Read It and Weep (A Library Lover's Mystery)

by Jenn McKinlay

  “Agreed!” Charlene interrupted. “And if I were you, I’d leave before the rest of us trip over you as well.”

  She stomped her foot on the ground right in front of his toes, and Harvey scampered away from her.

  “You can’t intimidate me!” he cried right before he fled from the room, with the tail of his suit coat flapping behind him.

  “What a baboon!” Mary Murphy cried, looking like she’d like to take her paper scissors to Harvey’s unfortunate mustache.

  “Now, don’t be insulting our primate brethren,” Beth said. “I think he’s quite a bit lower on the food chain than them.”

  “You’re right, what was I thinking?” Mary said. “Charlene, are you all right?”

  “I’m fine,” she said.

  “Didn’t we just have that conversation?” Robbie asked with a smile. “It’s okay not to be fine, you know.”

  Charlene heaved a sigh and leaned against him as he wrapped an arm around her.

  “You’re right,” she said. “I’m not fine. What the heck is my father thinking, turning Harvey loose on Mom like that?”

  “Maybe you should ask him,” Lindsey suggested.

  “I would,” Charlene said. “But I’ve never actually met him.”

  “Oh,” Lindsey said. She felt like an idiot, but in her usual generous way, Charlene smiled at her friend and shook her head.

  “No, don’t feel bad, you couldn’t have known,” Charlene said.

  “Still, I feel like a dork,” Lindsey said. “I just can’t imagine having a daughter as fabulous as you and never knowing you. It’s tragic—for him.”

  “Thank you,” Charlene said. “But I don’t suppose you miss what you’ve never had.”

  “Well, then he’s an even bigger moron than we supposed,” Beth said.

  “Isn’t he like one of the richest men in the world?” Mary asked.

  “I don’t know,” Charlene said. “I don’t pay any attention to him.”

  “Well, I do,” Robbie said. “The bastard is one of the top ten most disgustingly wealthy people in the world—if you count wealth only in a dollar sum. If, however, you count it by having a daughter who is as intelligent as she is beautiful, who has gorgeous children of her own and is one of the most respected news anchors in the country, well, then sadly, he is the poorest bugger I know because he never claimed such a prize as his own.”

  Charlene beamed at Robbie and hugged him tight. “And that is why I love you. You’ve always been the big brother I never had. I bet that’s better than a father. Honestly, I think I traded up.”

  Robbie planted a kiss on Charlene’s head. “It was a lucky day for me when your mum came to be a guest teacher at my acting school. You girls are my family.”

  Lindsey glanced at Mary and Beth. They looked as choked up as she felt, and she wondered if they should leave Robbie and Charlene alone to catch up.

  Beth must have been thinking the same thing, because she half rose out of her seat and said, “I’ll just go check on Violet.”

  “Me, too,” Mary said.

  “Me, three,” Lindsey agreed.

  “Was it something I said?” Robbie asked, and gave them his charmingly dimpled smile.

  The three of them glanced at one another.

  “We just thought you two might want to talk,” Lindsey said.

  “No, we’re good.” Charlene let go of Robbie and sat back down. She gestured for him to do the same. “Have something to eat.”

  “Don’t mind if I do,” he said, and tucked into the crab salad with gusto.

  “Will Violet be okay?” Beth asked.

  “Oh yeah,” Charlene said. She grinned at Robbie. “She’ll be fine. It’s not the first time my dad has popped up in her life.”

  “So, he has tried to make contact with you?” Mary asked.

  “Only after my career was on the rise,” Charlene said. “I happened to take my first newscaster job at a station that he owned. I was there for a year before he figured it out, and that was only because I won an award for investigative journalism. When I got word that he wanted to set up a meeting with me, I quickly took another job at a station in another city, one that he didn’t own. I haven’t worked for any of his stations since.”

  “I’m trying not to be nosy,” Mary said. “And I’m failing miserably. So I have to ask: Weren’t you curious to meet him?”

