“Coffee?” Sully asked.
“Yes, please,” Lindsey said.
He left her at the door to her office and went to the break room to make coffee. Lindsey waited for her computer to reboot. She’d gotten a text from Ann Marie saying that they’d shut the library down per usual but that she’d also shut down the computer in Lindsey’s office. Lindsey took a moment to appreciate her staff and sent Ann Marie a quick text thanking her.
The sound of a fist banging on glass brought her attention to the front of the library. The security light was on outside, and standing under its glow were Nancy Peyton and Violet La Rue. Nancy was carrying something that looked suspiciously like a cookie tin. Lindsey’s stomach growled. It would be horribly rude not to see what her two friends wanted so late at night.
She left her office and crossed the library. When they saw her coming, Violet waved, and Nancy held up the tin of cookies as if she knew a bribe was required to get the library open after hours.
Lindsey crouched and unlocked the door. Once the latch clicked, she pushed the door open, and the two women filed in. Just as the door was sliding shut, a hand shot out and stopped it. Lindsey glanced up to see Robbie standing there, looking quite pleased with himself as he stepped into the library.
“All right, I’ll bite—what are the three of you doing here?” Lindsey asked.
“The two of us just happened to be in the neighborhood and thought we’d bring you some cookies,” Nancy said.
“Exactly right,” Violet said. “They’re snickerdoodles, your favorites.”
Lindsey gave them a suspicious glance as she took the tin. “Thank you.”
“Well, I don’t have cookies,” Robbie said. “But I heard from a reliable source that you took off after the car that was chasing down Theresa Huston, and I want to know what happened. My girlfriend is being annoyingly hush-hush about all of it.”
“Well, she is the chief of police,” Violet said. “She can’t talk about these things.”
“Even with her fella?” Robbie asked. “That doesn’t seem right.”
“No matter,” Nancy said. “Lindsey will tell us what’s happening, won’t you?”
Lindsey blinked at them. “Do I really look like I can be bribed with snickerdoodles?”
“Yes,” all three of them answered as one.
Sully came from the back room and took in the group at a glance. He turned on his heel and said over his shoulder, “I’ll go make more coffee. And if you want details, Nancy, those had better be snickerdoodles.”
Distracted by the cookies, Lindsey hadn’t relocked the door. In seconds it was yanked open, and Emma Plewicki charged into the room. She stared at them all and then looked Robbie over and plopped her hands on her hips.
“I thought the library was closed.”
“It is,” Lindsey said. She shoved the tin at Emma and crouched to relock the door. When she rose, she took the tin back and marched toward her office, knowing that the group would follow her. “Was there something I can help you with, Emma?”
“I was hoping you already had,” Emma said.
Lindsey waved the tin in the air. “Haven’t really had a chance.”
“That’s just as well,” Emma said. She cut ahead of the others and followed Lindsey into her office, shutting the door behind her.
Through the glass, Lindsey saw Robbie throw his hands in the air while Nancy crossed her arms over her chest and Violet tipped her chin up at a defiant angle. She hoped Sully could soothe them with some coffee, because there was no way she was opening the door without Emma’s okay, and she wasn’t giving up the cookies without a fight.
“So, what’s up?” she asked Emma.
“Right after you left, I had a visit from Detective Trimble of the state police,” Emma said.
“Have they identified the man who was killed?” Lindsey asked.
“Possibly. We think his name was Chad Bauman,” Emma said.
Lindsey frowned. She didn’t know any patrons by that name.
“I don’t know the name either, but there was a receipt for a nearby motel found in the car, and the desk clerk identified a man fitting his description as having stayed there,” Emma said, accurately interpreting Lindsey’s expression. “We suspect he’s from out of state, since the only Chad Bauman in Connecticut is a twelve-year-old who lives up in Kent. Our Chad Bauman also had a woman with him, but the desk clerk didn’t get a good look at her. The crime unit did, however, find this in the CD player of the car.” She reached into her jacket pocket and withdrew a clear plastic evidence bag that contained a single CD. The Briar Creek Public Library sticker was placed prominently around the middle, with an item barcode visible just below it. She handed it to Lindsey.
Lindsey stared at the CD. It was an audiobook, the third CD in a set for Albert Camus’s The Stranger. This was it. The key to whoever the dead man in the car was. This would likely identify him and give them their first clue as to who wanted to kill Theresa Huston.
Her fingers shook a little bit as she turned to her desk, sank into her seat, and double-clicked on the icon that would open her circulation module.
She peered at the numbers and then input them in the search-by-barcode option on the module. As soon as she hit enter, a record appeared on the screen. She saw the name that popped up, and a wave of confusion swamped her. How could that be? It didn’t even make sense.
She felt Emma press closer, and she closed the window and turned the monitor away from the chief of police. She didn’t want to be a hard-ass, but she would be, especially now, because a patron’s right to privacy was not negotiable.
“Lindsey—” Emma said.
“You know I can’t tell you who it is without—” Lindsey began.
Emma stopped her by pulling a piece of paper out of the same pocket she’d had the CD in.
