Death on Deadline - Robert Goldsborough Page 0,65

I thought you should know. And this ought to scotch the murder nonsense permanently.”

“Thank you,” Wolfe said icily. He went back to his repotting.

“I think we’ve been dismissed,” I said to Cramer.

“Okay, I’ve given it to you,” he told Wolfe with a shrug. “Just remember, this story goes no further.” He did a crisp about-face for a guy his size. “I’ll let myself out,” he said to me over his shoulder, and headed down the stairs with me about half a flight behind. He went out the door without a word, and after I slid the bolt, I went back to my desk in the office. I stared at the phone for thirty seconds, then picked up the receiver and buzzed.

“Now what?”

“Do I go ahead with Lon and the office search?”

“I’ve said nothing to countermand that” was all I got in answer, unless you include another hang-up.

I called Lon, and when I told him what I wanted, he sighed and started to protest, but stopped himself. “Oh, hell, we said we’d cooperate, and we will. I’ll have to mention it to Carl, though.”

I said I had no objection and that I’d be over by ten-thirty. In fact, it was ten-twenty-one when I walked into the Gazette lobby, thanks to light traffic and a cabbie who loved to see pedestrians scatter. Two minutes later, I rapped on Lon’s office door and marched in.

“Archie, do you really expect to find anything there?” he asked, pushing away from his desk.

“Probably not,” I answered as we went down the hall to Harriet’s suite. “But how can it hurt to look? I’d guess eighty-seven people have been through here since the last time you and I saw it.”

“Give or take a few. But because nobody except you and Wolfe think it was a murder, who’d want to mess with the papers in her office?”

“The murderer?”

Lon mouthed a word but didn’t say it as he unlocked the double doors. The office looked about the same as when I was first there, except that stacks of papers and manila folders were piled neatly on Harriet’s desk and the bookcase ledge.

“Her secretary was cleaning the place out,” Lon said. “As you can see, there’s still a long way to go.”

“Oh, by the way,” I cut in, “Mr. Wolfe wants me to talk to the secretary, too.”

“Can’t deliver on that one—not now. Her name’s Ann Barwell, but she’s out of town. She’s worked for Harriet for, Lord, close to twenty years. After a couple of days of going through Harriet’s things, she got so broken up that she had to get away and be alone for a while. Carl and David and Donna all agreed it would do her some good. She went down to Hilton Head to her sister’s place. Probably won’t be back for a couple of weeks, at least.”

“Okay. And Bishop didn’t object to my going through the things here?”

“Why should he?”

“No reason, I suppose. Any papers been taken out of here, records of any kind?”

“Not that I’m aware of, but then, I wouldn’t necessarily know. Most of what Harriet had in the way of records was kept in other places in the building. She didn’t really need to keep much confidential stuff around.”

“Well, let’s start in,” I said. “You going to stay?”

Lon looked a little sheepish. “Carl . . . thought it might be a good idea if I hung around and—”

“And made sure that the private investigator didn’t walk out with something valuable?”

“Come on, Archie, that’s a cheap shot.”

“You’re right,” I said, throwing up a hand. “I apologize. Besides, I like the company. And if you don’t mind, you can help me plow through this stuff.”

“Just what do you expect to find?”

“Maybe a note, a memo, something to indicate that Harriet was planning to name Scott publisher.”

Lon snorted. “Wolfe really is reaching.”

“Could be, but I like the work, the pay’s adequate, and the hours aren’t bad, so when he gets a notion, the odds are heavily in favor of my buying it. I’ll start with the stacks on the desk.”

For the next two hours, Lon and I combed the office, the lavatory, and the little blue bedroom. We went through piles of monthly profit-and-loss statements and other financial records, circulation reports, a few angry letters from readers that she apparently intended to answer, and memos from various department heads on everything from a new design for the corporate stationery to a proposal for a Gazette-sponsored annual charity game between the Giants and the Jets.