Murder Between the Covers

by Maddie Cochere

  A few tears fell onto her cheeks. She looked tired and older than the mid-fifties I believed her to be.

  “Do you climb the ladder back there very often?” I asked.

  She shook her head. “The books on those shelves are older and not worth anything, but I don’t believe in destroying books, so until I find a home for them, I store them. We only use the ladder if a customer asks for something we know is on one of the shelves.”

  Her words made me think of the Bohemian woman. Did she ask for a specific book? Did she know Meredith had fallen?

  Howard Sanders, the city coroner, walked in with one of his employees. For once, he didn’t look at me as if I were the worst person in the world.

  “They’re in the back,” I said, pointing to the curtain.

  Peggy whispered to me, “Do you think I should go back there? Do I have to identify the body?” She took a step forward.

  I reached out and put my hand on her arm. “No, don’t go. It’s not necessary, and you don’t want to see her like that.” I wanted to keep talking with her in an effort to keep her distracted while emergency personnel did their job. “Did she hold storytime often?”

  She shook her head. “Never. It was something she was planning to do – storytime for adults. She said she wasn’t very good with children.”

  No kidding. I’d seen that first hand.

  “I don’t know how well you knew her, but she was a bossy woman. She came in here in September and went on a rampage over what a jumbled mess the store was. She threatened to have me shut down. I’m only one person, and I was used to having books all over the place like I did at the flea market. I told her if she thought she could do a better job, then have at it. I was pretty surprised when she said she would.

  She was a workhorse and started right away to organize the books. She even spent her own money to have bookcases delivered. She said I could pay her back when I was making more money. Business is up now, and everything in here is so nice because of her. There was a soft spot under that big mouth of hers, and we became friends.” She teared up again. “She thought the adults in town would enjoy a storytime once a month. She was buying costumes and props online. I was shocked when she brought the sword and spear in – especially the sword. It’s razor sharp.”

  I didn’t tell her, but the sword must have inflicted the long cut on Meredith’s arm.

  “I had a meeting scheduled with Meredith here this morning,” I said. “She said she was thinking about hiring me. Do you know what she wanted to talk with me about?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t have any idea. She never mentioned anything was wrong here or at home.”

  Officer Winnie came into the room.

  “Howard’s going to examine Meredith at the morgue, but he’s ready to rule this as an accident. I’m sorry for your loss, Peggy.”

  Her eyes appeared to glaze over. “Thank you,” she said and walked behind the counter to sit on a stool. She put her elbows on the counter and covered her face with her hands.

  “What do you need from me, Bill?” I asked. “I found her and gave you a call right away. There’s nothing more I can put in a statement.” That wasn’t entirely true, but I couldn’t see where he needed any more information than that right now.

  “You can go,” he said.

  “Will you make sure Peggy has someone with her before you leave?”

  He looked at the forlorn woman and said, “Sure.”

  I didn’t stick around. I walked back to my truck, entered the time I had seen the Escalade into my notebook, and pulled out of my parking spot to go back to the office. I noticed Jackie pulling in front of the bookstore.

  When I parked in a space in our lot, Arnie came out the front door. I jumped out and met him halfway.

  “It’s a nice enough day,” he said. “I’ll take over for you, and you can go look at trees with your sister.”

  I couldn’t believe he made the offer, and I was touched. “Thanks, but I’m not going anywhere. There was an accident at the bookstore, and I’m no longer in the mood to look at Christmas decorations.” I filled him in on what happened to Meredith.

  “I saw something like that once,” he said. “Happened back in eighty-four. Guy fell off his roof and landed on his toolbox on the ground. A screwdriver sticking out of the box went into his head through his eyeball. It happens.”

  I wanted to make the eww sound Kelly was always making, but I restrained myself.

  “I don’t think anything else will be happening at the laundromat today anyway,” I said. “The black Escalade finally showed up, but when the driver saw the police cruiser and ambulance at the bookstore, he drove on by.”

  The stress of the morning must have shown on my face. Arnie clamped his hand on my shoulder and said, “C’mon. I’ll buy you lunch and a good stiff drink.”

  We walked into the office to tell Nancy we were going next door. Arnie opened the door between our offices and Parker’s Tavern.

  “After you,” he said.

  Chapter Five

  “Dinner was delicious,” I said to Glenn as he took my plate to the kitchen.

  “Grandma’s recipe for Lemon Pepper Shrimp Scampi has more butter, but I scaled the recipe down for us,” he said.

  He had plated the shrimp over rice and served the dish with a salad and homemade Italian dressing. If I was still living on my own, I would have used the events of the day as an excuse to order a full order of ribs from Smitty’s – and I would have eaten them all. Thankfully, Glenn’s dinner had extinguished all thoughts of the ribs.

  “Well, whatever you did, your shrimp was better than any I’ve ever had in a restaurant.”

  I stood from my chair and followed him with the salad bowls. I hadn’t wanted to talk about Meredith’s accident over dinner, so I filled him in on the details while we washed and dried the dishes.

