“It won’t help to argue with them,” Liss said as the officers started up the stairs. “Let me go make sure Margaret reads the paperwork before she lets them in. That’s about all we can do at this point.”
“What do they think they’re going to find?” Mac demanded.
“They already have the murder weapon.” As soon as Vi’s words were out, the color receded from her face. “Oh, dear.”
“Oh, dear?” But before her mother could explain, Liss realized what must be going through Vi’s mind. As the one person besides the murderer and the police to have seen the knife used to kill Jasper Spinner, she knew what it looked like. “Let me guess. It was an ordinary kitchen knife.”
Vi grimaced. “I didn’t see much more than the handle, but I think it was a boning knife. It looked like part of a set.”
Liss sprinted for the stairs. The police were already knocking, which sparked an answering spate of frantic barking from inside the apartment.
“Hush up, you two,” Margaret called to the two Scotties. A moment later, she opened the door. “Hello, Gordon. Gentlemen. What can I do for you?”
Although Liss took the stairs two at a time, the three officers were already inside by the time she reached the landing. Margaret held the search warrant, her face as pale as Vi’s had been and her hands trembling a bit as she read it. When she’d finished, she passed the paperwork to her niece without comment.
The warrant didn’t specify what it was that the police were looking for, but the mere fact that it had been issued meant that there was probable cause to think that Margaret was hiding something. Gordon and his henchmen had been granted the right to riffle through any and all of her possessions, an invasion of privacy that was almost as hard on an innocent person as it would be on someone who’d committed a crime.
“They aren’t going to find anything.” Liss slipped one arm around her aunt’s waist in a show of solidarity.
“Of course not. There’s nothing to find.” But she couldn’t conceal her anxiety. She kept her hands clasped in front of her to control the tremors.
Standing together in the middle of the living room, they watched the searchers. With the two Scotties trotting along at his heels, Gordon headed straight for the kitchen. Not a good sign, Liss thought. She put her mouth close to Margaret’s ear.
“Are you missing any knives?”
Margaret sucked in a sharp breath and turned wide, frightened eyes on her niece.
Liss’s heart beat a little faster. “Tell me,” she whispered.
“I only noticed this morning. I hardly ever roast anything just for myself, so I only use my carving knives once in a blue moon. Most of the time my knife rack just sits there on the counter, gathering dust. When I need to slice something, I pull a paring knife or a serrated bread knife out of the cutlery drawer.”
“And this morning?” Liss continued to keep her voice low, even though all three officers had by now left the living room.
“I was going to toast an English muffin for breakfast and the split-with-a-fork technique didn’t work and I was closer to the knife rack than the cutlery drawer, so I reached for the paring knife that’s part of the set and that’s when I noticed the empty space. My boning knife is missing.”
“Damn.”
“That’s what he was killed with, isn’t it?”
“I think so. But how on earth did the killer get hold of it?”
Margaret’s forehead creased as she concentrated. “Well, I did take the dogs for that walk on Saturday.”
Liss nodded. “I saw you when you went into the square.” They’d used the outside stairs both going and coming, instead of the flight that came out behind the sales counter inside the Emporium. “Was the door still locked when you got back?”
“It was still unlocked.” Margaret made a “What can I say?” gesture with both hands. “I didn’t intend to be gone long, and you were right downstairs in the shop. It wasn’t as if I was worried about being robbed.”
Liss bit back a groan. Even in a tiny, close-knit community like Moosetookalook, it was a good idea to take precautions. There were always strangers in town, and a few of the locals weren’t all that trustworthy either. For the most part, she and Dan locked both the front and back doors at their place, even with Dan spending most of every day in the workshop in their backyard.
“Did you notice anyone hanging around when you got back?”
“Not a soul, but there were plenty of people in the town square.” She sent Liss a quizzical look. “Do you remember having a customer come in around the time I would have returned? I thought I heard someone pounding on the shop door just as I was herding the dogs inside, but then I decided that I must have imagined it, because I knew it wasn’t yet closing time.”
“I locked up early and worked in the stockroom for the rest of the afternoon. I heard it, too, but I didn’t bother to go see who was there.” She wished now that she hadn’t ignored the knocking.
“Mrs. Boyd?” Gordon called from the kitchen.
After exchanging a worried glance, Margaret and Liss followed the sound of his voice. As Liss had feared, he was bagging Margaret’s knife rack as evidence. Her heart sank when she saw that it appeared to be remarkably dust-free.
“I’ll be taking this with me,” he said. “I’ll give you a receipt.”
The two Scotties sat at his feet, watching his every move with intense interest. One look at their bright-eyed, attentive faces must have been enough to convince him that he’d be wasting his time trying to shoo them away. To give herself time to think, Liss bent to stroke Dandy’s head. She had no idea what to say, or even if she should say anything.
Acknowledging Gordon’s announcement with the briefest of nods, Margaret walked past him to a wall hook where two leashes had been hung. She took them down and clipped them to the Scotties’ collars. “I think it might be best if we waited downstairs while you complete your search.” Her voice broke on the last word and she had to clear her throat. “I’ll be in the Emporium if you need me.”
