“What do you mean? Was she in a car accident or something?”
Luna shook her head. “We think someone murdered her.”
Now Tara backed away from us and sank abruptly into a chair. “No,” she said quietly.
“But think about it,” said Luna, walking toward her. “Now you’re free. She won’t be trying to force you to pay her anymore. You won’t have to avoid her or worry about it.”
Tara shook her head. “But look who’s the prime suspect, Luna.”
I said, “Tara, if Ellie was blackmailing you, there are probably others, too. Ellie was very good at lurking around, I noticed.”
Luna nodded solemnly. “I just thought she was super-nosy. So there are probably other people who wanted Ellie out of the way, too. Other suspects. Besides, don’t you have an alibi for Ellie’s death?”
“For when?” asked Tara. She brightened. “I’ve been here at the coffee shop all morning. I opened up today.”
I said, “What about last night?”
“Last night?”
I said, “We don’t really know when Ellie’s death happened.”
Tara looked relieved. “I was working a late shift last night, too. I’ve been trying to get as many hours in as possible lately since my rent was based on my income from when I worked at the hospital.”
“Good,” said Luna stoutly. “Well, you shouldn’t have anything to worry about then, should you?”
Tara looked thoughtful. “You know, Ann, when you said Ellie might be blackmailing other people too? I’ve just remembered something. She did know a secret about one guy because she mentioned it to me when we were still ‘friends.’ Frank Morrison.”
I raised my eyebrows. “The guy who does IT work for the library?”
“Right. He also runs by here daily for coffee, and the owner sometimes uses him to help with our internet connection. Anyway, Ellie was friends with Frank’s wife, Judith.”
“Real friends or potential blackmail victim?” asked Luna.
“Real friends. Ellie noticed a lot of bruises on Judith’s arms and neck and asked her about them. Ellie always did a good job of seeming concerned. Judith broke down and told her Frank was abusive.”
“That’s awful,” I said soberly. I didn’t fancy having Frank do work for the library if that was the kind of person he was. It was hearsay, but I made a mental note to speak to Wilson about it and run it by him.
Tara nodded. “I know. Ellie said Judith admitted she was drinking too much as a sort of coping mechanism. Then she died a couple of weeks later.”
“A suspicious death?” asked Luna, eyes narrowing.
“That’s what Ellie was saying. Judith apparently fell down the stairs and broke her neck. But maybe Frank pushed her. I bet Ellie was blackmailing Frank. She probably told him she’d tell the cops if he didn’t pay up.”
“The police weren’t already investigating her death?” I asked.
“Apparently, they thought it was an accident,” said Tara with a shrug. “According to a neighbor who’s a regular here, Judith had a lot of alcohol in her blood.”
“Well, I guess so if she was trying to deal with abuse!” said Luna indignantly.
The door to the coffee shop opened and a group of moms with toddlers came in. The toddlers went straight over to a low-hanging blackboard and started scribbling with the chalk there.
“We’d better let you run,” I said.
Tara gave us both a smile and a wave. “See you later!”
Luna and I headed out toward Luna’s car and a voice behind me said, “Ann Beckett?”
I turned around to see a guy in his early thirties with curly blond hair, the bluest of blue eyes, and an impish smile on his face. “Connor Rogers?” I asked with a laugh.
Luna looked at both of us and quirked an eyebrow.
“Well, look at you all grown up,” Connor laughed, giving me an enthusiastic hug before drawing back to look at me again. “Wow, it’s good to see you.”
“You, too.” I gave him a bemused smile, still sort of stunned by seeing an unexpected vision from my past.
“Perhaps an introduction is in order?” drawled Luna.
I cleared my throat and gave another little laugh. “Absolutely. Luna, this is Connor. Connor, Luna. Connor and I used to go to school together back in the day.”
“Which is possibly the driest introduction in the world, although technically true,” said Connor, blue eyes twinkling mischievously. “What Ann didn’t say is that we used to date on and off through high school.”
