Detective Allen took a glance at Millie’s clothes and the two backpacks. “The outdoors not suiting you, Peter?” she asked with a smirk. “Come on. While the officers stay with Pauline, I’ll give you two a ride back to your car.”
Peter and Millie got their things. Millie took one last backward glance at Pauline slumped on the couch, head in her hands. Now Frank’s giving up the fight the previous day made sense. He had just seen someone try to poison Pauline. He must’ve been frightened. Maybe he really did love her in his own strange way.
While Detective Allen drove them back, Millie filled her in on the other things they did during their outing that afternoon, the information that Sadie had stepped away from the back deck during the poisoning—in case it did turn out to be important—and their brief chat with Sam.
“That’s interesting,” said Detective Allen. “Sam lied to you. He’s in debt up to his eyeballs. We checked. Inheriting Martin’s estate means he can sell the land and save himself from bankruptcy.”
Detective Allen dropped them off at their car, and Peter practically ran to open the door. “That’s enough nature for me for a while,” he said.
Millie chuckled as she opened the passenger door.
“What’s so funny?” he asked.
“You are,” she replied. “What makes you think Abby is gonna let you live an indoors-only life.”
Peter’s eyes widened. He stared out the windshield, thunderstruck. “You’re right.” He sucked in a long breath. “Oh, well. The things we do for love.”
16
Chapter 16
Millie arrived at the library bright and early the next day. She needed to load the van for the day’s bookmobile run, but first she swung by the library‘s meeting room. The doors to the meeting room were locked up tight. Police tape marked the door in a big yellow X. Darn! She hoped the police would get in there again soon and figure out where the container that had held the poison was. Then, maybe they could lift some prints or get some DNA evidence. As for Millie, she’d have plenty of opportunity to give the bookmobile her own search on the day’s run.
Millie headed back to the untidy cubicle stacked with boxes that formed her “office” to get the hold books she would need for the day. Passing through the office area, she nearly ran into a familiar figure clad in hiking boots.
“Abby! I thought you were going to be at home for a few days.”
Abby grinned. “I couldn’t miss your first school visit,” she said. “Besides, we could do a little searching in the van during downtime. And I happen to know that Sadie teaches at the school we’re visiting today. Maybe we can ask a few questions.”
Millie looked her up and down. She seemed a little pale and tired but still all in one piece. “Okay, if you’re sure you’ll be all right. Just let me do the driving and the heavy lifting.”
Millie and Abby gave the van a quick once over before they left for the bookmobile run. They didn’t find squat, but they remained optimistic. “We’ll have more chances to search today,” said Abby. “Maybe there is something that we’ve missed, and we’ll catch it later.”
At the school, Abby did a storytime for a group of several classes in the gymnasium, then she led them back to the bookmobile, where Millie gave the students a tour. Among the teachers present, Millie noticed a familiar blonde bob haircut. Sadie Northrup.
Abby took over the bookmobile for a moment, so that Millie could stand on the grass in front of the school and introduce herself to the teachers. Sadie was the last to approach Millie.
“Lovely to see you again,” said Sadie. “I recognize you from the event at the library the other day. I’m glad to see that Abby is doing better.” She dropped her voice to a whisper. “I understand they finally figured out who did it all. I just can’t believe it was Ricky. He seems so nice.”
“They suspect it was him,” said Millie. “They’re still looking for hard evidence, though.”
“Just a matter of time then,” said Sadie. “It’s a relief.”
Millie gestured towards the bookmobile. “Tell me about it. By the way, I hope you don’t mind my asking, but Jack said you had stepped away from the back deck about the time of the first… incident.”
To her surprise Sadie laughed. “I wish Chloe hadn’t been so secretive about it, given everything that happened. I was with her. We are kind of an item. Please don’t spread it around, not just yet. My divorce isn’t final, and living in a rural area like we do, and me being a teacher, we don’t know how accepting folks at the school will be. After everything that’s happened recently, we don’t want to stir the pot for a little while.”