“But, Margaret—”
“Come along, Liss.” She used the same tone she did when giving commands to Dandy and Dondi. “Let the police do their jobs.”
Controlled by their leashes, the Scotties had no choice but to allow Margaret to lead them away, but Liss could and did stay behind. She glared at Gordon. “You’ve no call to treat my aunt like a criminal.”
For a moment she thought his stone-faced expression might crack, but only the gruffness of his voice hinted that he might not be as unaffected as he seemed. “We can’t play favorites, Liss. We have to go where the evidence takes us.”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake! You know Margaret couldn’t kill a fly.”
His silence spoke volumes.
With one final fulminating look, Liss swept out of the kitchen in high dudgeon. She was on the landing when Gordon called her name. A moment later, he came out of the apartment after her, closing the door behind him.
“What? Don’t tell me you’re going to share information with a civilian?”
“I’m going to give this particular civilian a piece of advice.”
“You’ve already warned me not to meddle.”
“For all the good that did.”
“Well, spit it out then. What do you want to tell me?” In such close quarters, she felt overwhelmed by his greater size. She didn’t like that sensation one little bit.
“Get Margaret a lawyer. A good one. Someone who’s won criminal cases. And for God’s sake, make sure she does whatever he suggests.”
With that, he went back into the apartment, presumably to search for more evidence to use to convict Liss’s aunt of murdering Jasper Spinner. He shut the door gently, but Liss still winced. There was an awful finality about that soft thump.
* * *
Leaving Mac and Margaret to contact a lawyer, Liss and Vi went ahead with their plan to talk to everyone who had an upstairs window overlooking the town square. Discouragement dogged Liss’
s steps by the time she reached her last stop, Moosetookalook Public Library. She’d struck out everywhere else. Dolores Mayfield, town librarian and dedicated snoop and gossip, was her last hope.
The library was located on the upper floor of the municipal building. It had regular hours, but only twenty of them a week. Patrons had to plan their visits for one of the afternoons or the one evening it was open. Liss knew Dolores was often at work at other times, too, but she had a strict policy of not letting anyone else inside. Fortunately for Liss, Wednesday was one of the afternoons when the library was open. Even better, no one was there except Dolores when she arrived.
The librarian sat behind her high, oversized desk, keeping an eagle eye on the door. Liss got the distinct impression that Dolores had been waiting for her to arrive.
Well, of course she was, Liss thought. She’s probably been watching me go door to door, making my way from the Emporium to the municipal building.
The bank of tall windows behind Dolores’s desk gave her an excellent view of the town square, as well as of almost every building around its perimeter. At some point, to conserve energy, a few of the windows had been made smaller by the addition of wooden insets and insulation, but Dolores got around that problem by standing on the little step stool she used to reach books on the highest shelves. All in all, she didn’t miss much that could be seen from her vantage point.
In the past, Liss had resented being the object of Dolores’s scrutiny, and she’d taken the precaution of keeping her bedroom curtains drawn on the one evening the library was open. On this occasion, she was grateful for the librarian’s nosiness, especially if it led to the identification of a killer.
“I need your help, Dolores.”
“Looks like someone does. Those state troopers were in your place for a real long time. What did they want?”
“They’re still investigating the murder.” Liss hoped Dolores would leave it at that, but she didn’t count on it.
The librarian sent her a look, the kind that traveled from narrowed steel gray eyes through thick-lensed glasses and down a long, thin nose to drill into Liss’s forehead. She could almost feel it penetrate and dig deeper, searching for more dirt to excavate.
“I’m trying to get a handle on what went down Saturday afternoon. I don’t suppose you were still here by the time the body was discovered, but I was wondering if you’d noticed anything . . . peculiar earlier in the day.”
Liss skirted a long worktable and approached the checkout desk. Dolores’s stare never wavered, making Liss feel like a pinned butterfly, but she didn’t stop until she was standing right in front of the librarian. Positioning both palms flat on the highly polished wooden surface of the desk, she leaned in.
“You know what they’re saying around town. And you know that the police have it wrong. Help me figure out what really happened.”
Dolores made a sound that was half laugh and half snort. “I hear a lot of things. Maybe you should tell me what you think I know.”
So much for flattery! She should have remembered that Dolores believed in the barter system. Give a little. Get a little.
“The police searched Margaret’s apartment. They think the murder weapon belonged to her.”
“Did it?”
“Maybe. But she left the place unlocked while she was out walking the dogs on Saturday. Anyone could have gone in while she was away and taken a kitchen knife.”
“Why would they, though? Unless they wanted your aunt to be blamed for Jasper Spinner’s death.” Dolores’s lips pursed as she considered that possibility. “Seems pretty preposterous on the surface, but who knows? People do a lot of crazy things.”
“You didn’t happen to notice anyone hanging around the Emporium, either pounding on the door or sneaking around to the side where the stairs are?”
“Can’t say as I did.” Her eyes narrowed again. “What about you? I hear you were in the stockroom all afternoon. Your side door is situated right underneath the outside entrance to Margaret’s place.”
