Chapter 16
Seeds in Alphabetical Order
Librarians trusted alphabetical order because criminals rarely respected it.
Arthur had inserted BELLADONNA between begonia and bergamot, exactly where the Hart catalogue placed deadly nightshade. The adjacent page numbers led June through scanned deeds, invoices and council minutes.
The flower names were people. The page numbers were documents. The dates were deadlines.
Beatrice's code opened a conservation release supposedly signed by Ravi. Its scan had entered the council system on the date beside BELLADONNA. Arthur had downloaded it three hours later.
Ravi examined the signature. "It resembles mine because it is mine. But I signed an attendance sheet, not this."
June layered the two images. The ink shape, pressure break and accidental dot matched exactly.
"Copied from a council file," she said.
Only three staff accounts had accessed the attendance sheet: Ravi's, Beatrice's and a shared scanner login.
Asha traced the scanner session to Beatrice's office floor. Not enough for murder. Enough for a warrant.
Before it arrived, the council server reported a deletion. The original scan, audit record and access log vanished together.
Someone with administrator rights was cleaning the catalogue while June read it.