"A Murder In Milburn", Book 3: Death In The Library (3 page)

“Nora, I was wondering if you’d be free to catch dinner with me sometime,” Robert said abruptly, interrupting her.

“Oh.” Nora was a little taken aback. She noticed the mad twinkle in Tina’s eyes and hurriedly said, “Robert, I’m already seeing--”

“Yes, yes, you’re already seeing that perfectly charming man who kissed you three times to make sure I got the message,” Robert said. “Nora, I’m talking about a
business
dinner. I’d love to interview you.”

Selena gave out a low, infuriated gasp. “What?”

“I’m considering writing a history of this town, and you’ve been involved intimately in three of its murders,” Robert said. “I thought maybe--”

“How
dare
you!” Selena said, her voice rising. “How dare you march into Milburn, and steal my idea and act as if--”

“Ideas don’t have legal protection, do they?” Robert grinned, not bothering to even look at Selena.

Selena grabbed a chunk of his shirt and pulled him roughly. “I’ve already got a book deal for this! I’ll have my lawyers--”

“Your little book deal is nothing to me,” Robert said coldly. “For your information, I’ve been to Milburn three times before, acting like I was a tourist. I’ve wanted to talk to Nora for a while now, but never had the guts. If it’s a true crime book, you can’t claim copyright on the idea. It is mine as much as yours.”

Tina moved between the two. “Selena, you’re making a scene, let’s just all calm down and--”
 

Selena slapped at Tina, who was trying to hold her back, and shouted at her. “You! Get your useless hands off me. You’ve got no business telling me to calm down. Go play chef with your little friend back there and let the rest of us be adults.”

Tears gathered readily in Tina’s eyes, as did blind fury. “A fine person to be talking. You’re living off your brother right now, aren’t you? Or did you think you’d fooled anybody that a writer like you makes enough money to live a cushy life?”

Robert was grinning widely, and had stepped back. A small circle had gathered around the two women.

Her face flushed, her eyes glittering, Selena said, “Fine. I’ll leave. I don’t want to stay in that filthy pigpen you call home anyway.”

Tina was ready to jump on her, when Nora put an arm around her shoulders and very deliberately led her away. “Come on, Tina. Walk it off. We want to remember today as the day we took our first decision about when to open the diner. Right? You don’t want to waste the day fighting her. Let it go.”

“I’m telling Sam to get her out,” Tina said loudly. “Good riddance too.”

Selena’s voice rang out, “Oh sure, and maybe I’ll tell Sam about--”

“Now, now now…” Grant was wringing his hands as he blocked Selena from moving towards Tina. “Selena, why don’t we all just relax and--”

“I don’t
want
to relax,” Selena said. “This stupid talk is over, as far as I’m concerned.” Turning her back on everyone, she raced up the library stairs, presumably to compose herself in the shadow of the shelves.

Grant gave Robert a helpless shrug. “I’m really sorry to ask you this, but is it possible for you to continue singlehanded?”

“I’d love nothing more,” Robert smiled. To the audience, he said, “Don’t worry about Selena. You know how high strung we writers are. I’m sure this will all just be excellent material for her next book.” He began walking to the stage, and the audience flowed back in uncertain drips to their chairs.

“Well, now, where were we?” Robert said heartily. “Questions, questions. Let’s have a brand new question.”

“I have one,” Nora said.

“Sure.” Robert gave her a fixed smile.

“What gave you the idea that the people of Milburn would allow an outsider like you to come into our town and write about it?”

“But I’m
not
an outsider,” Robert said. “What very few of you know is that I used to live here. I didn’t meet Selena in college like I claimed. I knew her from both high school
and
college. So yes, I’m going to write a book that exposes Milburn for exactly what it is. A town full of hypocrites and snakes!”

*****

Chapter 4

About an hour later, Grant sat with an ice pack over his head, while Nora tried to soothe his nerves with hot ginger tea.

