Death in the Stacks

by Jenn McKinlay

  “It’s a meeting of a bunch of bitter women. How can it be dangerous?” Kili scoffed.

  “One of which might be a murderer,” Lindsey argued. “If they had no issue stabbing a friend, I really don’t see them hesitating to shank one of us.”

  “You’re being dramatic,” Kili said. She glanced at Robbie. “Come on, back me up.”

  “I think having a meeting in a public place, here at the library, for instance, would keep us all safe,” he said. “If we want to have a cover, we could invite the ex-husband and the sister and the library board as well.”

  “The police really have nothing on this yet?” Lindsey asked.

  “Emma’s playing it close, while waiting for the forensics. It’s only been a few days,” he said. “The medical examiner hasn’t given his full report yet.”

  With both Robbie and Kili staring at her, Lindsey felt the pressure building. She really didn’t want to do anything dumb. She never wanted to feel like she did the last time she faced off with a killer. But then again, she felt an obligation to Olive to figure out who did this, to Paula to help clear her name and to herself because she was pretty good at figuring these sorts of things out, and she didn’t want to quit doing what she knew was right just because she’d had a bad scare.

  “All right,” she said. “I’ll call everyone together to discuss the final plan for Olive’s memorial. All manipulation aside, I really do think a small garden with a bench will be a lovely way to remember her.”

  “Even if she was a miserable old cow,” Robbie said. Both women looked at him. “What? Just because she was murdered doesn’t mean she wasn’t an awful person. One could argue she wouldn’t have been murdered if she wasn’t so lousy.”

  “He has a point,” Kili said.

  “In any event, I’ll arrange the meeting and let you two know when it is. I’m hoping for tomorrow. Will that work for you both?”

  “I’ll make it work,” Kili said.

  “Same,” Robbie agreed.

  Lindsey turned back to her computer. She inserted a flash drive and downloaded the file of pictures onto it. She handed it to Robbie and said, “Give this to Emma. It’s pictures from the dinner. We didn’t see anything in them, but maybe she will.”

  “That should get you out of hot water with her,” he said. “At least a little bit.”

  “She doesn’t believe that I don’t know where Paula is, does she?”

  “Well . . . no,” he said.

  “I really don’t,” Lindsey said. “In fact, I’m pretty sure she didn’t tell me specifically to keep me from having to lie for her.”

  “That occurred to Emma, too, after a rather heated exchange between us over bagels this morning.”

  “I’m sorry, Robbie. I don’t want this situation to cause issues between you and Emma.”

  “Don’t you worry,” he said. “We like our relationship with a little fire in it. It keeps things hot.”

  “And, ew, on that note, I’m leaving,” Kili said.

  “What? Did I overshare?” he asked.

  “A touch,” she said. She jotted down a number on a sticky note on Lindsey’s desk. She tapped it with one red fingernail and said, “Text me.”

  Lindsey nodded. As the door shut behind her, Robbie looked at Lindsey and said, “I hope you know what you’re doing, trusting that viper.”

  She blew out a breath and said, “Me, too.”

  • • •

  The meeting to finalize the plans for Olive’s memorial was set for midafternoon the next day. Lindsey had pulled together some light refreshments from the local bakery and had the coffee maker going. As if it wasn’t enough to have the friends and the ex and the sister, she’d also invited the library board. She wanted this meeting to appear as legit as possible.

  Because she couldn’t find any reason for Robbie and Kili to be present at the meeting, she reserved the glassed-in conference room right next to the one where she was holding her meeting, knowing that it was easy to listen through the glass walls. Floor-to-ceiling shades covered the glass wall between the two rooms and would keep them from seeing or being seen. It was the best she could do.

  Robbie and Kili took their spots fifteen minutes before the meeting was to start. Lindsey tried not to be nervous, but as the library board filed in, she found that her palms were sweating even as her fingers were icy cold. That wasn’t normal, and she could only assume that it was panic, making her heart race and her throat dry.

