by E. M. Moore
I looked up at the building Jackson parked in front of. “And a roommate? Who has better opportunity?”
“Exactly,” Jackson said. “I know she was the last person to see her alive, and since I now know she’s not a grieving roommate, she just became a little more interesting to me.”
Chapter Ten
Jackson and I sat on what must have been Taylor’s bed. There was nothing there now, just a simple mattress, bare walls, and an empty desk. Boxes were stacked in the corner. Rae, who’d almost went white when we introduced ourselves, was now a little pink in the face. She motioned toward the boxes. “I boxed up everything for Taylor’s family. Her mother wasn’t ready to do it yet, so I volunteered. I’m not sure when they’re going to come get them.”
Rae was such a petite little thing that I couldn’t picture her killing Taylor, and contrary to what Molly told us, she was pretty convincing playing the crushed roommate.
“Must be hard having her gone.”
Rae blinked, tears forming in the corners of her eyes as she looked at the blank wall behind us. “Very.”
I wanted to choke.
“You seemed really upset at the funeral,” Jackson offered. I looked over at him, his eyes gleamed under the fluorescent light.
Rae wrung her hands in her lap and looked down. “It was…difficult.” Her whole body sighed and then she looked up at us. “Is there anything that you need?” she asked, innocently as she tried to figure out the reason why we were there. “Something of Taylor’s maybe…”
Jackson moved to the edge of the bed. The tension in the room ratcheted up, or maybe it was just me when I realized Jackson was about to lay down the law. “Do you know who Molly Lamb is?”
Rae screwed up her expression, looking to the ceiling as she thought. “Molly? Hmm.”
Jackson smiled. “You have biology with her.”
“Oh. Yes,” Rae said. By some miracle she remembered who Molly was just as Jackson told her how she knew her.
Jackson scratched his chin. “We were just talking to Molly, as well as the other theater students involved in the play.”
“I bet Molly had some things to say,” Rae said. “Taylor got the main part, and Molly really wanted it. Taylor was a good actress though. She was always talking about theater.”
Apparently, she wasn’t the only one who was a good actress. “You know,” I started. “Molly had some things to say about you…”
“Me?”
Jackson nodded. “Apparently in biology class you would both commiserate on how much of a horrible person Taylor was.”
Rae’s mouth dropped. “Well, I might have said a few things, but that’s because I don’t like confrontation. I was just agreeing with Molly to agree with her. She was so angry when Taylor got that part.”
“I don’t think that’s all,” Jackson said. “Not according to Molly. I’m going to tell you the same thing I told her. It doesn’t do any good to lie. I will find out the truth and if you lie to me now, it’s just going to be worse for you later.”
“We are talking about a dead person here,” I said, my voice hardening. “This is about someone’s life that was taken away prematurely. We don’t care about your arguments, but we are trying to figure out what happened to her, and it doesn’t work if everyone is lying to us. So, Rae, please tell us what kind of relationship you did have with Taylor.”
Actual tears ran down Rae’s face now. She stared up at the ceiling once again, her throat working. She stood, her arms snaking around her chest. “Fine. I didn’t like her.”
Her whole demeanor changed. She went from small, sad girl, to a force to be reckoned with.
Jackson eyed her up and down. “Now we’re getting somewhere. Tell us what was going on between you two.”
“Taylor was just…ugh. She was the worst roommate ever. At first, I thought we were really going to like rooming with one another. We talked to each other on the phone before we came and got along great, but once we got here, it was as if she was a completely different person. She knew how important school is to me and she assured me it was important to her, too. Well, it certainly didn’t seem that way. She was out at all hours of the night. People would call her in the middle of the night when she was actually in here, and she would get up to go. I could only assume to meet them. It was worse when she was dating Reggie. She used to bring him back here, and they’d…do things…when they thought I was sleeping. It was disgusting.”
I cringed. Ew. I was sitting on that bed now.
“I thought after they broke up that I’d have a reprieve, but no, it just started up all over again. Late night phone calls, her whispering—loudly—that she’d be right there. I never saw her do any homework, and when she was in the room and I was doing mine, she didn’t try to be quiet. She’d turn the TV on, listen to her music—without headphones—and pretend I wasn’t even here. It was so rude.”
That actually sounded horrible. I would’ve hated having a roommate like that too.
“Do you know who these people were who called her?”
“Well, she got into Wicca,” Rae said under her breath.
Oh, here we go. Someone who didn’t know a single thing about what Wicca was trying to make it seem like it was a terrible thing and Taylor was a terrible person for doing it.
“We’re aware,” Jackson said. “You think they were the ones calling her in the middle of the night?”
Rae shrugged. “That, or she had a boyfriend she wanted to hide. She always whispered, but it didn’t matter, the actual phone ringing woke me up time and time again, so it didn’t matter if she whispered when she’d answered it. It sounded like a relationship, kind of. I didn’t listen too much because I was always super pissed, but it seemed like flirtatious banter, and ‘okay, I’ll be right there’, kind of thing. I doubted they were going to go study at two a.m.”
