A Murder In Passing Read Online Free PDF Page A

population is about four times the size of Henderson County and they have more lab resources.”
    â€œThey’ll probably keep the case unless circumstances bring the investigation back across the state line.”
    â€œYou made the papers.”
    â€œI did?” Suddenly I was more interested in the journalistic quality of the reporting. “No one ever called me.”
    â€œThat’s because the person who locked up Friday forgot to forward the phones. There are five messages on the machine from reporters wanting to talk with you.”
    â€œOh.” Of course, I was the person who neglected to forward the phones. I waited for Nakayla to rub my nose in it, but she gave me a pass.
    â€œActually good publicity,” she said. “Both articles describe you as Asheville’s most famous detective. They make it sound like you went looking for the body.”
    â€œWho am I to argue with the press?”
    â€œWho are you to argue with anybody? Just go read your clippings. The mysterious Marsha Montgomery will be here in less than thirty minutes.”
    I did as I was told and closed the door to my office. Not that I had a need for privacy but because my office was always a mess and we shielded it from a client’s curious eyes.
    I rolled my chair away from the cluttered desk to the side credenza where I kept my computer. I’d forgotten to turn that off as well and the screen glowed to life as soon as I moved the mouse.
    I first followed Nakayla’s link to the Asheville newspaper story. It was in the regional section and simply stated that skeletal remains of an unidentified man had been discovered in the woods near Tuxedo on the North Carolina–South Carolina border. The report said the preliminary forensic analysis conducted in Greenville, South Carolina, determined the deceased had been an adult male who may have died between twenty and forty years ago. No law enforcement authorities were quoted.
    The article touted me as the man who found the remains. I was described as one of the top private investigators in the state with a reference to the successful solution of the high-profile murders of Tikima Robertson and Asheville police detective Roy Peters, the case that brought Nakayla and me together. The reporter speculated I might have uncovered the remains as part of an investigation, but that I had been unavailable for comment. Just as well, I thought, since it saved me detailing the headfirst plunge into the rotten log.
    The article in the Hendersonville Times-News landed on the front page below the fold and offered more details. Deputy Overcash was quoted saying, “The investigation will be jointly conducted by the Henderson County and Greenville County Sheriff Departments, given the skeletal remains were found within a few feet of what might be an inaccurate marking of the state boundary. We are particularly concerned if the deceased turns out to have been a Henderson County resident.” To my relief the deputy downplayed my role saying, “Mr. Blackman happened upon the remains while on an outing with the Blue Ridge Mushroom Club. The discovery was accidental and Mr. Blackman isn’t involved in the investigation.”
    However, despite Overcash’s accurate statement, the newspaper article went on to give a one-paragraph profile of me, highlighting the case Nakayla and I solved the previous year that was triggered by a death on the mountain behind the historic farm of poet Carl Sandburg. I was again lauded, this time as one of the top private detectives in the South, a statement Nakayla saw as good publicity and Deputy Overcash probably saw as an incentive to run me over with his patrol car.
    Both the Hendersonville and Asheville stories had one glaring omission: neither mentioned the discovery of the slug. That wasn’t bad reporting, it was withheld information. I understood the play. Why tip someone off that the police were looking at a homicide?
    At the