  "I hate hearing stories like that at the holidays,” he said. “Not that it’s ever a good time to hear about accidental deaths, but they seem more tragic at the holidays. Was she married?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t know anything about her. Last Thursday night at the book sale was the first time I’d ever seen her. Did I tell you I went to the bookstore this morning specifically to meet with her? She wanted to hire me, but she would only talk to me about it in person. I have no idea what she wanted.”

  “You might want to follow up on that. What if her accident wasn’t really an accident?”

  “The thought crossed my mind, but it was so obvious what happened. If Howard wasn’t obligated by law to examine the body, he would have declared her death an accident right then. I took quite a few pictures. Maybe I’ll look them over later.”

  When the last dish was put away, Glenn went upstairs to get ready for work. His words that Meredith’s death might not have been an accident weren’t going to leave my mind until I scrutinized the photos.

  I dashed out to my truck and grabbed my laptop. I put it and my camera on the dining room table before forcing myself to go to the basement to grab my printer from one of my boxes.

  Printer in hand, I turned to leave the basement. I was pleased with myself that I handled my fears this time. It was quiet down here, and the lighting seemed brighter than usual.

  Glenn must have chosen that moment to turn the water on in the upstairs bathroom. My skin nearly jumped off my body when the pipes began groaning. I ran up the stairs as fast as I could. I stood in the kitchen for a moment with my heart racing and my legs like rubber.

  This was absurd. I was a grown woman. Why did the basement unnerve me so much?

  By the time Glenn came down, I had printed all the pictures from the day and had them spread out on the kitchen table.

  He stood beside me and looked over the photos. “Anything stand out?”

  “I just finished printing them. I haven’t had a chance to really look at them yet.”

  He pointed to the Bohemian woman. “Who’s that?”

  “I have no idea. She went into
the bookstore for about five minutes, and then she left. I went over maybe ten minutes later.”

  “Do you think she had anything to do with Meredith’s accident?”

  “That crossed my mind, too,” I said.

  “Did you tell Sergeant Rorski about her?”

  I felt slightly confused, as if I had missed something. “No, and you know what? I called this in as an accident, and Bill showed up at the bookstore by himself. Do you think if I would have said someone killed her, the entire force would have shown up?”

  He smiled. “Probably, and Sarge would have had me out of bed for sure.” He pulled me to him for a hug and gave me a kiss. “Thanks for letting me sleep.”

  I turned to him and said earnestly, “Glenn, I need a murder room.”

  “Are you serious?”

  I nodded. “This might not be a murder, but I want a place where I can set up shop here at home and have a private place to look over notes and work out theories.”

  “This looks fine to me. Why not work here?”

  “Because every day I’d have to take everything out and put it away again. I want my whiteboard, too, and there’s no place to hang it in here. Besides, we eat here, and we can’t have company coming over and seeing photos of dead people. Pepper would kill me if Keith saw these.”

  He kissed me again. “No worries, Sherlock. I’ll take care of it.” He took a last look at the table and pulled out a photo that had slid under one of the others.

  “What’s this?”

  I couldn’t help laughing. “That’s Collins chasing a speeding car.”

  He didn’t see the humor in the photo. A dark look crossed his face.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “I know this upsets you. Let’s hope it’s temporary and no one gets hurt before the bikes are voted down and sent back to wherever they came from.”

  I walked him to the back door. “I’ll see you in the morning,” I said, giving him a kiss.

  I watched as he walked to his car, and I could have kicked myself for allowing him to see the photo. Even though the unpleasantness at the station wasn’t my fault, I felt responsible for his leaving for work in a bad mood.

  The toilet in the small bathroom began to run. It groaned and made a horrible noise that sounded like Keith’s get out!

  “Oh, shut up,” I told it and went back to the dining room.

  I sat down and began looking at the photos in the order I had taken them.

  There really wasn’t anything special to note about the woman with the copper hair. She hadn’t rushed in or out of the bookstore. I set her photos aside.

  The first several pictures of the bookstore’s backroom showed nothing out of the ordinary.

  I looked carefully at the costumes on the clothing rack, but once again, there was nothing unusual about them.

  I went to the kitchen and made a pot of coffee before hunting through Glenn’s junk drawer for a magnifier. I found a small jeweler’s loupe and took it and a cup of coffee back to the table with me.

  The loupe gave me a closer look at the books on the wall where Meredith had most likely climbed. None of the books appeared to have been disturbed, and although I couldn’t read very many of the titles, nothing stood out as remarkable.

  The next set of photos were of Meredith. I stared at each one for a considerable amount of time, but I couldn’t see anything that would indicate this was anything more than a misstep and fall, or that she may have reached too far to one side and fell.

  Yet, my instincts told me I was missing something.

  I checked the photo of the back door. I couldn’t tell if it was locked or not. There was no way to know if anyone had come in or gone out the door.

  The final photo was of the desk. It was a mess. Papers, pencils, books, small boxes, and scraps of paper littered the top and the cubbyhole shelves above it.

  The only thing of interest was a stack of four books on the corner of the desk. The spines faced out, so it was easy to see their titles. All were Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. The mayor was either coming in to see Peggy to look at the copies, or he had already seen them, and they didn’t have the artwork he wanted. I grabbed a notebook and made a note to ask both Peggy and the mayor about the books.

