Buried in Books

by Kate Carlisle

  “Wonderful,” I said finally, unwilling to make a scene. “Please have a cocktail and enjoy yourselves.” I would’ve loved to have taken him by the arm to the door and told him to get out. But I knew that would’ve upset my mother and Meg. Things were awkward enough without adding to my real guests’ discomfort. Rod was here and we would all have to play nicely together. Or die trying.

  Rod gave a thumbs-up and strolled toward the bar. I grabbed Heather’s hand before she had a chance to follow him. “You insisted?”

  She rolled her eyes. “He’s so full of it. He almost started crying until I broke down and agreed to bring him with me. I know I shouldn’t have but, honestly, Brooklyn, I didn’t think you’d mind that much. After all, he just lost Sara. And you know me. I’m such a sucker for a sad face.”

  I slid a glance at the man in question, who was smiling at the bartender. As for Rod being the grieving husband, he was showing no signs of it tonight. “Yes, you’re a sucker,” I said, forcing myself to smile.

  “Don’t worry. I’ll make sure he behaves.”

  Derek would make sure the man behaved. I had no doubt about that. I glanced around. “I have to get to know my future in-laws, but give me the high sign if you need anything.”

  “I’ll be fine. And I really am sorry.” She gave me a hug.

  I sighed. “Just have a good time.” I watched her wander off. I supposed that if Rod was here at the restaurant, he wouldn’t be trying to break into our home. So I decided to relax and enjoy myself.

  The evening turned out to be so much more fun than I could’ve hoped. Rod and Heather were both polite and friendly to the other guests, and the rest of Derek’s family members were as charming and smart as his parents. His brothers were all gorgeous, as I might have mentioned before, and my cheeks hurt from smiling and laughing so much at their adorable ways of flattering the bride—that would be me—and teasing the groom, their brother. Each of his brothers’ wives greeted me with open arms and graciously welcomed me into their ranks. And their darling children were so well behaved, it was scary.

  Our two families seemed to fit together as though we had always been friends. I’d heard enough stories over the years about nightmare in-laws that I knew I was lucky to have these wonderful people.

  The dinner itself was phenomenal, as we had known it would be since this was one of our favorite restaurants in the city. Dad had brought the very best bottles of wine from Dharma to serve the guests. The service was wonderful and I told myself that after the week we’d had, Derek and I deserved a smooth, lovely evening.

  Then halfway through dinner, Derek’s father, John, decided to drop a bombshell. He stood up and tapped his wineglass with his spoon. “I know we’re celebrating a wedding, but I have an announcement to make.”

  Everyone made a point of mimicking him, clinking their glasses with their utensils until we were all laughing again.

  “Go ahead, Dad,” Derek said when the commotion died down.

  John cleared his throat. “I’m thrilled to tell you that your mother and I are in the process of buying a house in Dharma.”

  Beside me, Derek jolted and I looked at him. It was so unusual to catch him off guard at all. I sort of enjoyed seeing the flash of emotions dart across his face. Pleasure, worry, and maybe just a touch of fear. I almost laughed, really. He’d seen me dealing with my own parents all the time and now he’d be having the same experiences.

  When the applause and laughter died down, John continued. “We plan to live half the year in Cambridge and the other half in Dharma. And of course, both of our homes will always be open to any of you who would care to visit.”

  I thought it was wonderful. Mom and Meg had mentioned going house hunting in the wine country, but I never thought Meg and John would actually find a place and want to buy it.

  “Wait a minute,” Dalton shouted. “No, no, no!” Since he was now living in Dharma with my sister Savannah, his parents’ decision seemed to be hitting him the hardest.

  “What Dalton meant to say,” Dylan interjected quickly, “was congratulations, Mum and Dad!”

  There was more cajoling and laughter as my own father draped one arm around John’s shoulders. The two of them looked so pleased with the announcement, it was hard not to grin back at them. My mom and Meg were sitting close together, looking so happy, it was as if they were long-lost twins suddenly rediscovering each other.

