“So the lights were off.”
She remembered being bothered by the lights being off. It should have been her first clue that something was off. “Yes.”
“You didn’t think it might be dangerous?”
“Rock Ridge Public Library? No. The thought never occurred to me.”
Even though there had been two, now three murders in town this year, Kate still felt safe here. That had been important when she’d chosen to have children and raise them in Rock Ridge. She wanted them to be safe.
“What did you do next?”
“I walked back to Meghan’s office. I called out once, but she didn’t answer,” Kate said.
“Then what?”
“I got to the door and saw her slumped on her desk. I checked for a pulse and then called you.”
“Did you notice anything unusual besides the body?”
“She had a letter opener sticking out of her neck, and a piece of paper was stuck on the opener.”
“Did you look at it? Did you touch it?”
“I didn’t touch anything but Meghan’s wrist,” Kate said.
“Anything you want to add? Any enemies you could think of?”
“No, not at all. As far as I knew, everyone liked her,” Kate said.
“Do you remember anything that happened earlier in the evening you want to add?”
That’s when Kate remembered that Meghan had argued with Celia. “Uh, at the wedding reception, she told me she had an argument with Celia Johnson.”
Kate felt bad for saying that, but she had to be honest. She couldn’t hold back from Scott.
Scott nodded. “Anything else? Anything you can think of, even if it seems insignificant?”
“Nothing else.”
She didn’t think the man staring at her had anything to do with Meghan’s death. He probably couldn’t have even gotten to the library that quickly.
Scott turned off the recorder. “This will be typed up, and I’ll need you to come back to sign it.”
“No problem. Can I go?”
“You want me to drive you home?”
She shook her head. As much as she didn’t want to be alone, she had to keep this man away. There was a strong possibility that in her current state she would do something stupid. “My car is back at the reception. I just need a ride to the Knights of Columbus Hall.”
“I can take you.”
He drove her to her car and followed her home. She waved at him from the porch, and then curled up in bed without undressing and tried to erase the memory of Meghan’s face from her mind.
***
Kate returned to the police station the next morning to sign her statement. On her way, her best friend, Carly, called. She was in hysterics.
“Carly, what’s wrong?”
“They’ve arrested my mother, Kate. They think she killed Meghan.”
Kate cringed, wondering if it was because she had said something about the argument the night before. She had to trust that Scott knew what he was doing. She was on her way to the station anyway. “Look, I have to go there anyway. I’ll see what I can find out. Get your mother a lawyer.”
“She’ll need a lawyer?”
“If they are charging her with murder, or at least questioning her, she needs a lawyer. Tell her not to talk to anyone until she gets one.”
“Oh, Kate. What will she do? She’s a tough bird, but not prison tough.”
Celia would probably tell the prison warden how to run his own place. And she’d be right. The woman could be a force of nature.
“Your father is there. She won’t get a raw deal.”
Carly’s father, Ken Johnson, was a detective for the Rock Ridge Police Department. Scott must’ve had some serious evidence to warrant bringing Celia in.
Kate parked her truck at the other end of the complex from the police department. She didn’t want to look at the library today. She just couldn’t.
Scott was in his office, of course. He wasn’t wearing the same suit. He must have gone home at some point. He looked fresher than she felt. Her eyes were gritty from lack of sleep. She’d showered, and she’d probably washed her hair more than once because she’d lost track. She’d pulled it back into a ponytail.
He stood when he saw her. “I have your statement here.”
He handed her a pen. “Go into the room and read it. If you’re okay with it, then sign it.”
She read it, signed it, and then brought it back to him. “I hear you’ve brought Celia in for questioning.”
Scott put up a hand. “Don’t get involved, Kate.”
“Carly called me on my way here. Could I at least see Celia so I can tell Carly that she’s okay?”
He frowned. “You don’t want to be in a relationship with me, but you certainly take advantage of our friendship when you want something.”
“I’m not asking for that much. I don’t have a file to pass to her.”
He shook his head. “She’s in lockup. You want me to take you there?”
“I think I can find it.”
Lockup was in the basement and a uniformed officer sat at a desk by the entrance. He waved her in. It seemed everyone in the police department knew her. She wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not.
Celia sat primly on the edge of the bunk bed in lockup. No one else occupied the cell with her. Whatever drunks had been arrested the night before were in the other cell. Kate didn’t glance in there. She didn’t want to know.
Celia didn’t stand. She just looked at Kate, her lips pressed together. Kate would bet that Celia had never been in jail in her life before.
“Hello, Celia.”
“Kate.”
“Did they tell you why you were arrested?”
“Besides the fact that I had an argument with Meghan last night?”
“What did you argue about?”
Celia sighed. “About my outstanding fines.”
“That doesn’t sound like a motive for killing a person.”
“I said that, too, Kate, but only Ken is listening to me. Scott wasn’t, so I’m in here now.”
“Do you have a lawyer?”
“He’s on his way,” Celia said.
