Murder by the Bookend

by Laura Gail Black

  “But he says he wants to adopt another dog!” I plopped my tea glass back onto the table with a hard thump, which echoed through the room.

  My loud words caught the attention of other patrons, and heads turned our way.

  I took a deep breath and unclenched my hand from the death grip it had on my tea glass. “He told me just last night that he plans to adopt another dog, since we all need to support our shelters more.”

  Dee laughed loudly, drawing more attention from our fellow diners. She leaned in and spoke quietly. “He can’t. No matter how badly he wants the press again now that the election is closer. The shelter has put Prescott on the no-go list for future adoptions and has put out the word to quite a few rescue groups.”

  The knot in my stomach loosened a bit, glad no other dog would go through what Eddy had. No wonder he was grieving for Linus so deeply. Linus had been kind and loving to Eddy, a far cry from the home Bradford and Becky Prescott had provided. The fact that they’d used a sweet, helpless animal as a publicity stunt and had abused him and neglected him afterward made it a sure bet I would never vote for Bradford, no matter who his opponent was.

  It also raised Linus a notch in my estimation. “I take it Linus Talbot wanted everyone else to know what a snake Bradford is?”

  “Yep, seems that way. But without him as a confirming witness to what had happened, I have no story. It would be hearsay. And no one at the shelter wants to get involved. They’ll only talk to me off the record.” Dee waved a server over to our table. “Now that I’ve answered all your questions, you can answer a few more of mine. But let’s order and eat while we chat.”

  The next hour was a mix of salad, sweet tea, a bit of extraneous information about the grand reopening, and friendly chitchat. However, my mind could not let go of the fact that Bradford Prescott had something to hide.

  Chapter Six

  Mason whistled low and leaned back. “That’s just not right, I don’t care who you are.”

  During a late-afternoon lull in the store, I’d explained what I’d learned from Dee, and Mason and I had spent the next hour scouring the internet for articles and videos about Bradford and the dog. We’d also looked at his campaign website, which was still littered with references to Eddy.

  I looked over at Eddy, stretched out in a patch of sunshine streaming through the front windows, and anger surged again. How could someone treat such a sweet animal so badly? Considering all he’d been through, he was doing remarkably well. Okay, so his appetite was a bit off; he was somewhat lethargic, at least in my opinion; and he was a little on the clingy side, not letting me get too far from him at any given time. However, he wagged his tail when I talked to him, loved tummy rubs, and had stopped hiding behind the sales counter when customers came in. That was definite progress for less than twenty-four hours.

  “At least he can’t hurt another animal.” I’d told Mason about how the shelter had blacklisted Prescott and had spread the word to the rescue groups.

  “But still. To be that mean to such a cool dog.” Mason rose and strode to the dog’s side, kneeling to stroke his soft fur.

  In response, Eddy, showing he had not lost all trust in humans, rolled onto his back, seeming to encourage Mason to pet his belly. Mason obliged, eliciting a slow tail wag from the dog. Too bad Mason couldn’t take him. They’d be great together.

  At the jingling bells over the door, Eddy jumped to his feet in one swift movement, but instead of running to my side, as he had with every other customer, he began to wiggle and wag excitedly.

  “Benson!” The young woman squealed in delight and threw herself on the floor beside the dog, a curtain of long, silky blonde hair cascading over Eddy’s fur while she planted a multitude of kisses on the wriggling and writhing dog. “Oh my gosh, you’re really here!”

  My heart squeezed. Had someone just come in to claim my dog? Hmm … my dog. I guess somewhere in the back of my head, I’d begun to like the fact that he was mine. But I wanted what was best for him, and this girl seemed to be his favorite person in the world right now.

  “Benson?” Mason, my protective young employee, still knelt on the floor.

  The blonde yanked her head up, eyes wide, as if suddenly realizing she was not alone. “Oh. Oh, I’m sorry.” She scrambled to her feet, a still-wiggling Eddy snuggled up against her leg, giving her goo-goo eyes.

  I smiled and extended a hand, pleased when she took it without hesitation and shook it firmly. “I’m Jenna Quinn. Eddy seems to really like you. But you called him Benson?”