“But you don’t know who this person was? Did it seem like one person? Or multiple people?”
Rae finally sat back down on her bed. “It was hard to tell, but the phone calls were consistent, so it made me think one person. I really have no idea who it was. I knew about Reggie, so it wasn’t like her to keep boyfriends away from me, unless there was a reason for her to. She never brought someone over here again after Reggie, but these phone calls started up right after. Part of me was thrilled I wouldn’t have to listen to all that, but it was just the freaking blaring cell phone ringing in the middle of the night that would set me off. I have morning classes. I set it up that way because I’d rather go to class and get it over with and come back home and do my homework than starting my day in the afternoon and working into the night. I just don’t work well that way, but every night she got that phone call, I’d be a mess in the morning because I don’t fall back asleep easily.”
I didn’t think I’d get along with Taylor either by Rae’s account of her. But, everyone had their own quirks.
“Do you know of anyone who might’ve known who this mystery person was who called Taylor at night?” Jackson asked.
Rae shrugged and looked wistfully at her open textbook on her desk. “Definitely not her parents. They’re clueless as to what happened here. Plus, they’re good people. The only other people she hung around with all the time were the theater people, so one of them might know. One of them besides Molly because Molly tried to avoid her at all costs. I doubt she’d have any inside information. Besides, I’m sure what Molly told you about Taylor is all true. You should’ve heard the way Taylor would talk about the other people in the theater production. She hated most of them and told me all about how they were talentless. Except for Mr. Lyle. She liked him.”
Jackson stood, and I followed suit. He looked down at Rae. “Thank you for being honest with us. If you hear of anything, please let us know.”
“I will.”
Jackson and I left, him biting his lip the entire way out to the car.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
He shook his head. “It just doesn’t make se
nse. I ran Taylor’s phone call records, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. No late-night phone calls. It was just calls to her parents, and other family members. Something like several calls in the middle of the night would’ve tipped me off.”
“You think she had more than one phone? Or maybe it was the dorm phone?”
Jackson rubbed his cheek. “I thought that too, but then Rae said specifically that it was a cell phone, so I’m not sure. And if Taylor had a secret cell phone that’s definitely something to go on. It meant she wanted to hide something.”
“Maybe not something,” I said, “…but someone?”
Chapter Eleven
As soon as we got in the car, Jackson’s cell phone rang. “It’s Dezi,” he told me before answering it. “What’s up?”
I didn’t hear what Dezi said on the other line, but I saw Jackson’s reaction and that was enough to let me know something big had happened.
“We’ll be right there.”
Apparently, I was taking a longer lunch than I should be. I pulled my phone out and sent a text to Mrs. Ward telling her that I was still with Jackson and would need her to watch the desk for me. It didn’t take her long to respond. I swear she was a Jedi Master at technology unless it was convenient for her not to be.
Jackson pulled away from the curb a lot harsher than he usually did. He pushed on the gas pedal and the car roared to life underneath us. I finally looked over at him after grabbing the door for safety. “What’s going on?”
He shook his head as if he was just now realizing I was with him in the car. He slowed down minutely. “Dezi said there’s something at the station that showed up I need to see. It has to do with the case and will significantly narrow down who we’re looking at.”
“That’s great,” I said. I pictured Taylor’s parents’ devastation at the funeral. Even if Taylor and I wouldn’t have gotten along in real life, that didn’t mean her murder didn’t deserve to be solved, and her family needed justice and answers.
We flew through the town until he squealed to a halt in front of the station. He got out and jogged around the other side of the car in time for me to only take my seatbelt off. He opened the car door for me and I smiled up at him. “Thanks.”
He didn’t answer but waited for me to stand and then shut the door behind us as he jogged up the front steps to the station. Dezi already waited in Jackson’s office when we got there. He tipped his head at me before throwing down an envelope on Jackson’s desk. “I’m not sure when these got here. I checked the cameras in the last few hours and didn’t find anything so far, but they were in your mailbox.”
Jackson stuck his hand in the envelope and pulled out sheets of paper. On the sheets of paper were typed messages. Jackson read one after the other and then handed them off to me. The letters seemed like convoluted love letters. They all ended with “Love, Taylor”, but the contents of them weren’t all sunshine and roses. Even though they didn’t have the recipient’s name on them, it wasn’t hard to figure out who they were intended for.
Edward Lyle.
Edward Lyle and Taylor were having an affair. Worse yet, Taylor had tried to use their affair against him. She wanted Edward to tell his family that they were together, and if he didn’t, she was going to tell them herself.
When Jackson and I both looked up, Dezi finally spoke. “Seems like a damn good reason for murder to me.”
“So, this must’ve been the person who had the secret phone calls with Taylor,” I mused.
Jackson filled Dezi in on the conversations we had with Molly and Rae. Dezi shook his head. “Well, we definitely have the secret boyfriend then. Taylor was having an affair with Edward Lyle.”
