The Big Cheese (AKA Recordkeeping for Knuckleheads

By Allen Hancock

I know I've got to keep stuff, Charlie, but ...

Private Detective Charlie Ulm never knew that recordkeeping could be so dangerous.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Allen Hancock
• Release date: Nov 18, 2010
• ISBN: 9781458189844

Allen Hancock

Allen Hancock was born in Adelaide, South Australia in 1952. He joined the Australian Regular Army in 1970 and spent the next 21 years moving around most areas of Australia. He left the Army in 1992 and has been working as a professional records manager since then. Allen has more than 40 years association with the records industry working with Federal and State Government agencies as well as in higher education and private enterprise.

Book preview

The Big Cheese

(AKA Recordkeeping for Knuckleheads)

Allen Hancock A.R.M.A.

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2010 Allen Hancock

Cover design by A Hancock

Photograph from MS Office Clipart

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She burst into my office, her cheesy grin a ray of sunshine on a cold, dark, rainy winter’s afternoon.

Detective, er … Um? she said looking at the name plate on the frosted glass door panel.

I fumbled as I stood from where I had been dozing at my desk, trying without success to keep my brain from going blank, rows of Zs stretching across my computer screen where my finger had come to rest.

The name’s Ulm, I told her. U-L-M. Charlie Ulm. Like Kingsford Smith’s co-pilot.

Kingsford what? she asked.

Doesn’t matter, Miss er …

Brianna Munro, she said.

Won’t you take a seat, Miss Munro?

"Please. Everybody calls me Brie¹ ."

I summed her up quickly. I could see that beneath the tough outer layer she put across she had a soft, inner texture that would melt quickly under pressure. Even though she had a fairly delicate nature I figured she could be deliciously blue when the mood took her.

A stack of my case files teetered precariously on the client chair in front of the desk. I looked around quickly for somewhere else to put them and my eyes focussed on the first vacant space I found. The top of the waste bin.

That’s not a good idea, she said reading my mind. Somebody in our office did that with some pretty important files. They forgot about them until next morning after the cleaner had thrown them out. We spent a lot of time searching through dumpsters and there’s still no sign of them.²

No chance of that happening here, I said. The cleaner only comes once a week and that was yesterday.

Her eyes quickly took in the chaos around me. I couldn’t tell whether she didn’t believe it was only a day since the cleaner had been in or if I actually had a cleaner at all.

In a way that’s why I’m here, she said straightening her skirt as she sat down. I could see she