Voodoo River (1995) Read Online Free PDF Page A

Did you need May?"
    "I don't think so."
    "Maybe I put it in a different year."
    "I don't think I'll need it."
    He nodded thoughtfully, told me to call him if I needed any help with the little crank, then went back to his book cart. When he was gone I took the January spool out of the microfiche and dug around in the box until I found the two July spools. I threaded in the first and skimmed through until I reached the Gazette dated 9 July. The ninth was a Tuesday and had no birth announcements. I searched through the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth, which was the following Friday. Friday's paper had three birth announcements, two boys and twin girls. The boys were born to Charles Louise Fontenot and William Edna Lemoine, the twin girls to Murray Charla Smith. As I was writing their names on a yellow legal pad, Mr. Parks strolled by. "Are you finding everything you need?"
    "Yes," I said. "Thank you."
    He nodded and strolled away.
    I cranked the little spool back to the beginning of July and copied the birth announcements published at the end of every week, and then I did the same for June and August. When I was working through August, Mr. Parks pushed the book can next to me and made a big deal out of straightening shelves and trying to pretend that he wasn't interested in what I was doing. I glanced up and caught him peeking over my shoulder. "Yes?"
    Mr. Parks said, "Heh heh," then pushed the cart away. Embarrassed. They get bored in these small towns.
    When I finished with August I had eighteen names. I put the little spools back into their box, turned off the microfiche, and returned the box to Mr. Parks. He said, "That didn't take very long."
    "Efficiency. Efficiency and focus are the keys to success."
    "I hear that."
    I said, "Is there a phone book?"
    "On the reference table next to the card catalog."
    I went over to the reference table and looked in the phone book for the names I had copied. I was on the fourth name when Mr. Parks said, "Seems to me you appear to be looking for someone."
    He was standing behind me again, peering over my shoulder.
    I put my hand over the names. "It's rather personal."
    He frowned. "Personal?"
    "Private."
    He peered at my hand as if he were trying to see through it. "You're not from around here, are you?"
    "No," I said. "I'm from the government. Central Intelligence."
    He looked offended. "No reason to be rude."
    I spread my free hand.
    He said, "You were copying birth announcements. Now you're looking for those names in the phone book. I think you're trying to find someone. I think you're a private detective." Great. The big-time Hollywood op gets made by the small-town librarian. He started away. "Perhaps we should call the police."
    I caught his arm and made a big deal out of looking around. Making sure that the coast was clear. "Thirty-six years ago, the person I'm working for was born in this area and given up for adoption. She has now contracted leukemia and requires a bone marrow transplant. Do you know what that means?"
    He answered slowly. "They need a blood relative for those transplants, don't they?"
    I nodded. You toss it on the water and sometimes they take it, but sometimes they don't. He was a knowledgeable man. He'd know more than a little about marrow transplants. He could ask to speak with my client or my client's physician, and, if I were legitimate, they'd be more than happy to speak with him. He could ask me if the leukemia was acute or chronic, or he could ask me which type of white blood cells were affected. There were a hundred things he could ask me, and some of them I could scam but most of them could blow me out of the water.
    He looked at my hand over the list of names, then he looked back at me and I saw his jaw work. He said, "I saw some of your names there. I know some of those folks. This lady, the one you're working for, she gonna die?"
    "Yes."
    He wet his lips, then pulled over a chair and sat down beside me. "I think I can save you some time."
    Of the eighteen