Table Of Content

He’s Back in Town A Frank Hurley mystery by Philip Buckland Also by Philip Buckland: The Frank Hurley series The Cranston Occurrence The Hiders Lois Latham Invisible, We’re Here The Live End The Apollo Bureau spy series A Scientist is Missing Expose to Danger The Rich Chandler series Incommunicado The Burglar Copyright 2017 Philip Buckland CHAPTER I It was Saturday morning here in Bellingham, Washington, and I was here at home sipping coffee and watching TV and looking forward to not working this weekend. I had been working all week. Now I had the opportunity to do whatever I wanted this weekend and the time after that until I worked again. Although I didn't know when I was going to work again and for how long. I could work again anytime. I was also deciding what to do today. Then I stopped suddenly and looked at the TV when I heard the anchorman say that yesterday, Peter Gorman, bail bonds man here in Bellingham, died. And there was a picture of Pete next to the anchorman. He had a pale, coarse face. The TV anchorman then said that someone had gone to Pete's 1 office to see him about something, and then he noticed Pete's body and called the police. Pete had been killed inside his office on Northwest Avenue. He had been shot once through the heart. There were no signs of a struggle inside Pete's office, which meant that the killer must have been a few feet away from Pete when he had killed Pete. And no one had heard the shot, which meant that the shot must have been silenced in some way. And it looked like no one had seen the killer kill Pete, which meant that the killer had managed not to be seen by anyone when he had killed Pete. And it looked like the only thing that had been stolen from Pete's office was his briefcase. And it didn't look like anything else had happened inside Pete's office. Which meant that the only two things that had happened inside Pete's office were someone killing Pete and stealing his briefcase. And the only fingerprints that were inside Pete's office were Pete's fingerprints. There were no other 2 fingerprints. Which meant that the person who had killed Pete and stolen his briefcase must have worn gloves. Then the anchorman said that Pete had lived here in Bellingham for several years and had been in the bail bond business for years. He had been a widower, and he had one daughter, Ruth. He will be missed. Then the anchorman started talking about something else. I couldn't believe what I had just heard--Pete--dead. He and I had been friends for a long time. I got out of my recliner chair and left the living room and went into the den and sat down at my desk and called the Bellingham police department so I could talk to Craig Pritchard, a lieutenant in the detective unit of the Bellingham police department, about Pete's death. He and Pete had been friends for a long time, too. When I got a hold of the Bellingham police department, I asked for Craig, and then I was put in touch with him. 3 "Pritchard," he said when he came on. "Hello. Craig?" I said. "It's Frank Hurley." "Frank. How are ya?" "Not too good, I'm afraid. I just heard about Pete Gorman's death on TV." "Yeah," Craig said flatly. "I'm investigating it." "You're on the case?" "That's right." "Well, I'd like to go over there and talk to you about it." "All right. I'll be here." "Great," Then I hung up. The Bellingham police department was just outside downtown Bellingham. I was here at the Bellingham police department now. Inside the detective unit, and inside Craig's office, and sitting in front of Craig's desk, and Craig was sitting behind his desk. "What can you tell me about Pete's death?" I asked Craig. 4