Murder by the Bookend

by Laura Gail Black

  “If they already had it lined up for her to come, it stands to reason this has been in the works for a while.” I sprinkled a little more cheese on my spaghetti. “I wouldn’t think you could call another city’s police force and borrow a detective on short notice.”

  “You are correct.” Keith reached for a garlic breadstick. “They were going to put her on the case team as a new member. But with Sutter’s blowup, they’re letting her head it up. If I hadn’t been at your party and a witness to all that went on, I would’ve been the one who led the team.”

  “At least we have a shot at a more reasonable head taking charge, though.” I grabbed a breadstick of my own. I hadn’t taken one yet as I didn’t want to be the only one with heavy garlic breath if he kissed me goodbye before he left. Sure, the sauce had garlic, but not like those breadsticks.

  “Our latest task makes more sense too.” He sipped his wine again. “The captain has had us reorganizing our case files, filling in holes, pulling out anything unsolved. It seems he’s prepping us for review in order to have further grounds to get rid of Sutter.”

  “On the bright side, you’ll be all caught up on paperwork for a while.” I grinned and chomped a bite of breadstick.

  Keith chuckled. “I suppose you’re right.”

  We changed the subject, and while he finished eating, I told Keith about our close call with the street sweeper the previous night.

  “Have you thought about parking next door rather than in the library parking lot?” Keith folded his napkin and laid it on the table.

  “Actually no, I hadn’t.” I stood and took his plate to the kitchen, setting it in the sink.

  “If I were the perp, I’d be awfully nervous about a stray car parked in the library lot all night long.” He stood and walked to the living room area, where he’d tossed his jacket over the arm of the couch. “They might leave if they see the car, whether or not they see anyone inside it.”

  “Good point.” I turned and walked with him to the front door. “But wouldn’t I stand out just as much in the next lot over?” I racked my brain trying to remember what building was next door to the library.

  “Nah.” Keith shook his head as he slid his arms into his jacket sleeves. “It’s Hokes Folly Feed and Farm Supply. If you park over by the trailers they have for sale, you can blend in a bit.”

  “Great idea.” I grinned. “Oh, wait, hang on.” I turned and rushed back to the kitchen counter and grabbed a paper sack, thrusting it at him when I returned to the front door. “Here.”

  A puzzled look crossed his face, and he slowly opened the bag, grinning at its contents. He reached inside and drew out one of the dozen Oreos I’d packed for a dessert to go.

  “I didn’t bake them, but it’s the thought that counts, right?” I leaned up to brush a kiss across his cheek.

  A deep laugh rumbled up from his chest. “They’re perfect.” He pulled me into his arms for an embrace. “I love … Oreos.”

  Good grief! What was I going to have to do to get the man to actually say he loved me? I knew he did. He knew he did. But somehow he had it in his head that I needed more time. I smiled sweetly at him, hoping he wouldn’t miss this next hint. “I love … Oreos too.”

  Keith raised a palm to my face, his thumb sliding across my cheek, as he leaned in to oh-so-tenderly kiss me. I melted into him, my heart racing at his soft touch. When he pulled back, the chilly evening air slid between us, sending goose bumps up my arms.

  His hand remained on my cheek as his intent gaze bored into me. “Just be careful. I don’t want to lose you.” He stepped back, turned, and was gone into the gathering darkness.

  I closed the door and leaned against it for a moment before heading to the kitchen for a quick cleanup. After the dishes were in the dishwasher, leftovers were in the fridge, and counters and stove were wiped down, I made a few more sandwiches and more coffee and headed downstairs to help Mason close the store.

  Rita swung by and picked up Mason’s car keys again, and we told her we’d be in the Hokes Folly Feed and Farm Supply lot next door to the library. Assuring us she’d be on time, she headed out, with us locking up behind her.

  When I finally pulled my car into the farm supply parking lot, I headed for the area with the trailers for sale and slid in beside them, the front of the car pointing toward the library. My angle of sight to the library’s front door wasn’t as great anymore, but from this spot, we could also see the back parking lot. I hadn’t considered the thief might go in the back door, where we’d never see them.