“The nerve of that man!” Grant protested, for the thirtieth time. “The nerve! He pretended he was friendly, but all he wanted was to make a scene at my library!”

“Well, I’m sure he’s gone and he’d have to be a fool to even think of coming back,” Nora said, recounting how unceremoniously he had been booted out of the library.
 

“We should call Sean and have him thrown out of town,” Tina said with relish.

“Hey now, he’s not really done anything against the law,” Nora said. “If it were illegal to be a jerk, the world would be a much better place. Unfortunately, it isn’t.”

“Well it ought to be,” Grant said. “I feel my blood pressure rising. I just
know
it. I should go home and check. By the way, Sean’s already had a talk with Robert and escorted him out of town.”

Nora didn’t approve of that but shrugged. “So now what, do we try and salvage the talk?”

“No, I think I’m just going to ask everyone to leave and go home,” Grant said. “I need a break.”

“Just as long as it isn’t a break-down.” Tina grinned.

Grant groaned. “Well, we better start shutting down,” he said. “You still know your way around, right, Tina?”

“Of course.” Tina giggled. “Sam and I were both employed here in our freshman year of high school,” she told Nora. “That’s how he and I actually got together, you know. All those summer days spent in cozy nooks in this very library. Grant, we owe you our marriage.”

Grant laughed, Nora gave her a nudge, and after a bit more fussing to make sure Grant was alright, they all parted ways.

“What now?” Nora asked.

“How about coffee at my place?” Tina asked. “I don’t really want to go home and face Sam alone. Selena’s probably told him about our little scene already, and if she hasn’t… well… he’s probably heard from, oh, half the town.”

Nora pursed her lips. “It was rather nasty.”

“I know!” Tina exclaimed. “I felt so bad about it afterwards. I had no time to think. When she snapped at me like that I just lost my temper. I exploded in anger, and I really, really shouldn’t have.”
 

“What, regretting that urge to be destructive already?” Nora mimed throwing a bottle over a parapet.

Tina groaned. “Don’t, please. Sam’s going to be really angry.”

“If it helps, I can tell him that Selena started it. You just reacted.”

“Yeah…” Tina still looked guilty. “I don’t know. I know I said that I can be destructive sometimes, but the truth is I’m just a regular ol’ play-it-safe type. I’d hate for Selena and Sam’s relationship to be harmed over my quarrels with her. She’s overbearing and everything, but she’s family.”

Nora felt a little nervous herself as their car came closer to Tina’s house.

Sam had built up a business selling leather goods and spurs that had over the years developed a cult following. Consequently, Tina’s house was one of the largest in Milburn. After buying land a few miles outside town, Sam and Tina had spent a year after their marriage building it exactly as they liked. While not as large as other mansions in the area, their home had been decorated with enough love and good taste that it had been featured in numerous magazines. It stood at the end of a large pathway with willow trees on each side, nestled in the shadow of the mountains. This late at night, lights from the house were like flames from a lighthouse guiding ships at sea. All around, the forest crouched, dark and still. Driving to the house was, Nora mused, almost as if she were guiding a spaceship to a distant moon.

Inside the house, the living room had a sunken portion which housed the sofas, a wall that was covered from floor to ceiling with a TV screen, and expensive landscape paintings that softened the sharp lines of the ultramodern furniture.

Sam lay with his head on one end of the couch and his feet thrown up, a laptop balanced on his chest. As the two women entered, he pushed it aside and sprang up. He smiled at Nora, though she could tell he was impatiently waiting for her to leave.

“Sam…” Tina smiled, looking a little shaky. “Listen, I don’t know if you heard about me and Selena.”

“We can talk about it later,” Sam said, looking at Nora.

“Oh now, she was there. She saw the whole thing,” Tina said. “Selena started it. I was just trying to--”

“All I know is that she sent me a text telling me she wasn’t going to come over tonight,” Sam said. “I tried calling her, I tried messaging her, but she won’t reply. I’m worried, Tina.” His voice was patient, though his eyes had the beginning of anger in them.

