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"You and I are used to dealing with mysteries that live on the page."
"There are no bad guys. There are just complicated people who did bad things."
"I've got enough crime fact in my life. I don't need to read about it."
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When c...
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Rushing into the bullpen, I searched for Nate's computer in the stack of evidence on Gil's desk. Passing by Zach and Leah, I paid minimal attention to them. "Hey guys," I said hurriedly.
Taking a distracted moment to look up, I noticed that Gil was in his chair with his feet propped up on the desk. Leah and Zach were in front of it with notes and computers in their laps. The three were all paying attention to Tyler, who was studying the murder board.
We had made a board while Gil was preparing Leah for her mission with Tia. On it was all of the suspects and their involvement, all of the motives, and all of the evidence that we had. Each suspect had their own section, and the evidence/victim information were in the center.
At the moment,Tyler was pointing at Tia's photo. He touched his bottom lip with the other hand, a habit of his that I had noticed. He wasn't facing us, but he knew that I had come in. "Tia's sorority sisters cannot confirm her alibi between eight and ten p.m., which the ME says fits the time of death," he informed, turning slowly to face us. I nodded, as this was an important fact, but I had bigger fish to fry at the moment.
I addressed Gil. "Is the evidence from Nate's room anywhere?" He nodded and pushed a stack of items towards me with his foot. "Great, thanks," I replied, already searching for his laptop.
Tyler made a face at me. "Why?" he inquired in a doubting voice. I thought you learned not to do that. He walked over to me as I set it down on a neighboring table and entered his password - thanks to Allegra, we knew it.
"Because," I drawled as I searched his folders, "I think I know why Virgil Cudforth 'didn't recall' knowing Nate."
Tyler seemed a little upset that I was opening the computer. I guess it was still being processed, but that didn't really matter at the moment. He'll get over it. "What are you doing?" he exasperated, as I pulled up and sat in a spare chair. Finding the folder I needed, I opened it with a flourish. Waving around the magazine in my hand, I opened it to his essay about Nixon. Tyler stared at me, but I ignored him as he cast a glare back at Gil. My cousin only shrugged, so he let it go and reached his arm behind me to place it on the desk on my other side. He leaned over me, watching over my shoulder.
Bringing up the paper, I placed it beside the essay written by Andy Buck that I had found on Nate's computer. The titles were different, but the content was exactly the same. I raised my eyebrows, breathing out a quiet, "All right."
"Huh," Tyler gawked as I underlined the first sentence with my finger and compared it to the magazine's copy.
"Almost word for word," I muttered. "Except for, well, the author." I continued reading both papers just to make sure, but what was going on here was obvious.
It sounded like Leah was making notes from behind us by the way her pen scratched against her notepad. Based on that and the hushed comments of that's incredible and but why? I could tell that the others had picked up on the context clues.
