“I know.” But Missy was wondering how her best friend had failed to mention that she’d been in a relationship with Tyler Brock of all people after high school. Friends wouldn’t keep a thing like that from each other.
“You call me tomorrow morning, dear, let me know you’re alright. Okay?”
Missy smiled. It was good to be somebody’s daughter. As long as Mom was around, she knew she’d always have somebody worrying about her.
“Will do, Mom. And maybe you can finally tell me who you were with the day that Albert Switzer—”
But Mom had already hung up. Missy suspected she’d done it on purpose and tomorrow would pretend like she hadn’t heard Missy talking.
As she was putting her phone away, Tyler appeared. “Hey, Melissa. Ready?”
Chapter Three
Tyler led her inside and into one of the reading rooms. It had grey walls and a grey desk and grey chairs and felt very much like she imagined what an interrogation room looked like at a police station.
“So you guys and the library…you must shop at the same furniture store.” She smiled, hoping to lighten the mood.
Tyler didn’t smile. “Let’s get down to business, okay?”
Her smile faded. Tyler didn’t normally come off as brusque. Then again, he was investigating a murder. He didn’t exactly have time to be polite.
“Okay, Tyler.”
“So walk me through your night.”
She sighed. Six months ago she’d had to do this several times when Albert Switzer was murdered. It was a long, boring process. Tonight would be no different. She started with the time she left work to the time she called nine-one-one. Tyler interrupted her a few times to ask clarifying questions and she ended up telling her story twice.
When she was done, Tyler sat thoughtfully in the chair opposite her. Despite not seeing him for a few months and knowing full well he was in the process of potentially reconciling with his wife, Missy couldn't help but feel nervous, excited, and a little flustered around him. She wondered if he felt the same way. He had developed a poker face, courtesy of his job as a police officer for fifteen years. In high school she would have known his moods before he did himself. But right now she couldn’t read his expression. Her best guess? Perplexed.
Tyler was still looking away when he asked his next question. “You didn’t see anybody else, or see anything out of the ordinary?”
“No.”
He puffed his lips out and nodded. Then looked up at her. “What was your relationship like with Anne Baxter?”
“I don’t want to speak ill of the dead.” Missy shrugged. “Especially the recently dead.”
Tyler didn’t take his eyes off her. “I need to know, Melissa.”
She’d always loved how he called her Melissa. In high school, it had been almost an act of defiance, his way of saying she wasn’t just a nickname to him but something different. No one else had called her that.
But when he said it now, the name sounded hollow like it had lost all meaning between them. She was just another suspect (again) on another murder. Instead of being part of his personal life, she was instead just another facet of his job.
“I didn’t care for her.” She shrugged. “That’s probably the nicest way to put it.”
“Why not?”
“You’re really going to make me count the ways?”
He nodded.
She sighed and looked down. Missy hated speaking ill of anybody. Her parents had repeatedly drilled that lesson into her head from a young age. If you didn’t have anything nice to say, you’d better not say anything at all.
“She was a little stuck-up.” Missy grimaced as she spoke. She really hated this, even though almost all the regulars in the Book Club would have agreed with her. “About everything, to be honest. She had this air about her and took herself very seriously. It could be grating. And she was like that about books too. She bashed just about everything we read, everything except what she recommended.”
“Noreen said the same thing.”
She couldn’t get a read on him or what he thought of Noreen. Was she a suspect? “Yeah, well, it rubbed me the wrong way too. You know, I got the feeling that Anne never had a nice thing to say about anybody. I mean, that’s an exaggeration but it seemed that way. She had impossibly high standards.”
“Did you ever see her outside of the Book Club?”
Missy thought. “Sure, at the grocery store every once in awhile.”
“How about the bookstore?” he asked.
She didn’t know where he was going with this. “No, actually.”
He frowned. “She was in a Book Club, but she never came to Books and Crannies.”
“Not recently, no.”
“Not that you know of?”
She shook her head. “Anne preferred hardbacks and new releases. She wouldn’t be caught dead in a used bookstore.”
“She didn’t stop in recently?”
“No.” Missy was beginning to worry. He obviously knew something.
“Were you working last Thursday night?”
Missy had to think about it. Her schedule at the bookstore was constantly shifting. Her boss, Brett, liked to keep things fluid and she, Noreen, and Brett were often trading days as favors.
“I don’t remember to be honest.”
Tyler nodded. “Anne Baxter stopped in the store. Didn’t Noreen tell you?”
Missy felt her blood run cold. Tyler was deadly serious, and she could tell where this was going.
“No, she didn’t tell me.”
He nodded again. “She didn’t tell you that Anne stopped by and they got into an argument?”
“No.”
This was bad.
Really bad.
She wondered why Noreen hadn’t mentioned anything. It made her look like she had something to hide if she hadn’t shared this information with her best friend. Missy briefly considered lying to Tyler and suddenly “remembering” Noreen mentioning this. She could always downplay it as just a disagreement…
But she couldn’t lie to Tyler. Just couldn’t do it. Even if it put Noreen in a bad light, she couldn’t lie. She just wasn’t made that way. And besides, if her story diverged from what Tyler already knew, he’d know or suspect she was lying to him anyway.
