Immortal Bones - A Supernatural Thriller - Detective Saussure Mysteries - Book 1 Read online

  ~*~

  I took a bite out of my sandwich as Truthful Willy worked on my papers. His studio was a giant vault with everything one might need to forge any kind of work related to paintings, legal documents and currency, among other things. Over the years, Truthful Willy had built an impressive catalog of different types of papers, inks, pigments, bills, instruments and machinery for diverse procedures used during various periods of time. If you needed a letter from the King of England from the fifteen century, Truthful Willy could get it for you. If you needed a letter from the current King of England...Willy was the man.

  He was right. It took him hours to come up with some good results.

  “It’s all good. The paper, the writing (printed and handwritten), the ink. They match the time and zone they are supposed to be from. They’re as real as they can be. These should be in a museum. Some of that ink is impossible to get anymore.”

  “If you don’t have it, how do you know what it is?”

  “I said it is impossible to buy. I make my own ink. You know that.”

  I did. It wasn’t possible to trace it if he made the liquid himself. If he bought the ink or any other material, it left a trail of witnesses behind that eventually would cause trouble. And that was why Truthful Willy was expensive.

  “Well, then. Thank you, Willy. Seven, as usual?”

  “Make it five, you’re a good sport.”

  “Thanks, Willy. You’re going to heaven, you know that?”

  “For lowering the fee?” He gave me a crooked half-smile. “I’ll save you a seat.”

  Truthful Willy walked me to the entrance door, not without first offering me to stay overnight, as it was almost midnight when I reached my car. I declined the invitation. You dine with the enemy, you don’t sleep with him. Besides, in the morning I had a doctor’s appointment. I needed to be fresh and stay on my toes.

  Just as I was saying goodbye, I shot in the dark.

  “Say, Willy, do you know a Dr. John Pierce?”

  “In town? Yeah, he’s Elise’s doctor.”

  “Is he good and clear?”

  “Like vodka. Why? Is he into this?” Truthful Willy pointed at the birth certificates in my left hand.

  “No, I don’t think so. Better safe than sorry, you know.”

  “Take care, Richard.”

  “You too, Willy. And give my best to Elise.”

  “Will do.”

  The drive back home left me exhausted. The day was finally ending, although it was technically tomorrow. I thought I might get home and read some more, but I had no more living force in my body left to spare. I had taken with me the last three letters from the enormous pile I dove into that morning, and I had stored them inside my raincoat pocket before heading for Truthful Willy’s house. If I hadn’t found anything in the rest of the four hundred and thirty-six letters back at my office, I doubted there was something in the last three that couldn’t wait a few more hours.

  I took a quick shower to help me generate a bit more heat in my body and then went to bed. Thanks to Elise’s snack, all I needed was sleep.

  A shiver ran through my spine as I had one last thought before losing myself in dreamland. So far, everything was being corroborated. If all the information turned out to be true and it wasn’t a hoax, where would I look for information to solve a case like this?

  IV