“I’m glad for you,” said Millie. “You look really happy.”
“I am really happy.” Sadie’s smile stretched wide, and a little blush crept into her cheeks.
“I’ll keep it quiet as long as you want,” said Millie, “but maybe people around here will be a little more accepting than you think they will be.”
Sadie looked over Millie’s shoulder, and her smile faded away. “What’s he doing here?”
Millie spun around. Frank Fowler was approaching across the grass. Millie swallowed hard. Sure, the confession she heard from Pauline had gotten him off the hook for one murder, but he’d probably be charged for what happened to Ricky’s mother.
“Why are you here? This is an elementary school campus.” Sadie raised her voice now. Behind them, around the bookmobile, the other teachers gathered the students and led them quickly back indoors. “Please leave.”
Frank simply ignored her and focused on Millie. “You talked to Pauline,” he said, his expression like a statue, “The truth is out now. “
The silence stretched on for a long moment. Millie’s breath caught in her throat. “It is,” she managed to squeak out.
“Probably should’ve been long ago,” said Frank. Without another word, he turned and walked away.
17
Chapter 17
When they finished at the school, Abby was looking paler and more tired. “Are you doing okay?”
“I guess I should’ve stayed home today after all,” Abby replied. “Now I’m stuck.”
“Nonsense,” Millie replied. “We can get you home.”
“You’ve got so many stops. I can’t have you turn the bookmobile around for me.”
Millie sat in the driver’s seat and buckled up while Abby climbed into the passenger’s seat. “Some things are worth messing up the schedule for. But I know a way we can get you home without having to turn the van around. We’re not far from The Ridge Road Hotel. Why don’t we ask if you can use their phone and call your parents to come pick you up?”
“Okay,” said Abby. “That’s probably a good idea. But I know I’m gonna hear about it all the way home. They were ticked at me for going to work today.”
It was a short drive over to the hotel. Millie parked the van across the street, just as Flor had done a week before. She turned off the engine. “I’m gonna make one last search here, if that’s okay,” she said.
“It’s fine.” Abby leaned her chair back. “I’m just gonna close my eyes for a minute.”
Millie decided to get really close to the floor this time. Instead of getting down on her hands and knees, she laid down and scooted along like she was a caterpillar. She pulled all the boxes out from underneath the shelving, just as she’d done that morning and when loading the van on Friday. Still, it couldn’t hurt to look once more. She scooted up and down the length of the bookmobile examining under the shelves again and again. Nada. It was really time to put them all back and get Abby inside the hotel so she could call her folks. Millie began replacing the boxes, but as she worked on the second box, something caught her eye. A gold shine right between the floor and the wall underneath the shelf. What could be shiny there?
Millie reached across the floor to the wall and found a small dip. The floor didn’t make a flat plane straight to the wall. Instead there was a small gap an inch or two wide and a couple inches deep wh
ere the non slip surface that had been applied to the floor ended and before the actual wall began, creating a space where something was caught. Something cool and smooth in Millie‘s hand. She fished it out and sat on her knees examining her find.
It was a pocket watch. The case was gold in color, but whether it was real gold or not, Millie wasn’t sure. She turned it over in her hands. On the back, she found an inscription: “Love always, L. D.”
Millie brought the watch up to the front. “Abby, Take a look at this.”
Abby sat up, took the watch, and examined it. “L. D.? Lynne Donnelly, maybe. Maybe this was a gift from Ricky‘s mother to his father or to some other Donnelly.”
“That’s what I’m thinking,” said Millie. “I suppose it fell from Martin’s pocket when he collapsed and rolled underneath the shelving. That ties Martin to the thefts at Ricky’s place then.”
“It seems to.” Abby agreed.
