Due or Die

by Jenn McKinlay

  “Maybe I need therapy,” she said.

  “Nah, I like you the way you are, flaws and all,” Beth said with a wink. She left the break room and Lindsey pondered the beverage in her cup. Was it true? Was she incapable of not helping a person in distress? Or was she just a big buttinsky?

  “Knock, knock,” a voice called at the door.

  Lindsey glanced up to see Edmund Sint standing there.

  He was wearing a charcoal gray wool trench coat with his usual plaid cashmere scarf wrapped around his neck. He reminded Lindsey so much of her ex that she had to shake her head to dislodge the image of John from her mind.

  “Hi, Edmund,” she said. “How are you?”

  “Bored to death and looking for a lunch date,” he said. “I know it’s spur of the moment, but can you get away?”

  Lindsey glanced at the clock. It was lunchtime. She needed to eat. She felt reluctant to go with Edmund, and she knew it was because he did remind her of her ex, which was unfair to him, but also because she knew she had feelings for Sully, and to encourage anyone else just seemed wrong.

  “It’s just lunch,” Edmund said as if he was aware of her internal struggle. “You are allowed to eat, aren’t you?”

  Lindsey felt caught by his charming smile. He was right. She had to eat. It was only lunch. And besides, it wasn’t as if Sully had even asked her out. To pine for him would be ridiculous.

  “Sure, I am,” she said. “I’ll just go get my coat.”

  She hurried back to her office and took her coat off the rack by the door. She grabbed her purse out of her desk drawer and met Edmund by the door.

  “My car is around the corner,” he said.

  He let her lead the way out of the library and down the walkway to the left. His car was waiting around the corner. It was a steel gray Jaguar with a wood dashboard and leather seats. Very nice.

  “Lindsey!” a voice called form the parking lot. “Lindsey, wait!”

  Edmund was holding the passenger door open for her, but she turned around and saw Carrie hurrying down the shoveled walk toward her. She had a file folder tucked under one arm, and her son, Kyle, was striding behind her with a grim expression on his face.

  “Excuse me for one moment,” Lindsey said to Edmund. He nodded as if he understood, and she hurried to meet her friend.

  “Carrie, what is it? Is everything okay?”

  Carrie was panting, so Kyle leaned around her and said, “No, it isn’t. I went over the files for the Friends this morning, and I found some monumental discrepancies. I think someone has been stealing from the Friends of the Library.”

  CHAPTER

  25

  BRIAR CREEK

  PUBLIC LIBRARY

  “Hush, Kyle, we don’t know anything for certain,” Carrie said. She glanced over Lindsey’s shoulder, and Lindsey turned and saw Edmund waiting for her by the car. “I’m sorry, Lindsey, it looks as if you had plans. This can wait.”

  “No, it’s all right,” Lindsey said. “It was just an off-the-cuff thing. I can reschedule. Go ahead to my office and I’ll meet you there.”

  She turned and hurried back to Edmund.

  “I’m so sorry,” she began, but he cut her off.

  “It’s all right. I imagine being in charge of a place like this keeps your schedule constantly shifting and changing. We’ll do it another time.”

  “Thank you,” she said.

  She hurried back to her office, where she found Kyle and Carrie waiting for her. Carrie pulled some paperwork out of the folder while she hung up her coat.

  “Kim, Kyle and I went out to the shed today to do an inventory,” Carrie said.

  “In this cold?” Lindsey asked.

  “We felt the need to keep busy,” Carrie said. She didn’t elaborate but Lindsey suspected now that they were all together, the reality of Markus’s death was hard to ignore.

  “Anyway, Mimi came by with the inventory list of items in storage that I had requested, so it just seemed like a good time to get it done.”

  “Kim and I were happy to help,” Kyle said.

  Lindsey sat at her desk. “So, what did you discover?”

  “It’s what we didn’t discover,” Carrie said. “We went through every box, but the rare books that are on the list and supposed to be in the warehouse aren’t.”

  “The list includes ten first-edition, signed classics from the William Culpepper collection,” Kyle said. “They are said to be worth thousands.”

