled out. She must’ve done it herself. I checked with Ms. Tolliver’s secretary and she didn’t know anything about it.”

“But she was killed Monday morning. It’s now Tuesday afternoon and I’m just getting this?”

“We didn’t deliver the mail yesterday because the police were all over the place. Just getting to it now. I’m sorry.”

Roy examined the cover of the book. It was on contract law, an out-of-date edition. Lawyers never sent old textbooks to each other. What would be the point?

“Did you see it in the mail room on Friday?”

“Don’t think so.”

“But you’re not sure?”

“No. I’m not.”

“Okay, but did you see it in the mail room on Monday morning?”

“Can’t really say. It was so crazy around here. But it had to be there on Monday morning. I mean, she couldn’t have done it after she was dead.”

“If she was the one who put the book in the mail room, Dave. We have no way of telling if she physically did it or not.”

“Oh, right.” Dave looked at him nervously. “Am I in trouble?” Roy sat back, his sudden flame of anger gone. “Probably not. Thanks, Dave. Sorry I got testy. I guess we’re all a little stressed out.”

After Dave closed the door, Roy looked at the mail slip clipped to the book. It was in Diane’s neat handwriting that he’d seen on many documents. The mail form had a date and time-of-day box to show when it had gone into the system; however, Diane had not filled in this information. The form did have his name on it as the recipient, so the book was meant for him. There was no reason for her to send it to him. But she had. He flipped through some pages, but it was just an old book.

His phone rang. “Yeah?” His mouth formed a smile when he heard the voice.

Mace said, “You must’ve billed nearly a hundred hours so far today.”

“I told you this is a humane law firm. We don’t have to lie by the hour.”

“You got time to talk?”

“Sure, when?”

“How about now?”

His door opened and Mace waved to him. Roy shook his head and put down his phone. “Are you always this weird?”

“You haven’t begun to see my weird side.”

“That is truly terrifying.”

“I know. I get that a lot.”