  I stood and stretched. It wasn’t particularly late, but sitting hunched over the dining room table had put a crick in my neck. Drinking coffee warranted a trip to the bathroom, but there was no way I was giving the toilet off the kitchen an opportunity to yell at me again. I went upstairs.

  Several minutes later, as I came down the stairs, I was shocked to see my front door open. I froze on the steps and listened. I couldn’t be sure, but I thought I heard a noise in the dining room. My bag was on the small table by the door. If I went to it, the intruder would most likely see me.

  It wouldn’t do any good to go back upstairs. There was a telephone jack in the bedroom, but no phone. The only phone plugged into a wall was the wall phone in the kitchen. It appeared my only option was to grab my bag and run out the front door. I could call Glenn when I found a safe place to hide.

  Before I could move, Pepper backed through the doorway with one end of a Christmas tree.

  She saw me and the panicked look on my face.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked.

  I half whispered, “There’s someone in my house.” I pointed to the dining room.

  “That’s Keith,” she said as she continued to back in. Kelly was on the other end of the tree. “Didn’t he tell you we were here?”

  Keith had to be looking at the photos of Meredith! If Kelly hadn’t been within earshot, I would have chosen a shocking swear word and used it. Instead, I said, “Pepper, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know you were coming, or I would have cleaned up.”

  “Don’t be silly. You don’t have to clean for us.”

  I quickly moved to the dining room. “Oh, yes, I do.”

  Keith was poring over the pictures. It was too late to yell at him.

  Pepper put her end of the tree down and followed me. When she saw what Keith was looking at, she was so floored, she couldn’t find words.”

  Kelly hurried to stand beside her brother and look at the photos before her mother’s shock wore off. She screwed up her face and said, “Eww. Are you working another murder case?”

  I decided to ignore Pepper for the moment. If I tried too hard to apologize, it would only upset her more.

  “Not this time,” I said. “That’s Meredith Duncan, the lady from the book sale last week. She fell off a ladder at the bookstore today and landed on the spear. It was in a basket with some other things she wanted to use for storytime at the store.”

  “She didn’t fall off the ladder,” Keith said.

  I pushed the pictures of Meredith together with the picture of the books on shelves. “Yes, she did. The ladder was leaning against these books, and I think she must have leaned too far to grab one. She lost her balance and fell.”

  Keith stood his ground. “No, it’s not possible. Mom has us doing a semester of physics.” He motioned to his mother. “Come look at this. It’s a physics problem, right? If she fell backward, she might have held onto the ladder, but the spear would have gone through her back. If she leaned sideways and fell, she might have grabbed the ladder and pulled it with her, but she still would have fallen on her side or on her back. For her to have the spear go in her front, she would have had to make a twisty turnaround diving board move off the ladder.”

  The situation turning into a school lesson had apparently shoved Pepper’s concern aside as she studied the pictures for a few minutes. “I think he’s right, Jo. If she didn’t grab the ladder when she fell, her feet would have most likely kicked it away from her. I don’t know what happened here, but-”

  Kelly interrupted her. “Someone killed her, and then threw the ladder on top of her to make it look like she fell.”

  “See, Mom,” Keith said. “I can help Aunt Jo with her murders. If you let me start working with her now, I’ll be a p
rofessional dick by the time I’m eighteen.”

  Pepper seemed to suddenly remember she was upset Keith had seen the images. “No. You are not working murder cases,” she said adamantly. “You and Kelly go in the living room and see if you can get the tree in the stand.”

  The kids left the room, and I felt the need to apologize again. “I’m sorry, Pepper. I told Glenn I needed a murder room here, so I could have some privacy, and this proves it. I would have never let Keith see these pictures if I had known you were coming.”

  “It’s all right. I don’t like it when he sees things like this, but he and Buck watch those forensics shows together, and he laps it all up. I think he’s serious about becoming a private investigator or a detective one day.”

  I waved my hand toward the photographs. “Do you really think Meredith was murdered?”

  “It’s definitely a possibility. Why don’t you wait and see what the coroner says. Between Howard and Sergeant Rorski, they may have already figured out this wasn’t an accidental fall.”

  “That’s probably a good idea. And, if they do rule it an accident, I can investigate it on my own for a while. If I find something, I’ll fill the sergeant in.” I pulled the picture of the woman out of the bunch. “Does she look like someone from around here?”

  Pepper laughed. “No. She has a hippie vibe. Or maybe it’s one of those new hipster looks. Whatever it is, she’s not from around here. You might have to look for her in New York City.”

  I set the picture down and slipped my arm around Pepper’s shoulder. I gave her a sideways hug. “What’s with the tree? Did you guys have a good time today?”

  “It was awesome. There were over three hundred trees of every size and shape you can imagine. They each had a name and a theme. Keith wanted to bid on the Ohio State football tree, but it was already up over five hundred dollars. I didn’t realize it, but the money from the sale of the trees is being donated to charity. You have to come with us next year. You’ll love it.”

  Keith crawled out from under the tree. “I screwed it as tight as I could. I think it’s in there good.”