  “Then why is his face so red?” Douglas asked, chuckling at his baby brother’s discomfiture.

  “I believe Dalton turns red when he’s happy,” his father said drolly. “Just as Derek does.”

  I stared at the love of my life and noticed that he was still a little wild-eyed as well. But the smile curving his mouth told me he liked the idea of having his parents living closer half the year—he was just going to need a little time to get used to it.

  “Derek’s face is red because he’s flushed with eagerness to take his bride. Dalton, on the other hand, must be delirious with joy, since Happy is his middle name,” Duncan said.

  “Huh,” Dylan said. “I thought his middle name was Berk.”

  Even I laughed at that one, having learned a while back that berk was British slang for idiot.

  Dalton wasn’t taking any of it. He stood and shook his finger at Derek. “My parents are moving in practically next door to me. This is your doing. Admit it.”

  Derek laughed even harder and was joined by his other brothers. He took my hand under the table and gave it a squeeze. I shot a look at my own parents, who were clearly thrilled at having their new friends move into the neighborhood.

  Dalton scowled at his mother. “I move ten thousand miles to get away from you, and now you’re going to move in next door? I’m not sure I like that.”

  “Ten thousand miles isn’t nearly enough when a boy misses his mum.” Meg giggled. “You silly goose. You’re not fooling anyone. We all know you love the idea.”

  Dalton rolled his eyes, but his mouth was quivering as he tried not to smile. “At least promise me you’ll only be here half the year.”

  She tossed a chunk of her dinner roll at him. “We promise. For now.”

  “And she attacks me with bread products,” Dalton griped. “Do you see why I had to move?”

  “You poor bugger.” His oldest brother, Douglas, clapped Dalton on the back. “The good news for us is we’ll all have a place to stay in the wine country.”

  “Hear, hear,” Duncan cheered. “And the parents will be out of our hair for six months at a time. Sounds like a win-win to me.”

  “Oh, come now,” John balked, though I could see a twinkle in his eyes. “When have we ever been in your hair?”

  “What an unsavory image,” Daphne proclaimed, to more laughs. She was happily married to Duncan and came from a fabulously wealthy family who built jets for the British government. She insisted she was a simple wife and mum, but I had a feeling her security clearance might have been higher than any of the men’s.

  Derek and his brothers continued to chuckle and tease each other and tell wonderful stories throughout the meal. I was proud to say that my family members held their own. More than once I noticed Savannah’s eyes glistening with happy tears and I knew she was thrilled with the news that Meg and John would be spending more time in Dharma. Ever since Dalton moved halfway across the world to live with her, Savannah and Meg had become such good friends, I was actually a bit jealous of her.

  My younger sister China and her husband, Beau, sat with their adorable daughter seated between them. Hannah was clapping and giggling, clearly loving the laughter and good-natured shouting at the table.

  London, our baby sister, sat next to her charming husband, Trevor. We often teased him about being a slacker because he was not only a brilliant physician but also a renowned wine expert. They had left their twins, Chloe and Connor, at the hotel with a babysitter because,
as London had stated when she walked in, “I’m going to party all night.”

  I caught John’s eye and we both smiled. When he winked at me, I fell in love all over again. The man and his wife had raised a beautiful family who loved and joked with each other as much as my family did, and I couldn’t be happier knowing I was about to become a part of it all.

  I gazed around the table, hoping everyone here shared my happiness. When I got to Heather, she blew me a kiss, making me laugh. Rod sat next to her and the look on his face in that moment gave me a chill. He wasn’t looking at me, thank goodness, because he wasn’t smiling at all. In fact, he wore a look that was so sinister I wouldn’t have been surprised to learn that he was planning my demise right here at the table.

  As soon as I had the thought, I wondered if maybe I was just being paranoid. After all, his wife had just died a horrible death. It could be that he was simply in mourning. But since overhearing his conversation with Cornelia yesterday, I had my doubts.

