Lost Books and Old Bones

by Paige Shelton

  “The bookshop? You were just there one day and heard Edwin and a friend talking about Burke and Hare? You cooked all this up from that?”

  “No! I was at the bookshop because I figured out my husband gave those two stupid women some of our books to keep them quiet about Mallory and Jack. I found out they’d sold them to Edwin MacAlister! I visited the shop, and he and his friend were talking about Burke and Hare. It was a sign, something telling me I could frame my idiot husband easily. That’s when I started cooking all of this up.”

  Oh! I thought. Sophie and Rena were given the books to bribe them to keep quiet about Mallory having an affair with an older man. Who, I wondered, did they think he was? If it wasn’t until after Mallory’s murder that they realized he was Dr. Glenn, no wonder they behaved the way they did.

  “Well…” I said. She was brilliant and fierce, but I didn’t want to give her credit for either.

  Though I wasn’t sure exactly what to believe, it had become clear that the only thing that could save the people who remained alive, the only hope really, was me. No one would believe anyone but me if they were to hear what had transpired in this anatomy theater. In fact, they might not believe me the whole way, but I stood a better chance than anyone else. I had to survive and talk to the police, tell them what Meg Carson had confessed.

  But Lily had to survive too. She shouldn’t have to suffer anymore. I didn’t know how much longer Dr. Carson would revel in her glories. She was going to kill more people if she wasn’t stopped. Immediately. I shared a quick look with Jack Glenn, only long enough so we’d get on the same page, have the same plan.

  If he charged at the same time I did, hopefully we could stop Dr. Carson before the scalpel hit home.

  A blink and a half later we were charging.

  THIRTY-FIVE

  I let loose a string of the worst words you could think of, used in the most terrible ways possible.

  “I know, that hurt. You’ll feel better in a second,” Jack Glenn said after he put my shoulder back into place.

  He wasn’t really a doctor, but he sure knew how to put a shoulder back into place. My arm had been hanging funny, but the paramedics hadn’t arrived yet. He’d offered to put me back together. Caught in the moment and in more pain than anyone should be, I told him it was okay.

  We’d charged. And somehow, we saved his daughter from too much damage. The scalpel grazed her forearm before it pierced Meg Carson’s shoe and foot, causing her to forget she was planning another killing spree.

  Tom answered when I called, after I called the police while Jack held Meg Carson down. She couldn’t have gone far anyway.

  “Where’d you go?” he asked.

  I told him, and he and Artair arrived right after my shoulder was fixed.

  Inspector Pierce put Dr. Carson, her foot wrapped by a paramedic, in a police car and then turned to face Jack, Lily, Tom, Artair, me, and Dr. Eban, who’d shown up with big freaked-out eyes. He handcuffed Jack even after I gave him a rundown of Dr. Carson’s confession.

  “I need a room where we can all go and talk about what’s going on here. You’re probably all going to be under arrest for something, but I’d prefer to get some facts here first.” He looked at me. “Call your attorneys if you want to.”

  Artair guided us to a conference room in the library. I’m sure there was a moment of humor in our march across George Square, Artair in the lead, Inspector Pierce and another officer, Reynolds, following behind, but none of us were laughing. In turn, Inspector Pierce, Tom, Artair, and Gaylord asked if I needed to be taken to the hospital. I told them that I was sore, but could move everything just fine. I was eventually going to be really sore and bruised, but I wanted to get this over with.

  Tom called Gaylord, who ended up being the only attorney in the room, but stated that he wasn’t officially representing anyone. No protests were voiced.

  “What happened to lead you over to the anatomy theater?” Inspector Piece began with me after we all sat down.

  Instead of just answering the question, I gave him the entire rundown of what had happened at the bookshop with Bridget beforehand. Those in the room, even those who’d already heard the story, gave me their undivided attention.

  “Wait, though,” Inspector Pierce said. “This man,” he nodded at Jack, “was forcing you to go into the theater?” He looked at Lily.

