Borrowed Time

by Elizabeth Spann Craig

  I said, “Actually, that was something I was going to tackle today if it’s not too busy here.”

  Wilson shook his head. “We have tons of staff and volunteers here today. I looked at the schedule last night. The library can spare you, believe me.”

  “It’s going to mean spending a good deal of time in the archive room with old newspapers. The local paper didn’t start putting their articles online until about ten years ago.”

  Wilson shook his head again, this time with some irritation. I wasn’t sure if it was irritation at me for continuing to press the point, or irritation with the newspaper for not loading their archives online. “Whatever it takes.”

  “Actually, Luna might be able to provide some additional information, as well. And maybe her mother. They knew Grace from when she was growing up here.”

  Wilson said, “Please call Luna and ask her to bring her mother to the library with her today.” He flushed slightly and then resumed his brisk path to his office where he firmly closed the door behind him.

  Luna was more than happy to bring her mother to the library, although it meant Mona had to quickly dress since Luna had been about to leave the house to head to work. I smiled to see Mona arriving at the library with a large makeup bag and quickly disappearing into the restroom to finish getting ready. Luna appeared to be carrying a covered dish of some sort.

  “Breakfast casserole for the breakroom,” she said wryly.

  I blinked at it. “How on earth did Mona know she would be here today?”

  “Oh, she intended on bringing it for us tomorrow, but she cooked it last night in preparation. Her whole strategy for wooing Wilson is via food,” said Luna.

  “I think she may be winning the battle. Wilson seems to be blushing quite a bit.”

  “That’s good to hear,” grinned Luna. “I’d hate to think all this cooking could be for nothing. Nothing, aside from a bunch of extra calories I don’t really need.”

  I followed Luna into the breakroom as she put the labeled casserole in the fridge. “By the way, our day is taking something of a detour. Courtesy of Wilson.”

  “Is it?” asked Luna, looking surprised. “Wilson isn’t so fond of detours.”

  “He wants us to help him find out more information on Grace.” I quickly gave her the lowdown on the origins of Grace’s wealth.

  Luna gave a low whistle. “So now he wants you to dig up as much dirt as possible on her. I see how it is.”

  I winced. Luna always had a way of getting to the heart of the matter. “I don’t know if I’d really look at it that way. He said he wanted to go to the board with as much information as possible.”

  Luna said glumly, “There go our lovely lunches. I knew it was too good to last.”

  “And now we’re going to spend our day shut up in the dusty archives room. Wilson said he had lots of help today. Apparently, he overscheduled volunteers and staff, so we’re covered.”

  Luna raised her eyebrows. “Even in the children’s area? Wow, okay. Well, let’s see what we can uncover.” She glanced over at Wilson’s closed door and rolled her eyes. “The least he could do is come out of his office. My mom is putting time into getting her makeup just right for him.”

  “He’ll definitely want that breakfast casserole. Your mom should let him know it’s in there.”

  Luna shook her head. “She’d never be so forward as to knock on his closed office door. I guess I could do it, though, before we get started.”

  While Luna was giving Wilson a heads-up about the breakfast food, I eyed the newspaper archive. Our older newspapers were all on microfiche, but the old papers from the early 2000s hadn’t been transferred because microfiche was falling out of favor at that point as everyone was hopping online. Everyone, it seemed, but the Whitby newspaper.

  Luna came back as I started pulling out papers from around the time the whole group would have been in high school.

  “Any ideas about where I should start?” I asked.

  Luna blew out a breath as her gaze combed the wall of papers. “I really don’t know what Wilson is looking for. Couldn’t we just do a background check on her with Burton?”

  I gave her a doubtful look. “Somehow I don’t see Burton happily doing a background check without good reason. I think Wilson is trying to make sure there’s nothing on Grace that pre-dates the online stuff we’ve already found. But I feel if there was something on her, you’d probably know about it, right? Small town. I should probably know about it too, but I wasn’t paying that much attention to what older kids were doing when I was a kid.”

  Luna said, “The problem is that when Roz and her friends were in high school, I’d already left Whitby and was making a living in New York. I kind of kept up, but not really. You know what college is like.” She frowned. “Like I mentioned, I know there was a tragedy with the group, but I don’t have any real details.”

  I said, “That’s the one Linus mentioned to me.”

  She nodded. “I asked my mom about it briefly last night. One of their friends died. They were all out on the lake together. I think they’d skipped school or something. It was one of those stories that the local moms would tell their kids to keep them in line. Anyway, they skipped school and went out to the lake for the day and one of their friends drowned, I think. She wasn’t even very far from the shoreline so it was probably a cramp.”

  I stared at her. “Luna, that’s awful! That must have really scarred all of them.”

  Luna said, “Of course it did. I think Roz still had nightmares sometimes about it.”

  “And they saw her drown? Or did she sort of slip off to swim and went missing?”