Ken couldn’t investigate this case. Not as long as Celia was a suspect. Kate could not imagine the woman killing anyone. She could be a pain, but Kate couldn’t see her doing anything as violent as what had happened to Meghan. The killer had to have been very angry, much more so than Celia would have been over an argument.
Kate leaned against the bars. “Weren’t you at the reception?”
“No, I’d left. I was walking home. You know how I love to walk.”
Celia walked the town every morning before her part-time job as administrative assistant to the mayor. She was a retired nurse and had spent a few years home before being hired by the municipality a few months ago.
“So you were out walking when they think it happened? Surely someone must have seen you.”
“They haven’t found anyone, and as far as I know, no one was out.”
“I walked to the library and there were a few people out and about. It was still light enough for a walk after dinner,” Kate said. “So all they have is that you had an argument with Meghan?”
“Well, there’s more.”
“Oh?”
“The letter opener used to kill her was mine.”
“Yours? How did it get in the library?”
“I don’t know. I lost it at a meeting a week or two ago. I’m not sure.”
“Only your prints were on it?”
“Sadly, yes. I don’t know where it was during that time, but I didn’t have it.” Celia rose. She walked toward Kate. “Please help me, Kate. You seem to be good at these things. Find the murderer.”
Kate was going to try anyway. That person had snuffed out the life of her friend, and Kate couldn’t sit by and let that person go free. “I will, Celia.”
Kate mulled over the letter opener as the murder weapon. It appeared that t
he person targeted Celia. “Other than Meghan, have you had a fight with anyone lately?”
“The only run-in I’ve had was with the new mayor’s wife.”
Kate groaned. She’d been hearing things about the woman. Kendall Stuart was new money and thought she was better than everyone else was. Kate suspected that the woman had come from nothing and was just a snob now that she’d married well. Mayor Harvey Stuart, her husband, was elected to fill the position after his brother was killed by a local news reporter. He wasn’t quite the politician that his brother was, but he wasn’t doing any harm at this point.
Kate suspected that he wouldn’t get elected again. His wife would be the biggest reason. The woman wore tight leopard-skin jumpsuits that Kate didn’t even know they still made. She wasn’t your typical politician’s wife. She was loud and told people what to do.
“What was it about?”
“Nothing that huge. I just told her she couldn’t barge in while Harvey was on the phone. That was by his request. His wife included. He had business to attend to and she just walked in on those impossibly-high heels.”
Kate knew the ones. To her they defied gravity—or Kendall did. She hadn’t had a chance to meet the woman, but she suspected it wouldn’t be long before she did. At some point, everyone needed a handyman.
“She’s the only person you argued with?”
“Other than that biker dude that’s been hanging out on Main Street.”
Kate instantly thought of the suspicious man at the café who had been watching her. “Why him?”
“His motorcycle veered a little close to me on my walk one day. I’ve healed finally from the last time I was hit. I don’t want it to happen again.”
“I understand. Did he threaten you?”
“No, he just leered at me.”
Kate doubted the man leered at a woman old enough to be his mother. A sneer was more likely, but Celia had probably been upset at the time.
“Okay.”
“You’ll snoop?”
“I’ll do my best. And I’ll let Carly know that you’re okay.”
“Not that she’ll come and see me.”
It was a contentious relationship between mother and daughter. Kate never enjoyed being in the middle of their squabbling. “I’ll see you later, Celia.”
Chapter Two
Kate left Celia and drove to Carly’s florist. Her friend was probably just opening the store. She parked her truck and climbed out. The bell above the door rang and Kate’s nose was hugged with the scent of vanilla coffee and fresh flowers.
Carly always had great coffee on hand. Kate didn’t stop by every day, but when she did she would indulge. Carly handed her a mug and Kate breathed in the aroma. “Yum.”
“Did you see my mother?”
Kate shifted onto a stool. She only had a few minutes, but she was going to enjoy this coffee. “Yes. She’s fine.”
“Are you going to snoop like you usually do?”
“Celia asked me the same thing. Yes. I’ll look into it, but I do have a job that I have to do.”
“I’ve seen your truck everywhere lately,” Carly said. She was counting money as they talked.
“I have been busy. It’s great. I actually have some disposable income.”
“Where are you off to today?”
“Jessica’s house.”
“Isn’t she on her honeymoon?” Carly asked. She put her money in her register, and then closed the drawer.
“Not yet. They’re doing a weekend away. Dean is busy with projects. He told me that they’ll take a real honeymoon later in the year,” Kate said.
“What are you doing at her house?”
“Staging it for sale. It’s my new line of work besides fixing things. I seem to have a knack.”
“Is it something you just picked up?’
“No, I read a few books. The real estate agents are clamoring for me now. I staged a living room as a test and they were happy with it. The house sold the next day,” Kate said.
“And you barely decorated your house.”
Kate laughed. She didn’t have throw pillows or any accents like that in her own house. “Thankfully, none of the agents asked to see my place before they hired me.”
“Good thing.”