  “No, not forcing,” she said. “We were just going inside in a hurry. He’s not really recognizable, but we try to be careful, and we often meet in George Square and Dr. Eban’s theater.”

  “Yes,” Dr. Eban said. “They were welcome to go to my theater anytime.”

  “How long has this been going on?” Inspector Pierce asked.

  Lily looked like she didn’t want to answer.

  “I’ve seen my daughter every week since Meg Carson killed her mother, and almost every day since she began school here,” Jack said.

  A hum of disbelief filled the room, but Inspector Pierce held up his hand to end it. He looked at Jack. “All the evidence pointed to you. I’m still not convinced you aren’t a killer.”

  “She framed me,” Dr. Glenn repeated.

  “She confessed in the theater,” I repeated. “She confessed to everything, Inspector Pierce.”

  “Did you record it?” he asked me.

  “No,” I said. “But I’ll testify.”

  Gaylord nodded approvingly.

  “You still impersonated a doctor a decade ago,” Inspector Pierce said. “You’re in some trouble.”

  “I’m aware.”

  “He’s a good man,” Dr. Eban said. “He wasn’t properly educated, but he’s brilliant. I fell for his act at first too, back then, but when it became clear that he really wasn’t a doctor, I had a hard time not forgiving him. He really was brilliant, self-educated in ways he never would have been in medical school. I’m not justifying his actions, but I will testify on his behalf in whatever way he requires.”

  Dr. Eban had been shaken. His wife’s evil had been exposed, and he was confessing to having known about Jack’s activities and whereabouts. However, at some point since we’d come into the library, a calm had overtaken him. I wondered if the truth was setting him free.

  “I don’t understand why in the world no one came forward to vouch for Jack, tell the police the killer was Dr. Carson. That makes no earthly sense to me,” Inspector Pierce said.

  “She was that good, Inspector,” Dr. Eban said. “She had us all where she wanted us. The evidence of murder would only have pointed to Dr. Glenn. She would have won. You were looking at me for Mallory. She would have accomplished framing me too, given just a little more time.”

  Who had won now? I wondered, but didn’t say it out loud.

  Inspector Pierce looked at Jack again. “You had an affair with Mallory?”

  “I did. I loved her. She loved me,” he said. “If not for everything else, we would just have been an old guy with a young woman, maybe laughed at, mocked, gossiped about. When Mallory understood who I was, she loved me enough to keep the secret. I can’t give you a better answer than that, but I’m devastated that she’s gone.”

  “Were you at the pub where Mallory was the night she was killed?” I asked. No one seemed bothered by the question.

  “I was. I often went places she or Lily were, just to be near them.”

  I wished I’d somehow put all of that together sooner, but I didn’t know how I could have.

  “How did Dr. Carson get Mallory to the close?” I asked. Inspector Pierce sent me a look of impatience this time, but he didn’t retract the question.

  “I don’t know. None of us knows,” Dr. Glenn said.

  I wished I’d asked her, but time had been running out in the anatomy theater.

  “She confessed to killing Mallory, though?” Inspector Pierce asked me again.

  “She did.” I looked at Dr. Eban. “You gave the books to Sophie and Rena to keep them quiet about Mallory and Dr. Glenn?”

  Dr. Eban nodde
d. “About Mallory and an older man. They didn’t know who he was. They were upset when they realized it.”

  “Which was when?” I asked.

  “The morning of the service for the corpses. That’s why we were there together after the service in the kirk; I was trying to ease their new concerns. I managed tae calm them down, but mostly because you were there tae distract them.” He paused, but we knew he had more to say. “If Meg hadn’t discovered that the books were missing from my collection, none of this would have happened. That’s what sent her looking into things.”

  “Why did you stay with her? Even before she began trying to frame you for Mallory’s murder, she had to be a … challenge,” Inspector Pierce said.

  Dr. Eban smiled sadly. “If I’d left her, she would have done something horrible and made me look guilty of it; it would have been just a matter of time. We were married, but we weren’t together.”

  He was odd, yes, and desperately lonely. I could see that now. I felt sorry for him, and I liked him; however, there might have been a way to make a better life for himself. But who knew what went on in other people’s lives? And it was impossible to understand others’ motivations without walking in their shoes.