  Derek’s phone beeped and he stole a look at the screen. Standing, he murmured, “I’ll be right back.”

  “What is it?” I asked. “What happened?”

  He scowled. “It’s Mitch. Someone tried to break into our building.”

  * * *

  • • •

  “Sorry he got away, boss.”

  Derek and I stood next to Mitch’s car on the opposite side of the street from our building.

  “Don’t worry about it, Mitch,” Derek said. “I’m just grateful that you prevented him from getting inside.”

  Mitch was grumbling and the scowl on his face could have frightened small children. “Your building security is pretty tight, boss. He probably wouldn’t have made it inside anyway. Still, I’m pissed at myself for letting him escape.”

  “But you got a look at him and that’s important.”

  “Not much of a look, but I’m hoping what I saw might help.”

  Earlier Mitch had insisted that we not rush to leave the party because the excitement had blown over and our apartment was still safe. So we stayed for another hour and managed to thoroughly enjoy ourselves and our guests. Some of the heartier folks were going back to the hotel bar to continue the party while others were off to bed. Heather and Rod both hugged me and thanked me again. Rod even apologized for crashing the party but said he was glad he did because he had a great time. I was in too good a mood to be angry and wished them a safe trip back to their hotel.

  When we finally got home, I was happy to see Mitch still sitting in his car across the street from our place.

  “No more activity tonight, boss.”

  “Can you describe what the guy looked like?” I asked, rubbing my arms to ward off the cold night air.

  “He was wearing a baseball cap, so his face was in shadow,” Mitch said. “All I could tell was that he was tall and heavyset.”

  “Was he bald?” I asked.

  “No, he had a full head of hair.”

  “But you said he was wearing a baseball cap,” Derek said.

  “Right, but his hair stuck out around his ears.”

  “Dark hair?” I asked.

  “From what I could see, thanks to the light above the front door, I’d say yes, it was dark brown.”

  We thanked Mitch and said good night. Once we were inside the building, I said, “I guess we can’t blame this on Rod.”

  “Not unless he’s in cahoots with someone else.”

  “It wouldn’t be the first time Heather was on hand to provide him with a perfect alibi for the evening.”

  “Or vice versa, darling.”

  I frowned. “That’s right. Seeing Heather stroll in with Rod tonight made me so angry, I wondered how I could’ve forgotten that she was still a murder suspect.”

  “After carrying a grudge for twelve years, she certainly has motivation,” he said.

  “I’ll say.” The elevator door opened slowly. We walked inside and I pushed the button for the sixth floor. “You know, I was thinking that Mitch’s description sounds a lot like Thuggy Guy. I mean, you know, the other guy in the photos. When I first saw his picture, I thought he looked like a thug.”

  “Yes, I know who you’re referring to,” he said, smiling. “And you’re right, the description does sound like him. I think I’ll look at our security camera footage tomorrow to see if we can get a better shot of whoever tried to break in. And Inspector Lee took a copy of his photo and she’s running it through their law enforcement systems as well. I can’t see that her system would yield anything that ours didn’t, but you never know. I’ll give her a call in the morning.”

  “That all sounds really good,” I said, as we stepped out into our hallway. “But we may have a little scheduling conflict if you were planning to wait until tomorrow to work on this.”

  “Ah, yes.” He nodded somberly. “Tomorrow is our wedding day.”

  “I’m happy you remembered,” I said, slipping my arm through his. “But we have an even bigger problem if we were hoping to wrap up this murder investigation soon. The librarians’ conference ends tomorrow and anyone who might be considered a suspect will be going home. So we’ll lose our best chance to get any more answers from Rod or Cornelia or Heather. Or even Thuggy Guy. I doubt he’s a librarian but he showed up for the conference so he might be planning to leave tomorrow.”

  Derek’s jaw was clenched as he nodded. “Then I’ll take care of this tonight.”