  Luna said, “I’m not really sure. I don’t think all of them were around when it happened. Mom was fuzzy on the details and I’m fuzzy on repeating them.” She frowned. “Actually, I think maybe Felicity and Scott were around and the others were taking a walk or something. From what I remember, they tried to help the girl . . . it was a girl . . . but by the time they reached her, it was too late. But we’re talking about something that happened decades ago, Ann. It’s not like it was a recent tragedy or anything.”

  “Well, the paper would definitely have reported a story like that. It’s rare that something like that happens here. Most of the articles in the Whitby paper have to do with who’s become an Eagle Scout or whose vegetable garden has a prize-winning tomato.” I started rooting around in the papers.

  Luna said, “You won’t get too far with that. The paper wouldn’t have reported the names because they were minors at the time. They have a policy against doing that.”

  I stared at the stack of papers and said, “It doesn’t really sound like the type of story Wilson is looking for, anyway. He’s trying to find out if there were any scandals that would make the library embarrassed by naming a room after Grace. A tragedy when she was a teenager doesn’t fit the bill. And it sounds like she wasn’t even around at the time it happened, even if she was part of the group.”

  Wilson opened the door to the archive room then. He had a slightly panicked expression on his face, which eased slightly as soon as he spotted us. “There you are.”

  I bit my tongue to keep from replying that we were exactly where he’d asked us to be. And apparently Luna wasn’t feeling in a sassy mood either, because she also didn’t say anything.

  “Plans have changed,” said Wilson briskly. “You’re needed out front.”

  “What happened?” I asked. How did we go from overstaffed to understaffed in a matter of minutes?

  Wilson sighed. “The schedule was incorrect. I must have been interrupted in the middle of creating it. We’re not overstaffed at all; in fact, we could use a few extra people. Did you find anything out?”

  Luna said, “We didn’t have time to dig into the archives, but I remembered a tragedy that happened when Grace was a teenager.”

  “Did she cause the tragedy?” asked Wilson intently.

  Luna shook her head.

  “Did she indirectly
cause the tragedy?” he asked.

  Luna shook her head.

  “Then it’s nothing of concern. Case closed. And I’ll present the information I do have to the board at our next meeting.” Wilson trotted away.

  Luna left to take on the children’s section. I hesitated. There was something about this death that didn’t sit right with me. I took my phone out of my pocket and dialed Burton, hoping I wasn’t completely sending him on a tangent and wasting his time.

  “Hey there,” he said, sounding very much as if he was in the middle of something. “What’s up?”

  “Maybe nothing,” I said. “But I wanted to loop you in on a couple of things, in case you didn’t know.” I quickly told him first about Grace’s husband’s wealth.

  Burton said, “I appreciate it, but we’ve actually already found that information out. It doesn’t seem to tie into the case, though. If one of the others in the group had lost someone close to them from opioid addiction, we’d definitely have a motive. Right now, it just explains how Grace ended up with so much money.”

  I took a deep breath. “Got it. There’s something else, too. I don’t want to send you on a wild goose chase, though.”

  Burton chuckled. “Oh, I love me a wild goose chase. Go ahead and lay it on me. You never know if it might end up being something important. Besides, you’re not the kind of person who comes up with totally innocuous stuff. You’re a research librarian, after all.”

  “At any rate, I’m not sure if it means anything. So, when all of the group was in high school together, they cut school one day and took off for the lake.” I glanced at the door, expecting Wilson to come barreling through it at any moment to drag me off to the circulation desk.

  There was a pause on the other end. “Okay, I take it all back. This is totally innocuous stuff.”

  I laughed. “Sorry, there’s more. I was just distracted for a second, sorry. While they were there, a member of their party drowned.”

  Now I had Burton’s attention again. “Was it a suspicious death?”

  “Well, I was going to try to find out information from our newspaper archives, but Luna pointed out that the newspaper’s policy is to redact names if the people involved are under the age of eighteen, which apparently they all were at the time. I wondered if there was more to the story and if you could possibly check back in the police department records to see what you could find out.”

  Burton said, “Sure. I’m on it. You just never know.”

  I said, “I did want to follow up on one thing with you, if you’re able to tell me. Did you ask Grace if Scott was blackmailing her?”

  “I did. I didn’t mention your name, so no worries about that. She said Scott was being pushy about a loan. He said Grace owed him for introducing her to her late husband.”

  It sure hadn’t sounded that way to me, but I didn’t have any proof to the contrary.

  There was a voice in the background and then he said, “Got to run. Thanks for the call.” And he hung up.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Wilson was right about needing a few extra people. I didn’t end up taking my breaks, and my lunch “hour” was spent in the lounge eating as fast as I could shove the food down my throat before hurrying back out to the front desk.

  Things started easing a little at six, but I still had three hours left to go since I was locking up. The lack of sleep from the night before was definitely catching up with me and I couldn’t stop yawning. Considering the concerned looks the patrons were giving me, I had the feeling I had that lovely hollow-eyed look I got when I was totally exhausted. In some ways, the busyness of the day had helped me get through, but now that things were slowing down, tiredness was hitting me like a sledgehammer.

  Luna and her mom came by the desk to say goodbye as they were on their way out the door. Her mother was beaming because Wilson had complimented her on the breakfast casserole—a fact she confided to me with a happy smile.

