Overdue

by Elizabeth Spann Craig

  Blake said, “It was the evening before the mayor’s death. Elliot actually called me on the phone. I could tell he’d been drinking and he sounded really agitated. Not like him at all. You know how he’s always sort of cool and collected.”

  “Remote,” I said.

  “Sure, that’s a good word for it. Anyway, he wasn’t the other night. He sounded totally worked up. I think he was crying some, too.”

  I asked, “Why did he call?”

  Blake said harshly, “Because he wanted to make me as unhappy as he was. He wanted to share the misery. He’d apparently seen Carmen with the mayor before Carmen died. I didn’t want to even believe it. I called Elliot all kinds of names. Howard knew I was dating Carmen. He knew it. I couldn’t believe he’d do something like that to me. And I couldn’t really believe Carmen would do something like that to me. That she’d betray me like that. Somehow it hurt much worse than her being with Elliot.”

  “Because Carmen knew you and Howard were close.”

  “Right,” said Blake. “It’s like she totally betrayed me and I couldn’t even ask her why because she’s gone.”

  “So you went over to talk to Howard.”

  Blake snorted. “Talk? I was going to let him have it. I couldn’t ask Carmen what she’d been thinking and so Howard was the only one I could ask about it.”

  “What about Tanya?” I asked.

  Blake said, “I wasn’t really even thinking straight, but I figured she should probably hear about it, if she was around. I mean, I’d stewed about it all night. Like I said, at first I didn’t want to believe it. When I got off the phone with Elliot, I poured myself a drink and tried to settle down. Then I ended up pouring myself another. Then a few more. I even ended up calling Elliot back and screaming at him for phoning me in the first place. But he’d been drinking so much by then that I don’t think it even registered. Then I finally realized the guy was telling me the truth, not trying to just mess with my head. That’s why he was so upset. That’s why he was drinking so much.”

  “That’s when you decided to confront Howard.”

  “Right. When I finally believed it, myself. So I was over at Howard’s house in between jobs. It’s amazing I even was able to concentrate on the first job while I was thinking what I was going to say to Howard.”

  “Did you see him? Howard, I mean?” I asked, feeling myself tense as I waited for his response.

  He shook his head. “Nope. I banged on the door and rang the doorbell and even shouted at the door like an idiot a couple of times, thinking maybe he was just trying to avoid me because he knew why I was there.” He shook his head again, this time sadly. “It really hurt me, you know? To think he would do something like that to me. I mean, I looked at Howard as a father figure. We were close.”

  “So he never came to the door and you left.”

  “Exactly. But now somebody has seen me there. I’ll guess I’ll have to tell the cops about it, but it sure doesn’t look good.” He brightened. “Elliot was just as upset as I was. And he was totally wasted on the phone. Maybe he went by there and murdered Howard.” The idea was clearly appealing to him.

  I glanced over at the receiving line and saw Wilson had just spoken with Grayson and was looking my way. “I’d better run speak with Grayson before he leaves.”

  He nodded, now clearly distracted thinking about Elliot and his potential involvement in Howard’s death. “See you later, Ann. And thanks for being an ear.”

  Grayson looked exhausted; his eyes were red with emotion. He shook my proffered hand and thanked me for coming, although he seemed a little reserved—whether from the solemn occasion itself or our awkward run-in with Kevin, I wasn’t sure.

  When Wilson and I got back to the library, things were definitely not quiet anymore. Apparently, most of the town of Whitby had descended on the library. Luna was checking out books and gave me a frantic expression. There was a water main break nearby and no water was running, which meant none of the toilets would flush. Wilson jumped in to help check out patrons while I hurried over to the computer room where several of the computers had some sort of login issue. Then two new volunteers arrived for first-day training. The phone was ringing off the hook for some reason. And several unsupervised kids in the children’s area were playing tag.

  After about twenty minutes of total mayhem, we finally managed to get things under control. It was then the phone started ringing again. I stifled a sigh and said, “Whitby Public Library.”