  “When I was younger, sure,” Charlene said. “But by the time I finished college, I was so over it. You see, when Mom got pregnant with me, my father told her that his life plan did not include parenting. She was heartbroken, but she didn’t want to tie him to a life he didn’t want, so she chose to have me on her own. My mother is a remarkable woman.”

  “Here, here,” Robbie agreed, causing them all to laugh.

  “So, why do you suppose your father sent that toad here?” Lindsey asked. “It seems he must have an ulterior motive.”

  “I have no idea,” Charlene said. “It could be that he doesn’t know Harvey is reviewing Mom’s show. There is some history there as well.”

  Mary, Lindsey and Beth gave her a horrified look.

  “No, not that kind of history,” Charlene said.

  Robbie choked down a bite of salad. “Ugh, please, just the thought of Violet in a relationship with that wart puts me off my food.”

  “No, theirs is an old grudge from their Broadway days, which includes you as well, Robbie,” Charlene said.

  “Yes, Harvey has hated both Charlene and I since he trashed our show and then we both went on to win Tony Awards for it,” he said. “It’s as if he took it personally that we were good and he was wrong about the show. And they say actors are narcissists; I’d say critics are far worse.”

  “So you don’t think your father sent Harvey?” Beth asked.

  “I don’t know. He’s pretty high up to be concerned with what his minions are doing. Then again . . .”

  “It does seem odd, doesn’t it?” Lindsey asked.

  “I’m going to check on my mom,” Charlene said. “Come with me, Robbie?”

  “Of course,” he said. He polished off his food and gave the crafternooners a charming half bow. “The pleasure was mine, ladies.”

  Lindsey had to squash the urge to stand up and curtsey in return.

  Mary, Beth and Lindsey watched as they left and then emitted a collective sigh of appreciation for the handsome and debonair Robbie Vine.

  “I am so helping on that play,” Mary said.

  “I’m auditioning,” Beth said.

  “Count me in,” Lindsey said. “Not for auditioning but anything else. If this Wargus fellow is as nasty as he seems, I have a feeling Violet is going to need all of us.”

  3

  “Read it again, hon,” Violet directed from in front of the stage. “And this time try it with a little less emotion.”

  Lindsey glanced up from where she and Nancy were meeting with the other people who had agreed to work backstage for the Briar Creek Community Theater’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Nancy was in charge, mostly because she could bribe people as needed with cookies.

  Beth was on stage with Robbie Vine, and she was reading for the part of one of the faeries. She had really sunk her teeth into the part, and Robbie had his lips pressed together as if trying not to show his amusement.

  “I think Beth might be better suited to finger plays,” Nancy said fretfully.

  “I think she’s nervous because she is on stage with Robbie Vine,” Lindsey said.

  “Hmm,” Nancy said. “Maybe you should go where she can see you and it will calm her down.”

  “On it,” Lindsey said.

  She went down the narrow aisle toward the stage. The seats up front were empty, so she moved into one where she knew Beth could see her.

  “From the top,” Violet instr
ucted.

  Lindsey watched as Beth clutched the pages in her hand and nodded at Violet. Beth then glanced out at the audience and saw Lindsey, who gave her a thumbs-up signal. Beth gave her a small smile and then stiffened her spine. When Lindsey glanced back at the stage, she saw that Robbie was watching her.

  She met his green gaze and then he gave her a slow wink that she had no doubt was meant to charm her. It probably would have worked if her heart wasn’t completely out at sea with a handsome boat captain.

  She didn’t want to encourage Robbie so she gave him her best aloof look and turned her attention back to Beth. She heard Robbie chuckle in response but she didn’t look at him to see if he was laughing at her or not.

  Beth and Robbie read their scene; this time Beth reined in her overacting and nailed the part. Lindsey clapped when they were finished, and Beth flushed with pleasure.

  As Lindsey walked up the aisle to return to the back of the theater, where the different crews were meeting, she was stopped by a diminutive woman with a curvy figure, which was accentuated by tight, low-cut clothes. She had a head of fiery red hair, a heavy hand with the eyeliner, and a very mean look on her face.