  She smiled shyly in return, and her soft voice was delicate and tentative. “Eddy? Is that his name now? I never knew what happened to him.” Her hand dropped to his head, her fingers stroking him.

  I really had fallen for this dog, but it seemed this girl really did have a history with him. “Would you like a cup of coffee? Then we can sit and chat.” I motioned to the coffeepot.

  At her agreement, I poured two mugs of the local brew I’d stocked up on and led her to a set of cushy armchairs in one corner of the store, where I hoped patrons would feel comfortable to sit and explore books they’d chosen while selecting which ones to purchase. Eddy trotted along with us, curling up at her feet when we sat.

  In the face of her shy silence, I opened the conversation. “I’ve only had Eddy one day, and I want him to have a good home. Would you like to have him?” Please say no, please say no, please say no. I almost sagged with relief at her response.

  “I can’t. Daddy would be angry if I brought him back.”

  Back? “Back?” I echoed my thoughts. “You had him before?”

  She nodded, and I stifled a chuckle when I saw Mason openly staring at her, seemly swept away by the swaying of the silky strands of her hair when she moved.

  “Yes. I’m Bethany Prescott. I’m Bradford Prescott’s daughter. Benson—Eddy—was our dog for a while.” She reached down and absently stroked him again, careful to keep her coffee mug held away from him.

  Oh, holy cow on a cracker! I managed to clamp my lips together an instant before my jaw could drop open or I could blurt out my thoughts. Mom would have been proud of my fast recovery into gracious hostess mode.

  “I take it you still live at home?” I wondered if I’d misjudged her age, assuming it was close to my own twenty-six years.

  “Yes, at least until I finish high school in the spring.” She sat up a bit straighter. “But I have plans to go away to college after that.”

  I sipped my coffee while I considered what she’d said and what she hadn’t. Her subtle eagerness to leave Bradford’s home might mean he wasn’t always nice to her any more than he’d been to Eddy. I hoped I was wrong. “That’s great. What will you study?”

  She smiled widely and scratched Eddy again. “I’ve already been accepted at North Carolina State University. I’ll get a degree in animal science with a concentration in vet bioscience. After that, I hope to get into their veterinary school and become a vet.”

  Thank goodness Mason hadn’t seen that smile. He’d have been a goner for sure. But a customer had entered, and my ever-professional employee had snapped into salesman mode and was leading the woman to the aisle that held both romance and diet and health books. I wondered idly which one she’d asked for.

  My attention back on Bethany, I racked my brain on how to bring up Bradford’s treatment of Eddy. “I’m sure your parents are very proud of you.”

  Her smile fled as quickly as it had come, replaced by a furrowed brow and a shake of her head. “No. They’re not.” She gripped her mug tightly.

  My eyebrows rose. “Why not?”

  She sighed and seemed to wilt into the chair, her former excitement completely gone. “Daddy says he refuses to have a daughter who plays on the floor with animals all day. He says he won’t pay for it if I don’t go to law school like he and Mama did.”

  I gritted my teeth, took a sip of coffee to give my mouth something else to do other than blurt out that Bradford was a royal jackass, and leane
d forward. But before I could speak, Bethany’s soft words cut me off.

  “But I showed him.” A slow conspiratorial grin crossed her face, and her backbone straightened. “I got scholarships. My guidance counselor at the school helped me find two academic scholarships that will cover all the costs of books, tuition, and housing. And I got a job three weeks ago, working part time at a local vet clinic, helping clean up. They’ve already said they’d help me find a vet clinic job in Raleigh when I get to college.”

  My estimation of this girl went up by a huge leap. “Why doesn’t your father want you going to vet school?” Vets made decent money, and it was a respectable profession, full of compassion, heartache, joy, and love.

  “Daddy doesn’t like animals.” She shrugged.

  Bingo! “I thought part of his election platform was that he wanted better support for local no-kill shelters and stronger animal cruelty laws.”