“High school was actually fun then?” asked Luna with a wide grin. “I really know someone who enjoyed their high school experience?”
I said, “Enjoy might be a stretch, but we did have fun. Football games on Friday nights, going to the movies, walking the trails. So are you back in town now, Connor?”
“Sure am. I was in Charlotte, but decided to move back to Whitby to be closer to my folks. I took a job over at the regional hospital.”
I said, “Oh, what do you do over there?”
“I’m in emergency medicine. A doctor,” said Connor with a shrug. He smiled at me again. “It’s really good to see you again, Ann. How about supper tonight?” He paused. “And bring your husband, of course.”
“No husband,” I said, flushing a little.
“Great!” Connor’s face brightened and I could see the two dimples I remembered from high school.
I hesitated. “The only thing is there’s something I have to do for work.”
Luna looked at me as if I were insane. “Work? We just got the day off, Ann.”
“What work do you do?” Connor asked.
“I’m a librarian,” I said, flushing again. It somehow didn’t sound quite as flashy as emergency room physician.
“I can totally see you doing that,” said Connor. “You always had your nose in a book and I was so intimidated because I’d be playing video games or something stupid and you’d have just finished some impossible James Joyce novel in a day.”
I snorted. “Definitely not in a day. And almost certainly not Joyce.”
Luna said, “Excuse me, Ann, but what library work are you referring to? Because I find it hard to believe Wilson tasked you with something under the circumstances. If he did, then I need to help you out with it because that’s totally unfair.”
“Oh, he asked for us to arrange to bring food to Pris on behalf of the library,” I said.
Luna said, “I’ll go with you to handle it. But seriously, that’s only going to take a few minutes and, by definition, the food probably needs to get to Pris before dinnertime so she doesn’t go through the bother of preparing something herself.”
I turned to Connor and said, “Supper would be amazing, then, thanks.”
“Great! Where’s a good place to go? I haven’t been here for ages and I’m sure there are lots more restaurants.”
Luna and I looked at each other and chuckled. “Actually, there are probably the same options we had when we were in high school.”
“So, Quittin’ Time it is?” asked Connor with a grin.
There was another option, but it was sort of a special occasion place and I didn’t want to give him the wrong impression. Quittin’ Time, with its fried food and meat and three veggie plates, was a lot more casual. “Perfect. How about if we meet at 6:30?”
“It’s a date. See you then!” and Connor, whistling to himself, walked into the coffee shop.
Chapter Six
“It’s a date, hmm?” asked Luna in a teasing voice as we got into her car. “Goodbye Grayson, hello Connor!”
I laughed and shook my head. “I don’t think that’s what Connor meant, Luna. You’re taking him very literally. We’re just two old friends catching up, that’s all.”
Luna waggled her eyebrows at me. “Two old friends who used to be an item. Well, Grayson is missing out, but that’s what happens when somebody takes too long to develop a relationship, right? What were you and Connor like together when you were dating?”
“That was like forever ago!”
Luna rolled her eyes as she drove down the tree-lined street to my house. “Right. Yeah, you’re so old now. Come on, that was just like fifteen years ago. You must have gotten some sort of impression from your time together.”
I thought back to high school, which was a kind of mesh of memories—math classes I dreaded, English classes I loved, evenings of hanging out with friends . . . and Connor. “He was fun. We had a good time together. He was always my date to stuff like Homecoming or the prom or when friends had get-togethers.”
“What made the two of you break up?” asked Luna curiously.
“Oh, I don’t know. Probably it had something to do with the fact we were seventeen or eighteen years old and weren’t exactly mature. We didn’t have the kind of relationship where we wanted to go to the same college or anything. Neither of us wanted to be tied down when we went off to school—we wanted to be free to meet new people.”
Luna said with a smirk, “Well he certainly seemed very interested in continuing where the two of you left off.”
