School's Out for Murder (Schooled in Murder Book 2) (10 page)

"We heard the sirens," Greg told her, "but we were more concerned with getting to you. Where's the fire? It looks like it's coming from the town square."

"It is," Emily nodded. "I had a great view up there. At first, I thought the library was on fire, but then I realized it has to be Susanna's house."

"Oh, no," Gabby moaned. "We better go and make sure she's okay. What an awful night! First you and now Susanna…" Gabby's eyes grew wide as she turned to Emily. It took Emily a second to connect the dots, but when she did, she drew in a harsh breath.

"They have to be related! Whoever lured me here has to be the one who set the fire at Susanna's. But why did they want me out of the picture?"

"Maybe you saw something you weren't supposed to," Greg said, sounding even more concerned. "Thank goodness whoever it was didn't hurt you. I think we should go straight to the police station."

"We will, but let's first make sure Susanna's okay. Please, Greg?" Emily pleaded.

"Alright, but let's hurry." Greg hustled them to their minivan, as they had parked closer than Emily had. In no time at all, they were pulling up in front of the library. That was as close as they could get with all the emergency equipment parked around the area. Before they could even get out of the car, the sound of another siren rent the air as an ambulance tore away from the scene.

"Please let her be alright," Emily prayed as she fumbled her way out of the van. She tried to push her way to the front of the crowd, hoping police might be present, but the crowd was too thick. It seemed like half the town was gathered to watch Ellington's firefighters battle the flames that had completely engulfed the quaint little cottage. They had lost the fight on Susanna's home, but now they were waging war on the fire to keep it from spreading to the town library. Luckily, without the wind, they seemed to be gaining, their crisscrossing arcs of water slowly dousing the roaring flames.

Emily tried once again to push her way to the front of the crowd, but she made little headway. She stood on tiptoe to see over the heads of the crowd, but she was too short. Greg, however, could see fine and told her that he didn't see any police presence yet. Emily and Gabby both scanned the crowd trying to find someone to ask for information. Emily, surprisingly, didn't see anyone she knew, but she did see a slight woman, clutching a sweater tightly around her, on the edge of the crowd. The woman was openly crying, and Emily made her way toward the upset woman.

"Are you okay?" Emily asked her, touching her lightly on the arm.

Tears continued to stream down her face. "I'm just so worried about Susanna," she sobbed.

"What happened? Is she okay?" Emily asked, panic gripping her by the throat. Was she still in that inferno? She didn't see any firemen making their way into what was left of the house.

The woman turned her tear-filled eyes on Emily and said, "The ambulance took her away a few minutes ago. She was unconscious."

Emily drew in a sharp breath of relief that Susanna was alive, her heart racing along with her fears. Had smoke inhalation rendered Susanna unconscious, or something even more sinister? "I'm sure she'll be fine," Emily assured the woman, patting her on the shoulder, but her words sounded hollow and unconvincing, even to her. "I'm Emily Taylor," she belatedly added. "I teach at the high school."

"I'm Dinah Moore," the tiny woman replied. "I live over there." She indicated by a tilt of her head the neat bungalow across the street from Susanna's home, or what was left of it. "Susanna's my neighbor and good friend."

"I'm sorry," Emily said quietly. "Do you know what happened?"

Dinah sighed and blew her nose on a tissue she pulled out of the sleeve of her sweater. Emily gave a slight smile, remembering her grandmother on her mom's side always tucking tissues into her sleeves. "We normally share a cup of tea on one of our porches in the evening now that the weather is starting to warm up a bit. But Susanna called me early this evening and said she was going to have to pass tonight. She said she had had a rough day and was nursing a pretty bad headache. She told me she was going to take a sedative and go to bed."

"Did she often take sleeping pills?" Emily asked her.

"Only when she had one of her headache spells. Stress seems to be her main trigger. I had told her to call me if she needed anything, and, since she wasn't going to come over, I went to bed early. I had planned to read, but
Rear Window
was on TCM, and I got caught up in it. I just love Alfred Hitchcock, you know?" Emily nodded. She, too, was a Hitchcock fan. "I had gotten up to get another cup of tea," Dinah continued, "and when I walked into the kitchen, I could hear the smoke alarm blaring all the way from Susanna's. I looked out the window, but all I could see was smoke. There were no lights on or anything. I panicked—" Dinah began to sob in earnest.