  I said ruefully, “I didn’t even have a chance to sample it today. It would have been a waste for me to eat it at lunch because I didn’t even taste my sandwich, just shoved it down my throat as fast as I could so I could go right back out front again.”

  “I’m keeping it in there for tomorrow,” said Mona placidly. “It reheats really well. Just don’t even pack a lunch tomorrow: there’s plenty of casserole. Or bring a little bowl of fruit or something light to go along with it if you want.”

  I remembered that I still didn’t have a wide selection of food at my house. At the grocery store, I’d been more focused on getting dinner than replenishing the stock in my kitchen. But I wasn’t working late tomorrow, so I could run by the store on my way home if I came up with a grocery list now.

  After Mona and Luna left, the library became even quieter. Usually Linus was still there, reading up on something interesting in the nonfiction stacks, but he’d apparently gone home to play with Ivy. There were also usually a few patrons who liked to come to the library after work and answer emails and read magazines, but they weren’t there, either.

  I’d asked the staff to name some of their favorite books of all time for the Fitz’s Picks picture and so I spent about fifteen minutes pulling those off the shelves and arranging them on a table. Then I went looking for Fitz, who was proving surprisingly elusive.

  I finally found him in the children’s section with the same little boy I’d seen him with previously. This time I was determined not to startle him away. “Hi there,” I said with what I hoped was a warm smile. “I’m Ann. Looks like you and Fitz are really hitting it off.”

  The boy nodded shyly and kept his eyes focused on the cat, who was all curled up on his lap and purring contentedly. “We’re friends.”

  “That’s great. He’s my friend, too,” I said. I glanced around to see if the boy’s mom or dad were anywhere around, but they were nowhere in sight.

  The boy must have noticed I was looking around because he quickly said, “My grandmother is reading magazines in the grown-up section.”

  “That’s good. I’ve seen you here before, haven’t I? What’s your name?”

  He quietly said, “Tom. It’s really Thomas, but everybody calls me Tom.” He looked at me curiously. “Does Fitz stay here at the library all night? Even when everybody goes home?”

  I shook my head. “He did for a little while, but then I thought it would be better for him to come home with me at night.” I was going to say that Fitz was lonely at the library by himself, but I chose the more truthful answer. “I live alone and Fitz helps keep me company at night.”

  Tom nodded solemnly. “That’s good. It’s not good to be alone.”

  Since I didn’t know Tom, I asked, “I don’t think I’ve seen you at the library except for that one time. Are you new here in town?”

  He nodded again. “I moved here to live with my grandmother.” He paused. “It’s just that I don’t know anybody in Whitby at all.”

  “It can be hard to meet people, can’t it? Do you like it here at the library?”

  “It’s pretty cool,” he said diffidently. “I really like Fitz.”

  I said, “Do you remember the lady who works here? She left just a little while ago.”

  He tilted his head to one side. “The one with the purple and green hair?”

  “The very one. She has a whole bunch of programs for kids here at the library. Maybe I can give you and your grandma some information about them and you can choose one to try out. It could be a good way for you to make some friends. And lots of kids come to the programs because Luna makes them fun.”

  His large eyes lit up. “Lots of kids come?”

  “That’s right. And she does a lot of different things. One time she had the science museum from another town come by and they brought different kinds of snakes and insects for everybody to see.”

  Tom said slowly, “That would be good. At my school, everybody already has friends.”

  I felt a little twinge of hurt for him, remembering my own days of try
ing to make friends in a new school in a new town when I’d moved here to live with my great aunt. “Maybe you’ll see some of them here and have the chance to learn more about them. I bet a lot of those kids would like to have more friends. It’s not like there’s a limit to the number a person can have.”

  An older lady with a walker and a sweet smile came up to us and I introduced myself. “I mentioned to Tom that I could give you both a calendar with some of the upcoming programs for kids. Luna is our children’s librarian and she puts together some fantastic events.”

  Tom’s grandmother was interested and we chatted more for a few minutes before she and Tom left. Tom turned around and gave Fitz and me a wave before he left, which made me smile.

  I headed to the circulation desk and helped a few patrons with their books. Then my cell phone rang and I saw it was Burton. I glanced around to make sure no one was around and then answered it.

  “Hey,” he said briskly, “I did find some old records on that day. Good thing the chief at the time made sure his files were organized. From what I was able to learn, it looks like they were very suspicious about the drowning. The kid wasn’t too far from shore and it seemed like somebody should have at least had wet clothes in the group from trying to help out. But they couldn’t get any information from anybody there, so they had to let it go.”

  “Did they have a particular suspect in mind? Out of the group, I mean? Luna made it sound like some of the kids weren’t even in the area when it happened.”

  “Whatever Luna knows must have been hearsay because the cops weren’t able to get anything out of those kids. Yeah, there were paddleboats and things on the scene like some of them may have been out of earshot. But they were all very tight-lipped about whatever happened so the case had to be dropped after a while.”

  “Okay, thanks for checking into that. I know that probably didn’t have a lot to do with your investigation.”