A Life for a Life - Lynda McDaniel (whitelam books TXT) 📗

“I don’t understand why you went straight to Brower.” I was standing in front of Cassie’s desk at the Forest Service office. She just sat there with her tissues and trembling chin, determined not to be cheated out of her pity party.

“I was afraid to ask Gregg about it because it seemed like he was some kind of monster. Make that is some kind of monster. How else did those so-called suicide notes get inside that computer book? He probably thought no one would look there. Listen, Della. I was scared, scared through and through.”

I couldn’t think of a good argument for her, other than the fact that we both knew Gregg. But I had to admit that a strange series of seemingly unrelated events had conspired to land Gregg in jail. She went on to explain that an electrical outage started it (a common irritant around there). That interrupted her work on a flyer for her boyfriend’s band while Gregg was away at a Forest Service meeting in Asheville. I recalled that the band had a ridiculous name—The Naked Outlaws—especially since they weren’t naked when they performed (though who knew what happened during rehearsals), and they weren’t outlaws, unless being a Christian rock band was considered a crime against music.

The outage crashed her computer, which refused to reboot once the power was restored. She said she called someone she thought could help, but that person was at a loss, too. They figured her only bet was the computer manual, which led her to Gregg’s office. While she flipped through the pages, the notes fell out. As she told it, her hands started shaking when she opened one, read it, and screamed for help.

“I couldn’t believe it. They were exactly like the note everybody’s been seeing around town, word for word, but one had some cross-throughs, as though he’d been practicing. And the second one was the same—only perfect. Like he’d got it right. In that poor girl’s handwriting.”

“Why would Gregg leave something incriminating like that lying around?” I asked. “Especially if anyone could go snooping around and find it.”

Cassie stomped her foot. “I wasn’t snooping. I was honestly trying to work on something, and one thing led to another.”

“Honestly working on your boyfriend’s flyer, you mean.”

Cassie gave me the most unchristian look. “Well, if it weren’t for the power outage, I would have been doing my regular work.”

That didn’t make sense since her work on the poster was interrupted by the power outage, but I could tell Cassie wasn’t going to offer anything useful. “Something stinks, Cassie.”

“Hey, whose side are you on?”

“To be honest, Gregg’s.”

“Listen to me. That note was in Gregg’s office. Hidden in a book he figured no one would ever look in because he hadn’t in the two years since we got computerized. I rest my case.”

“Well, good for you. You’re the only one who can rest. You’ve stirred up a hornet’s nest and put someone in jail who I seriously doubt was stupid enough to leave incriminating evidence lying around his office. Who else has access to his office?”

“That’s just it. No one. Except me, and I sure didn’t kill that girl.”

“I know you didn’t, Cassie. But someone must have planted that evidence. Who cleans your offices?”

“I do,” she said, with an angry tone I couldn’t blame her for. Just hire the little lady to do everything.

“Well, I’m sure Brower won’t care about the unlikely details of this, but I sure do.” I may have stomped my foot, too, before I slammed the door and left Cassie sniveling.

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