Emily put her arm around the frail woman, murmuring reassurances to her. The poor woman had to have been terrified, not knowing if Susanna was still inside her house. After a few moments, Dinah continued, "I called 9-1-1 immediately, and then I raced over here to yell for Susanna. I should have gone inside. Maybe those extra few minutes would have helped. What if…"

"Sh, sh," Emily soothed. "You did the right thing to wait for the fire department to get here. What good would you have done Susanna if you managed to put you both in danger?"

Dinah nodded, but she continued to cry. Emily kept her arm around the woman, her mouth set in a grim line as she watched the tired firefighters work to control the stubborn blaze. She was certain now that this had been no accident. Somehow, her supposed meeting at the Ferris wheel and this fire were connected. The same person had to be responsible. But who?

"Um, Dinah," Emily said cautiously, "did you happen to see anyone hanging around Susanna's lately?"

Dinah wiped her eyes and turned to regard Emily thoughtfully. "No, not that I can recall. Susanna and I share many of the same friends so I recognize most of their cars." She stared into the distance for a moment, and then with a start, she turned back to Emily and asked, "You don't think someone set this fire, do you?"

Emily didn't want to frighten the woman, but that was exactly what she thought. How much should she say? "I don't know, Dinah. It's just with the mayor's murder, I don't know that we should take anything for granted."

Dinah nodded again, but looked too frightened to speak. They both watched as the final flames were battled into submission. Dinah turned suddenly and said, "You know, I did see a vehicle drive by before I went to bed. It was going kind of slow and I remember thinking, I wonder if someone has a house for sale close by. The vehicle was going slow like someone was checking something out, you know?" Emily nodded encouragingly. "I was watering my hydrangeas, and I noticed the truck two separate times."

Emily's heart began to pound. "Did you notice what kind of vehicle it was?"

Dinah tapped a finger against her cheek, squinting her eyes as she tried to remember. "It was getting dark, but I know it was a truck. Not a big one, more like one of those sporty-looking ones. I think it was red or maroon, but I didn't pay it that much attention." She looked at Emily intently. "Do you think I should tell someone about the truck?"

"I do," Emily said, nodding again. "I definitely do. Let me see if I can find anyone. Will you be okay by yourself?" Dinah assured her she would be fine, so Emily hurried back to Gabby and Greg to see if they had seen any police arrive yet.

"I saw you talking to that woman, so I didn't want to interrupt," Gabby told her, "but Detective Welks showed up a few minutes ago."

"Where is he?" Emily asked impatiently, hopping on her tiptoes to try to see the front of the crowd.

Greg scanned the area and then pointed, "Over there. Looks like he's talking to the fire chief."

Emily watched for a few moments, and when she saw Detective Gangly-Arms looking their way, she waved her arms above her head, trying to attract his attention. When he saw her, he gave her a tight nod. "He doesn't look too happy," Gabby whispered in Emily's ear.

"No kidding," Emily murmured, chewing on her thumbnail. She was not looking forward to telling Gangly-Arms about her evening's activities. "You'll stick by me, right?" she asked Gabby and Greg.

"Of course," Gabby said loyally but then added, "but I'm not going to stop him from telling you how ridiculous your decision was to meet someone at the Ferris wheel. At night.
Alone
." Gabby placed great emphasis on that final word. Emily started to defend herself, explaining how her ultimate goal had been to help Amelia, but decided to keep her mouth shut as Gangly-Arms was stalking toward them, his eyes shooting daggers at her.

"Ms. Taylor, we meet again," Gangly-Arms began. "Did you have something you needed to tell me?"

"Actually," Emily started, "I do. You see, I think that this fire at Susanna's is related to a note I got asking me to meet someone at the Ferris wheel tonight."

"Come again?" Gangly-Arms asked, frowning, his arms crossed tightly across his chest, intimidating in his irritation.

Clearing her throat several times, and gnawing at her thumbnail, Emily haltingly told her whole story to the imposing, angry detective, finishing with why she thought the same person had left the note for her and set fire to Susanna's house. When she finally stumbled to a halt, Gangly-Arms straightened to his full height, and looking down his nose at her, asked, "What makes you think this fire was anything other than an unfortunate accident?"

"Uh…" Emily's mind felt like mush. The rush of adrenaline that had kept her going while she was stuck at the top of the Ferris wheel was finally abating, leaving her exhausted and muddled-feeling. Before she could come up with a coherent answer, a tired-looking officer joined their group.

"Detective Welks, we checked out the McBain household, but there was no sign of him or his vehicle," the officer reported. Emily's mouth dropped open, and she now crossed her own arms, confident that Gangly-Arms had only been trying to throw her off the investigative scent because it was obvious that she wasn't the only one suspecting Larry.