  “And they were put in storage like that?” Lindsey felt her archivist’s soul shrivel at the thought of the heat of summer, the damp of spring and the cold of winter damaging the fragile books.

  “As far as Mimi knows,” Carrie said with a frown. “I did call Bill to see if they were kept elsewhere, but he hasn’t returned my call.”

  “What about those boxes you had the night you became president?” Lindsey asked. Carrie looked confused, as if she didn’t remember. Then her face cleared. “Oh, yeah, Warren gave me those. He said he didn’t want to be entrusted with them anymore. At the time, I didn’t think much of it.”

  “That sounds promising,” Kyle said. “Like they’re of value.”

  Lindsey glanced at the clock. “Let’s go to the house. Maybe we can resolve this just by looking in those boxes.”

  Kyle hopped up immediately, but Carrie stayed in her seat, looking pale and nervous.

  “I haven’t been back since…” Her voice trailed off, and she cleared her throat. “That is, shouldn’t we wait until Kim can come with us?”

  “She’s learning to knit with Nancy,” Kyle said. “Besides, you know how sensitive she is. We should probably check it out before she goes inside.”

  Carrie nodded. She took a deep breath and stiffened her spine.

  “All right. The police called and told me they were done. I suppose we might as well go and get it over with.”

  Kyle drove them in Carrie’s car, which was good, because with each passing mile, she became even more tense.

  He parked in the drive in front of the house. Someone had plowed the drive, but the walkway was matted from the many footprints of the police and the investigators coming and going. They picked their way to the door, avoiding the spots where ice had formed. Carrie took her keys from her son and unlocked the door.

  She pushed the door open and they stepped into the foyer. Lindsey flashed back to the last time she had stood here. The house had been warm, the lights were on and Sully had been beside her. Not this time. The house was cold and dark and, frankly, creepy.

  Carrie snapped on a light and led the way up the stairs. When she got to the top, she let out a gasp and stepped back. She would have fallen down the steps if Kyle hadn’t braced her with a hand at her back.

  He looked over her shoulder and then turned to Lindsey and said, “Call the police.”

  Lindsey peeked around them both and saw what had startled Carrie. The Rushton house had been thoroughly ransacked. No police investigation could have caused this much damage.

  In a quick glance, Lindsey took in the scattered papers and open drawers and cabinets. Even the closet she and Sully had put the boxes of books in had been left with its door hanging open and its contents strewn on the floor. Lindsey quickly glanced down and noted that the spot where the boxes had been was empty.

  The police arrived within twenty minutes. Not wanting to disturb anything, the three of them waited outside and met Emma and Chief Daniels when they pulled up behind Carrie’s car. Chief Daniels’s face was grim as Carrie reported what they had seen.

  They watched the two officers disappear into the house and Carrie sighed. “I’m beginning to feel as if the drama will never end.”

  Kyle put his arm around his mom’s shoulders and gave her a one-armed hug. Lindsey was glad Carrie had him to support her. As if it wasn’t bad enough that her husband had been killed in that house, now it appeared that everything she owned had been looted.

  The neighbor in the house on the left came out to see t
hem. Her coat was unbuttoned and she wore gloves but no hat or scarf, so she must have been in a rush to get to them.

  She was somewhere in the midst of middle age, with her short hair more gray than brown, and she was sturdy, as if built to withstand what the years had dished out at her.

  She hugged both Carrie and Kyle and shook Lindsey’s hand. Lindsey had seen her before in the library. Her name was Marcia, and she was a big fan of cozy mysteries and frequently checked out the latest food-related mysteries by Cleo Coyle and Krista Davis.

  “What’s going on?” she asked Carrie. “Why are you standing out here? You’ll catch your death.”

  “Someone’s been in my house,” Carrie said. Her voice quavered a bit. “They trashed it.”

  “Oh, no,” Marcia said. “When?”

  Kyle and Carrie shrugged. “This is the first time we’ve been back.”

  “Have you seen anyone around the house?” Lindsey asked.