  “Ann?” asked a patrician voice.

  Chapter Twenty

  I briefly closed my eyes. It was Tanya. And I had a feeling I knew what she was calling about. “Yes, this is Ann.”

  “It’s Tanya James. I’m sorry to bother you; I know you’ve had a busy day. I meant to try to talk to you at Carmen’s funeral, but I was caught up in a conversation when you were leaving.”

  “It’s no problem at all, Tanya. What can I help you with?” I figured I should figure out her reason for calling before the library was descended upon again.

  She said briskly, “It’s the books for the Friends of the Library sale again. The forensics investigation is all finished now. I see the books and they’re making me sad when I look at them.” Her voice was hard as if she was angry anything could make her feel that way. “It’s silly. It’s simply because we were on our way to send them to the library sale when we found Howard. Regardless of how silly it is, I’d like them out of the house. Now.”

  The library began buzzing with activity again, right on cue. But I knew Wilson would rather pitch in himself than have Tanya James upset no one from the library was giving her a hand. “Of course, Tanya. I totally understand. I’ll let Wilson know and run right over there.”

  “Thank you for understanding,” she said rather stiffly before hanging up.

  I hurried back to Wilson’s office, tapping briefly on the door before letting myself in.

  He gave me a weary look. “What now? It really can’t get any worse, can it? Jonathan just went home sick, so now we’re down another librarian.”

  I grimaced. “Bad timing. The library is getting really busy again. Plus, Tanya James called me and wants me to run over there and collect those books.”

  “Now?” Wilson blinked.

  “Yes. She said that looking at the books is reminding her of Howard. She asked if I could go right over.”

  Wilson made a shooing motion with both hands. “Then go right over! I’ll hop out there on the desk for a while. And maybe those volunteers can jump in and help out.”

  I winced. The volunteers had experienced a very rushed training with me and I wasn’t even sure they’d remember how to do any of the things I showed them. But I nodded and rushed out of the office to my car.

  A few minutes later, I pulled my car up into Tanya’s driveway and as close to the house as I could. I wasn’t sure how many books Tanya was talking about, but I wanted to make sure the task was as easy as possible.

  I knocked on the door and Tanya immediately answered, a cool smile on her face. “Thanks again for this, Ann.”

  I smiled back at her. “Happy to help.”

  She led me inside and helped me carry a few bags of books to the car. She snapped her fingers. “You know, there are a few more from upstairs I could donate. If you’ll wait for me a minute, I’ll throw them into a bag and you can take those, as well.”

  I followed her inside and waited downstairs while she gathered the books from somewhere upstairs. Their dog, Valentine, nuzzled me and I absently stroked him while I glanced over their collection of signed photos in the downstairs hallway. There was one in particular that kept drawing my interest and I wasn’t sure why. I studied it carefully. It was a sort of photo montage of a climber on top of a craggy mountain and the bottom photo was of Tanya, Blake, Howard, and the climber here at the house over dinner. The climber had signed both photos. All of them were grinning toothy grins.

  I was startled when I heard Tanya’s voice behind me and calling my
name, now even a bit chillier than earlier. I jumped a little and turned around, automatically holding out my arms for the bag of books Tanya was clutching. She looked displeased or disappointed, as if I’d been snooping somehow. But, after all, surely the photos had been placed on the wall to show off how many famous and interesting people the couple knew.

  She carefully handed it over. “Here you are, Ann. I promise this is the last time I’ll recruit you for this.”

  I smiled at her. “I hope that doesn’t mean you won’t be buying any more books.”

  Tanya smiled back, a bit warmer this time. “Actually, I think it does mean that I won’t be buying more books. At least, I won’t be buying printed copies. I’m making the switch to ebooks. And I’ll be supplementing my reading with books from the library. So I’ll be seeing you there, I’m sure. I won’t keep you any longer—thanks again.”

  When I returned to the library, it was just as busy there as it had been earlier. It wasn’t until I took my break that I realized how much my feet hurt. I slipped off my shoes for a few minutes in the breakroom and gave a sigh of relief. I glanced up as Luna popped in.