It fit, but still bothered Millie. Martin was a blackmailer. Sure, he was also poaching ferns with his grandson, but that didn’t strike Millie as a lucrative endeavor. He probably just did it to get Frank’s goat. Petty theft from Ricky‘s house? It didn’t sound like Martin’s style. Could the watch have rolled out of Ricky‘s pocket on Friday when he visited the bookmobile? Millie didn’t think she’d seen him actually step inside the van, but she could be mistaken.
Millie slipped the watch in her pocket. “I’ll give Detective Allen a call about it later. Let’s head inside so you can call your folks.”
Inside The Ridge Road Hotel and Café, business had picked up again. Chloe was busily filling orders for specialty coffees, but soon they were able to explain the situation, and Chloe showed Abby back to the employees-only section to use the telephone. While Abby made her call, Millie ordered a cappuccino.
“I’m run off my feet this morning,” said Chloe as she prepared the espresso shots. “Jack is over at Ricky’s, helping him deal with things. I don’t wanna say anything, because I know he doesn’t want to believe he’s been dating a murderer, but…”
“Poor Jack,” said Millie. She couldn’t imagine how she’d feel in that situation. “This all has to be kind of a shock for him. I just hope he doesn’t drink anything while he’s over there.”
“You can say that again. The thing I don’t get is how Ricky got the poison in the library. Wasn’t everyone searched and they didn’t find any poison?”
“That’s right,” said Millie. “They checked us all. He must’ve brought it in in some sort of container. Where did the container go?”
“What was the poison again?” asked Chloe
“Something derived from foxgloves.” That was the thing that felt wrong, Millie realized. Something was off about the fact that the killer used foxgloves. She thought back to the moment of the second poisoning, Abby dropping to the floor, her tea spilling everywhere. No. Back up more. Pauline taking a swig from her own tea—or Abby’s tea, as they’ve gotten mixed up. Back up a little more. What happened just before that moment? Pauline was talking about dehydration as a preservation method. She used it to make her herbal tea. She used dried plants to make her tea mixtures.
Millie felt a chill starting somewhere in the center of her and shivering out to all her edges. “I know how he did it,” she breathed.
“What?” asked Chloe, setting down Millie’s completed drink.
“I’ve just figured it out. Ricky never brought the poison to the library at all. He must have gone to Pauline’s house and put it in her tea mixtures. It’s dried plants. He could slip some dried foxglove in. Pauline brought her own tea around with her; she said so in her presentation. She could have drunk the poison anywhere at any time, it just happened to be at the library.”
Chloe stiffened, and goosebumps appeared on her arms. “There’s something you should see. Upstairs.”
Abby came back from the telephone at that moment. “Have a seat,” Chloe told her. “We’ve got to run upstairs for a second. Be right back.”
Millie followed Chloe up, past the second and even third floors, all the way to the attic. “Jack wouldn’t like me going in here while he’s away, but this is urgent. He’d understand.” She opened the attic door to reveal a small, plainly outfitted bedroom. Presumably this was where Jack lived. Chloe crossed the room to a low dresser, a bit cluttered with books and several glass jars. “Yes.” She lifted a jar. “I thought I saw these when I last came up here to bring him fresh linens. Come look inside.”
Millie came and took the jar from her, holding it up to the light. It was filled with what looked like some kind of herbal tea mixture. Lots and lots of dried leaves.
“Can you identify foxglove leaves,” asked Millie.
“No,” said Chloe. “Abby might be able to, or one of the customers downstairs. It’s a fairly common garden plant.” She squinted at the jar. “Although they’re so dry and curly, I don’t know if anyone could tell at a glance… Better to be safe than sorry. He must’ve gotten them from Ricky.”
“We should call Detective Allen. And Pauline. There might still be some in her house.”
Chloe hurried back to the door. “And I’ll ask one of the customers to go by Ricky’s house and check on Jack, make sure he doesn’t drink anything.”
Millie replaced the jar on the dresser, and made to follow Chloe, but something glinted gold in the light and caught her eye. Something in a box, sticking out from under the bed. She paused. It was a gold photograph frame. Instinct drew her forward. Millie knelt and pulled the box out from under the bed.