He took a deep breath. “Your best friend didn’t tell you about the fight she had with Anne last week at the store where you both work?”
Missy scrambled for an answer that was both true and painted Noreen in a positive light. “We worked different shifts on Friday, then she was off Saturday, and I was off Sunday…we were both busy and didn’t see each other over the weekend…by the time we had a moment to ourselves earlier this week she’d probably forgotten all about it.”
“Uh-huh.”
Tyler wasn’t buying it. He closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. He looked almost pained, like he was about to do something that disagreed with him. Missy had a good idea what that was.
“Noreen didn’t kill Anne Baxter, Tyler.” She stared at him until he met her eyes. “Come on. You know that.”
“Do I?”
She held out her palms. “I know how bad this looks. They fought here last week, they argued at the bookstore, and then they argued tonight. I understand why you’d be suspicious.”
“So give me a good reason why I’m wrong.”
“Because it’s Noreen.” She put her palms on the table and watched his eyes. They were so blue. There were nights in high school when they’d sat in his car, listening to music, just staring at each other.
He broke the stare first. “Okay, thanks, Melissa. I have what I need.”
She shot out of her chair. “Wait!”
Tyler came to his full height, a couple inches over six feet and stood ramrod straight. “What?”
“She didn’t do this. I know it. And you know it.”
“How do I know it?” He shook his head and started for the door. “She nearly killed the woman in front of the group tonigh
t from what I hear.”
Missy figured it was Gloria Campbell, Anne’s friend, that had characterized the argument that way.
Tyler gripped the door handle.
Missy said, “You know she’s innocent, because you know her.”
He was still holding the handle, but he didn’t open the door. He stayed like that for a moment and she swore she saw his entire back go stiff under the uniform.
Missy nodded. “She told me.”
Tyler still didn’t turn around. With his eyes on the door, he said, “That was a long time ago, Melissa.”
“How long?” She couldn’t help it. She felt betrayed. Noreen knew how much Tyler had meant to her. He should have been off-limits to her forever.
“It was…after us.” Finally he let go of the handle and faced her. “One summer during college.”
“What?” Missy couldn’t believe it. How didn’t she know about this?
“Melissa—”
“Nobody calls me that, Officer Brock. Everybody calls me Missy.”
She pushed past him on her way out.
Chapter Four
All four feet, eleven inches of the librarian Ruby was waiting for Missy when she left the building and headed for her car.
“Hey, Miss. How did it go?”
Missy was in no mood to talk. It was late. It was cold. Her best friend had dated her first love behind her back…and maybe “dated” wasn’t even the right word. And because she was up later than usual, she was feeling a little hungry also which wasn’t good.
She just wanted to get home to her Irish setter, Cody, and then climb into bed. This night couldn’t be over fast enough. Even better, she could sleep in as she wasn’t due at work till noon tomorrow. There was no better medicine than a good night’s sleep.
“It went fine.” Missy looked around for Noreen as she walked to her car.
Ruby made a pained face. “Does Tyler think it’s one of us?”
Missy waffled on what to tell her. Clearly, Tyler suspected Noreen. But Missy doubted he’d want her to broadcast his suspicions to everyone.
“I don’t know what he thinks,” Missy said. “But it almost has to be one of us, doesn’t it?”
Tears filled Ruby’s eyes. “I can’t believe this is happening. It’s like waking up and finding out gravity stopped working.”
Missy nodded, wondering where Ruby got that simile from. It didn’t quite fit but it was hardly the time to debate the finer points of literature. As a matter of fact, debating the finer points had ended in bloodshed.
Missy realized she was being a little inconsiderate of Ruby. The woman had gone out of her way to get them access to the library for these Book Clubs and had risked bringing wine in. When Missy had gotten this thing started, Ruby had been the first to raise a hand. Nobody else had.
“Hey, I’m sorry I keep forgetting to ask.” Missy rubbed her shoulder. “Is your boss upset?”
Ruby hung her head. “I think I just lost my job. Christina said she wanted to take the night to think about it and asked me to come in tomorrow morning on my day off.”
Missy said nothing. She hadn’t had a lot of jobs in her life, but even she could tell the writing was on the wall for Ruby. That old battle ax, Christina, wouldn’t have called Ruby in on her day off just to reprimand her.
But Missy didn’t have the heart to tell her that. The other woman looked like she was ready to break in two.
Missy touched her shoulder. “Sorry, Ruby. I hope everything works out.”
“Thanks, Missy. Thanks.”
For a moment it looked like Ruby wanted to say something more. But the soon-to-be ex-librarian bottled it up, whatever it was. With a grim smile, she nodded as if she’d just come to terms with the fact she’d be out of a job tomorrow morning. Missy’s heart went out to her. For the last couple years, Missy had been waiting for Books and Crannies to close or be bought or go through another transformation where her services would no longer be required. It had been a nagging worry. But at least she still had a job. What was happening to Ruby was a hundred times worse.