  “No,” Marcia said. “Although…”

  “What?” Carrie asked. “Anything you noticed might be important.”

  “Well, it wasn’t me. It was Frank,” she said. She turned to Lindsey and added, “Frank’s my husband. I want to say it was the day before yesterday, but you know it could have been yesterday. This snow storm has really made me lose track of all time. Anyway, Frank was looking out the window and he asked me if you had gotten a new car.”

  “Me?” Carrie asked.

  “That’s how I reacted,” Marcia said. “I said, ‘Oh, sure, her husband was just killed, but, yeah, she’s going car shopping.’”

  “Why would he think that?” Lindsey asked.

  “He said he saw a strange car parked near your house. He said it was a blue sedan.”

  Carrie and Lindsey exchanged a look. “Did he happen to mention anything else about it?”

  “No, just that it was a woman driver, she had long brown hair like yours, and when he waved, the woman waved back. He just assumed it was you.”

  Carrie and Lindsey exchanged a glance, and Lindsey said, “If she was wearing a heavy coat, it would be hard to see how tiny she is.”

  “Who?” Kyle and Marcia asked at the same time.

  “Marjorie Bilson,” Lindsey said. “We have to tell the police.”

  “But why would Marjorie break into my house?” Carrie asked. “It makes no sense.”

  “The boxes of books are missing,” Lindsey said. “It has to have something to do with that. Maybe she’s trying to get you in trouble with the Friends so that they’ll reinstate Bill. It’s hard to say what goes on in her head.”

  “We don’t know what else is missing yet,” Kyle said. “The burglar could have taken more than just the books, making this a straight-up robbery. Everyone in town knows what happened to Dad and that we haven’t been in the house. It could have been anyone.”

  “True,” Carrie said. “We’ll have to wait until the police let us inside again. Oh, Lindsey, you have to get back to work, don’t you?”

  Lindsey glanced at the time on her cell phone. She’d been gone almost an hour. “Yes, I’d better get back.”

  “Kyle can take you,” Carrie said.

  He looked at his mother with concern, and Marcia said, “It’s okay, I’ll wait with her.”

  “Are you sure?” Lindsey asked. “I can walk.”

  “Don’t be silly,” Carrie said. “I’ll be fine.”

  Kyle opened the passenger-side door for Lindsey and they headed back to the library. Occupied with their own thoughts, neither of them spoke for a few minutes and then Kyle said, “I don’t feel like I ever really knew my father. Now I’ll never get the chance.”

  “I’m sorry,” Lindsey said. She wasn’t sure what else she could say.

  Kyle shook his head. “Don’t be. Honestly, he was never really a part of Kim’s or my life. He sort of orbited around the three of us but never really participated in the family. Mom did everything from coaching Little League to chaperoning all of our field trips. When I picture my father in my mind, all I see is him in his recliner yelling at us to keep it down because he couldn’t hear his program.”

  Lindsey blew out a breath. She studied the handsome young man beside her and felt sorry—for his father. By being so wrapped up in his own whatever, he had missed knowing this really bright and interesting young man. She couldn’t help but think that was terribly sad.

  “I suppose it’s cold comfort, but you’ve been given an excellent life lesson by your dad,” she said. “You and your sister won’t be like that. You won’t miss out on the things that matter most.”

  Kyle parked the car in front of the library and turned to smile at her. “Now I know why my mom likes you so much. You know just what to say.”

  Lindsey laughed and said, “If only that were true.” She climbed out of the car and added, “Thanks for the ride. Tell your mom to call me if there’s anything I can do or if she just wants to talk.”

  “Will do,” Kyle said. With a wave, he headed back down Main Street toward his boyhood home.

  Lindsey turned and walked into the library. When the doors slid open, she found Ms. Cole standing at the circulation desk with her arms crossed over her formidable front, glowering at the door.

  “Mr. Tupper never took long lunches,” she said. Her lips puckered up tight, and Lindsey had to resist the urge to tell the lemon to take an antacid and calm down.

  “It started as lunch,” Lindsey said. “It turned into a police investigation.”