  Mason interrupted my thoughts. “Why are we parking here now?”

  “Rita and I almost got outed by a street sweeper right after you left last night.” I reached for one of the travel mugs of coffee. Might as well get a start on that caffeine.

  “Oh, man.” Mason huffed and crossed his arms. “I missed the excitement.”

  I chuckled and sipped my coffee. “I’m sure you’ll survive missing out on cramming yourself into the floorboard under a blanket for half an hour.”

  “Yeah, well, whatever.” Mason huffed again. “So, how would this whole college thing work?”

  I blinked, startled at the abrupt subject change. I’d honestly almost forgotten about my offer of a loan. “Let’s see, I think I’ll need to see a complete work history, school transcripts, your last bank statement, and a letter of reference from your current place of employment.” I struggled to keep my face straight and was proud I’d managed to say all of that, off the cuff, without laughing.

  Mason’s wide eyes matched his open mouth. “But … but …” His brow furrowed. “Wait a minute. You’re my current place of employment.”

  The laughter I’d held in bubbled up. “Had you going for a moment, though.”

  He grinned and reached for his own tumbler of coffee. “Yeah.”

  “Honestly, there’s not much to it.” I grabbed a sandwich and began unwrapping it. “I’ll pay for classes and keep an account of what’s spent. When you’re done, we’ll tally up the total, and you can begin making payments once you’re on your feet.”

  A knock at the window startled me, and I almost choked on the bite of sandwich I’d taken. I half turned the ignition key and rolled down my window, letting in a chilly breeze from the mid-October cold snap.

  A Hokes Folly Feed and Farm Supply employee leaned down and swept her gaze through the car. “Everything okay out here?”

  The dash clock had lit up. Eight fifty-eight PM. Closing time.

  I smiled what I hoped was a friendly, nonthreatening smile rather than the demented smile of a woman who’d just had half her life scared out of her. “We’re fine. We’re just sitting here talking for a bit. I hope you don’t mind.”

  The woman leaned down to look at Mason again. “Talking. Yeah. Well, they make hotel rooms for ‘talking.’” She made air quotes with her fingers.

  “What?” I sputtered. “No! That’s not what we’re doing. What is wrong with you?”

  Mason leaned toward my window. “Ma’am, are we currently breaking any laws or trespassing?” He flashed her his boy-next-door smile.

  Doubt flickered across the woman’s face. “No. Not really.”

  “All we need is a quiet place to discuss a few important matters. We’re doing this in the privacy of our vehicle. We’re not breaking laws, as you’ve stated, so we’ll be fine here for a bit longer.” His smile stayed spread across his face.

  “Um, okay.” The woman took a step back. “I guess you can stay for now.” She turned and stomped back toward the store, glancing back at us over her shoulder twice before walking through the door.

  I stared at Mason. Who was this kid? And where had he learned to handle folks like that?

  He must have caught my odd look, because he grinned widely and shrugged. “I’ve been reading a few books on closing sales I found on the shelves at the store. She just needed someone else to seem like they were in control of the situation.”

  I shook my head. “Whatever those book
s told you, it worked.” I let my gaze sweep through the parking lot of the library again. “At least you didn’t miss out on tonight’s excitement.”

  “Hey, you’re right.” He shifted beside me, crossing one ankle over his other knee. “Not a wasted night after all.”

  We lapsed into silence, and before long, Mason softly snored, his head leaned against the window at an odd angle. Nothing was going on yet, so I let him sleep.

  Thoughts whirled in my brain. Each of my suspects rolled through my head. Their motives were strong, their access plausible, and their opportunities to both murder Linus Talbot and poison my dog were present. No one really stood out over the others.

  Alice King, Selina March, and Bradford Prescott blended together into one big glob rolling across a jumble of legs, gaping mouths yelling, six grasping hands reaching for Eddy and me as we ran through a thick swirling fog that slowed our progress as it sucked on our feet like quicksand. My head smacked into my side window, jarring me awake. I looked at the clock. One forty-eight AM. Damn. Mason still snored beside me. Who knew what we’d missed?

