by Sofie Kelly
“It’s okay,” I said. “C’mon in. I was just working on some stuff for Eugenie.”
Owen and Hercules, who had disappeared to who knew where when Marcus left, were now sitting side by side in front of the refrigerator.
Russell smiled at them. “Hercules is the black-and-white cat and Owen is the tabby, right?”
I nodded.
“And they don’t like to be touched.”
“Only by me,” I said.
“I don’t like to be rubbed the wrong way either, guys,” Russell stage-whispered.
He took a seat at the table and the boys moved to sit beside his chair. It seemed they recognized a kindred soul.
I took the top off the foil pan.
“Ham and cheese rolls,” Russell said. Two furry heads swiveled in unison toward me. “Don’t worry, I didn’t make them. Caroline did.”
“Will you have one with me?” I asked.
Russell smiled. “That’s kind of why I brought four.”
“Coffee or tea?”
“Tea, if it’s not too much trouble,” he said. “I’ve been spending a lot of time with Eugenie.”
I opened the cupboard door. “Well, you can tell her I have a teapot and a tea cozy.”
He grasped the lapels of his gray sweater and sat upright in the chair. “This is my suitably impressed face.”
I made the tea and poured us each a cup. Caroline’s ham and cheese rolls were delicious. We each had one and I pretended not to see Russell sneak a bite to the boys.
Once there was nothing left but crumbs on my plate I pulled both feet up so I was sitting cross-legged and smiled at Russell. “I know a bribe when I see it—and eat it. You didn’t just come by to meet Hercules and Owen. What’s going on?”
“I lied to the police.”
I sighed. Apparently the first time hadn’t been enough. “What about?”
He studied the top of the table for a moment. “I let Eugenie use me as an alibi.”
“So the two of you weren’t together all evening when Kassie was killed?”
He shook his head. His spiky hair looked like little porcupine quills.
“Russell, you’re not just Eugenie’s alibi. She’s yours.”
He traced along the metal edge of the table with his index finger. “I have a real one.” He looked up at me. “The police have been back asking more questions. I suck at lying.”
“Start at the beginning,” I said. “And by the way, being a terrible liar isn’t a bad thing. So why did you cover for Eugenie in the first place?”
He looked at me like the answer was obvious. “Because it was Eugenie, Kathleen. She’s my friend.” He took a breath and let it out. “I overheard her and Kassie fighting, the day before Kassie . . . died. I’ve never seen Eugenie so angry. She doesn’t get angry. I was afraid . . .” He didn’t finish the sentence.
I raked a hand back through my hair. I didn’t believe Eugenie had killed Kassie. “What did the two of them argue about?”
“Eugenie didn’t like how Kassie had been bullying Kate and Caroline. It wasn’t just the little cracks on camera. She took digs at both of them every time she was around them.” He hesitated. “Eugenie threatened to have Kassie replaced.”
“But we both know she couldn’t do that.”
Russell shrugged. At his feet Owen and Hercules seemed to be taking in everything he said. “I’m not so sure, Kathleen,” he said. “I heard her say if it came down to her or Kassie that Elias would pick her. I don’t know what she meant by that.”
“How did Kassie react?”
“She didn’t act like she felt threatened at all. She said, ‘You’re not getting rid of me that easily.’ Then Eugenie came back and said, ‘Child, if you knew more about me, you wouldn’t be nearly so smug.’” He leaned forward with his elbows on his knees. “I have to talk to Eugenie about all of this first. Will you come with me?”
I nodded. “I will, but there’s something I need to know first. What’s your real alibi?”
A tiny smile tugged at his lips. “I was doing hot yoga with Stacey.”
I dropped my feet to the floor and stood up. “Did you know Maggie teaches yoga classes? I’m sure she’d love to let the two of you try one.”
Russell started to laugh. “Hot yoga, Kathleen.”
“I know what that is,” I said. “The temperature and humidity of the room are raised so everyone sweats a lot.”
He was still grinning. “In this case it wasn’t the room that was hot,” he said. He licked the end of his index finger, touched it briefly to his shoulder and made a sizzling sound.
I got what he meant then. I remembered the tiny paper heart I’d noticed Stacey wearing on a chain around her neck. I should have made the connection the moment I had seen it.
“So if you were Eugenie’s alibi, who was Stacey’s?” I asked. This was all so convoluted. I thought about what my mother always said about telling the truth: “Tell the truth. It’s easier to remember.”
Russell smiled down at the cats. “The thing is, Stacey’s the kind of person who’s always kind of in the background helping out—probably because she’s a kindergarten teacher and she does that all day. Anyway, people tend not to pay a lot of attention to where she is or isn’t. But if you ask they’ll say, ‘Sure, Stacey was there.’ She got to Eric’s ahead of Eugenie and me and when the two of us left no one really paid attention. A couple of people said she was there all night and so we just left it at that.”
Marcus had said that eyewitness testimony wasn’t always infallible. I could see why he felt that way.
“I know it seems like Stacey has it all together, but lying like this just makes her anxiety worse. I don’t want to hang Eugenie out to dry, but I think I have to tell the truth.”
