Chapter 21 second quarter
Rhett sat on the floor with his back against the bed.Reports, black-and-white photographs, and battered linen envelopes lay between her legs, and next to her was Detective Chief Inspector Bill Andrews's box, which was still seventy-fifths full of such documents.She thought about how many of these work files she had kept at home.hardly.
Looking at the date of the document, the documents left by Bill predate the computer age.She thought about the number of files on her computer, and tried to figure out how many of them would have been in Bill's day, when everything was handwritten or typed.And in triplicate.
Red considered whether to turn in the documents.There may be material about cold cases in it.Cold cases may one day be reopened for investigation.
Or, the materials Bill shouldn't have brought home.Perhaps he intends to return these.Or maybe, if she sent back the papers, it would put Bill at a disadvantage.tarnish his reputation.
She decided to hide the files at the bottom of the closet until she had more time to organize them.If she separates the vellum from the loose papers and puts them in order, she can work as soon as she has time and then decide what to do with it.
She picked up the box from the ground, turned it upside down, and emptied the contents, intending to rearrange them in order.Her raised hand landed on two stacks of neatly arranged documents.She was about to put the organized documents back into the box, with her hands in the air and her eyes fixed on the top of the pile of documents.There was a gun pointed at her.
A tsunami of emotion swept over Rhett.She seemed to have returned to the church that day.The trigger clicked.Then, a bullet rips the silence.She saw Bill's head snap to his chest, his life snuffed out like a wick being snuffed out.She could see Nathan Huntsman smiling as he wiped the muzzle of his gun on his jeans and put it back on his belt.
Heart pounding in his chest, Rhett let the empty box drop to the floor.She stretched out her right hand, closed her eyes, and tightly gripped the cold weapon with her fingers.
The gun was heavier than she expected.Like in the movie Detective Harry.Is this Magnum?she does not know.The nameplate on the gun has been crudely filed off.
More importantly, does it have bullets in it?How would she know?She held the weapon carefully in her hand, her heart still beating non-stop.The door behind her opened.Reid slammed the gun under the bed, quickly crawled to the door, still kneeling.
Pippa stared at her. "What are you doing kneeling there?"
"You went home early," Rhett said.
Pippa was already walking towards the end of the bed.She stares. "Cassandra! What's on the floor!"
"Elizabeth gave me a box of Bill's old papers," Rhett stammered, scanning the side of the bed to see if the gun would be seen. "I'm just sorting them out."
"But it's all dust! You're still in our bedroom! It's so dirty!"
"Only here for a few days. I'll have to check for Bill's personal stuff before I take them to the police. Just a few days."
"You sleep on this side of the bed tonight, Cassandra, and I can assure you. If you're going to keep that rubbish at home, it should be in the attic, not here."
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Notes: