Past Due for Murder

by Victoria Gilbert

  Richard expelled a gusty sigh and slumped onto the sofa, scaring away Loie, who darted under the coffee table. “Who told you about that?”

  “Well, not you.” I sat down as well, but immediately scooted to the opposite end of the sofa. “Adele Tourneau just called me. She assumed I’d know all about your meeting with Karla and wanted me to tell you that she’d heard something …”

  “Heard what?” Richard turned to me, his gray eyes blazing.

  He seemed so intent on learning the answer to this question. Almost like it mattered to him more than anything.

  Maybe more than me … I sucked in a sharp breath. I’d always taken Richard at his word and believed his assertions that he’d never entertained any romantic feelings for his former dance partner. But what if that had been another evasion on his part?

  I fixed my gaze on him, hoping his reactions would reveal the truth. “If you must know, Adele said she’d been told that Karla regretted her behavior at your meeting or something like that. Anyway, Adele thinks you should try to contact Karla again. There, you have her message.” I clutched my upper arms with both hands to still their trembling.

  “Did she really say that?” Richard’s focus shifted. He stared at the wall behind me as if its shelving held the Holy Grail.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted what had captured his attention—Loie was climbing up the shelves with her usual determination to conquer any tall object. “She did. Now”—I released my grip on my arms and snapped my fingers—“you’d better explain why this is the first time I’ve heard about this.”

  Richard’s gaze slid back to me. “It was extremely personal. I didn’t want to involve you, that’s all.”

  “Oh, is that right?” I sat up so I could stare straight in his eyes. “It was too personal to share with me? How interesting. I guess that tells me where I stand.”

  “Now look, sweetheart”—my heart lurched at the endearment as Richard lifted his hands in a conciliatory gesture—“don’t twist this into something it isn’t.”

  “I’m not doing anything of the kind. Last night on the phone I told you about meeting Charles at his house, and you seemed none too pleased. But I told you anyway. Because Sunny was right—it was the proper thing to do. Two people who are as close as we’re supposed to be shouldn’t keep important things from one another. But then I find out that you’ve been hiding a gigantic secret from me.” I swallowed back a sob. “Did you ever intend to tell me?”

  “No … yes … I don’t know.” Richard raked his hands through his dark hair. “It was all so sudden and unexpected. There was no calculation involved—I simply acted on impulse.”

  “You just happened to fall over Karla when you went home?”

  Richard lowered his head and stared at his hands. “No. On Friday morning I ran into a mutual friend from our old dance studio. He told me that Karla was in town for some family event of her own.”

  “Which sent you on a quest to try to track her down.”

  “Yes.” Richard lifted his head and met my furious gaze. “I honestly did run errands for the party. It’s just that I spent time trying to locate Karla as well.”

  “So you didn’t lie to me, you just didn’t share the entire truth. And also neglected to mention the real reason you didn’t stay in touch. Okay.” I swatted away the hand he’d attempted to place on my knee.

  “You have to understand …”

  “No, I don’t. The one thing I am not required to do is understand. At least not without more information.” I took a deep breath to silence my desire to shout. “Okay, so tell me what happened when you did meet up with Karla. From what Adele said, I assume it didn’t go well.”

  “It did not.” Richard stood and crossed to the shelves. He lifted Loie off one of the top shelves and gently placed her on the floor. “I tracked Karla to the bus station because, based on something our mutual friend had told me, I knew she’d taken a bus into town. And I’d also tracked down one of her cousins, who told me that their family event was over and that Karla had already snagged a taxi and headed to the station. I hoped I might find her there, but I didn’t spot her until after I talked with you that evening. I ran over to speak with her, but …”

  I leaned over to pet Loie, who’d sidled up to my foot. “I take it she wasn’t happy to see you.”

  When Richard turned to face me, I was shocked to see tears welling in his eyes. “She was almost as furious with me as you are now. I tried to talk to her, but she just shouted me down and strode away.” He absently wiped away the tear sliding down his cheek. “I didn’t follow. Not after what she said. Which was all true but still very hard to hear.”