  Knowing the lemon would want to know more, Lindsey purposefully strode past her and went into her office, where she shut the door.

  Five minutes passed and there was a knock. Without waiting for an invite, Beth opened the door just a crack and peeked in with one eye.

  “What happened?” she asked. “Rumors are flying all over the library.”

  Lindsey waved her in. Beth came in and took the seat across from her. It was only then that Lindsey realized Beth was dressed as a dog, with floppy ears and a long tail, and her nose was painted black.

  “Bingo was his name-oh?” she asked.

  “Yeah, it never gets old,” Beth said. She bobbed her head and her ears flapped against her face.

  Lindsey was quite sure that for Beth, it never would. The woman was a walking encyclopedia of finger plays, poems, stretches, songs, rhymes and picture books. The residents of Briar Creek had no idea how lucky they were to have such an advocate for children and reading.

  “Now dish,” Beth ordered. “I have my afternoon crawlers coming in shortly.”

  “Carrie and her kids went to the storage unit today and did inventory,” she said. “They found some discrepancies.”

  “How so?” Beth asked.

  “Several rare books worth thousands are missing,” Lindsey said. “We went out to Carrie’s house to see if the missing books were in the boxes we brought to her house on the night her husband was killed, but her house has been ransacked and those boxes are missing.”

  “No!” Beth’s eyes went wide.

  “Yes, and Batty Bilson was spotted by a neighbor at the house the day before.”

  “Do you think she broke in?” Beth asked. “Why would she want those books? She’s not even a reader, is she? I mean she only joined the Friends to be near Bill.”

  “The only thing I can figure is that she stole those books to make it look like Carrie was irresponsible with them in some crazy scheme to make Carrie look bad and get Bill reinstated.”

  “That’s mental,” Beth said.

  “Yeah, well, we’re not dealing with the most rational person in town now, are we?”

  “But to break into someone’s house,” Beth said. “That’s serious stuff. And if she is that crazy, then we have to assume that she’s the one who shot Markus.”

  “I know,” Lindsey said. “And if that’s the case, the murder may be solved.”

  “What do you think will happen?” Beth asked.

  “I think the police have to consider her suspect number one, don
’t you?”

  “Hello, ladies, I couldn’t help but overhear,” a high-pitched voice said from the door. “Who are we talking about?”

  Lindsey felt her heart thump in her chest as she found herself staring into the crazy eyes of Marjorie Bilson.

  CHAPTER

  26

  BRIAR CREEK

  PUBLIC LIBRARY

  “Can I help you?” Lindsey asked. She was pleased to hear that her voice was almost normal.

  Marjorie slipped around the edge of the door. The bright pink hat she was wearing had a fluffy pom-pom about the size of her head on top. It was pulled low over her brow as if she were using it to hide behind. Her coat was unbuttoned, but she still wore her scarf and mittens, also in an eye-watering shade of pink.

  Lindsey could see Beth sit up straighter, as if bracing herself for the onslaught of crazy. She sat up straighter, too.

  Marjorie looked at her out of the corner of her eye and said, “I was just wondering if you had decided to reinstate Bill yet.”

  “It’s not really up to me,” Lindsey said. “I work with the Friends, but I’m not a member. It would be a conflict of interest for me to get involved with the leadership of the group.”

  “That didn’t stop you from getting Bill kicked out,” Marjorie said through gritted teeth. She was staring at a spot on the wall over Lindsey’s shoulder, which was completely unnerving.

  Lindsey took a deep breath. “I didn’t have anything to do with that.”

  Marjorie’s eyes got wide and focused on Lindsey for the first time, and she snapped, “Liar!”

  Beth jumped up from her chair, looking ready to rumble. Lindsey rose from her chair, too, and circled the desk. She’d had it with Marjorie and her weird phone calls, almost getting run over by her in her car and most probably being locked in the shed to freeze by her, too. The fact that she had probably ransacked Carrie’s house was just the capper.

  “Marjorie, let’s have a chat,” she said. She gestured for the woman to have Beth’s vacated seat. “Beth was just leaving. Let’s take this opportunity to clear the air, shall we?”