  She poured herself a cup of hot coffee and took her seat at the head of the table with a blank pad and a ballpoint pen sitting in front of her. She forced herself not to doodle, even though she knew it would calm her down.

  Olive’s friends arrived next. LeAnn looked pinched and miserable, Amy looked mean and Kim defeated. It was as if they found comfort in their misery and were unable to shake it off. Lindsey had always thought it was Olive’s temperament that ruled the group, but now she wondered. With Olive gone, shouldn’t a new personality emerge?

  Then again, perhaps it was their grief over losing Olive that made them so miserable. Lindsey tried to picture that, she did, but it just wasn’t clicking. Not one of them had cried at Olive’s service. She believed her suspicions about Olive being manipulative were correct and that these women weren’t her friends so much as her hostages.

  When Kyle arrived, Lindsey saw LeAnn stiffen, but she didn’t say anything, for which Lindsey was relieved. Judging by the way Kyle chose to sit as far away from her as possible, Lindsey suspected he was hoping to avoid another scene like the one after Olive’s funeral as well.

  At the top of the hour, everyone was in attendance except for Olive’s half sister, Margaret. Although she had said she’d come, Lindsey wondered if she’d had a change of heart. The sisters had been estranged, after all, so maybe she didn’t feel right coming to the meeting.

  While the group talked in low murmurs amongst themselves, she glanced out the window toward the parking lot to see if Margaret had arrived. She saw several people come and go but not Margaret.

  “Are we ready to start?” LeAnn asked. “I do have other things to do today.”

  Longtime board member Lydia Wilcox glanced at her over the tops of her glasses. The look was frosty to say the least, and LeAnn squirmed in her chair.

  “Of course,” Lindsey said. “I was waiting on one more person, but—”

  The door banged open, and on a gust of air, Margaret Davidson hurried into the room. “Sorry I’m late. Traffic . . .”

  Everyone turned to look at her, and she ran a hand through her hair as if she could minimize the staring if she just straightened her part and tamed her wild curls.

  “It’s fine,” Lindsey said. “Please come in.”

  Margaret took one step into the room, and Amy erupted from her seat. Her fists were clenched at her sides, her mouth was clamped in a thin tight line and a deep furrow formed in between her brows. She was the picture of fury.

  “What are you doing here?” she snapped.

  Margaret recoiled. She waved at Lindsey and said, “I was asked to come.”

  “I did invite her,” Lindsey said. She noticed Amy was shaking. “I thought as Olive’s sister, she should have approval over what we finally decided.”

  “Approval?” Amy spat. “That’s a laugh. What? You didn’t steal enough from your sister before and now you want your sticky fingers all over her memorial, too?”

  Margaret put her hand to her throat and her eyes went wide. She blinked at Amy as if she had no idea what to make of her.

  “I don’t think this is the time—” Lindsey began and then paused.

  She glanced past Margaret and saw four eyeballs peering at her between the shades of the next room. Robbie and Kili. She waved her hand at them to tell them to go away, and when Amy glared at her, she swung her arm uselessly in the air in a tra-la-la sort of way that
was totally unfitting the present moment of tense hostility.

  “Are you kidding? This is the perfect time.” Amy took a step toward Margaret until she was looming over her. “Olive told us all about what you did, how you stole the family estate out from under her, after being away for years and letting her do all of the caregiving. You’re nothing more than a thief!”

  “That’s not true,” Margaret said. “I would have been happy to split everything with her, but she was so angry. She refused.”

  “Split it? Why should she have had to split it with you? You weren’t there to take care of anyone. You didn’t earn it, and then you just waltzed back to Connecticut to take your share and hers, too,” Amy cried. “You took the only thing that ever mattered to her. Then you abandoned her. You stuck her here with all the responsibility and just took off on your merry way. Do you have any idea how much you hurt her?”

  Margaret blinked rapidly as if trying to keep back the tears. Lindsey knew she needed to step in between the two women, but it was such a raw moment that she didn’t know what to say. This was the most emotion she’d seen out of Amy or any of Olive’s friends.