Missy watched as Ruby walked with her head down to her car. She felt bad for the woman. She was only a few years out of college and now she was about to get fired from her first job. Ruby had gone to school for library science and come back home at the perfect time to accept the recently-vacated position of Assistant Librarian. Tomorrow she would be fired. How was she ever going to get another library job after this?
She wanted to offer some words of encouragement, but as usual at a time like this, she found herself tongue-tied.
Missy saw Noreen walking toward her, yet another cigarette in her mouth.
“You need to stop with those things,” Missy said.
“Tell me about it.” Noreen stopped beside her. “So. You made it out of there alive. Or did Tyler hold you back for other things?”
Missy smiled but she couldn’t stop thinking about Noreen and Tyler being together, even if it was years ago and even if it was after Missy and Tyler had dated. It shouldn’t have bothered her. It had happened a long time ago.
But for Missy, it had just happened.
“So?” Noreen asked. “Do I need to call an attorney?”
She took another short drag on her smoke and smiled, but Missy could tell it was forced. Noreen couldn’t stop fidgeting or keep her eyes steady on anything.
Missy knew she shouldn’t be saying this because it would be a betrayal of sorts to Tyler, but then again she herself felt betrayed.
“Noreen, all kidding aside, you might want to think about getting an attorney.”
“I wasn’t kidding!” she yelled. Noreen took one last drag and angrily flicked her cigarette away. “I know how it looks and the way he was questioning me…God, he talked to me like I was a criminal.”
Missy found that hard to believe. Tyler was a cop and these days he was pretty buttoned up, especially on the job, but he wasn’t cruel. She’d seen how conflicted he was when they’d talked.
“If they arrest me, Miss, I really need your help.”
Missy almost said no, but she bit her tongue. She would have been saying no for the wrong reasons. Her mother was right. If Noreen got into trouble, Missy should do everything in her power to help. Friends like Noreen didn’t come along often.
“Wait, are you actually mad at me?”
Missy realized she hadn’t answered Noreen’s question about helping her. “What? No. Of course not. I was thinking about how I could help you.”
“Well, it’s pretty obvious isn’t it? If they arrest me I need you to investigate like you did when Albert Switzer was killed.”
Missy chewed on her bottom lip. “Nor, it was blind luck that I identified the murderer last time. All my investigating didn’t help an iota.”
“So you’re not going to try?” Noreen grabbed her. Her fingers dug into Missy’s shoulders. “Missy, I’m in serious trouble here. Please.”
“Noreen, take it easy,” Missy said. “We both know you didn’t do this. Tyler is just being careful, like he was careful with me and my mother last time.” Missy shook her head at the memory of Mom getting arrested and of the chief later wanting to bring Missy in. She knew what it was like to be under suspicion of doing something awful. It weighed on you heavily. “He can’t just ignore the facts. He has to work through them and show how it can’t be you. You know what I mean?”
“Yes.” Noreen smiled, for a second. Then her eyes widened.
“Noreen?”
Missy turned. Tyler was standing five feet away, one of his deputies next to him. They looked very official, like they were about to do something.
“Yes?” Noreen put on a brave face.
“We’d like to ask you some more questions.”
Noreen didn’t respond for a moment. Her eyes darted from Tyler to Missy and back. Then she remembered to smile. It was the fakest smile Missy had ever seen and that was saying something, because she’d been to high school.
“Sure. Where ca
n we go?”
Tyler motioned behind him. “Inside again. Please.”
“Okay. Sure! No problem.” Noreen started walking and Missy knew she was in real trouble now. Before Noreen reached the sidewalk in front of the library, she looked back over her shoulder and mouthed some words:
Help me.
Chapter Five
Eventually one of the cops told Missy she had to go home. Another twenty minutes had passed and Noreen was still inside the library, facing Tyler’s questions again. When she opened her mouth to protest, the cop cut her off.
“We’ll make sure she gets home safe and sound. You go on ahead now.”
Missy didn’t care for his tone. The cop was really a kid. His youth hit home for her. She had probably been just starting high school when he was born. It made her feel old.
Missy smiled politely and got into her car. Her phone had died over an hour ago, so she plugged it into the charger.
As she exited the parking lot, the phone buzzed signaling a voicemail or text. It was probably from earlier when the phone was dead. She figured it was her mother, probably calling to check in and make sure Missy was okay.
She got home fifteen minutes later. Her exhaustion was bone-deep. Cody met her at the front door. Missy rubbed her back, loving the feel of her rust-colored coat. Cody immediately plopped down and rolled onto her back, begging for the belly rub. Missy was happy to comply. The dog, after all, had saved her life six months ago.
Each step upstairs required effort, she was so tired. Cody ran right past her, full of boundless energy. In her bedroom, Missy got changed into her favorite pajamas, loving how they were a little loose in the hips now.
She climbed into bed and the cold sting of the fresh sheets was invigorating. She plugged her phone into the charger and put it on the nightstand before pulling her bedspread up.
It was then she remembered she had a message.
Exhausted, Missy turned out the light and rolled over. The message would be waiting for her tomorrow when she woke up. Whenever she woke up. Tomorrow was that rare day where she could sleep in. It would feel great.
Missy DeMeanor Cozy Mysteries Boxset Page 16