Silence Of The Hams

bars. “This handwritten sheet was in a blue one. The only fingerprints on it were Stonecipher’s and Weyrich’s. Not yours.“
    “But this folder was by itself and the police think she was trying to blackmail me with the contents? If she had talked to me about the contents, I wouldn’t have necessarily even seen the thing, much less touched it,“ she said grimly.
    He nodded and said, “Right, but look at the file folder. See where there is a row across the top of these prepunched vertical slots that you pop out to insert a label?“ He demonstrated, pushing his thumb against one of the dozen or so spots. A little lozenge of the blue card-stock fell out.
    “Yes. So?“
    “So when my people combed the apartment, they found a yellow piece like this in the sofa cushions and a red one stuck up against the leg of the coffee table. Watch—“ He gave the top of the folder a slight twist and another little blue lozenge fell out into his lap.
    “Oh—“ Jane said, the light dawning. “Other folders.“
    “Right. Other folders that weren’t in the apartment when we searched it. I’m just speculating here, but I think the scenario was this: She brought certain folders home from the office—these were in a separate file drawer in Stonecipher’s desk, by the way, not with the official filing system. She probably had them in her bedroom and brought them out to the living room one at a time.“
    “Are you saying she had a whole list of people she’d ordered to come over?“
    “Not saying,“ he said firmly. “Speculating. There’s a world of difference. But there apparently are at least two others who might have been in the apartment. The ones with the red folder and the yellow folder.“
    “But the folders were no longer in her apartment? Or did you find them?“
    “Nope. Gone. Possibly scooped up and taken by the person who killed her.“
    “So the fact that the folder about me was still there—“
    “Pretty much lets you off the hook. At least as far as I’m concerned,“ Mel replied.
    Jane thought for a minute. “So there was a whole file drawer of these in Stonecipher’s office?”
    Mel looked grim. “Afraid so. In a locked drawer in his desk. Emma had the key in her purse.“
    “Do you mean in addition to being a full-fledged bastard, the guy was a blackmailer, too?“ Jane asked angrily.
    “Now, now. Calm down. Let’s say he was a potential blackmailer. The drawer full of files might have just been a hedge against inflation. He never approached you after your one visit, did he?“
    “Good Lord, no! In fact, he never acted like he even remembered who I was. But then, all he had on me was something mildly embarrassing. What other kinds of things were left behind in the file drawer? I don’t mean specifics—“
    “Mostly fairly innocuous stuff,“ Mel said. “But there were a few pretty hot items.“
    “Then why were they still in the file drawer?“ Jane asked. “That doesn’t make sense. Why would Emma pull out something silly and trivial about me and leave something juicy in the file?“
    “Because the ‘juicy’ stuff, as you put it, was about people who aren’t around anymore. At least the ones we’ve been able to check so far. They’ve moved away or died or—in one case—already gone to jail for the transgression mentioned in the file.“
    “Mel, I’m not following this. You apparently have some theory. I hate to be stupid, but—“
    “No, it’s not you. I’m being deliberately vague, wondering if you’d leap to the same conclusion I did. Which is something I shouldn’t be doing—forming theories without enough facts. You see, it has to do with what’s not in the file drawer. When I interviewed everybody I could find who attended the deli opening, I turned up several people who had dealings with Stonecipher at one time or another. Like the Dohertys just as an example—the people who got the nasty divorce and then got back together and didn’t have any money left because Stonecipher had cleaned them out.“
    “And there wasn’t a file for them?“ Jane asked. “I’m sorry, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything except that he didn’t know anything nasty about them.”
    Mel cocked an eyebrow. “After representing an angry wife in a prolonged, ugly divorce suit, he had nothing to the husband’s disadvantage?“
    “Hmm. I see what you mean. LeAnne probably said some pretty nasty things about Charles. And true or not, he probably kept a record since