  “Why would she be so angry?” As I rose to my feet, Loie scooted under the coffee table again. “It sounds like you believe she had some cause to be mad at you. But from what you’ve told me, you weren’t the reason she abandoned her dancing career. I thought she left because she couldn’t secure a position in any major company, despite her talent, just because she was so large-boned and tall.”

  “That’s true, but …” Richard stood quietly, his hands at his sides. He would’ve appeared relaxed if I hadn’t spied the anxiety in his eyes. “The truth is, there are aspects about Karla’s disappearance that don’t reflect well on me. When I told you that story early in our relationship, I didn’t share all the details.” His lips briefly curved into a sad smile. “I wanted to make a good impression on you and doubted that sharing those details would accomplish that goal.”

  I crossed to stand before him. “What do you mean?”

  “I didn’t tell you everything that happened the night before Karla fled the conservatory and disappeared from the dance world, and my life.” Richard closed his eyes for a second before continuing. “Karla and I had a fight that evening because I was angry with her for not wanting to celebrate with me. I’d just received a letter inviting me to join a prestigious dance company after graduation. I felt like celebrating and wanted my best friend to go out on the town with me. Oh, I knew she was suffering because she’d been rejected everywhere she’d auditioned, but I still thought she should be willing to put that aside and celebrate my success. I believed it was what true friends would do. I mean, why shouldn’t she be able to get over her own hurt to make me happy?” Richard stepped closer to me. “Anyway, it’s what I thought at the time—selfish, arrogant, self-centered jerk that I was.”

  We were standing toe-to-toe. I reached out and clasped his hands in mine. “And that’s why it’s always remained such a painful wound? And why you’ve wanted to find Karla so desperately after all these years—to apologize?”

  Not because he wanted her as more than a friend. You can put that foolish notion out of your head. He never lied to you about his true feelings for Karla, or for you. Anyone could see that from the way he’s looking at you now.

  “Yes.” Richard pulled me close. “Now I have to also apologize to you, sweetheart. I shouldn’t have kept all this from you, but I really thought …”

  I tilted my head so I could look up into his face. “That I would think less of you? Me, with all my faults?”

  Richard leaned in so he could whisper in my ear. “You don’t have that many faults.”

  “Not that many? So not none, it seems,” I said sternly, but smiled when he tipped my chin up with one finger.

  “Just enough to make you interesting.”

  “Hmmm, good recovery,” I murmured as his lips met mine.

  We didn’t speak for some time after that, until the chime of the grandfather clock in the hall brought me back to my senses.

  I jumped up, dislodging Loie, who’d snuggled on the cushions beside me when Richard and I had ended up back on the sofa. “My goodness, is that the time? I definitely have to go. My parents will be here any minute and I haven’t taken a shower or changed …”

  My words were cut off by Loie’s loud meow echoing the doorbell.

  Richard swiftly stood and crossed to my side. “My parents,” he sai
d, casting me a panicked glance.

  “No, no, they can’t see me like this.” I yanked on the hem of my tattered T-shirt with one hand and brushed my tangled hair behind my ears with the other. “I’m sneaking out the back.”

  “Good plan,” Richard said, confirming my suspicion that his parents wouldn’t approve of my current outfit, or the grime embedded under my fingernails.

  I dashed down the hall and into the kitchen as I heard him open the front door, then kept running—across the back porch and out into his backyard. Circling around the side of the house, I hid behind a forsythia bush until the two people on the porch walked inside the house.

  Expelling a loud sigh of relief, I made my way to Aunt Lydia’s front porch, stepping back when the door opened before I’d even laid my hand on the latch.

  “Hello, Amy,” said my mother, while my father looked me up and down from over her shoulder. “We wondered where you’d gone.”

  “Been gardening, it looks like,” my dad said.

  Aunt Lydia appeared beside him. “As you can see, your parents are here.” Her disapproving gaze swept over me. “I assume you’ll want a shower and change of clothes after all that … gardening.”