“Your subpoena,” she said. “It was issued this evening, right after I sent you the barcodes.”
“You could have led with that,” Lindsey said. She held out her hand and took the paper. She trusted Emma, but she glanced at the paper just to be a stickler.
“I could have, but I like watching you flex your librarian muscle,” Emma said. Her teasing grin grew serious. “It’s good that you look out for your patrons like that, and I’m sorry I gave you a hard time about it.”
“Thanks,” Lindsey said. She folded up the paper, which looked legit, and spun the monitor back. Then she maximized the window. “The person who checked out the CD found in the car stereo was Toby Carter.”
13
“Toby Carter? But he’s a twenty-year-old Eagle Scout,” Emma protested. “I mean, he’s so clean, he practically squeaks when he enters a room.”
“Let me check the other barcodes from the items found in Kayla’s car,” Lindsey said. “Maybe there’s a mistake.”
“Do it,” Emma said. “I mean, I thought this would ID our dead guy, not point us in the direction of some earnest college student who spends his free time bringing meals to the elderly.”
A knock sounded on the door, and Robbie poked his head in.
“Get out,” Emma said. It was her police chief voice. It didn’t allow for argument.
Robbie held up two steaming mugs of coffee. “I thought you might like some coffee to go with the cookies you’re hoarding in here.”
Emma paused. Her coffee addiction was legendary in the small community. It took all of one innocent blink from Robbie for her to make up her mind. She waved him in. He handed them each a steaming mug. Lindsey noted that he had them prepped just the way they liked them.
“So, do we know who the dead man is?” Robbie asked.
“How did you know—?” Lindsey began, but Emma shook her head.
“He doesn’t,” she said. “He’s fishing for information.”
Robbie blew out a breath. “Blast! Thwarted again.”<
br />
Emma sipped her coffee and said, “Don’t take it too hard. There is nothing to confirm yet.”
She kissed his cheek and then pushed him back out the door, closing it behind him.
Lindsey turned back to her computer. She opened the email with the barcodes that Emma had sent her, and then she copied and pasted them one by one into the circulation module. The patron name attached to each record was Toby Carter.
Lindsey sent the sheet to the printer. A whir sounded as the machine kicked in, and Emma glanced at her.
“That was quick.”
“Every CD was checked out to the same patron. Toby Carter.”
Emma frowned. She didn’t like this any more than Lindsey did. It just didn’t fit. How could Toby have any connection to a man who had stolen Kayla Manning’s car and who was now dead from a bullet in his head? These were not people whose paths should ever have crossed.
“Maybe Toby checked out the CDs for Kayla,” Lindsey offered.
“Then Kayla lied about having any CDs in her car when I interviewed her,” Emma said. “Besides, how would they even know each other? She’s a banker in New Haven, and he’s a bag boy at the grocery store.”
They stared at each other.
Emma put down her coffee and pulled the top off the tin of cookies. She took a snickerdoodle and bit it in half. Then she washed it down with a swallow of coffee. Lindsey followed her lead and reached into the tin, too. No one made snickerdoodles as good as Nancy’s. Light and fluffy with just the right amount of cinnamon, the cookie melted in her mouth, making her want more and more. She drank her coffee instead.
“Despite the improbability, could Kayla and Toby know each other? Does he compete in the Ironman or kayak like she does?” Lindsey asked.
Emma made a face. “She’s a little old to be pals with him, don’t you think?”
Lindsey thought of the Toby Carter she knew. An honor student, he was involved in a hiking club, and was always in the library, studying with his study group. It did seem unlikely that the tall, skinny teen she’d watched grow up, a former member of the chess club who loved epic books that included dragons, would know the hardworking, hard-playing, hard-drinking, forty-something Kayla, but Briar Creek was a small town.
But even if he did know Kayla, maybe they were neighbors, or perhaps she was friends with his parents. Lindsey still couldn’t wrap her head around Toby having anything to do with a hit-and-run or a shooting, but the CDs put him right in the middle of it. It was just bizarre.
“What are you going to do now?” Lindsey asked.
Emma stuffed another cookie in her mouth and held up a finger in a wait a second gesture. Lindsey took another cookie while Emma chewed. After a big swallow, Emma sighed.
“I’m going to go have a chat with Toby and find out why the CDs he checked out were in Kayla Manning’s car. There could be a valid reason we haven’t thought of,” she said. “Then, depending upon his answer, I’m going to go back to Kayla’s and find out why she had items Toby had checked out in her car. I am really hoping their stories mesh.”
“I don’t envy you having to talk to either of them,” Lindsey said. “Awkward.”
“To put it mildly,” Emma agreed.
She finished her coffee and headed for the door. Robbie stood on the other side of it, and she plopped her empty mug into his hand. Then she kissed his cheek and said, “Thanks. I’ll be home late. Don’t wait up.”
Robbie turned and followed her. “Wait! Where are you going?”
“I have questions that need answers,” Emma said.
“Let me help you,” Robbie offered. “I am brilliant at getting answers.”
“No,” Emma said.
“But—” Robbie dropped the coffee mug onto the circulation desk as he followed her to the doors.