“No way. I really think he’s just wanting to catch up and talk about the old days. I mean, he even asked if I wanted to bring my husband along. Maybe I’ll show up tonight and he’ll have his wife there with him.”
Luna snorted. “Right. Did you see how delighted he looked when you said you weren’t married? He looked like it was his birthday and Christmas all rolled into one. I don’t think there’s a wife anywhere on the scene. Do you realize how hard it is to find a good guy to date here in Whitby? I feel like I’m getting nowhere fast.”
Once again, I found myself biting my tongue. If Luna just opened her eyes to the possibilities around her, she’d realize Burton was carrying a torch for her. More than a torch—more like a flaming inferno. But I just grunted in response, thinking Luna really did need to figure it out for herself.
“Plus, he’s a doctor. That means he’s smart and he’s a hard worker. It’s very hard to find a smart, hardworking single guy here,” stressed Luna.
I nodded, mainly to keep Luna from continuing to sing this refrain. “Got it. You’re right. I didn’t say no to supper tonight, remember? I’m meeting up with him later and we’ll see how it goes. But I know from experience not to expect too much.” I was really ready to change the subject at this point. “Now, what should we do about Pris?”
“Pris?” Luna, deep in her thoughts about my nonexistent love life, sounded as if she’d never heard the name before.
“Ellie’s sister. We need to bring her supper in a few hours and you’ve got a doctor’s appointment. I don’t have a lot of stuff in my fridge.” My refrigerator, never really bursting with food, was especially barren right now.
Luna frowned. “Maybe today isn’t the best day to cook. Maybe we should just pick something up somewhere and put a nice note with it.”
“That might be the better idea. Unfortunately, I don’t really know anything about what Pris likes to eat. Is her daughter with her now? I know she goes back and forth between Pris and her dad.”
Luna pulled into my street and then my driveway and took out her phone. “There’s only one way to handle this. We should call her.”
I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. “Should we? She just found out about her sister’s death a little while ago.”
“There’s really no other way to figure out how many mouths we’re feeding, if there are food allergies, or when might be a good time to drop by the food,” said Luna with a shrug. “I’ll be tactful.”
Luna could sometimes be very direct, so I’ll admit I treated that statement with a bit of skepticism. But the ensuing phone call made me realize Luna could indeed be tactful and very sympathetic. When Luna hung up with Pris, she had all the pertinent information and had also passed along our condolences in a very kind manner.
“Okay,” she said. “We’re in business. Pris is by herself right now—her ex has her daughter right now. She is happy to eat anything apparently, has no food allergies, and seemed very grateful for the meal. She said five-thirty would work out great.”
“Perfect,” I said with relief. We made plans to pick up a fried chicken dinner with all the fixings from a local spot and then Luna left for home.
As I walked up the front walk, I saw the front curtains rustle and Fitz peered out curiously at me before blinking and giving me a contented look. I opened the door and he leapt off the end table to greet me, wrapping his tail around my legs and purring loudly.
“Hey there, sweetie,” I crooned to him. “Did you miss me? I guess you must have gotten some good naptime in, right?”
He certainly did seem alert and not at all sleepy. I pulled out his favorite toy; a fishing pole that had a fuzzy chicken attached to the end of it. I wasn’t sure what the manufacturer had been thinking of when they’d put the odd toy together, but Fitz loved it and scampered after the chicken as I made it bounce around the room with the fishing line.
After exercising Fitz, I realized I needed to exercise myself, too. I was about to head to the park for a fast walk when I hesitated. Maybe I should reach out to Grayson. He had a pretty flexible schedule as the newspaper editor, and a lot of his features were prepared in advance, from what I remembered. I took a deep breath and grabbed my phone before I could change my mind.
“The Whitby Times,” Grayson answered on the other end.
“Um, hi,” I said, and was instantly irritated at how vapid I frequently sounded when speaking with Grayson. “Due to unexpected circumstances, I have the day off. Obviously, I know you’re still working, but I wondered if you’d like to take that hike and have that picnic today instead of later on.”