  “Just needed to grab my juice from the fridge. I’ve started juicing again,” she said. “Kale, beets, carrots, celery, cucumber. Trying to be healthy.” She removed a rather scary-looking brew from the fridge.

  “Is it good?” I asked doubtfully.

  “Good for you,” said Luna. Her gold tooth glinted as she gave a big grin. She stooped to rub Fitz, who’d followed me into the lounge. “Maybe a little love from Fitz will be good for me, too.”

  She paused, then continued in a deliberately offhanded way as she nonchalantly stroked Fitz under his chin, “Say, what do you know about Wilson?”

  I frowned, confused by the question. “Not much. He doesn’t exactly share a lot of personal information.”

  “Has he ever been married, or anything?” she asked innocently.

  Now I stared at her. “Are you . . . you’re interested in Wilson?” I blinked at her. I supposed that Wilson wasn’t all that much older than she was, although he frequently seemed it because of his manner, his stiff decorum, and the formal way he dressed.

  Luna stared at me, her eyes huge. Then she burst out laughing. “Me? And Wilson? Only on a desert island. Or maybe during the zombie apocalypse.”

  I felt somewhat relieved at this. I couldn’t imagine the two of them together. “Well, they say opposites attract,” I offered weakly.

  “Not to that degree,” said Luna with a snort. “So, was he married?”

  I shook my head. “He had a longstanding relationship with one woman, but then she moved away for work. I guess Wilson must not have felt moved to marry her and the relationship broke off.”

  Luna looked around and said in a low voice, “You’ve got to keep this under wraps. Mom might be interested in Wilson.”

  I was nearly as surprised as when I’d thought Luna was interested in Wilson. “Really?”

  Luna chuckled. “Yep. I was shocked, too. I mean, he’s a lot younger than she is. I guess he’s probably exactly in between my age and Mom’s. Anyway, she was just asking a lot of questions about him and I couldn’t answer them. So thanks.”

  I guess Mona had given up on Linus. It was probably a good thing, since I had the feeling Linus was still in love with his deceased wife and wasn’t quite ready to move on yet. I didn’t want Mona getting hurt. But I also wasn’t sure Wilson was the best choice for Mona or anybody. He seemed married to the library to me.

  The library remained busy the rest of the day and the day was a complete blur by the end. I had to close up that night, too, so I was the last one there. I made a tired sweep of the library, finding one patron asleep in an armchair near the quiet section. It took a few minutes for him to wake up enough to gather his things and leave . . . and then he decided to visit the men’s room before leaving.

  I made sure Fitz was settled in for the night with some fresh food and water and gave him a rub before heading out the door and locking up.

  I felt at this point as if I was running on autopilot as I got into my car. There was one last car in the parking lot that started up after I did and I sighed. Must be the sleepy patron trying to give himself a minute to be more alert before he drove back home.

  I drove up to my house and parked the car, thinking over my supper options in the house. None of them sounded good but neither did going out to a restaurant and spending money. I fished my keys out of my purse and decided I’d just heat up some frozen meatballs and add it to the leftover pasta I had. That would make my leftovers a little more interesting.

  I fumbled with my keys before getting to my door and dropped them somewhere on the brick walkway leading up to the little house. It was already dark outside and I peered at the ground, trying to spot them.

  That’s when I heard an icy voice behind me and then heard the jingle of my keys as a hand swept down to retrieve them.

  “I was hoping I’d find you here, Hi, Ann.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  I froze and then tried to study Tanya’s face in the darkness. Was this some sort of library business visit? My gut told me it was something very different, but it also wouldn’t be good if I made a mistake and accused a library board member of something nefarious.

  I gave a shaky laugh. “Oh, it’s you, Tanya. You startled me.” Something in her expression and the way she held my keys made me reach slowly back into my purse and switch on my digital voice recorder I’d had handy for the library meeting this morning.