“Rae did say he was the only person in the theater department Taylor could stand. If he didn’t want his family to find out, and Taylor couldn’t have been talked out of telling them…”
Jackson plopped down in his seat. “It’s still a little thin. We need that extra phone of Taylor’s.” Jackson turned to Dezi. “Could you go to Taylor’s dorm room and look through the boxes of Taylor’s things? Maybe Molly just kind of tossed things in there without really looking. Then, we can match phone records, and possibly even get our hands on some text messages proving the relationship. That would be ideal.”
Dezi gave Jackson a small salute and then winked at me on his way out the door. I watched him go and then turned toward Jackson. “What are we going to do?”
He sat back, thinking, not answering right away. “I think we have to go talk to Lyle. If he did kill Taylor, I don’t want him near those other kids.” He looked up at me. “Actually, I’m going to go have a talk with Lyle. You can go back to work.”
“Why?”
He looked at me, dumbfounded. “Why? Because if he did kill Taylor, I don’t want you near him either.”
“I’ve already been near him.”
“That’s before we knew he was a threat. If I go over there asking him about the relationship between him and Taylor and he gets mad—no. You’re not going.”
I took a deep breath. I didn’t like the idea of him going over there to talk with Edward Lyle either. What about his safety? I didn’t voice the concerns though because I knew what he would say. He was a trained professional. He carried a gun. He could handle himself.
I had to agree that I may have been out of my league when it came to this part of the investigation. Not that I hadn’t found myself in the middle of the end scenarios before, but I preferred the investigation part better.
“Fine,” I said, relenting, “But I want you to be careful.”
“I will,” he said.
I stood up and looked at the door before turning around. “Promise?”
He stood up, too. He rubbed the back of his neck and then looked me right in the eyes. “I was thinking, maybe we could go out again sometime.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “We go out all the time.”
“I mean,” he said, his cheeks turning ruddy. “Like when I took you out to the Danvers Hotel and we got dinner.”
“You hated that because I left in the middle of dinner and followed the Danvers around their hotel because I thought they hurt Mr. Paladino.”
He smirked. “Okay, let me try this again. I’d like to hang out with you outside of both of our works, meaning not talking about the library and not talking about or investigating any sort of case I’m working on. Just the two of us. No Mom, or Mel, or—”
“Just the two of us?” My heart fluttered.
He nodded.
Then, I found myself nodding before even thinking it over. It was probably a good thing too because I would’ve overthought it. “Yes,” I told him, squaring my shoulders. “Let’s do that…sometime.”
He came around the side of the desk and bent over slightly, brushing a kiss against my forehead. He then turned, leaving me almost breathless as he pulled his coat on and ushered me out the door. “I’ll let you know what happens with Lyle.”
We walked out the entrance and I waved as he got into his vehicle. “Be careful,” I called out.
He waved as he got into the car, and I wasn’t sure if he’d heard me say that last thing. I watched him pull away and then wandered toward my car. When I got in and started the car, I didn’t turn toward the library. Instead, I followed Jackson.
There was no way I was going to let him go talk to a suspected murderer without someone else there. I could hide in the background and only show up if he needed me. I had a cell phone, I could call Dezi right away if he needed something.
The inside of the car was suddenly hot as I confirmed my decision by taking the bridge over to the more modern side of Salem where the college was located.
Jackson had asked me out, and I certainly wasn’t going to let someone who asked me out run into trouble without help.
That’s just not what librarians did. Or, better yet, that’s just not what Maddie Styles did. If I’d have watched over Derek, maybe he would’ve lived.
I groaned, really wis
hing I had the time to make a pro-con list about this decision, but with Jackson already on his way, I didn’t have a spare moment. I pushed on the gas harder.
Chapter Twelve
There was plenty of room at the back of the stage to stand back and wait while Jackson talked to Lyle.
I stood on the other side of a small break in the theater curtain, staring out at Jackson and Edward Lyle as they spoke. I didn’t think Jackson had gotten to the good part yet because Mr. Lyle didn’t seem upset at all. Just then, though, Molly Lamb hopped up on the stage.
I was torn. Jackson was now outnumbered and if something happened, Molly would be caught in it. I took a deep breath and stepped through the break. Lyle turned to me and before he could ask me why I was hiding out back there, I faced a very surprised Jackson and said, “Sorry I’m late.”
His eyes narrowed.
Too bad. He’d just have to get over it.
“So, why are you here again?” Mr. Lyle asked. “Molly and I are here to go over her lines for opening weekend. We answered all of your questions earlier.”
Jackson, finally taking his heated gaze off me, said, “We got some new information, so I needed to come down here and discuss it with you.” Jackson reached into the back of his coat and pulled out the manila envelope.
Molly’s eyes widened as he pulled out the letters. I tried to angle myself toward her in case something happened and she needed to be protected, but instead, she burst out into tears.
Jackson and I took a step back.
“Oh god,” she said, her voice wavering. “I sent them.”
“You gave these to me?” Jackson asked, his voice rising in disbelief.
She shook her head. “No. I found out about the affair between Mr. Lyle and Taylor and I wrote those up and sent them to him. It’s not his fault.”