Lindsey rose from her desk and found Sully, Violet, and Nancy all watching Emma and Robbie as if they were the entertainment portion of the evening. Robbie crouched down to turn the knob that would unlock the doors. As soon as the doors slid open, Emma strode out with Robbie right on her heels.
“Ten dollars says she leaves the drama queen in the parking lot,” Sully said.
“That’s a sucker bet.” Nancy snorted. “We all know who wears the badge in that relationship.”
Lindsey wasn’t so sure. Emma talked a good game, but Lindsey suspected she was very much in love with Robbie, and while she clearly enjoyed sparring with him, Lindsey didn’t think she’d intentionally try to hurt him.
“I’ll take that bet,” Lindsey said.
“Oh,” Violet cooed. “What do you know?”
“Nothing, but I think Emma enjoys Robbie, and I doubt she’d ditch him,” Lindsey said.
Emma’s squad car passed by, and they all turned to the window to stare. Robbie was in the back seat.
“Ha!” Lindsey said to Sully. “You owe me ten bucks.”
“Agreed, but given that he’s sitting in the back, I’m not convinced she didn’t arrest him for being a public nuisance,” he said.
Lindsey laughed. She couldn’t argue the point.
“Is your work here done?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said.
“That’s it?” Nancy protested. “We come here with cookies and we get no information?”
“There’s really nothing to tell,” Lindsey said. She debated mentioning her engagement, but she wasn’t sure how Sully felt about going public with it just yet. For now, she wanted to keep their new status between them. “Emma had some item records for me to look up, and they may point her in a direction, but it certainly doesn’t answer all of the questions.”
“Like who hit Theresa?” Violet asked. “Or who stole Kayla’s car?”
“If someone actually stole it,” Nancy said.
“Was it the dead man they found in the car? And who is he, anyway?” Sully asked.
“Is he the same person who tried to suffocate her?” Nancy asked.
“And if so, who shot him?” Violet asked.
“More importantly, who was shooting at her this evening?” Sully said. “Did they shoot the man in Kayla’s car, too, and if so, why?”
Lindsey shivered. She glanced at the others, knowing she looked as perplexed and worried as they did. “One thing is certain: whoever is after Theresa, they are certainly determined to finish the job.”
* * *
• • •
Lindsey awoke early the next morning. Sully had a crack-of-dawn pickup in his water taxi. It was so early, the sun wasn’t even up. Lindsey stayed burrowed under her covers as he moved about their room, not whistling. When he went out to the kitchen, the whistle crept out of him while he made coffee. Lindsey smiled into her pillow. She was going to marry that whistling fool.
When he returned with her coffee, he planted a kiss on her head, whispered that he loved her, and turned to leave. Lindsey grabbed his hand and tugged him back so that he had to catch himself from falling on top of her by planting his other hand on the edge of the bed.
He grimaced and looked at her from beneath his lashes. “I really did try not to whistle.”
Lindsey smiled. She gestured to the floor, where her shoes sat in a heap. “And I really meant to put my shoes away.”
His grin was like the sun bursting up from the horizon. “So, we’re good?”
“Never better.”
Sully scooped her up close and squeezed her tight. “And now I’m going to be late.”
Neither one of them cared.
The memory of her morning made Lindsey smile. When she walked Heathcliff to Nancy’s, since she liked to pet-sit him, Nancy remarked that she looked especially cheerful. Lindsey shrugged it off. She knew her new status with Sully was the reason for the bubble of joy floating around inside her, but still, she wanted to wait to share the news.
This was, of course,
assuming that Sully still felt the same way. It had occurred to her after he’d left that morning that he’d asked her to marry him after a close encounter with a bullet, and maybe it had just been his relief at still being alive. She tried not to overthink it, but she didn’t want to get too excited if he’d been impulsive in his proposing.
It was a beautiful spring day, so she decided to ride her bike to work, the same Schwinn cruiser she’d been riding since she’d moved to town. She stuffed her book bag in the back basket and kicked off from her house. The ride from Sully’s wasn’t much farther than the one from her old apartment, but it was a bit more scenic, as it wound through the older neighborhoods. Even so, she was just going to make it to work on time.
Lindsey was pedaling past the bakery, feeling regret that she didn’t have enough time to get a good cup of coffee and a muffin, when she saw Toby Carter come out a side door of the small store, carrying a sack of groceries. While she watched, he ducked behind the hedge that circled the small parking lot in back. Lindsey hit her brakes.
Emma had said she was going to talk to Toby last night. He was wearing the green apron he always wore while working his shift at Briar Creek’s only grocery store, so it was clear that whatever conversation they’d had, it hadn’t culminated in Toby getting arrested. Hmm.
She knew she should pedal on to work. She knew it, and yet she turned the handlebars of her bike toward the grocery store, parking the bike in the rack in front. She then started up the wooden steps that led to the side entrance of the small shop, inhaling the delicious smell of muffins and pastries as she went. If Toby was delivering someone’s groceries, she could wait for him here and then engage him in conversation when he came back.
Hitting the Books Page 14