  “Excuse me,” Lindsey said as she turned sideways to navigate her way around the bombshell.

  “Sure,” the woman said. Instead, she moved in front of Lindsey, blocking her. “But here’s a word to the wise: stay away from Robbie Vine.”

  Lindsey frowned. She was quite certain she didn’t like the woman’s tone. It had an underlying threat in it, which she found more than a little off-putting.

  “I’m sorry?” she asked, thinking she must have misheard.

  “He collects women like other boys collect trading cards,” the woman said. “You may have caught his eye for the moment, but that’s all it will be, a moment.”

  Lindsey opened her mouth to respond, but a voice from behind her spoke first. “Your claws are out again, Kitty.”

  Lindsey whipped around to find Robbie standing behind her. She felt her cheeks heat at the thought that he might have heard this woman speaking and think that she had any interest in him, which she didn’t. She’d had her fill of difficult men for the time being and certainly had no intention of adding an actor to the short list of men who’d left her boggled and bewildered. No, she would much rather be single than be stepped on again, thank you very much.

  “I’m just protecting what is mine,” the woman said. She tossed her long, red hair over her shoulder and looked at him from beneath long, dark lashes.

  “I haven’t been yours for a very long time,” Robbie said. “Our marriage has been over longer than it lasted.”

  His voice sounded weary, and Lindsey felt trapped in the middle of their uncomfortable conversation.

  “And yet we’re still not divorced,” Kitty said.

  Okay, now they were getting awkwardly personal. Lindsey started looking for an escape hatch or an ejector seat.

  “Lindsey! There you are.”

  She glanced over Kitty’s head to see Sully walking down the aisle toward her. Her heart gave a lurch at the sight of him. With his brawny sailor’s build and thick head of mahogany curls, he was just as handsome as Lindsey remembered.

  He stopped a few feet from their group and held out his hand to her. “Come on, Nancy is looking for you.”

  Lindsey didn’t take his hand but she did latch onto the excuse to leave the awkward conversation.

  “Excuse me,” she said and stepped forward, forcing the woman to move aside. Lindsey moved around Sully as well, ignoring the way her arm tingled as she brushed past him.

  “Until later, my dear,” Robbie called after her.

  Lindsey felt Sully’s scrutiny as he fell into step beside her. She didn’t turn to look at him; in fact, she studiously ignored him. What she did was none of his business, a fact that he’d made perfectly clear when he dumped her a few months earlier.

  “So,” he said. He was fishing, but Lindsey was not falling for it.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked. She knew she sounded rude, but she could live with that.

  “Oh, Nancy didn’t tell you?” he asked. He looked amused. Lindsey was not.

  “Tell me what?”

  “I’m working on the set design crew,” he said.

  Lindsey stopped walking and turned to face him. “You’re joking.”

  “Nope,” he said. “Nancy said they had plenty of artsy types but that they were lacking muscle, so Ian and I agreed to help.”

  “You’ve never worked on the plays before, have you?”

  “Nope, I’m a newbie,” he said. His blue eyes studied her as if trying to gauge her reaction. “She made us butterscotch bars.”

  “So, you were bribed with cookies?” Lindsey asked. She tried not to smile and failed. She tipped her head down so he wouldn’t see her amusement.

  “You could say that,” Sully admitted. “And I heard there was going to be this really pretty girl working on the costumes, so I figured since I’m single . . .”

  Lindsey’s smile vanished. Who was working on costumes? She glanced over at the table with a narrowed gaze. The only other woman under the age of fifty working on wardrobe with her was Mary, who was not only Sully’s sister but also Ian’s wife. So it couldn’t be her. Then it hit her that Sully might be talking about her.

  She turned back to face him, trying to figure it out. He had a small smile playing on his lips and he gave her a small nod. She felt her eyes widen in surprise. He did mean her!

  “I have to go check back in,” she muttered and hurried over to her seat.

  “How did it go?” Nancy asked as she slipped into her chair.

  Lindsey blinked at her.

  “With Beth?” Nancy asked. “Did she give a better reading with you there?”

