Free Rose Pressey - Chase Charley 02 - Seems Like Old Crimes by Rose Pressey Page A

all. I gathered the letters under my arm and marched back to the door. With my hand on the doorknob, I looked back and smiled.
    Oscar shook his head. “Get out.”
    I wondered if he had gone through the letters he’d given me. “By the way, Oscar…”
    He sighed. “What now?”
    “Did you look through these letters?”
    “You told me not to, right? So I didn’t look at them,” he said.
    “Okay, well, thank you.”
    “Is that all now?” he asked.
    He was losing his patience with me. I was shocked that it had taken him this long. I turned around and left the office this time. I’d just have to go through the letters myself this time—after all, that was what I had wanted.
    Once back at my desk, I sat in front of the computer and placed the letters in front of me. I enjoyed reading the letters and it made my job that much more fun. That wasn’t to say that occasionally I didn’t get a letter that was a bit strange or had a weird request. I hoped that this stack of letters didn’t contain any of those.
    I leafed through them and didn’t see anything out of the ordinary so far. As I decided which one to open first, not that there were many of them, I felt eyes on me.
    After realizing that Ruth wasn’t going to stop staring at me, I peered over at her.
    “What’s wrong, Ruth?” I asked with a smile. “What can I do for you?”
    “You’re never here to get your calls,” she said.
    “I can’t help it if you’re not busy. Who called?” I asked.
    She sighed and then said, “He didn’t leave his name again. You get a lot of weird calls.”
    “I’ll try to cut down on the odd calls, I promise.” I held up my hand.
    She smirked. “Thank you.” Unfortunately, Ruth didn’t turn her attention away from me.
    “Is there anything else?” I asked.
    Finally, she shook her head. “I guess not.”
    Thank goodness my phone rang at that moment. Ruth went back to her cubicle. I was shocked that she didn’t stick around to see if it was another one of my weird phone calls, as she called them.
    “Chase Charley,” I said into the phone.
    Silence filled the other end of the line.
    “Hello?” I said again.
    But I still didn’t get any answer. It didn’t sound as if the line was dead though. I thought I might have heard breathing on the other end of the line, but I wasn’t sure. I hung up the phone and focused my attention on the letters again. I’d just picked up one of the envelopes when my phone rang again.
    “Chase Charley,” I repeated.
    Again the person on the other end of the line didn’t say a word. Apprehension fell over me. I didn’t like the way this was going—I didn’t think this was random. It had to have something to do with the call that Ruth had received, right? But why did they ask for me only to hang up when I answered? Was there something else about the calls that she was forgetting to tell me? I could ask, but I figured I wouldn’t get an answer from her. Was this the man I’d seen at the bar?
    “I hear you breathing. Just so you know, I will let the police know you’ve called.” I hung up again.
    My comment would probably have little effect on the person, but I had to say something. I hoped that the person didn’t call back again. For a few seconds, I stared at the phone, but luckily it didn’t ring. If the person called again, I couldn’t guarantee that I wouldn’t lose my temper.
    Releasing a sigh of relief, I decided to go back to the letters. I had to hurry up so that I could get back to working on the case. I picked up the letter that was on top of the pile and pulled out my letter opener from the drawer on my right.
    I slipped the opener through the edge of the envelope. A piece of white paper was tucked neatly inside. I pulled out the paper. It was a letter talking about the recent case I’d done and thanking me for my help. That made me smile. I placed that one aside and picked up the next one on my pile. It didn’t have a return address, which made me a little