  I gently prodded him awake. “Rita will be here soon. You might want to wake up enough to be able to drive home.”

  “Oh, wow, I can’t believe I slept like this.” His hand rubbed the back of his neck. “I think my neck is stuck like this.”

  “Don’t feel bad. I dozed off for a couple of hours too.” I refilled my coffee mug from one of the thermoses. “With our luck, the thief probably chose tonight to steal the books, and we’ll be doing this for another couple of weeks or so before we catch them.” I sighed deeply, then sipped the still-hot liquid, letting its warmth and aroma perk up my sleepy brain.

  Headlights pulled into the deserted parking lot, swinging in our direction.

  “And there she is now.” I settled my mug in one of the console cup holders and helped Mason untangle from the blankets wrapped around his legs. He swung out of the car, and Rita took his place, and I watched in the rearview mirror as he got into his own car and drove off.

  “Anything to report?” Rita tucked the blankets in around her own legs.

  I shook my head. “Nothing but a nosy employee and Mason and I both falling asleep for two hours.”

  “Oh no.” Rita patted my hand where it rested on my travel mug. “I’m sure nothing happened. We’ll still catch the thief, whoever it is.”

  My thoughts again returned to our three suspects. “Rita, do you think we’re way off base here? Would someone really commit murder over a few stolen antique books?”

  “Depends on their worth.” Rita screwed the lid back onto a thermos and popped the lid on her travel mug. “If they had a high enough value, even combined, it would constitute grand larceny. If it was a really high dollar amount, it could get them some prison time for a felony.”

  “But what if it’s unrelated?” I blew warm breath on my hands against the cold snap that had taken the overnight temperatures into the low forties. “What if the book thefts have nothing to do with the murder? I mean, look at Bradford Prescott. Maybe Linus knew about the big pharma angle. Phillie said he had big plans to aim for a U.S. congressional seat in a few more years. Who knew what his plans were beyond that? Any negative press now might seriously impact his chances in a few years, even if he gets elected in November.”

  Rita propped her feet on the dashboard and slid down in her seat, setting her cup on her knees. “Nasty dirt always has a way of popping back out of the reaches of obscurity when an election’s at stake.”

  “But would he have stolen rare books?” I sipped my coffee, hoping the warm liquid would wash an idea into my exhausted brain without bringing back the budding nightmare I’d had earlier.

  “Maybe. If he needed the money to fund his campaign.” Rita shrugged.

  “I don’t think he could’ve randomly added money to his funds. I think they’d have to keep records of where it all came from, so no candidate could cheat the system.”

  Rita chuckled. “I’m sure those who wish to cheat the system can. How about this? Candidate A needs donors, but each donor can only give so much. Candidate A finds new donors, slips them the cash, and lets them donate it to his campaign fund. Now you have a paper trail making it look legit.”

  “And the candidate’s own bank accounts would likely be open for tracking to make sure that type of thing didn’t happen.” I turned and let my gaze sweep across the parking lot, not really expecting to see anything, but more to let my mind put pieces together. “The candidate would need an outside source of untraceable money to give to these fake donors.”

  “Exactly.” Rita sipped her coffee. “But it doesn’t mean he did it. Just that he could have a motive to steal the books and to silence Linus if he felt Linus had sussed out a piece of his possible plan. Frankly, I think Alice King and Selina March still have equal motives.”

  “True. Alice has a less convoluted motive. She hated that Linus broke her heart and exposed her fraudulent book sales.” I leaned my head back on the head rest and closed my eyes, letting my own failed relationship play through my head. My ex-fiancé had broken my heart. Well, not broken, but at least bruised it. He’d also taken the stance that I was guilty of embezzlement and fraud and murder, even though I was acquitted of all charges. “I can see how Alice could be pushed into killing Linus, especially if he found out she was starting to dip her toes into fraudulent book sales again. Maybe she really was stealing books to sell but was using an assumed name to do it.”