  “Amy, I don’t know that this is the appropriate time to get into personal family stuff,” Lindsey said. “I know you’ve lost a friend, but Margaret lost her sister.”

  “Ha!” Amy scoffed. Then she turned on Lindsey. “You’re just as bad as she is. You’re shielding Olive’s killer just because she works for you.”

  “There is no proof that Paula Turner—”

  “Blah, blah, blah, yes, she did, and everyone knows it,” Amy cut her off.

  She turned around and grabbed her purse from the floor.

  “None of you cared about Olive Boyle,” Amy continued. “Not one. This whole thing is a ridiculous farce to alleviate your guilt for not caring that she’s dead. If you want to go ahead and plan your memorial, be my guest, but you can count me out. I’ll buy my own memorial to her when I inherit my share.”

  She shoved past Margaret and stomped to the door. Then she spun around and stared Margaret down. “Despite what Olive did to the rest of us, what you did to her was even worse. You’re even more despicable than she was, and that’s saying something.”

  The door slammed shut behind her, and Lindsey glanced at the assembled group. “Um . . . perhaps . . . meeting adjourned.”

  23

  Everyone ignored her. They broke out into hushed whispers in their little groupings as they tried to decipher what Amy had meant when she said she would inherit. Inherit what?

  “Do you think she knows something that we don’t?” Kim asked LeAnn. “Maybe Olive left everything to us, her friends. I mean, who else does she have?”

  “Shush,” LeAnn said and jerked her head at Margaret.

  “Oh, right.” Kim lowered her voice but Lindsey was close enough to hear her. “But why would Amy think she was inheriting anything? She must know something. We should ask her.”

  “And say what?” LeAnn asked. “Hey, you sound like you’re expecting a big payout. Care to share what you know?”

  “Wait, if she knew she was going to inherit, wouldn’t that give Amy a reason to murder Olive?” Kim asked.

  “She couldn’t have; she was with us at the time Olive was murdered,” LeAnn said. “Remember?”

  “No, actually, I don’t,” Kim said. Her voice grew louder as she tried to puzzle it out. “I mean, I know I said she was with us, but can you really remember what happened that night? It was so chaotic. How long does it take to stab a person anyway? Seconds? She totally could have left us, stabbed Olive and gotten back to us before we even noticed she was gone.”

  “Ah,” Margaret gasped. Her cheeks were flushed, and she looked horrified. “How can you speak so casually about murder? The murder of my sister.”

  “Oh, puleeeze,” Kim said. Her voice was thick with mocking disdain. “Olive hated you, and it seems like it was mutual. Don’t pretend you care.”

  “I do—” Margaret began, but Kim turned her back on her.

  “Knowing how Olive had it in for the librarian and her lackey, anyone who was intent on murdering Olive only had to be at the library dinner to realize they could kill her and then pin it on them,” LeAnn said. “Genius.”

  When Lindsey looked at her as if she couldn’t be serious, LeAnn looked away and said, “In a totally psychopathic sort of way, of course.”

  There was a knock on the door, and Robbie and Kili came in.

  “Lindsey, we have a library emergency,” he said.

  Lindsey blinked.

  “Yeah, there’s, like, a book problem, a problem with a book, you know, something like that,” Kili said.

  “Sure,” Lindsey said. She glanced at the others in the room, “Excuse me.”

  Lindsey pushed the two of them into the corner of the room, where she could still hear what was happening.

  “Wow, just wow,” Robbie whispered. “That was a heck of a tirade, but it begs the bigger question of what could Amy possibly be inheriting from Olive and why?”

  Lindsey shrugged. She glanced over her shoulder at the board members who had yet to leave. They were sitting at the table as if entranced by the entire spectacle.

  “I need to know—were they very close, Olive and Amy?” Margaret asked LeAnn and Kim. Everyone turned to stare at her. “Sorry, I don’t suppose it’s my business, but that woman seemed very attached to my sister, so I was just wondering how close they were?”

  Kim and LeAnn regarded her suspiciously, and Kim said, “If Olive left anything to Amy or us, you can’t interfere with that.”

  “I would never,” Margaret protested.

