Tax Assassin by Claudia Hall Christian Read Free Book Online Page A

War
was fought, to where this agent was killed,” Ava said.
    “ A thousand miles isn’t
much ground to cover in forty-eight years,” Seth said. When he fell
silent, she waited for him to finish thinking. He looked up at her
and said, “That’s interesting.”
    “ Of course, most gunpowder
is manufactured now and, surprisingly, or at least I was surprised
to learn that the method hasn’t changed much since gunpowder was
invented.”
    “ Sulfur, charcoal and
potassium nitrate or salt peter,” Seth said.
    “ Right,” Ava smiled. “How
did you know?”
    “ My elder brother Saul used
to make it when we were kids,” Seth said. “Made his own fireworks.
Very dangerous. Very fun. Used to scare my little brother Silas to
death.”
    “ I bet,” Ava
smiled.
    He smiled at her smile. It was nice, if even
just for a moment, that things felt normal. He touched her back to
encourage her to continue.
    “ I used the spect on the
sample we had from 1913.”
    “ Oh yea?” Seth poured a cup
of coffee from the new pot and offered some to her. She shook her
head.
    “ That’s how we found the
cottonwood char,” Ava said. “From the spect readout. Well, and the
sulfur. But sulfur’s pretty easy to come by here in Colorado.
There’s a lot at any hot springs. Pagosa’s not too far from there
and . . .”
    The way Seth nodded, she knew he was ready
for her to get to the point.
    “ There’s a spect scan in
one of your files upstairs,” Ava said. “Your friend McGinty had it
done a few years ago. Probably begged or bartered for someone to do
it.”
    “ The spect matches the one
you ran from the 1913 case?” Seth asked.
    “ I don’t have it in front
of me, but I’d say it’s close,” Ava said. “I’d have to see our scan
to be sure, but I’m pretty sure McGinty’s 1995 murders match the
spect signature of the case in southeastern Colorado.”
    “ From 1913?” Seth
asked.
    Ava nodded. Seth fell silent. He refilled
her cup without asking and set the pot down. She smiled at his
mistake; he was too lost in thought to notice.
    “ What?” she asked when she
couldn’t stand waiting any longer.
    “ Assuming your 1913 case is
the first, you’re looking at a little less than a hundred years,”
Seth said. “At four a summer, you’re talking . . .”
    “ Four hundred murders,” Ava
said.
    “ Good Lord.”
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SEVEN
    Seth nodded to the security guard sitting at
the entrance to the Denver Central Library. He looked around the
main lobby before walking to a wall plaque to figure out where he
needed to go. Hearing a gurgle, he looked down at the infant he
carried in front of him in a maroon sling. She looked up at him and
he smiled. Sandy had called to say that her baby, Rachel Ann,
seemed a little sick and might be getting her first tooth. Rather
than send her to daycare, he said he would take her for the day. He
put her pacifier back in her mouth and she pulled it out. Smiling
at Rachel, he took the escalator to the fifth floor to the Western
History and Genealogy Center.
    “ O’Malley!” A man’s voice
came from the office behind the counter.
    “ Les,” Seth
said.
    “ Jeez, man, I heard you
were dating some sweet young thing, but don’t you think that’s a
little young?” the voice said.
    Seth laughed.
    “ Just a second,” Les
said.
    When he heard a woman say, “I am not
speaking to that man,” he turned his back to the office to look out
at the Western History and Genealogy Center. He had called before
coming down. The head librarian had made sure Jocelyn was here when
he arrived. That was all he would guarantee. Les and Jocelyn argued
back and forth in a low, unintelligible rumble.
    Seth took Rachel out of the sling. Rachel
had wide blue eyes, light blonde curls, and her grandmother’s big
smile. Like her grandmother, Rachel’s delicate beauty covered the
heart of a lion.
    He looked up when an elderly woman stormed
out of the reference librarian’s