“I don’t spend much time at home anyway.”
“Nope. I guess you don’t. As a business owner, I understand that.”
“Have you met Kendall Stuart?”
Carly rolled her eyes. She liked most people, so if she had a problem with someone, the issue was most likely with that someone. “She came in here demanding a flower that I’d never heard of.”
“A flower that you’ve never heard of? I can’t believe it.”
Carly hadn’t gone to college. Instead she’d worked for the flower shop’s previous owner. The woman had taught her everything, and when she retired, she sold the place to Carly. Carly then renamed it, but not much had changed except that the flowers were of a little higher quality than they had been. Not that Kate could tell. She didn’t know a begonia from a buttercup.
But those who did know about such things raved about the flowers.
“Turns out, she was calling it by the wrong name. She showed me a picture and I told her what it was really called. She left in a huff. Came back and asked to speak to the manager.”
“Bet she wasn’t happy when you told her that you were the manager and the owner.”
Carly laughed. “On the bright side, I do have a standing order from her husband for flowers to be delivered.”
“Where are they living?”
“They’re renting a house over on Kent Street.”
Not a ritzy neighborhood, but not the wrong side of the tracks either. “I would have expected somewhere fancier than that.”
“From what I heard, there was nothing available on short notice.”
“Why did Harvey run for mayor if he didn’t even live here? And why did town council appoint him?”
Carly shrugged. “Who knows? He won’t get elected again. Not with that wife.”
“You’re not the first person to say that.”
“Why did you ask about Kendall?”
“I had asked your mother if she’d had run-ins with anyone else besides Meghan. She said Kendall.”
“Why would you ask that?”
“Because someone framed your mother.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.” Carly hugged her. “I forgot that you and Meghan were friends.”
That came out of the blue. “Thanks.”
“You doing okay? Here I am worried about myself and you’re grieving.”
“Our friendship was just starting. I’ll be okay.”
“Okay, so you think someone framed my mother?”
“Yes, the murder weapon was hers.”
“Not that letter opener that she’d been complaining she’d lost?”
“You’ve talked to your mother recently?” Kate said.
Carly seemed to avoid her mother as much as possible. “Mom and Dad had Larry and me over for dinner.”
“You’re that serious?”
“It isn’t like they don’t know him.”
“Yes, but now your father is looking at him as a potential son-in-law. That’s a whole new ballgame. How did it go?’
Larry’s father is in jail for murder. Ken is a cop. That couldn’t have been a good combination.
“My dad was a little stern at first, but I did point out that Larry had nothing to do with what his father had done.”
“And of course he gave in because you have him wrapped around your little finger,” Kate said.
Carly laughed. She knew it was true. Everyone knew it was true. It was probably why Carly and her mother didn’t get along. It was sad, really. Kate’s mother had died when she was young. She missed her every day. Her father had moved to Florida last year.
Kate was without family since her boys were away. She couldn’t imagine being emotionally estranged from them. Her thoughts drifted to G
reg. She might be emotionally estranged from him at this point. He’d been gone more than five years. How was she supposed to hold on to the love she had once had for him when each time she learned something about him, it didn’t match the man she had married?
“You and Larry are doing well?”
“Yes, we are. He’s the kindest man I’ve ever dated.”
Larry had had a thing for Kate, but she’d made it clear that nothing was going to happen until she knew where her husband was. She’d nudged him in Carly’s direction knowing that he was a good man, and she hadn’t had too many of those.
“I’m happy for you.”
“You seem sad when you say that, Kate.”
“I am. I just wish that part of my life was a little more settled.” It was true, though there was nothing she could to about it right now. “I better go before I get melancholy.”
Kate finished her coffee and scooted off the stool. Carly hugged her again. “Thanks for letting me know that my mother was okay.”
“No problem, and I’ll let you know if I find out anything else.” Kate walked to the door. “Do you know what time your mother left the reception last night?”
Carly looked to the ceiling for a moment. “I think it was eight or so. Not too long after you snuck out.”
“Thanks.”
“Why?”
“Because I want to see if anyone saw her when she walked home. Maybe she has an alibi and just isn’t aware of it.”
“Oh, makes sense.”
Carly was putting together an arrangement when Kate left. She’d have to order some flowers when Meghan’s next of kin made the funeral arrangements. As far as Kate knew, the only relative she had was her brother, Clem. He had been Dean’s foreman on his last project. They had renovated an office building outside of town.
Kate would offer her condolences, but she had no idea where the man lived.
***
Kate parked her truck on the street in front of Jessica’s house. The largest SUV Kate had ever seen was parked in the driveway. It wasn’t Jessica’s car. As flashy as hers was, this dwarfed it in both size and gaudiness. The hubcaps looked to be gold. Gold? Kate didn’t know enough about cars to know if that was even an option.
Jessica stood on her stoop, and based on her body language, she wasn’t happy with the person in front of her. Not having seen Kendall Stuart up close, Kate couldn’t be sure, but she’d bet that was who was standing there.
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