“What are you doing?” asked Chloe.
“I think this is Ricky’s stuff.” She turned over the empty photograph frame and found another inscription with the initials L. D. “Lynne Donnelly,” Millie muttered. The box was full of the sort of things people kept as family heirlooms, silver candlestick holders, vases. “Ricky said some things have gone missing at his place, that he thought were stolen.”
Chloe came to kneel at the box as well. “Maybe this is different stuff, though. They’re dating. He could’ve asked Jack to hold onto some of his things for some reason. Maybe there was no theft at all, and Ricky was planning insurance fraud.”
Millie took the pocket watch out and showed Chloe. “I just found this in the bookmobile. I think Martin dropped it the day he died. Could Jack have been selling the stuff to Martin or getting it for him for some other reason?” Millie felt a growing chill once more. If the poisoner tampered with Pauline’s tea at her house, Millie realized, then they didn’t have to be someone present at the library at all. She should never have crossed Jack off her suspect list.
“I don’t know,” said Chloe. “I guess we should ask him about it.”
Footsteps hurried, loud, came stomping up the stairs. “Let’s have a little chat right now.”
Jack stood in the doorway, a gun in his hand.
18
Chapter 18
Millie and Chloe rose shakily from the floor.
“What are you doing, Jack?” asked Chloe. “P-please. Put that away.”
“I wish I could,” Jack replied, and he did sound regretful. “It’s too late now.”
“But why? asked Chloe. “Why would you hurt Martin or try to hurt Pauline?”
“Martin was a nasty old man,” said Jack. “And I made the mistake of taking a loan from him, one that I thought I could repay; I thought I would have the time to repay. But he kept pushing me. Stealing Ricky‘s valuables for him wasn’t enough. He knew he was getting older and he wanted to end his days in a retirement home. But he didn’t want to sell his land to do it. He pushed me and pushed me like he pushed so many other people, until I knew there was only one way to take care of it.”
Jack moved to stand behind Millie, pressing the barrel of the gun into her back. “Now, the three of us are going to take a walk in the woods. Don’t you dare make a sound.”
Jack pushed them forward, down the stairs to the second floor. From there he avoided the main staircase and took them down a sma
ller set of stairs accessible through a narrow door. This was a very old house, one that had a servant staircase, so they were able to descend unseen all the way to the kitchen. All the while Millie’s brain turned on high alert. He was taking them out to the woods. But to get there they’d have to go outside, where someone surely would be sitting, would see them. Could he really get them all the way out there without anyone figuring out what was going on?
“So why hurt Pauline?” Millie asked. If she was going to die, she might as well understand how it all came about.
“Because I didn’t have an obvious motive for killing Pauline,” said Jack. “Whereas if I only killed Martin, eventually the loan would come to light and I’d look suspicious. With both of them dead, the police would look for a connection between the two of them. I thought it would be Frank, and for a while it was. But the surprise about Ricky’s mother gave him an even more plausible motive. Outside now, and remember, not a word.”
They went out the kitchen door and emerged into the garden. If anyone was watching on the back deck, Millie did not know. She didn’t dare turn around. They were far enough from the deck that an onlooker might not get a good enough view to see the gun. Ricky moved so that he was walking alongside them, so that it appeared he was walking with one arm around Millie and a hand at her back. They followed the path past everblooming roses and purple coneflowers, turning and moving at Jack’s direction. At the edge of the garden, they left through a little gap in the greenery, passing right beside tall plants with speckled, tubular flowers. Foxgloves. Just like, Millie was sure, one would find in many a garden in Winding Creek, Virginia. Another piece fell into place. Foxgloves weren’t native plants. If the real killer had been a member of the hiking club, they’d have been more likely to use something wild.
Jack pushed them forward into the waiting woods.
* * *
The Body in the Bookmobile Page 8