“This isn’t fair,” Tina said. “She started it!”

“She’s sensitive about having to ask for our help,” Sam said. “You know that. So why did you have to go tell her that she’s a burden on me?”

“I didn’t say that!” Tina said. “Well… not exactly. I don’t really remember what I said. I was so annoyed.”

“I know how it is when you’re annoyed,” Sam said. “You say the first thing that comes into your mind, without caring what the other person feels. Now that’s ok with me, Tina, and maybe it’s okay with your family. But Selena? Couldn’t you have been just a little bit more careful?”

“Why do you always take her side?” Tina said, her voice cracking.

Nora was slowly edging towards the door, hoping to escape before either of them spotted her.

Sam noticed and put his hand up, palm out. “Stop, Nora. You’re welcome to stay here. I’m going to have to go to every hotel in town and figure out where Selena is.”

“She’s a grown woman, you don’t have to go running off to--”

“She’s my sister, and my mom made me promise I’d take care of her,” Sam said. The expression on his face made it clear that those were going to be his final words on the subject.

Awkwardly, Nora played with the door handle. This was almost physically painful to her.

“Sam, I’m sorry I said that to her,” Tina said. “But I think she’s just emotionally blackmailing you. Can’t you see it? She’s overreacting for no reason.”

“It’s not like her,” Sam said.
 

“It is
just
like her,” Tina said. “She dotes on you, she bullies you, and when you don’t give her what she wants, she blackmails you.”

Sam sighed. “I’m still going out to look for her.”

“I’ll come,” Tina said, following him.

“I… guess I’ll see you tomorrow then.” Nora took the chance to sprint to her car, and waved goodbye. “Unless… do you two need help?”

“No. Get going. We’ll find her soon, I’ll say sorry and convince her to come home.” Tina rolled her eyes. “All in a day’s work. I’ll see you at 9am tomorrow. We’ve got to discuss the uniforms.”

But that isn’t what happened.

Very late that night, Nora was awakened by a phone call. Fifteen minutes later, still in her pajamas, she had rushed to the library. Three police cars were parked outside, lights flashing. Tina was leaning against the hood of one, her face pale. She had a hand on Sam’s head. He was on his knees, clutching her legs, sobbing against them, as Tina tried to console him.

“What happened?” Nora asked Sean.

The sheriff had his hat off and ran a hand through his hair. “There’s been a death in the library,” he said.

*****

Chapter 5

It seemed like a ghastly ritual now. Another unnatural death, and the townspeople were all gathered at Anna’s pancake house. There was no pretense of being there for her french toast, though. At random intervals along the oak floor, people huddled together. Conversation rose and receded like ocean waves.

“Nora.” People nodded, moved aside for her as she walked in. She slipped into a booth where Mayor Almand and his wife sat sipping coffee, with the town doctor, Kurt Neil.

“How is Tina now?” May Almand asked. For once, there was no sarcasm or asperity in her voice. She seemed genuinely concerned. Nora supposed that they were friends, having been on many committees together.

“Nora was with her until the early hours of the morning.” Sean, still in his sheriff’s uniform, strode up to the group, and settled in.
 

“So were you, Sean,” Dr. Neil said.
 

“Well, that’s just part of my job.” Sean waved it off.

“I gave Sam a sedative, May. So he’ll be sleeping through most of the day, I think,” Dr. Neil said to the mayor’s wife.

“We have to visit Sam and Tina, of course,” Mayor Brett Almand said. “This will hit Sam hard. He’s only lost his mother a year ago.”

“It’s been two years, I think,” May said. “In any case, poor Sam was very attached to them both.”
 

Mayor Almand shifted in his seat, his portly form uncomfortably pressing against the sharp edge of the table. He extracted a buzzing phone from his pocket, took a look at the screen and dismissed the call.

“It was definitely murder, wasn’t it?” May Almand asked, lowering her voice. “I know you can’t comment on an ongoing investigation, Sean…”