  “Oh . . . uh . . . yeah, it was great,” Lindsey said.

  Sully took the seat across the table from her, and Lindsey tried to pretend she didn’t notice him. It was like trying to ignore an electromagnetic field. She could almost feel her hair standing on end due to his close proximity.

  She shook her head, trying to shake off the feeling. She and Sully had run into each other a few times since they’d broken up—or more accurately, since he had broken up with her—and they’d always been very polite and courteous. Of course, they also hadn’t lingered to talk to one another for very long.

  She usually made sure to stay in motion when he came into the library so that she didn’t have to do more than give him a cheery see-I’m-fine-since-you-dumped-me smile. Working with him on the play, however, was going to make it a little more difficult to avoid him, but she would just make sure she stayed busy.

  “For the sets and the costumes, I want to go with a very pastoral look,” Nancy said. “I talked to Violet, and together we sketched out a few of her ideas for the set and the costumes. Given that she has already blocked out the actors’ movements, we need to make her vision work.”

  Nancy put several sketches on the table and turned them so that everyone could see. The sets looked to be convertible: when the scene changed from ancient Athens to a forest, the same structure would be there but the backdrop and smaller set pieces would change.

  The forest set was definitely pastoral with loads of hanging vines and staircases that looked as if they were made of stone, while the costumes were mostly made of earth-tone fabrics with garlands of vines for the men and garlands of flowers for the women worked into the clothes.

  “Impressive,” Mary said. She turned and looked at her husband. “What do you think? Can you manage that?”

  “Of course I can,” Ian said. He gestured between him and Sully. “With our brawn and your girls’ sense of aesthetic, we’ll build the best sets and costumes this theater has ever seen.”

  Lindsey couldn’t help but grin at his confidence.

  “Exact
ly,” Nancy said. She looked delighted with her crew, and Lindsey noticed that she was glancing between Lindsey and Sully with a wicked twinkle in her eye.

  She might have known. Butterscotch bars, her foot. Nancy was matchmaking and not even trying to be a little subtle about it. She glanced around the table and noted that Mary and Ian were looking pretty delighted as well. Great, it was a conspiracy.

  She decided the best offense was going to have to be a solid defense.

  “Fabulous,” she said. “Since it’s brawn versus aesthetics, how about we split up? Wardrobe can meet in one room while the set builders meet in another.”

  Lindsey glanced around the table to see Mary’s, Ian’s and Nancy’s faces fall, while Sully gave her a blinding grin. It was as if he knew exactly what she was doing and he was amused by it.

  “Whatever works for you,” he said.

  4

  Lindsey met Sully’s glance and felt her insides go all fluttery. How did he do that with just a look?

  “Oh, wow, is that the lemon?” Mary asked.

  She was looking at the stage, and Lindsey dragged her gaze away to see Ms. Cole, one of her more dour employees, on stage. She had the script clutched in her hand and was standing with Milton Duffy, who was also reading for a part.

  “I think they are reading for the parts of Oberon and Titania, the faerie king and queen,” Ian said. “I could see Milton carrying it off with his Sean Connery good looks, but the lemon?”

  Lindsey got an uncomfortable feeling in her belly. Ms. Cole, nicknamed “the lemon” by Beth because of her sour disposition, was an old-school librarian who believed in shushing and the prompt payment of fines.

  Lindsey was pretty sure Ms. Cole would be delighted to use thumbscrews in order to encourage their patrons to pay their fines if Lindsey would only let her. As crazy as Ms. Cole made her, however, Lindsey really didn’t want to see the woman humiliate herself. Lindsey had never been one to take joy in the misery of others.

  She had never thought of Ms. Cole as a theater type, but then again, Ms. Cole kept to herself. Who knew what went on under her monochromatic clothing? Each day, she dressed in a variety of shades of one color. Today it was head-to-toe blue, from her navy shoes to her pale blue blouse. Until she met Ms. Cole, it had never occurred to Lindsey that not all shades of blue complement one another. On the upside, it was infinitely more cheerful than her usual all-gray or all-brown outfits.