We needed to talk to Eugenie now and clear things up. “Do you know where Eugenie is?” I asked.
Russell frowned. “As far as I know a bunch of them were going out to Fern’s to try the pie. They might still be there. I can text Norman and find out.”
“I think that would be a good idea.”
I leaned against the counter while Russell texted the PA and waited for his reply. “They’re still there,” he said, looking up from the phone.
“Let’s go,” I said. I slid my feet into shoes, pulled on a sweater and grabbed my wallet and keys. “I’ll follow you,” I said to Russell.
He leaned forward and smiled at Owen and Hercules. “It’s been a pleasure to meet you, fur dudes,” he said.
Hercules bobbed his head and Owen meowed. They seemed to feel the same way.
Peggy was behind the counter when we got to Fern’s. She smiled when we walked in. “Sit anywhere, Kathleen,” she said.
We took a booth beside the table of people from the show. Caroline smiled and gave a little wave, which I returned. Charles was deep in conversation with one of the camera operators.
Peggy came over to us.
“Just coffee for me,” I said, “And it probably should be decaf.”
“What kind of pie has everyone been having?” Russell asked, peering over at the table next to us.
“Banana cream and apple,” Peggy said.
Russell rubbed his hands together. “Umm, I think I’ll try the banana cream. And I’ll have tea.” He looked at me. “Are you sure you don’t want any pie?”
I shook my head. “No thanks.” I wondered what he did for a workout given that he seemed to have more of a sweet tooth than I did.
As if he could read my mind, he raised an eyebrow and said, “Hot yoga burns a lot of calories.”
I was wondering how to get Eugenie to join us, when she solved the problem by picking up her tea and coming over to the booth. She slid in next to Russell. “This is a delightful surprise,” she said. She looked at him. “I thought you had something to do.”
&nbs
p; “I did,” he said. “And now it’s done.”
“Marvelous,” Eugenie said. She smiled across the table at me. “And it’s good to see you, too, Kathleen.”
“Actually, we need to talk to you about something,” I said.
Eugenie looked a little puzzled. “Of course. What is it?”
Peggy came back then with Russell’s pie and our coffee and tea. “Let me know if you need more hot water,” she said to Eugenie.
Russell took a bite of pie and made a little groan of happiness. I had had the banana cream pie and it was that good.
I looked at Eugenie. “Where were you the night Kassie was killed?”
Her eyes shifted uncertainly from side to side. “I already told you that. Russell and I were at Eric Cullen’s lovely café.” She looked sideways at Russell and smiled. He suddenly looked like he was eating sawdust instead of pie. “What’s going on?” she asked.
“Were you with Russell the entire time?” I said.
She continued to keep her gaze on Russell. “What did you tell Kathleen?” she said.
I repeated the question. “Were you with Russell the entire time?”
Finally she shifted her attention to me. “The fact that you’re asking me that question tells me that you know that I wasn’t.”
Russell put his fork down. He put a hand on Eugenie’s arm. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I overheard you and Kassie arguing and I didn’t want the police to think you could have killed her and when you didn’t have an alibi I said we were together all night but I’m just not very good at lying.” The words all came out in a rush.
Eugenie looked . . . surprised. “My dear boy, you told the police we were together to give me an alibi?”
He nodded.
“I thought you did it to give yourself one.”
“Okay, hang on a minute,” I said. I pointed at Russell. “You gave Eugenie an alibi because you’d heard her fighting with Kassie.”
He nodded. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I know you didn’t kill her.”
“Heavens no,” she said. “I didn’t have to resort to murder to get rid of her.”
“We’re coming back to that,” I said. I gestured at Eugenie. “You thought Russell had said he was with you to give himself an alibi.”
“Yes. I have one.”
“You have one?” Russell exclaimed.
I rubbed the space between my eyes. I had a headache.
Eugenie took a sip of her tea. “It’s not one I’d like to share with many people but I do have it.” She reached over and patted Russell’s shoulder. “Honestly, all you had to do was ask me. I would have told you.”
“Tell us now,” I said. “Start with explaining what you meant when you said you didn’t have to resort to murder to get rid of Kassie.”
“This isn’t something I want spread around,” she said.
“I’m not planning on doing that,” I said.
She exhaled slowly. “You know that I’ve lived in Canada for quite a while but I grew up in London.”
Both Russell and I nodded. I wasn’t sure where Eugenie was going.
“One of the reasons I left London—left England all together—was so that I could live my life on my terms.” Her long fingers played with her cup.
Russell frowned at me. He seemed as confused as I was.
“Eugenie, I’m not really sure where you’re going with this,” I said.
“Have you heard of Hamilton House?” she asked.
“If you mean the plumbing supply company, then yes. I have a big, deep Hamilton House bathtub in my bathroom.” It seemed as though I actually heard a tiny click as my brain made the connection. “You’re one of those Hamiltons.”
“Yes,” she said.
I glanced at Russell, who hadn’t made the connection. “Thomas Hamilton invented the little flapper piece that lifted up and let water into a toilet when you flushed it.” All the odd and obscure things I’d been asked to research over the years meant I was really good at trivia night.