  “Sure, you wouldn’t,” LeAnn sneered. “Just like you didn’t bilk Olive out of her inheritance.”

  Margaret pulled her coat around her more tightly as if it could ward off the ugly feelings she was receiving from LeAnn and Kim.

  “I didn’t steal her inheritance. There were legalities that I couldn’t work around. I tried to talk to Olive,” she insisted. Lindsey couldn’t help but notice that her voice lacked conviction. She wondered if the others heard it, too.

  “Amy was closer to Olive than we were,” Kim said. LeAnn gave her a look and she shrugged. “What? It’s true. They had a codependent, mother-daughter, let’s-pretend-we’re-the–Gilmore Girls vibe happening. Amy looked up to Olive, and Olive basked in the glow even though Amy could be pretty snarky when she felt like it.”

  “How long did they know each other?” Robbie asked, joining the conversation.

  “A few months, maybe half a year,” LeAnn said.

  “And Amy thinks Olive has left her an inheritance? Huh. Weird.” Kili snapped her fingers. “Unless they were lovers?”

  Kim and LeAnn exchanged a considering look, then LeAnn shook her head.

  “No,” Kim said. “Olive liked men. In fact, she had a big scheme to get her ex back.”

  “What?” Kyle choked on his coffee, and Lydia slapped him on the back so hard that he almost fell out of his seat.

  “Olive told us that she planned to get Kyle back and she would do whatever it took,” Kim continued. “She said that Molly didn’t stand a chance of keeping her man. She called her pathetic.”

  Lindsey thought of the lone picture of Kyle and Olive on their wedding day in her study.

  “That would certainly give someone a motive for murder, wouldn’t it?” LeAnn studied Kyle as if intrigued by him. “Say, maybe a wife who was intent on hanging on to her hubby?”

  “No, whatever you’re thinking, the answer is no,” Kyle said. “Molly would never harm Olive.”

  “You sure about that?” Kim asked.

  Lindsey thought about Molly’s delight in meeting Robbie. Yeah, she just couldn’t see her as the sort to crash a library fund-raiser and stab her husband’s ex-wife from twenty years before in the back. Then again, she had adm
itted to disliking Olive pretty intensely.

  “If they’ve only known each other a few months, where did Olive and Amy meet?” Lindsey asked, trying to keep the dialogue on track.

  “I’m glad you asked that,” Kili said. She had been flipping through her phone as if reviewing her notes from the case. “I made a timeline for everyone involved. Now none of us could find much backstory on Amy before she arrived in Briar Creek a few months ago—which is weird, but whatever—so she had to have met Olive here in town unless . . .”

  Robbie looked at her as if she couldn’t possibly mean to end her sentence there.

  “What? Don’t leave us in suspense! Out with it,” he insisted.

  “Well, the only time Olive left Connecticut recently was to go on an extended trip to Alaska about six months ago, right before Amy appeared in town,” Kili said.

  “Alaska?” Kim asked. “They met in Alaska? They never told us that.”

  “No, in fact, they never told us how they met at all,” LeAnn agreed. “I just assumed that they became friends when Amy moved to our street.”

  Kim and LeAnn exchanged a glance as if they were reconsidering everything they had ever known about Olive and Amy.

  “Did Amy ever talk about her past?” Lindsey asked. “Who her people were? Where she came from? Anything like that?”

  “No, she said she was leaving her painful past behind her,” LeAnn said. “She made it sound as if she was leaving an abusive situation behind. Honestly, I thought she was hiding out. I mean, her hair is clearly an over-the-top boring dye job, and her glasses are fake. I assumed she was trying not to be recognized.”

  “That’s right,” Robbie said. “I looked through her glasses once, they were worthless.”

  “She was very clear that she was starting over here,” Kim agreed. “She always sounded very optimistic about it.”

  “About the house,” Kili said. “I looked up the properties on the street—”

  “Thorough of you,” Lindsey said. “I’m impressed.”

  “Thank you, I try,” Kili said with a dash of sarcasm. “Olive owned the house Amy lived in.”