“I was doing my best to ignore the outside world. I even had earbuds in.”
A hint of sympathy lurked in Dolores’s expression but her words were harsh. “You have only yourself to blame then. No good ever comes from hiding yourself away.”
“What can I say? I wasn’t exactly thrilled about everything that was going on that day.”
“Demonstrations.” Dolores shook her head. “A lot of foolishness.”
“I don’t suppose you were still here when my mother found the body?”
There was genuine regret in Dolores’s voice when she admitted that she’d gone home as soon as she closed the library at four. “All that hooting and hollering gave me a headache,” she added.
Liss walked to the bank of windows and looked out. As she’d expected, the merry-go-round was in plain sight. There was an apple tree planted near it. In spring or summer, the foliage would have obstructed Dolores’s view, but with all the leaves gone there was nothing in the way. Shifting her gaze across the town square, toward the shops on the opposite side, Liss confirmed that they were also easy to see. If only Dolores had been looking out at the right moment, she’d have seen the person who took Margaret’s knife.
She turned back to the librarian. “Who do you think killed Jasper Spinner?”
Dolores, who was still watching her like a hawk, shrugged.
“No idea, although it seems to me that there were a good many people who must have thought about killing Hadley. It’s a pity, whoever did the deed got the wrong man.”
“What do you know about the New Age Pilgrims?” Liss had planned to research the group’s history but hadn’t yet had the opportunity. “Do you have a file on them?” She held up a hand to stop Dolores’s sharp retort. “Foolish question! Of course you do. May I check it out, please?”
Mollified, Dolores led the way to the row of vertical file cabinets against one wall. The old card catalog was long gone, replaced by modern technology, but Dolores stubbornly continued clipping articles of local interest from newspapers—or, in this day and age, printing them from the online edition—and placing them in file folders arranged by subject. She hauled out the one labeled “New Age Pilgrims” and handed it over.
Liss opened it and frowned. “There isn’t much here.”
In addition to a couple of articles, the file contained nothing more than a pamphlet and a copy of the flyer that had been circulated before the demonstration, the one that listed an incorrect phone number for the Emporium.
“I haven’t added the stories on the demonstration or the murder yet.”
“That’s okay. I saw those for myself.” None of them had given any background on Spinner or his people.
“The Pilgrims haven’t been mentioned much in the news until recently,” Dolores said. “They’ve always kept a low profile. You never even heard anything about their beliefs until this latest dustup. I always figured they were conservative in their thinking, but I didn’t have them pegged as out-and-out bigots.”
“The way the women dress didn’t give you a clue?”
Dolores chuckled. “Yes, and no. You’re too young to remember what hippies looked like. Besides, that lavender’s a real pretty shade. I remember thinking on Saturday, watching one of them walk across the town square, that I wouldn’t mind having a dress in that color myself.”
“Do you know if Spinner is ordained?” Liss asked, flipping quickly through the articles.
“Want me to find out?”
“Please. I’m not sure it matters, but you never know.”
Dolores glanced pointedly at her watch, indicating that it was almost closing time. Since she’d been in the library longer than she’d expected, Liss was surprised that her mother hadn’t trotted up the stairs to join them. She hoped that meant she’d had better luck than her daughter.
Liss already had her hand on the doorknob when something Dolores had said belatedly registered. “What was that about one of the lavender ladies being in
the town square on Saturday?”
Her impatience evident, Dolores glanced up from her computer keyboard to scowl at Liss. “Haven’t you left yet?”
“Dolores, you said something about admiring the color of that lavender dress . . . on Saturday. But there were no Pilgrim women participating in the demonstration. Spinner was probably afraid they’d be contaminated by the presence of all those strange men he brought in to join the picketing.”
“They are allowed off the farm,” Dolores objected. “I’ve seen them in the supermarket and at yard sales.”
“But you know about the rules when they clean house for someone, right? How no male persons are allowed to be at home while they’re there?”
“What’s your point?” Dolores shut down the computer and grabbed a sweater off the back of her chair before joining Liss at the door. Pointedly, she held it open, at the same time reaching for the light switch.
“My point is that the field of suspects has just doubled. I thought that only the men from Pilgrim Farm were there when Jasper Spinner was murdered, but you saw one of the women—just one, right?”
Dolores looked thoughtful as she locked the door. “I think there was only one, but since they all look alike, I can’t say for certain.”
Liss mulled that over as they descended the wide staircase side by side. “So you couldn’t identify her? Not even to tell if she was young or old?”
Dolores shook her head. “Sorry. I didn’t get so much as a glimpse of her face. I can’t even tell you her hair color. She was wearing one of those sunbonnets they favor when it’s bright out.”
A sunbonnet? The ways of the Pills just got weirder and weirder.
Just as they reached the foot of the stairs, Liss caught sight of her mother. She was leaving the town office. Signaling Vi to stay where she was, Liss followed Dolores toward the back door that led into the parking lot.
“How late in the day was it when you saw that woman?”
They were passing the police department by the time Dolores answered. “Sorry, Liss. I don’t remember, but if you’re thinking she could have killed Spinner, you’re barking up the wrong tree.”
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