  I sighed.

  “You asked me about the scalpels?” I said. “How did you know they were at the shop?”

  “That’s how we picked a bookshop for Sophie and Rena tae try tae sell the books. Dr. Glenn, Jack, had not too long ago told me about selling them years ago tae a woman who worked in a bookshop. He said that over the years, the legend of there being a room with treasures in it had grown. He wondered if that’s where they’d ended up. It was a casual conversation at the time.”

  “They were Dr. Knox’s?” I asked.

  “They aren’t real,” Jack said. “Just things I got at a conference I attended. A gimmick.”

  I nodded, but wasn’t sure I believed him.

  Inspector Pierce rubbed his hand over his chin and looked at each of us, one at a time. I didn’t know if he was looking for something or trying to convey a message.

  Finally, he spoke. “All right. Jack Glenn, Dr. Eban, and Lily, you’re coming with us. The rest of you may go,” Inspector Pierce said.

  As we left, I looked back at the three who were going with the police. They were scared, yes, but I saw something else too. A dim light of relief in their eyes, and maybe some hope. The lies were done, over. Tragedy had occurred, and it would be impossible to ever fully accept the murders, but at least these people’s lies could end.

  It was good to be outside, good to be free. Tom insisted on taking me to the hospital, but I said, “I’m fine,” as I sent one more look back at the building with the anatomy theater.

  I was really glad I’d survived.

  THIRTY-SIX

  “I am going to ace that test,” Sophie said with a fist pump.

  Rena and I laughed.

  “We have no doubt,” I said.

  “Drinks on me, ladies. Tom, pour us all something,” Sophie said to my pub owner.

  “Happy tae!” Tom said. He winked at me and grabbed some shot glasses. My friends would enjoy the whisky. He’d pour me something tamer.

  Rena lifted her shot glass. Sophie and I joined her.

  “To Mallory,” Rena said with a sad smile.

  “To Mallory,” Sophie and I said.

  Sophie and Rena had wanted to meet me at Tom’s pub tonight. We were part of an enthusiast crowd watching a football game on the television Tom had mounted on the wall.

  Sophie and Rena had stayed in school, realizing that it would have been what Mallory wanted. They were still mourning their friend, probably would in one way or another forever, but hopefully honoring her too. They told me it had been a tough month, and they wanted to thank me and see Tom, since they hadn’t seen him in some time either.

  “Oh, that’s so good,” Sophie said as she set the glass down for Tom to pour another. He did.

  “You know,” Rena said to me, “we’re sorry we were so mysterious tae you. That night, I knew about Mallory seeing an older man, but I tried to divert you with a lie about Sophie because I thought she’d told you something she shouldn’t have when you two were in the loo—that she’d seen Mallory and the man together, that we thought we’d figured out who he was, and why we had the books, and … well, it was such a mess. After I got home that night, I went back out tae meet Dr. Eban. It was a planned meeting—we had to meet late at night, in places his wife wouldn’t find us. She was everywhere and into everything. Anyway, I wanted tae tell him that I wanted tae get the books back from the shop and return the money, but he convinced me not tae. By then, though, it was too late to change anything.”

  It had been too late. In fact, Dr. Meg Carson had lured Mallory to the bookshop with her own lie. She’d confessed to telling Mallory that if she didn’t break into the bookshop and retrieve the books that Dr. Eban gave to Sophie and Rena to keep them quiet, she would tell Boris Clacher that his daughter was having an affair with the one and only murderer, Dr. Glenn. The scalpels had had nothing to do with the murder. Dr. Carson had even jimmied the lock of the bookshop’s front door and left it slightly open, just to confuse whoever found it that way.

  Both Dr. Carson and Dr. Eban knew what books I was referring to when I went to the university to allegedly find out more information about them. Apparently, Dr. Carson pretended not to know to see if there was any way she could frame me or Edwin for any of her evil deeds. Dr. Eban had just played along with the act, thinking that his curiosity might somehow help. Yes, it was a huge mess.