“Okay,” he said slowly, clearly still lost.
I shifted my gaze to Eugenie. “Your great-grandfather?”
She nodded.
I turned back to Russell again. “That invention was the beginning of one of the largest plumbing supply companies in the world.”
Eugenie cleared her throat. “The biggest, actually.”
“So what you’re saying is you’re rich,” Russell said. “Are we talking Tony Stark rich?” He was referring to the billionaire character in the Iron Man movies.
“Nothing like that,” she said. “But I do have more than enough money to relieve Elias of any financial obligation he might have to Sean Sullivan, Kassie’s father. So as you can see, I had no reason to hurt anyone.”
“And what about your alibi?” I said.
She looked around the restaurant and then leaned forward. “Again, Kathleen, this is something I’d prefer to keep as private as I can.”
“I understand that,” I said. “And I don’t plan on sharing what you tell me with anyone, although I think you need to share it with the police.”
“I should have done that from the beginning,” she said. She hesitated for a moment. “I was in a smoking club in Red Wing.”
Russell’s eyes grew wide. “You smoke?” he exclaimed.
Eugenie looked around to see if anyone had heard him but no one was paying attention to us. “Cigars,” she said. “No cigarettes and none of that silly vaping. It’s just that it doesn’t go with my image.”
Smoking didn’t go with Eugenie’s image and fast-food pies didn’t go with Richard’s. At least the “hot” yoga made sense given what I knew about Russell. I had no doubt everyone’s new alibis would check out.
I picked up my coffee and took a long drink. I knew Ruby would be devastated, but it was looking more and more like Elias had killed Kassie.
chapter 15
Marcus showed up the next morning with a mint chocolate chip cupcake for me from Sweet Thing. All of the alibis had checked out. Eugenie, Russell and Stacey were in the clear.
“Thank you,” I said. I would have kissed him but we were standing just inside the library door.
“Did you bring enough of those to share with the class?” Mary asked from the circulation desk.
“As a matter of fact, I did,” Marcus said, bringing a cardboard box with the Sweet Thing logo on it out from behind his back. He set it in front of Mary with a flourish.
She smiled approvingly. “Nice work, Detective Gordon.”
He smiled back at her. “You’ll notice two of them are mocha fudge, which are your favorite.” He caught my hand and gave it a squeeze. “I have to go. I’ll talk to you later.”
Mary watched him leave. “If I were you I’d get some rope and tie—”
Still holding the little bag with my cupcake, I put my hands over my ears. “I’m not listening,” I said, heading for the stairs. Even with my ears covered I could still hear her laughing.
It was a busy morning at the library. I gave a class of fourth graders and their teacher a tour and was pleased by how many of the kids were readers. Keith King dropped off some information about a program he thought the library might qualify for that would give us a thirty-percent discount on the new computers we needed.
“I’m still looking for other options,” he said. “I’ll keep you in the loop.”
Harry stopped by before lunch with a couple of prices for security cameras. I looked at the numbers and shook my head.
“I know,” he said. “That has to be out of the library’s budget. How do you feel about a jerry-rigged temporary solution, just until we catch whoever keeps putting stuff in the gazebo?”
“Jerry-rigged suggests it’s not going to cost a lot of money,” I said. “I like the sound of that.”
Harry squeeze
d the brim of his Twins baseball cap. “Probably just the price of a few rolls of duct tape, I’m thinking.”
I smiled. “I like that a lot. What do you have in mind?”
“You remember when Mariah was doing that project for school and she put together that drone?”
I nodded.
Harry’s daughter had done more than just put together a drone. She’d figured out how to attach a camera and fly the drone. She’d also recorded footage that gave a potential murder suspect an alibi. What she hadn’t done was tell her father or anyone else what she was up to.
“Well, it turns out Uncle Larry was giving her a little help.”
Harry’s younger brother, Larry, was an electrician who liked to tinker with anything electronic. It struck me that maybe he’d be able to come up with a way to keep our computer monitors working.
“I hope you don’t mind that I talked to him about what’s been happening down here,” Harry said. “He thinks he might be able to rig some kind of camera along the roofline at the back of the building. It won’t cost you a cent. Larry has a workshop full of junk and after what happened with Mariah, he figures he kinda owes me.” He grinned. “Might as well take advantage of it.”
“Yes,” I said. “If Larry can come up with some way we can catch the culprit, why not?”
“I’ll give him a call,” Harry said.
* * *
It was about quarter after twelve when Levi Ericson came in. Mary had taken the early lunch break. I was putting books on our holds shelves.
“Could I talk to you about something?” he asked. His expression was serious and I hoped he wasn’t going to tell me he was quitting.
“Of course,” I said. “We can go up to my office. I just need to get Abigail.”
“Here is fine,” he said. He cleared his throat. “Did you know World Mental Health Day is in October?”
I shook my head. “No, I didn’t.”
“I was wondering, could we do something here at the library? Maybe on the day or during the week? Some kind of display, or maybe a talk or . . . something?”