  “Um, yeah,” I said, offering my parents an apologetic smile. “In fact, maybe we’d better save the real welcomes for later. I’m kind of a mess.”

  “Don’t be silly,” my dad said, before wrapping me in a bear hug. “Good to see you again, baby girl.”

  “Same,” I said, breathing in the familiar scent of his aftershave. “And you too, Mom,” I added when Dad released me.

  “I’ll wait until after your shower,” my mom said, wrinkling her nose. But she gave me a grin. “Not that I smell like a flower after work sometimes.”

  Since she was a biologist whose expertise lay in the study of the Maryland blue crab, this was all too true. I followed my parents into the front hall, where Aunt Lydia had paused beside the side table.

  “Found your hat,” she said, handing it to me. “Now go shower and change. Dinner isn’t going to be anything fancy, but I’d rather not serve it cold.”

  I nodded and made it halfway up the stairs before Aunt Lydia’s following words stopped me in my tracks.

  “Oh, and by the way, Amy—I received a call right after yours. It seems Kurt Kendrick has invited us all to his home tomorrow night for a special dinner. Your parents think it a lovely idea.” She looked up at me, her blue eyes sparkling. “Especially since he’s also invited Richard and his parents. Anyway, I just thought you’d like to know.”

  I forced a smile and ran upstairs, where I allowed myself one scream in the shower before sending a text to Richard warning him of our impending doom.

  Chapter Thirteen

  I called Brad on Saturday morning to inform him of my discovery of the 1879 letter. He was intrigued but warned me that it wasn’t actual evidence.

  “Except I found it improperly stuffed in its protective sleeve,” I said. “Neither Sunny nor I would do such a thing, and I doubt the previous library director would have either. So it looks like someone may have discovered it more recently. Maybe Mona or one of her students?”

  “I’ll see what I can find out when I talk to the students again, but I doubt it’s connected to the Ramona Raymond case. Still, thanks for telling me. We need all the information we can get.” He cleared his throat. “By the way, you’ll hear about this on the news, but there’s a new wrinkle in the Lacey Jacobs case. Something that makes it somewhat more difficult to explain. And since we still can’t speak with the girl to clear it up … Well, I just wondered if you’d ever heard her mention knowing anyone in the area. Anyone she could’ve stayed with for a few days, I mean.”

  “Wait, I thought she went hiking and got lost and that was that.”

  “Apparently not. The doctors who first checked her over don’t think she exhibited signs of having been out in the wild since Friday evening. For one thing, her head injury seems to have occurred just a day or so before she was found.”

  “That’s easily explained. If she was lost and wandering aimlessly through the woods, she could’ve fallen at any time.”

  “Sure, but Friday to Thursday is over five days, and according to the experts, she didn’t appear dehydrated enough or some such thing. Anyway, I just wondered if you’d ever heard of any family or friend connections she had in Taylorsford.”

  “No, I never heard anything like that. I’d have thought if she knew someone, she’d have stayed with them while she was working on Mona’s project instead of doubling up with Hope Hodgson in a room at the local motel.”

  “Okay, just thought I’d ask. Any information helps, as you know.”

  As I prepared to say goodbye, a question rose in my mind. “By the way, Brad, when Lacey Jacobs was found, was she barefoot?”

  “What? No, no she wasn’t.” Brad expelled a gusty sigh. “And now that’s another mystery you’ve brought to my attention. Just when I thought I was getting a handle on things, I have to figure out whose footprint was at Mary Gardener’s house.”

  “Who indeed?” I said, adding in a lighthearted tone, “Maybe it was one of the fae. I can imagine them visiting Mary from time to time, can’t you?”

  “No, and please don’t spread that idea around. I have enough problems sorting fact from fiction these days.”

  I laughed. “I promise not to say a word, but I can’t vouch for Kurt Kendrick’s silence. Or Mary’s, for that matter.”

  Brad mumbled something about “blasted fairy tales” before wishing me a good day.