  Some of my ambivalence must have translated to her because her eyes narrowed. Suddenly, I thought back to earlier in the day and the photos on the wall of her entrance hall. The climbing photo with the autograph and the smiling faces in the bottom photo. Then I thought about the Friends of the Library sale: the very reason I was at Tanya’s house today. Which made me think of the rest of the books for the sale in the library basement, and Carmen at the bottom of the stairs.

  Tanya said smoothly, “I haven’t been able to sleep well since Howard’s death. We had so many years of being together that I suppose it’s the break in the routine that’s making it all so hard. So I’ve taken to exercising at night before turning in. I was walking down your street and saw your car. Cute house.”

  I tried to keep my voice steady. “Thanks. It was my aunt’s house, which explains why the garden is so nice.” Of course, it was too dark for Tanya to even see the garden. I hurried on, “I’d invite you in to see it, but the truth is today was pretty crazy at the library and I’m going to fall right into bed as soon as I eat.” My voice cracked at the end of the sentence.

  Tanya said, “I’ll only be a minute.” And she jabbed something that felt like a gun into my stomach.

  With shaking hands, I unlocked the front door and opened it.

  “We’re going to talk about why you’re so nervous,” said Tanya in a remote voice. I saw that what she had wasn’t a gun, but a hammer.

  “Maybe because you forced your way into my house and are clutching a hammer for some reason,” I said in a frosty voice of my own. It had been a long day. And now one of our library board members appeared to be a killer.

  “I think it’s more than that. I think you know something,” said Tanya.

  “Know something? Yes. But until you got heavy-handed with me, I hadn’t put it all together. Thanks for the help,” I said. “Let’s catalog what I know. I know you found out about Carmen’s and your husband’s affair when Elliot was yelling at Howard about it.”

  Tanya’s eyes narrowed. “Apparently, it was less of a secret than I thought.”

  “I know you were supposed to be at the library the morning Carmen died but ‘didn’t show up.’ I know that was unusual behavior for you.”

  Tanya shrugged.

  “So I know you were actually there to help Carmen with the Friends of the Library sale,” I said. I took a deep breath. “I know you must have been very angry with Carmen. You seem as though you’ve always
had a good relationship with Howard and I’ve never heard any rumors about him straying before.”

  “Because he didn’t,” Tanya enunciated.

  “I know you must have confronted Carmen about it. Not only would you have been angry on Howard’s behalf, you would also have been angry on Blake’s. After all, Blake has always been like a son to you. He has meals at your house, he’s invited over when you have special guests. You wouldn’t have been happy to know his girlfriend was cheating on him—especially with your husband,” I said.

  Tanya didn’t say anything this time.

  I continued, “I also know Carmen wasn’t the kind of person who did well with criticism of any kind. She had an argument with a coworker of mine who was upset about not getting a small raise because she thought that my coworker was blaming her. Carmen wouldn’t have let your accusations pass without firing back.”

  Tanya’s color rose at the memory. “As if she had a leg to stand on. She was completely immoral.”

  “I know she turned her back on you to continue down the stairs. And I know you must have been carrying something heavy and hit her over the head with it. When Carmen fell down the stairs and was motionless, you must have taken your leave before anyone saw you. Then we would all think you were either running late for volunteering or that you simply couldn’t make it after all.”

  Tanya studied me coolly. “This is all just speculation. There’s nothing the police could use to convict me.”

  I continued, “Let’s see what else I know. I know Howard must have figured out that you were responsible for Carmen’s death. You must have confronted him about the affair and it came out in the resulting argument. Because of course you would have argued about it with him. There was no way you’d have allowed his infidelity to get a free pass from you.”

  Tanya was quiet again.

  I said, “You argued. It got heated. You reached out for the weapon closest to hand in the kitchen, which was the fire extinguisher. And Howard went down. The only question is whether you’d planned on eliminating Howard. Was it your pride? You knew you already had a convenient way of discovering his body because you and I were going to pick up the books for the sale. Maybe you decided to pick a fight with Howard to kill him and then discover him with me tagging along.”