  Bethany shrugged again, a guarded look skittering into her gaze. “That’s true.” She stared at me a long moment before looking around the room as if to ensure no one was close by. She leaned in and whispered. “It’s all just to get elected. He knows a lot of people love animals, and he thinks no one else is doing much about it on the state level, so he grabbed it as part of his ‘I care about the people and I’m a great guy’ platform.” She wiggled her fingers in air quotation marks to punctuate her statement. “He even adopted Benson—Eddy—as part of the show.”

  I matched her whisper, hoping to keep her talking. “Adopted? From a shelter?”

  “Yeah.” She sighed. “Daddy made a big production of it. He called news channels, papers, magazines. He had a bunch of press people there, and Mama and I had to dress up and go with him to pick the dog.”

  “Wow, that’s a lot of effort just to adopt a pet.” Again, I tamped down my anger at a man who would use a sweet and trusting animal in such a way.

  Bethany leaned back as the door tinkled, letting us know the customer had left. I looked up to see Mason once again staring, likely internally drooling over the beautiful girl. He caught me looking, grinned, shrugged, and shuffled toward the back room. I stifled the eye roll I wanted to aim at Mason’s retreating back.

  “Daddy let me pick Eddy. That was part of his ‘family is always the most important aspect of my life’ angle.” More air quotes. She reached down and scratched the dog’s head again, looking at him with a gaze full of love. “I knew he was the right dog the moment I saw him.” She sobered and straightened. “But if I’d known how Daddy would treat him, I would never have chosen him. Not that any dog deserved that.”

  “Your dad wasn’t nice to him?” I leaned back and crossed my legs, hoping I didn’t look too eager for her answers.

  She shook her head. “Not after all the news people lost interest. After that, Daddy left him in the backyard on a chain. It was summer and hot, and I’d go out and replace his water all the time. Daddy didn’t even give him a doghouse for shade. If he ever went in the backyard for something and Eddy tried to jump on him, he would kick Eddy or shove him or yell at him. He would only let me feed him once a day, but I would sneak him treats.” Her eyes glistened with tears.

  I reached out and squeezed her hand. “But he’s safe now.”

  Bethany gave me a watery smile. “Yes.” A deep, shuddering breath whooshed from her lips. “But that was blind luck. One day when Daddy kicked him, Eddy tried to bite him. Daddy was so mad, he dragged Eddy to his car and took him to the shelter to have him put to sleep for being vicious.”

  “Really?” This dog? This sweet, protective, loyal dog?

  Bethany’s brow furrowed and she leaned forward. “He’s not! I swear he’s not! It wasn’t his fault! He’s a good and sweet and loving boy. It was Daddy who was the mean one.” She seemed to realize she was speaking too loudly, and she shrank back into the chair. “When Daddy got home, he wouldn’t tell me what had happened, and I cried for three days until Mama finally told me there was a man there who stopped Daddy. He’d come to adopt a dog and saw Daddy dragging Eddy in and heard him say he wanted Eddy put down. The guy demanded to take Eddy, even signed papers waiving liability because Eddy had tried to bite Daddy. But I never knew if it was really true until this morning.”

  “What happened this morning?” I motioned to Mason to bring the tissue box, pantomiming blowing my nose and pointing at the counter where the tissues were.

  Mason’s brows rose, and he rushed to grab the tissues and offer them to the distressed girl.

  Bethany smiled another watery smile, this time at Mason. The poor guy. He was definitely a goner now.

  “The police came to talk to Daddy about what happened last night at your store.” She delicately dabbed at her eyes. “They said they’d been told there was a man here with a dog who had growled at Daddy, and they’d had an argument. Daddy said it was the dog we’d adopted but who had turned vicious. He said the man wanted to tell the newspapers he’d abused the dog. Daddy was furious and asked if he could take out a restraining order on the man.”

  Sounded like either Bradford hadn’t known Linus was dead, or he was a wonderful actor. After seeing his ads with Eddy in them that he’d posted on his website, the way he pretended he loved the dog in order to pander to his constituents, I knew it could go either way.

