It hadn't changed, hadn't written itself. And it wasn't going to get written now, either. He reached for the bound volume of the Gazette seventy-five years before for the week of May 26th. One of his duties was to do the "Looking Back" column. At first when Mark gave him the job, he was insulted, feeling this was some rinky-dink thing one of the others could do, not the managing editor, for Christ's sake. But that was the way it was on a small weekly: You did all kinds of stuff no matter what your title was. Anyway, he'd come to like it, found it fun going through the old issues, pulling things from seventy-five, fifty, and twenty-five years before. Sometimes he lost himself in the papers, hours passing before he'd pull just the right excerpts. Colin knew it was something you could do in half an hour, but he liked reading all the ads, the sports and the real estate section. It knocked him out seeing things like:
FOR SALE:
WATERVIEW-10 RMS, FIREPLACE,ICEBOX,
PORCH, 1 ACRE, PRIVATE BEACH $3000
Today that same property would be worth about half a million.
So he got lost in the past, and when the phone rang and he glanced at his watch he was stunned to see it was almost three. Mark said, "We have another one, pal."
"Another what?"
"Murder."
"Where?"
"Bay View. Cooper's Linen Shop. Ruth Cooper."
"Christ."
"Get over there."
"Right."
Getting into his car, Colin wondered what he'd do if any murders happened past Riverhead. He wasn't sure he'd be able to go. The truth was even Riverhead was alien to him. Since he'd been on the North Fork he hadn't gone past Mattituck. That was twenty miles from Seaville. Riverhead was twenty-five, and his panic attacks weren't getting any better. But it was useless to worry about that now. Now there was another murder.
Starting the car, he wondered if a B was carved into Ruth Cooper's chest.