The Paper Mirror by Dorien Grey Read Free Book Online Page A

He was a little less gaunt than I remembered him as being, and his longish red hair was, I could see at this closer distance, flecked with grey. I walked over and took his extended hand. No smile. No sense of antagonism or displeasure, either. Just…businesslike.
    “Please,” he said, gesturing me to a chair in front of his desk, the surface of which was almost invisible beneath neat piles of books and papers. “Sit.”
    I did, as did he, and he got right to business.
    “So how can I help you?” he asked. It struck me as unlikely that his name and the word “mischievous” would ever be used in the same sentence.
    “I was wondering what you could tell me about Taylor Cates…anything you might know about his personal or professional life. Do you know if he had a partner, or any enemies? Had he been acting strangely lately? Glen O’Banyon gave me the impression that something about him was not quite right, and I hoped you might clarify that for me.”
    McGill gave a quick head-raised nod after I’d finished. “Yes,” he said. “Well, I have only been with the Burrows less than six months. I arrived about two months before the transfer of the collection from the Burrows estate. It has been, as you can imagine, a very hectic time.” He pursed his lips slightly, as if in thought. “I admired Taylor’s devotion to the task and his sharp mind. He had, as I think you know, just completed his Master’s degree in Library Science. He was very ambitious—which almost verged on aggressiveness at times—and would have gone far in the field.
    “I try to keep a professional distance from my employees and coworkers,” McGill continued, “so as to his personal life, I knew very little. He had a roommate, I know, and he never indicated they were anything more than that. He was something of a perfectionist, and he worked such long hours here I rather doubt he had much time for a personal life. As for enemies, well, I wouldn’t use so strong a word, but there was some bad feeling between Taylor and one of our other catalogers we subsequently had to let go.”
    I assumed that clarified his earlier remark about being “two catalogers short.” “Oh? What was that all about?” I asked.
    He gave a small sigh and leaned slightly forward in his chair. “Well, as I’ve said, Taylor was a perfectionist and he was rather intolerant of those around him who were not. Dave…Dave Witherspoon…was the first cataloger we hired, even before the collection was moved from the Burrows estate. I think he rather enjoyed holding that fact over Taylor’s head. Both were recent graduates of Mountjoy, but I got the distinct impression they really did not care for one another, though they were both sufficiently professional not to let it interfere with their work.”
    “Have you any idea what their problem was?”
    He shook his head. “Not really, other than the fact that I think Taylor, however irrationally, somehow resented the fact that Dave had been hired first. They were equally ambitious, so I suppose a certain degree of rivalry was only natural. But Dave was far more…‘laid back,’ I think they call it…and that bothered Taylor a great deal.
    “And when Taylor came to me, telling me that Dave had been taking files home with him, which is strictly prohibited, and which Dave did not deny when questioned, I had no choice but to let him go. Rules are rules for a reason.”
    “And how did Witherspoon react to being fired?” I could easily see why Witherspoon might be really pissed at Taylor, but I couldn’t easily stretch being pissed like that into a motive for murder.
    McGill looked at me oddly. “How does anyone react to being fired? He was not happy, I’m sure. Nor was I, frankly. Dave is an excellent cataloger, and any library will be lucky to have him. I wrote him a letter of recommendation, and he was, in fact, at the opening.”
    “How long before Taylor’s death was he fired?”
    “Maybe a week and a half. Dave