  After we hung up, I sat on my bed and unrolled a spool of ideas through my mind. Why had Mona been in the woods—to track down Delbert Frye, or look for Lacey, or to make sure the girl didn’t run off with a historical treasure? It was certainly possible that Mona had spied that letter along with one or more of her students, although it would’ve been odd for her to refile it improperly. But if she’d been sneaking a look, and someone had surprised her … I ran my fingers through my hair, untangling a knot that had formed while I’d tossed and turned overnight. Although I didn’t want to believe it, I couldn’t rule out Chris or Hope, or even Trish, as Mona’s killer. Or Ethan, who certainly knew how to handle a rifle and obviously often hiked or hunted in the mountains.

  Of course, it was also possible that Mona had decided to track down Delbert Frye and question him about his family history. If she had threatened to expose a scandalous family secret unless he spoke with her, I could certainly imagine a volatile hermit gunning her down. Or perhaps it had been some out-of-season hunter, who’d accidentally shot Mona as she’d attempted to locate Delbert’s house.

  I sighed, knowing I couldn’t solve any of those mysteries at the moment. I had offered to show my parents around town before we headed off to the dinner at Kurt Kendrick’s historic home.

  “We won’t be meeting Richard until this evening?” asked my mother, after we’d made a quick tour of the library.

  “No. He drove his parents over to Clarion University to show them around. You know, letting them see where he works.” I motioned toward the circulation desk. “Just like I am.”

  “Beautiful structure,” my dad said, his gaze lingering over the deeply set windows and hand-carved wooden trim of the 1919 Carnegie library building.

  “Yes, it is. A little limited in some areas, like electrical lines and outlets, but it is lovely.” I glanced up at the high ceilings. “This fall the town did shell out the money to fix the roof, so at least it no longer leaks. That’s certainly been an improvement.”

  Mom smiled and said hello to the volunteer manning the circulation desk. “Sunny isn’t here?”

  “She’s at lunch, unfortunately. But I told her to stop by the house tomorrow so she can visit with you guys. She said she would.”

  What she’d actually said was that she’d show up as long as Richard’s parents weren’t there. I’d told her I’d text when the coast was clear, which I expected would be the entire day. Somehow, I d
idn’t get the feeling that the Muirs would want to spend more than an evening in my company.

  “Call it a hunch,” I’d told Sunny when she’d questioned this belief. “Based on the fact that they refused Aunt Lydia’s offer to stop by for drinks last night. And not too politely either. It just seems to me like they want to spend as little time with me and my family as possible.”

  Sunny had absently spun one of her bangle bracelets around her wrist. “You’ve been warned that they aren’t the most congenial people on the planet. Richard’s former dance teacher made that pretty clear.”

  “Yep. Which just makes me anticipate the dinner at Kurt Kendrick’s house like a turkey anticipates Thanksgiving.”

  “Oh, you’ll do great. They’re sure to love you, and if they don’t,” Sunny had said, flipping her braid over her shoulder for emphasis, “Richard does, so that’s all that matters.”

  “Hadn’t we better head back to Lydia’s?” My mom asked, jolting me out of my reverie. “I know the dinner isn’t until seven o’clock but I’d like to kick back and relax before we have to go out again.”

  I agreed and ushered my parents back to the car. “I’m glad staying in the old family home doesn’t bother you now, Mom,” I said as I drove down Taylorsford’s main street.

  “Strangely, it really doesn’t make me anxious anymore.” Mom cast me a sidelong look out of her dark eyes. She and I resembled each other to the extent that I’d warned Richard he’d be able to see what I’d look like in the future. He’d gallantly replied that my mom must be beautiful then, which had earned him some serious brownie points. Not that I’d told him so. I was still a bit peeved with him over his reluctance to trust me with the truth about Karla, as well as his evasiveness over his efforts to find her.

  “Lydia believes it’s because the spirit of Grandma Rose has been laid to rest, but you know how I feel about such things.” Mom smoothed down her short cap of brown hair. Unlike Aunt Lydia, she hadn’t grayed much yet, although white wings streaked the hair above her ears.