shudder.
At four the guard came in to say that a deputy had fallen sick, another was stranded with a malfunctioning cruiser. Crowe sent her apologies but needed him to control a domestic situation. I assured him I'd be fine.
I worked on, the silence of the empty morgue wrapping around me like a living thing except for the hum of a refrigerator. My breath, my heartbeat, my fingers clicking the keyboard. Outside, branches scraped windowpanes high overhead. A train whistle. A dog. Crickets. Frogs.
No car horns. No traffic noises. No living person for miles.
My sympathetic nervous system kept the adrenaline in front row, center. I made frequent errors, jumped at every squeak and tap. More than once I wished for Boyd's company.
By seven I'd finished with Farrell, Odell, Tramper, and Adams. My eyes burned, my back ached, and a dull headache told me that my blood sugar was in the cellar.
I copied my files to floppy, closed down my laptop, and went to collect Anne's fax.
Though I was anxious to read about the eighteenth-century Sir Francis, I was too tired, too hungry, and too edgy to be objective. I decided to return to High Ridge House, walk Boyd, talk with Crowe, then read the pamphlet in the comfort and safety of my bed.
I was gathering pages when I heard what sounded like gravel crunching.
I froze, listening.
Tires? Footsteps?
Fifteen seconds. Thirty.
Nothing.
“Time to boogie,” I said aloud.
Tension made my movements jerky, and I dropped several papers from the basket. Gathering them from the floor, I noticed that one differed. The type was larger, the text arranged in columns.
I flipped through the other pages. Anne's cover sheet. The front of the pamphlet. The rest were brochure text, two pages to a sheet, each numbered sequentially.
I remembered the machine's pause. Could the odd page have arrived as a separate transmission? I looked but found no return fax number.
Taking everything to my office, I placed Anne's material in my briefcase and lay the mismatched sheet on my desk. As I read the contents, my adrenaline rocketed even higher.
The left column contained code names, the middle one real names. Dates appeared after some individuals, forming an incomplete third column.
Ilus
Henry Arlen Preston
1943
Khaffre
Sheldon Brodie
1949
Omega
A. A. Birkby
1959
Narmer
Martin Patrick Veckhoff
Sinuhe
C. A. Birkby
Itzmana
John Morgan
1972
Arrigatore
F. L. Warren
Rho
William Glenn Sherman
1979
Chac
John Franklin Battle
Ometeotl
Parker Davenport
Only one name was unfamiliar. John Franklin Battle.