  With Joshua’s help, I’d researched the scalpels. They weren’t trinkets—they were the real thing. I wasn’t sure what I would do with that information at this point, but for now, it was just another secret, another one for the secret room in the greatest bookshop of all time.

  “I’m so sorry about it all,” Rena continued.

  “Me too,” Sophie said. “Me too.”

  I nodded.

  Sophie and Rena’s medical school paperwork was found. They were who they said they were. Rena had written down an incorrect phone number for her father regarding the provenance of the books, but that was only because she was trying to hide the fact they were from Dr. Eban. Dr. Eban refused to further admit that the books were used for blackmail. After that day in the library, he stuck by the story that he’d just given them the books out of the kindness of his heart. Sophie and Rena were in no trouble at all, except for the pain from Mallory’s murder that would always be a part of their lives.

  “We’re either going tae give the money back tae your boss or the medical school for research,” Sophie said.

  “And he’ll give the school the books. They can doubly benefit.” That was one transaction I knew I didn’t need to get approved.

  “Aye? That’s too much tae ask,” Rena said.

  “Edwin would be thrilled,” I said.

  “This is the best whisky I’ve ever tasted,” Sophie said.

  I made note to watch my back for spills tonight.

  Two of the soccer fans, in a moment of celebration over a goal being scored, walked over and introduced themselves to Sophie and Rena. I already knew them as regulars. They greeted me, then asked Sophie and Rena to join them the few steps away at their table for some celebratory drinks.

  I told them to go and have fun.

  I sidled up to a stool and watched my pub owner as he waited on another customer. He was fun to watch.

  Dr. Glenn, now known only as Jack Glenn, had been arrested, but charges were pending and muddled. A trial date had yet to be set, and I wondered if the police just wanted to put him somewhere until they could make sure he really hadn’t killed anyone. His daughter, Lily, was now in a flat all her own, and no longer a student at the university. She visited her father in prison every day.

  Lily knew what had happened to Mallory, or at least she’d guessed. She also knew she had to keep her father hidden. She knew the rumors were that Mallory was having an affair
with an older man, so she had mentioned Dr. Eban to me, in a shock and fear-induced reaction to Mallory’s murder. She’d seen her lie as a way to continue to keep her father’s whereabouts hidden, or not even considered. She and I hadn’t spoken after we saved each other in the theater, but I hoped to talk to her someday. Her life had been bizarre and punctuated by so much violence, and I still thought she would ultimately be okay. The resiliency of the human spirit. I couldn’t believe that she and her father had been in Edinburgh, him not far away undercover in a distant land. He’d been hiding in plain sight, maybe. There was no grandfather in Virginia; that was another lie. I didn’t know where Lily would end up, but truthfully, I was fascinated by her and her father.

  Dr. Eban was also in some trouble, but he hadn’t been arrested. Though I hadn’t seen him again, I’d thought about taking him the scalpels. I liked the guy, and felt maybe he should be the one to have them. I hadn’t decided yet.

  Meg Carson was a criminal mastermind. Fierce, intelligent, and now in prison for the rest of her life. Driven by a need to control everyone and everything, and to be worshipped and obeyed, she had killed, and she had left ruination in her wake. I hoped all truths would come out, but much of the damage done couldn’t be undone. I was more sickened than fascinated by her, and I had no desire to ever see her again.

  “Where’re your thoughts?” Tom asked as he came back over to my side of the bar.

  “On you,” I said in my best flirtatious voice.

  Tom laughed. I wasn’t very good with flirtatious voices.

  “Here, I’d like you tae try something.” He reached under the bar and pulled out a shot glass and set it in front of me.

  “Oh. What is it?” I asked, still not into the Scottish spirit of drinking.

  “Just try it,” he said with a smile.

  “You have amazing eyes,” I said as I lifted the glass.

  He reached out and stopped my hands from making it all the way to my mouth. “You need tae stop looking at my eyes, as much as I enjoy looking right back at yours, and look at the glass.”