Final Truth

One Regan Landry sat cross-legged on the floor of her father's study and thumbed through the contents of a file, one of several she'd brought up from the basement in an unmarked cardboard box earlier that morning. Her father, Josh Landry, internationally renowned bestselling author of true crime books, had been the world's worst record keeper. Almost two years after his death, Regan was still sorting through the boxes of material he'd left scattered throughout his home outside Princeton, New Jersey. So far this past week, she'd uncovered newspaper articles in a box in the attic that related to cases chronicled in the file cabinets in the basement. Not for the first time, Regan rolled her eyes. The man had been the most unorganized person on the face of the earth. When her cell phone rang, she had to move several piles of newspapers to find it. A glance at the caller ID screen brought a smile to her face. "So what are you doing on this fine morning in May?" Mitch Peyton asked. "What am I always doing when I'm at my dad's?" She laughed good-naturedly. "Sorting through files and trying to organize the mess." "I'd think you'd be used to it by now." "You'd think." "I don't know why you don't just hire someone to do that for you." "How would someone else know what to do with all this?" She glanced around the room and frowned. "You'd tell them. You'd show them what you've done, point them in the direction of the materials that still need to be sorted through, and tell them to follow your lead. If a file exists, file the newly found material in it. No existing file, you make a new one." "I wasn't aware that the FBI taught a class in Filing 101." "You'd be surprised what they teach us down here." "I've seen you at work, Mitch, up close and personal. There's little that you do that surprises me." "I can see I'm going to have to work on my technique. Can't have the woman thinking she knows all my secrets." Regan could have replied that Mitch had been an open book right from the start, but she let it pass. As a special agent with the FBI, Mitch was a member of a distinguished team within the Bureau that sought out the best of the best. But when it came to Regan, there'd been no sign of the wily investigator with crack computer skills that had brought him to the attention of the team leader. Mitch was a man who wore his heart on his sleeve, and had since the first time they'd worked a case together. "Maybe you're right." She sighed. "Maybe I should just have someone come in and make a list of the files we already have, then go through the other boxes, check the list for duplicates . . ." "There you go." He didn't wait for her to run through the entire process as he knew her mind was already starting to do. "You've spent enough time on cleanup. You have a book due." "Already turned it in to Nina last week, which is one of the reasons I'm here at Dad's now. I'm trying to decide what I want to do next." "No ideas?" "I have plenty of ideas, but none of them have struck my immediate fancy." She stood and went to the desk and flipped through one of the files she'd left out lasStewart, Mariah is the author of 'Final Truth ', published 2006 under ISBN 9780345483836 and ISBN 0345483839.