  “Could be.” Rita shrugged. “But we still have Selina March. Let’s don’t forget her long-standing grudge against Linus and her money-grubbing need to spend, spend, spend to prove she’s the queen bee of the community. With what she has likely learned from Douglas, she could easily steal the books to sell for cash.”

  I opened my eyes and sagged into my seat, frustration pouring through my brain, blending the three possible killers into one again, à la my nightmare. “Maybe Mason was right and the three of them got together and killed him.”

  Rita laughed and nudged me with her elbow. “I know you don’t believe that.”

  “No.” I sucked in a long deep breath and held it a few seconds before letting it rush out, taking some of my anxiety with it. “I feel so in the dark about all of this.”

  “I know.” Rita reached out and squeezed my hand. “But we’ll get to the bottom of this. I promise.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  The rest of the night had passed in idle chatter, and I’d arrived home to fall into another exhausted pile, only to dream of the Alice-Selina-Bradford blob chasing Eddy and me again. I awoke on high alert, jarred from the dream. Sunlight streamed through the gauzy curtains, and I rolled over to look at the clock. Ten thirty AM. I’d only had four hours of sleep. My head flopped back to the pillows, and my eyelids drooped, sleep pushing to drag my brain back into oblivion.

  “How dare you?”

  The muffled screech sounded through the closed window, and I rose up and pulled the curtains aside. Alice King and Selina March stood on the sidewalk below, and if their expressions could be relied upon, both were fighting mad.

  I slid the window open a bit so I could hear their argument, not just the screeching.

  “Listen, you loser hag, you run your nasty mouth anymore, and I’ll have you in court for a defamation case so fast you won’t know what hit you.” Selina, dressed to the nines as usual, including four-inch heels, towered over Alice. “When my attorneys get done with you, your little book sales won’t come close to paying the money you’ll owe me. I’ll destroy you and any life you ever hoped to have.”

  I had to hand it to Alice. As mousy as she had seemed earlier, she stood her ground with Selina. “Defamation? I doubt anyone will disagree with ‘blood-sucking leech’ the way you bleed poor Douglas dry. I know you hated my Linus. You blamed him because you have a crappy marriage to a good man who can’t possibly live up to the glitz you want the world to see, and you have to depend on your daddy’s allowance to scrape by.
If you can call furs and jewelry and fancy balls scraping by. Then Linus embarrassed you in public at the bookstore thing, and you decided to shut him up permanently. You’re nothing but a money-grubbing tramp who wants to impress everyone, and I hope your husband finally sees through you before you suck him completely dry like the vampire you are.”

  There was that “my Linus” phrase again. This woman changed her attitudes about Linus faster than the weather changed in the Carolinas.

  Selina raised her hand to slap Alice but stopped before swinging. “You lying piece of trash. You’d better be careful what you say before someone shuts you up permanently.” A slow nasty grin slid across Selina’s face. “Just like ‘your Linus.’”

  Holy crap on a cookie! Did Selina just infer she’d killed Linus?

  Alice opened her mouth, but a garbled squeak was all that came out. Her red face and huffing chest pushed forth another squeak before she screeched a repeated phrase. “How dare you?”

  Selina leaned in, her face inches from Alice’s. “I’ll see you in court.” She turned on her four-inch heels and stalked across the street to The Weeping Willow, leaving Alice standing on the sidewalk.

  When Alice turned and headed for my store’s door, I jumped from the bed, threw on clothes—I’d shower later—and forced a brush through my tangled bed-hair. Catching sight of the dark circles under my eyes from lack of sleep and the still messy look of my hair, I winced but headed toward the stairs anyway, hoping my customers wouldn’t notice.

  “Wow, you look horrible.” Mason whistled low. “And why are you here this early? Aren’t you supposed to be sleeping so we can go back out tonight?”

  So much for the hope that I looked better than my mirror said I did. “I’m fine. Where’s Alice?”

  “Ah.” Mason nodded. “I take it you saw the fight outside?” He gestured toward the poetry section. “She went that way.”

  “Thanks.” I smiled, hoping it softened my exhausted look. “And yeah, I saw. It’s what woke me.”