Death Among The Stacks: The Body In the Law Library
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About this ebook
Why did an Inspector from the Government Printing Office get crushed between two rows of electronic compact shelving? This murder/mystery is an Agatha Christie-type whodunit with multiple suspects whom the book's detective assembles together in one room for "the big reveal" in its final pages. Death-by-compact-shelving may seem like a stretch, but it almost happened at a library where this book's author worked. You will never look at librarians and library shelving the same after reading it.
Louise Hathaway
Louise Hathaway is a pen name of a husband and wife writing team. They write in several different genres including murder/ mystery; romance, travel, time travel, and literary criticism.
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Death Among The Stacks - Louise Hathaway
Books by Louise Hathaway:
Fighting Demons: A New Orleans Mystery
Deadly Promises: A New Orleans Mystery
50 Shades of Dead: A New Orleans Mystery
The Tustin Chronicles: A Detective Santy Mystery
The Murder at the Abbey: A Detective Santy Mystery
Honeymoon in Savannah: A Detective Santy Mystery
The Body on Ortega Highway: A Detective Santy Mystery
The Buried Treasure on Route 66: A Nancy Keene Mystery
The Stolen Mask: A Nancy Keene Mystery
The Stolen Masterpiece: A Nancy Keene Mystery
The Ghost in the Plantation: A Nancy Keene Mystery
The Missing Bachelor Farmer: A Nancy Keene Mystery
Watchin’ the Detective: A Mystery Dinner Romance
The Salacious Scribes Mystery
Death Among the Stacks: The Body in the Law Library
Murder Aboard the Coast Starlight
Travelers in Time Aboard the California Zephyr
Travelers in Time: A Search for the Missing
Torn Between Two Lovers: A Civil War Romance
Love Gets a Second Chance
The Summer of Love: A Trip Back to 1968
Our First Year Raising a Jack Russell Terrier Puppy (And Then Some)
The Forgotten Sister: A Sequel to Pride and Prejudice
England in the Footsteps of its Literary Giants
Chasing My Roots: New World Finally Meets Old World
Destination Europe: The Summer the World Changed
Honeymoon in New Orleans
Our Bluebird Family (free)
Planning a Vacation? Why Not Chicago? (free)
These titles are literary essays:
Marriage in Pride and Prejudice
The Oedipus Complex in D.H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers
Nags, Sluts, and a Deep-breasted Soulmate from the Shining City:
The Women in Thomas Wolfe’s The Web and the Rock
Death Among the Stacks:
The Body in the Law Library
by Louise Hathaway
Copyright Louise Hathaway 2014
Smashwords Edition
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Chapter One
Mark Sledge, a detective with the Denver Police Department, precariously balanced two piping-hot Starbucks venti coffees on his knee as he reached for the car keys in his pocket. Just then his cell phone rang, erupting with The William Tell Overture, causing Sledge to spill both coffees onto his lap and drenching his service revolver. Even though he was sitting inside his car, everyone sitting outside of Starbucks turned their heads in unison to see the hapless detective screaming and flailing about inside his car at some unseen menace. Damn it,
he screamed as his legs and other unmentionable areas burned with an intensity he hadn’t felt since spilling bacon grease on his arm as a young boy.
With both cups empty, he reluctantly drove through the drive-up again and sheepishly ordered two more. He had promised his wife a coffee that afternoon and wasn’t going to let her down. She was the love of his life and any time spent with her or for her was his only real happiness and satisfaction in life. They had been married twenty years last month and he and his wife were the happiest when they were together. He wondered aloud, Why the heck did I become a cop? I should have been a 9-5 kinda guy.
As he sat in the drive-thru line, he called the dispatcher back to find out what the call was all about. This better be good!
he muttered to himself. He had just gotten one of those new smart
phones that the department was issuing to all its employees. It could do everything: access the internet, send emails, play music, you name it. Detective Sledge was not a technology guy; he had only just gotten the hang of a regular cell phone, now he had to learn this new gizmo. Geez. The department IT guys had programmed it with special ring tones to help him identify who was calling by the tone. They asked him if he had a favorite song or melody that they could assign to any incoming call from dispatch. "Yeah, I like The William Tell Overture, you know, all that cavalry-coming-to-the-rescue-stuff." The IT guys suppressed their giggles and set him up with his favorite song for dispatch, purposely turning up the volume to the highest level as a practical joke. I’m going to get them bastards!" he thought.
Hi Lucy, this is Sledge. I just got a call. What’s up?
He shifted and mushed in his seat as he pulled up to the coffee window.
Lucy responded, Seems there’s been a murder, Detective Sledge. Some federal mucky-muck over at the Library of Law in downtown.
Sledge thought, A murder? In the Library of Law?
Don’t you mean the Law Library, Lucy?
She indignantly shot back, Aw, whatever. Some library over there in downtown, I’m not exactly sure. Someone called right after lunch and was screaming that someone was killed, and we needed to get over there right away.
Wow, Sledge thought, a murder; this could be my big chance. You sure this isn’t another gang shooting, Lucy?
No,
she replied. The captain called and said this was important and that you needed to get over there right away.
Okay; thanks, Lucy. Tell him I’m heading over now.
Sledge hung up the phone and wondered, why would the captain get involved in this? This must be important.
Hey, didn’t you just get coffee, Officer?
the Starbucks barista snapped at Sledge.
Yes, well, I, er, ah--I spilled it on the way out. Could I get some half-and-half in those too, please?
Sledge begged, feeling foolish.
Wow, I guess you did, didn’t you!
the barista answered, eyeing Sledge’s pants. Sledge’s face was now as red as his crotch as he reached back into the pool of coffee for his wallet. He fished out a few almost dry bills and paid for the coffees.
Do you want a carrier for these, hon?
Yeah, I suppose so. Don’t want to spill it now,
Sledge answered snarkily. He took the coffees and gingerly placed them on the floor of the squad car and headed home to his wife and some dry pants. Boy; she’s gonna laugh at me for this," he told himself. Even so, with all his pain and embarrassment, he couldn’t suppress a grin, thinking about her and what she would say, as he headed home to the love of his life.
Chapter Two
Two hours earlier, Yvonne, a Technical Services Librarian who oversaw the Federal Depository collection at the library, hurriedly walked down the steps of the library. She felt like she had to get away. To say that she was having a bad day was the understatement of the year. As she headed towards the deli across the street from the Federal Courthouse, she dialed the number of her former library assistant with a trembling hand.
She was extremely nervous about an inspector from the Government Printing Office coming to the library to oversee the way that the library had been showcasing its government documents. The inspector planned to meet with her to discuss the guidelines that the library must follow to market its collection in TV and radio ads. The last time an inspector came, he criticized the way that the library had been handling its depository collection. Yvonne and her assistant had put together a book display of the library’s federal and state materials and the inspector had said that it was so ineffective that it left him cold.
He reminded her that the purpose of the entire Government Depository System dated back to the times of our founding fathers, who felt that it was the public’s right to know what its government was doing, and warned Yvonne that if