Flash

Olivia?"
    "Absolutely. It's a very convenient solution to our storage problem." She tried not to grin in triumph as she straightened away from the wall. "In fact, if you two have finished diagnosing the leak, I'd like to get busy upstairs. We've got a lot to do today."

    "Nice work." Jasper walked out of the elevator and started down a gloomy corridor on the fourth floor. He had a large box cradled under one arm. The box was very light. The only things inside were the tools he anticipated he might need to cut through padlocks or pry open steel filing cabinets.
    "I thought so." Olivia followed him off the elevator. "Of course, I couldn't have pulled it off if you hadn't come up with the idea that Uncle Rollie's files had never left the building."
    "I keep telling you, that's why guys like me get the corner office and the—"
    "Okay, okay, enough with the mysterious act. Your theory about Melwood having a locker up here has been proven true. Tell me why you're acting as if this situation is a lot worse today than it was yesterday?"
    "Last night your brother and I had a short man-to-man talk about his relationship with Eleanor Lancaster."
    "What about it?"
    Jasper glanced at the locker numbers on his left as he went down the aisle. Four-fifteen, four-seventeen, four-nineteen. Four-sixty-three would be in the rear of the building.
    "He told me that you weren't the only one who had warned him not to get involved with Lancaster," he said.
    "Someone else gave him the same advice? Who was it?"
    "Good old Uncle Rollie."
    There was a short, terse silence behind him. And then the full implications of what he had just said hit her.
    "Good grief." She paused briefly and then hurried after him. Her footsteps echoed on the concrete floor. "You mean… ?"
    "That Rollie may have launched one of his now-famous inquiries into the private lives of his relatives before he left on that photo safari trip?" Jasper turned down another aisle. "And found something he didn't like in the background of Eleanor Lancaster? Something that made him think Todd should steer clear? Yeah, I think it's a real possibility."
    "Jasper, that would mean that Melwood could have found that information, whatever it was, and tried to blackmail Eleanor Lancaster with it." Olivia sounded thunderstruck. "My God. He may have been blackmailing the next governor of this state."
    "We don't know that for certain yet. But I'd say it's a real possibility."
    "Oh, my lord," Olivia said. "Eleanor would not brush aside any kind of threat that jeopardized her future in politics. Something tells me she would be very dangerous if cornered."
    "I got the same impression."
    "Why didn't you say something last night?"
    "I wanted to find the missing files before I went any farther with the theory." Jasper paused in front of a locker. 463 was painted on the plywood door. A new padlock gleamed in the shadows. "But thanks to you, I think we may have accomplished that."
    He set down his box, lifted the lid, and removed a pair of bolt cutters. Olivia hung over his shoulder, watching intently.
    It only took a moment to sever the padlock.
    "Don't get too excited." Jasper dropped the broken lock into his pocket. "We may find only another empty locker."
    "I don't think so." Olivia pulled the door open.
    The weak glow of the flickering fluorescent fixture overhead spilled partway into the dark locker.
    Jasper whistled softly. "I told you that your uncle and I had a lot in common when it came to filing."
    "Apparently Melwood did, too," Olivia whispered.
    Rows of sturdy cardboard file boxes were stacked halfway to the ceiling on freestanding, bolt-together metal shelving. Each box was neatly labeled. A small desk and a stool had been set up at the rear of the locker. A flashlight sat on top of the desk. A single file box stood on the floor near the stool.
    "All the comforts of home." Jasper moved past Olivia into the shadowed locker. He picked up the flashlight. "I'm surprised there isn't a hot plate and a mattress."
    "Uncle Rollie's secret files." Olivia looked stunned. She bent down to get a better look at one of the labels. "This is incredible. Some of these boxes go back forty years."
    "Gill broke into Rollie's locker, moved everything, including the metal shelving, into this one, and then went through the boxes looking for information he could use in his extortion scheme."
    "Poor Melwood. He just wasn't—"
    "Please," Jasper interrupted. "Don't say it."
    "Sorry. It's gotten to be kind of a