  * * *

  • • •

  True to his word, Derek rolled up his sleeves and got to work while I made him a cup of coffee. He called up the security camera video, but couldn’t get a good look at our would-be burglar’s face. Then, on the off-chance that his company’s facial recognition program had hit a snag, he spoke with the analyst working the night shift at his office. The guy was happy to run Thuggy’s photo through the system again.

  He also texted the original photo of Thuggy Guy to Mitch, hoping he might be able to say whether this was our intruder or not.

  On a hunch, I put in a call to the Glen Cove College Library, where Sara had worked. Thanks to their automated system, I was able to get the number for the librarian in charge of collections. Naturally she wasn’t in her office at ten o’clock on a Saturday night—actually midnight her time, I realized—but I left a detailed message asking whether Rod Martin had called them regarding his wife, Sara, and the altered copy of The Three Musketeers. I requested that the woman call me back at her earliest convenience, and figured I would hear from her sometime on Monday. That was okay, I thought, since we weren’t leaving for Paris until Tuesday. Rod had probably called to give them the information, but I felt better for having followed through with the college myself.

  I didn’t know what to believe about Rod, but I hadn’t appreciated him throwing Sara under the bus as soon as I told him about the forgery. I wasn’t buying his innocent act, especially after catching the angry words he had exchanged with Sara’s boss, Cornelia.

  On the other hand, it was just weird the way Sara had given me that rare though forged book. She had admitted that she wanted to upstage Heather, but besides that, I had to wonder if maybe she just wanted to get rid of it. She had to have known it was forged. Was Rod right? Was Sara a little shady, too?

  I was too tired to think about Sara and Rod so I turned off my brain and just relaxed on the couch with Charlie and Derek, who sat with his computer on the coffee table, drinking coffee.

  I tried to stay awake until he was done but ended up dozing on and off for the next hour. At one point I heard him speaking French to someone on the phone and wondered if he had also sent the photo to Interpol. I spoke a little bit of French but I was so sleepy I couldn’t be sure if he was talking about killers and thieves or making restaurant reservations for our honeymoon in Paris.

  I woke again when he lifted me up and carried me to bed.

  “Did w
e get him?” I mumbled.

  “We got him,” he said, as he reached to turn off the lamp on my night table.

  “I’m so proud of you.”

  He kissed my cheek. “I love you.”

  “Mm. Me, too. Are you coming to bed?”

  “Yes.” He tucked the sheets around me. Seconds later, he climbed into bed next to me and I was sound asleep again before he turned off his light.

  * * *

  • • •

  We both awoke early the next morning, and after washing my face and brushing my teeth, I raced to the coffeepot. The sun was shining, the sky was a brilliant blue, and I blessed the weather gods who had given us such a beautiful wedding day.

  “Good morning,” I said, greeting Derek who was already busy in the kitchen. “Thank you for making coffee.”

  “It’s the least I can do on our wedding day.”

  “Aww, happy wedding day,” I said, and wrapped my arms around his waist. “I love you.”

  “Same to you, darling.” He kissed me soundly and we clung to each other for a long moment.

  After a while, I sniffed the air. “Is that bacon I smell?”

  “Yes, it’s staying warm in the oven.”

  I gazed up at him. “Have I told you lately that I love you?”

  “It’s been several seconds,” he murmured.

  “I do. I love you so much.”

  “You love bacon.”

  “It’s sort of the same thing, right?”

  He laughed. “Go sit down and drink your coffee or I’ll make you help me cook something.”

  “We both know what a bad idea that would be.”

  “You’re right. I rescind the threat.”

  “Good thinking.” Because breakfast would take some time, I retrieved my computer from my office and set it on the island counter. While I drank coffee and watched Derek, I checked out the newest batch of selfies my students had sent from the conference. Selfies. For heaven’s sake, I’d completely forgotten about the picture Derek had identified in the middle of the night. In my defense, I was half asleep when he mentioned it.