“That would ordinarily be great, but right now I’ve got to write a story about your unexpected circumstances,” said Grayson.
Right. I somehow didn’t think about the fact that a murder in the library would change the trajectory of Grayson’s day about as much as it did mine—but with more work on his end.
“Got it. That makes total sense.”
Grayson said, “Maybe tomorrow? Are you free then?”
“Actually, I’m going to be working tomorrow and the next day. You know what, maybe I should just send you my work schedule so we can figure out when to make it work.”
“That sounds good,” he said. “Sorry about today.” But he already sounded a little distracted, as if his head were back in the article he was writing.
I hung up and looked at Fitz. “Okay, so I am going to the park, then.”
Fitz rolled on his back and gave me a lazy look as if suggesting I’d be much happier if I just curled up with him and took a nice nap on the sofa. Maybe he was right, but if I did that, I definitely wouldn’t feel like squeezing some exercise and a shower in before Luna and I went to Pris’s house. Then I remembered I had an unexpected dinner with Connor to ready myself for, and I probably should think about what I was going to wear. With this on my mind, I changed into workout clothes and headed to the park.
I had a slow jog, taking in the beauty of the park as I jogged around the small lake on one of the paths. The mountains were in the background, there were birds of different varieties at the feeders town volunteers had put out, and the trees provided shade from the heat as I went. There were a good number of moms with young children out at the playground not far from the trail and several folks walking their dogs. I kept an eye out for Linus, thinking maybe he’d take Ivy back out again since the library was closed, but I didn’t see him.
After the jog, I walked for a while to get my heart rate down, then headed back home to get showered and ready for the rest of the day. I fed Fitz, then Luna texted me to say she was waiting outside so I hurried out to join her.
“You’re looking rather pleased with yourself,” said Luna with a wink. “Is that because you have a date later?”
“More than that,” I said.
Luna’s eyes widened. “What? Do you have two dates?”
“No, no,” I said wit
h a laugh. “Forget the dating. I mean I actually motivated myself to go exercise this afternoon. I’m one of those people who absolutely hates exercising but feels incredibly smug after it’s all done.”
Luna looked gloomy. “Ah. You should have called me up. That’s exactly what I keep telling myself I’m going to be doing when I have free time. Instead, I end up goofing off.”
“I thought you were taking your mom to the doctor this afternoon.”
“Oh, I did. It just happened to be the quickest doctor appointment in the history of the world. Usually we have to sit in the waiting room for thirty minutes and then we end up waiting in the exam room for another twenty. Somehow, this time it was all going like a well-oiled machine. Anyway, I need to be exercising more. Maybe I’ll start taking my bike to work again.”
Ellie’s house was a two-story white house with black shutters and a wrap-around porch. She’d apparently had something of a green thumb because the yard was vibrant with perennials and flowering bushes. I remembered the house as it had been before she’d moved in and its yard had been remarkable only in its distinctly blah look. Clearly, she’d planned and executed it. It meant she and I had had something in common and I wondered if I’d tried a little harder if she and I would have gotten along better. Then I thought about the blackmailing and figured we wouldn’t have.
Pris answered the door looking pale and shaken. When she saw Luna and me, she broke into a tight smile.
“This is so sweet of you two,” she said. Her voice sounded crackly, like she’d been crying.
“We don’t want to make you visit,” I said quickly. “We just wanted to tell you how sorry we are. From the entire library.”
Pris smiled again, this time a slightly more natural one. She hesitated. “Do you have time? Not long, I mean. Just a few minutes? I feel like I want to talk this out with somebody and Ellie was all I had here.” Her voice broke at the end and she pulled a tissue out of her pocket to swab at her face.
“Of course we do,” said Luna warmly and I nodded in agreement.
Pris stepped aside, opening the door wide and Luna and I followed her in.
Hush-Hush Page 5
