LEFT OF SINISTER

CHAPTER TWENTY

He searched the shelf in there first, but soon enough realized it wasn't up there where Candy had said it was. There were various boxes and items at the bottom of it, some tapes and old rock albums Clete had owned and expressed the wish Candy to have upon his death, and as well a mound of old stained work clothes. The umbrella was tilted in a corner of the closet where he had put it laying across the dirty clothes no doubt the family had used as rags.

Putting the umbrella aside he began digging beneath the soiled attire and there he found what he assumed was the lock box. He quickly got it and pushed it beneath his right arm. Fearful about his position he bent from his squat and leaning forward peeked around the corner of the entrance to his left.

He peered through the darkness at the form of his brother on the couch which he could readily see in the glow of the television. He rose up then and heard his bones crack as he did so. His knees hurt from the effort as did other joints of his aging body. He breathed heavily before exhorting himself forward once more moving around the corner of the foyer entrance and silently making his way to the door of the den which he'd left ajar.

He slipped in there pulling the door closed behind him and then made his way down to the table where the computer sat. He sat the lock box on the floor just under the table and using his left foot slid it several feet beneath the cover of it. He then pulled up the shirt jacket and feeling back there removed the manila envelope from the security of his waist band. He then had a seat in the office swivel chair and pulling the metal clasps up on the envelope lifted the flap up.

Tilting it upside down he let the bundle of paperwork fall onto the surface of the desk along with two bullet casings. He held them up and saw on the end of them the number .22 notwithstanding the marks left by the firing pin of a gun. He sat them aside for later reference.

The papers had not scattered being held together by a thick paperclip. Pulling the clip free he now tried to see what was printed on the top sheet which from its appearance seemed like a list. After rubbing the lens of his foggy glasses with the hem of the shirt he returned them to his nose and looked once again at the sheet of paper.

At the very top typed and underlined were the words "NOTES ON MURDER" revealing what the abbreviation (NOM) in parenthesis that Ryan had written on the front of the envelope with the words "RYAN'S FINDS" meant.

The first name on the list was that of Linda Dupray Corman age 30, Phillip Charles Dupray age 27, which Earl immediately assumed was her brother. And below Phillip's name were the names of Linda's children Dorothy age 11, Sheila age 10, and the little boy "Boomer" whose actual name was Michael age 6. There was no information recounting their demise, but rather a website which was listed to the right of the lineup of names.

SAVEtheDAY–SOLVEaCRIME.com was the website there. Earl looked at the dark screen of the computer. He contemplated it for a moment wondering if he could make use of it. He reached out and pushed the power button on.

The screen came alight making the area surrounding him just a little bit brighter. Getting on line was password protected. He wondered what the password was, and assuming this was Candy's computer what he would use as his password. He typed several ideas and each time the prompt on the screen informed him it was incorrect. At last he decided what Candy would likely use, and that was likely the most obvious thing using some kind of rather feeble reverse psychology on those with the potential of unauthorized use of his machine . He typed Candiwork65 as one word and voila he was allowed to access the net.

He Googled the website Ryan had reference and immediately was given a variety of choices to access it. He clicked on the first one and the words SAVEthe DAY-SOLVEaCRIME.com came into vision on the screen in bright red letters across a blue and white banner, a similar red color to the shirt he was presently wearing.

His brother's shirt as well and thus might could be seen as representing something far different than the red emblazoned along the top of this website. Regardless he decided in either case it represented blood.

The page was full of names under the heading "UNSOLVED MURDERS". But none of the sur names listed began with the letter C all beginning instead with an A. Just below the website name was a line of boxes holding within them the twenty six letters in the alphabet.

He put the arrow of the mouse onto the letter C and with a click and in a moment the page changed. Going down the list of names there that started with a "C" he at last stopped on the following Corman, Linda August 16th, 1976. Beside each name in parenthesis was the word info. He pushed the arrow to this word and clicked yet again. What came up was an article from a the Bakersfield Bee newspaper. He now set about reading it.