Neal Rafferty New Orleans Mystery #1: The Killing Circle (A Neal Rafferty New Orleans Mystery) Read Online Free PDF

Quarter. Garber's store was in the seven hundred block of Royal Street amidst antique shops and boutiques which lined both sides of the street. The front window of the store had Garber's Rare and Used Books written on it in gold leaf. Books whose pages looked so old and yellow that they would shatter if you tried to turn them were opened and displayed on small easels. Some manuscripts were strewn on the floor of the window, giving the effect of arranged asymmetry.
    I opened the door with the key Catherine had given me, and immediately my senses were bombarded. The air was ice cold from an air conditioner that roared at me in the quiet of the room, and in the icy air there was a sickening odor. Faint but unmistakable. I found the light switch. There was a long counter to the back of the room. I looked behind it and found a couple of stacks of books. The rest of the room seemed okay, books on shelves to the ceiling, a bin of art prints. There was a door on the left side of the room. I went through it. Again, cold air, another roaring air conditioner. The light from the other room was enough that I could see that I had found Garber alright. Dead. The smell was bad so I covered my mouth and nose with a handkerchief and tried not to breathe too deeply.
    Garber had been shot in the chest. His coat had been buttoned to hide most of the bloodstained shirt. It was a peculiar touch. His arms dangled loosely at his sides and his head hung over the back of the chair in an abnormal way. I looked to see what had kept him from falling. His legs were spread and the knees were braced on the side drawers of the desk. That and the arm rests had kept him in the chain I looked at his face. Death had changed it considerably. He was the same man whose picture was on the desk, but I could no longer tell if he had been a pleasant sort. He was almost completely bald; the fringe around his head was gray. He was a big man and heavier than he was in the picture. He still had on his horn-rimmed glasses, but he was wearing them on his mouth. That didn't fit with the buttoned coat. I turned on the desk lamp to have a look around before I called the police. It would have to be quick; I couldn't take the stench much longer. Books lay everywhere, some on shelves and a lot more stacked on the floor. There was a large work table at the side of the room by a window where books were being bound and repaired. I checked them quickly to see if the William Blake volumes were there. Then I checked the rest of the room. It went fast. The leather-bound books were arranged mostly in groups, some behind glass. Somehow it had been easy enough to guess that Fleming's books wouldn't be there. I went back to the desk. There were more books on it, but not Fleming's. Under one stack near the telephone I saw part of a notepad. I pulled it all the way out. Two names were written on it, Fleming and Robert André. Both names had been traced over as if Garber had been on the phone when he had written them and had continued to doodle while he talked. I slipped the pad into my coat pocket.
    It was time to leave—I was getting sick to my stomach. I went back to the first room, closing the door behind me but now that it had been opened, I couldn't get away from the smell. I didn't expect to find them in here either, but I checked the room for the books. As I went over the shelves, I noticed that a section of shelves behind the counter to the right was out of alignment. I pushed on it. The shelves had been built right over a door that opened into a long narrow room running parallel with the front room. I pulled the string on the bare bulb hanging in the center More shelves, but these were filled with office supplies, order forms, catalogs, and ledgers. I pulled out the accounts payable books. Lucy McDermott's name and a Madison Street address were listed. She was certainly being paid well, three hundred dollars every Saturday for nearly a year. I put the book back and went over to the