  “But then they told Daddy the man had been murdered, and Daddy got really quiet.” Bethany sniffled and blew her nose. “Daddy took the police into his office then and shut the door, so I couldn’t hear any more. When the police left, I followed them and asked what had happened to Eddy. They told me you’d kept him overnight. I came here hoping you’d know where he was now. I wanted to make sure he was okay … that someone hadn’t hurt him again.”

  “He’s fine.” Mason knelt beside her and the dog and stroked Eddy’s head. “No one is going to hurt him ever again. I promise.”

  I had to hand it to Mason. He didn’t pepper her with questions—likely because he knew I’d spill the beans once she was gone. Instead, he played the gentle knight in shining armor, coming to her emotional rescue with the one reassurance he knew would make her smile again, this time at him.

  And smile she did. I wondered if Mason would become a puddle of goo at her feet that I’d have to scrape out of the carpet.

  Bethany took a deep breath and stood. “Enough of my weepy self. Since I’m in a bookstore, do you guys have any veterinary science books or biology books?”

  Mason leapt to his feet and led her to the science section, where the two disappeared down an aisle, Eddy at their heels. I sat back in my chair, my mind spinning, sipping the now-tepid coffee as I rehashed the conversation.

  Bradford had known Linus wanted to ruin his chances of winning the election. Had it been out of spite or out of concern for animals? Did it matter? What did matter was that Bradford was furious about it. But was he furious enough to kill over it?

  Chapter Seven

  Saturday morning dawned bright and sunny, and I had high hopes for the foot traffic for my store. I still liked that phrase: my store. It hadn’t been too long ago that I’d hit rock bottom, on trial for embezzlement and a murder I hadn’t committed, crimes that had yet to be solved. However, I hadn’t been the culprit.

  Now I was a store owner with roughly a million dollars in the bank, thanks to my uncle’s generosity in his will. My heart twinged, the familiar feeling of sorrow and regret surging up at the missed opportunities to reconnect with him fully before his death a couple of months ago. But I would do my best to make him proud of my efforts with the store, just in case he was looking down on me from the great hereafter.

  I showered, grabbed a quick bite and a cup of coffee, fed Eddy, and took the dog out for a walk before the store opened. After cleaning up and disposing of his morning efforts, the two of us headed to the store, approaching it from the street side and entering through the front door, making Mason look up, seemingly eager to help the first customer of the day.

  Mason’s smile fell. “Oh, it’s just you.”
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  “Wow, and good morning to you too.” I chuckled and took off Eddy’s leash, turning him loose to find a comfortable corner for a nap.

  “Oh, sorry.” Mason turned and busied himself dusting the back shelf behind the counter where we kept reference books and books on hold for customers.

  I leaned on the counter. “Were you expecting someone else?” At his not-so-casual shrug, I prodded further, remembering our visitor from the previous day. “Maybe a cute blonde with an affection for the new four-legged member of our staff?”

  Mason turned and shrugged. “Maybe.” He ducked his head and fiddled with the duster in his hand. “Not that it matters. A girl like that wouldn’t be interested in a guy like me. Besides, she’s leaving town in a few months.”

  “A guy like you?” Trying not to sound like I was pitying him, I added a joking tone to my voice. “You mean a guy who likes dogs and books and is a true gentleman?”

  Mason shook his head. “No.” He plopped down on one of the stools behind the counter. “I mean a guy with no prospects.”

  I stifled the surprised laughter that tried to burble up and instead pasted what I hoped was a serious look on my face. “Mason, you’re not even twenty-one until next month. Your whole life is one big prospect. You can do anything you want.”

  He shook his head again. “No, I can’t. Not like girls like her can. I don’t have a rich dad who can put me through college. Even with my new raise—which I appreciate so much, by the way—I don’t even make enough here to put myself through junior college.”

  Ah, there was the true issue. “Where would you go and what would you study if you could?” A kernel of an idea formed in my mind.

  “Promise you won’t think it’s dumb?” He twirled the duster in his hands, sending little puffs of already picked-up dust back out into the air.

  I swept my fingers across the left side of my chest in a big X. “Cross my heart.”

  Mason’s gaze met mine. “I looked online at what was offered at the local branch of the John. J. Hokes Community College.”