"Thank you, Officer Bryan," Gangly-Arms said stiffly. While he was distracted, Emily took the opportunity to ask, "And what does Larry drive?"

Before the officer could answer her, Gangly-Arms interrupted, "Do you have that note, Ms. Taylor?"

"Actually, I left it in my car," she told him.

"I'll escort you to your car, then," Gangly-Arms announced.

"Do you want me to stay with you?" Gabby asked, hugging her briefly.

"I just want to go home and go to bed, but thanks," Emily said tiredly. She followed along quietly as Gangly-Arms' long strides ate up the ground on the way to her car.

She turned the note over to him, informed him of what Dinah had told her about the truck in their neighborhood, and then, with a curt good-bye, she headed home, wanting nothing more than the oblivion of sleep. Before she finally crashed, she briefly wondered if Tad had tried to find her. Then with a weary sigh, she decided she'd find out soon enough.

As soon as Emily surfaced the next morning, she called the hospital, worried about Susanna. She was relieved to hear that Susanna was awake, and after throwing on some clean jeans and grabbing a huge Dr. Pepper, she headed in the direction of the local hospital.

She ducked into the gift shop to take the patient something cheery. Settling on a bright coral Gerbera daisy, she rode the elevator up to the third floor. She found Susanna sitting up in bed, a tray across the stiff white hospital blanket, her attention on a news program on television. Seeing Emily in the doorway, she scooted up further in the bed and muted the television. "What a beautiful flower!" Susanna exclaimed, her voice harsh and raspy, motioning Emily to come on in.

"I'm glad to see you up and awake. You gave everyone quite a scare last night," Emily told her, placing the daisy on the windowsill where Susanna could see it.

"How did you hear about…" Susanna cleared her throat, tears pooling at the corners of her eyes.

Emily didn't want to frighten or upset her, so she was deliberately vague when she replied, "I was driving home last night and saw the fire. When I saw it was at your house, I stopped to make sure you were okay. I ran into your neighbor Dinah and she filled me in. Are you feeling okay?"

Susanna blew her nose on a tissue and waved away Emily's concern. "I'm fine," she said, her voice still raspy from smoke. "They're just keeping me for observation. A police detective was here earlier and told me that the fire department was unable to save my house. I'm grateful the fire didn't spread to the library, too."

"The police?" Emily asked, hoping to glean some information without being too direct.

"Yes." Susanna stared at her tray, picking up a piece of toast and looking at it as if she had never seen such a thing before. "Someone set the fire at my house." She spoke so softly, Emily had to strain to hear her.

"I'm so sorry to hear that, Susanna. Do the police have any leads?" Emily, too, spoke softly.

"Not that they told me. Dinah has offered to let me stay with her until I can rebuild. I hate to bother her, but she's a good friend."

"She was very worried about you last night," Emily affirmed. "She also said you had gone to bed early due to a headache. Did you hear or see anything before you went to bed that might seem suspicious in hindsight?"

"The police asked me that, too, but I can't think of anything. I had a terrible headache, so I took a sedative and went straight to bed. The next thing I remember is waking up in the hospital."

"So you didn't have any visitors last night?" Emily pushed, thinking of the truck Dinah mentioned.

"No. I wasn't really in any condition for company. I did think that…" Whatever Susanna had been about to tell her was cut off by the arrival of a new visitor.

"Susanna! How're you feeling?" Maclaine Forrester swept into the room, deposited a pile of books on the visitor's chair, and then hurried over to gently hug the patient. Emily tried not to let her irritation at the interruption show. Maclaine seemed to be turning up at quite a few unexpected times and places, it seemed to Emily. Noticing her for the first time, Maclaine asked, "Emily, how are you? I didn't see you standing there. Come by to check on our patient? She looks wonderful, don't you think?"

Actually, Susanna looked wan and tired, her eyes reddened from the smoke. Watching the two together, Emily remembered that Maclaine had been known to spend a lot of her time at the library when she came to town to visit her aunt in her growing up years. That must have been how Susanna and Maclaine became so close because it was clear there had been no love lost between Susanna and Maclaine's Aunt Janice.

Not waiting on Emily to answer, Maclaine turned to Susanna and asked, "Have the police told you anything?" She tried to come off as nonchalant, but Emily could see the strain in her hands where she clasped the edge of the tray over Susanna's bed.

"No, not a thing. I was just telling Emily how Dinah has offered to let me come stay with her."

"That's great," Maclaine said, but it was clear her thoughts were elsewhere.

"Is something wrong, dear?" Susanna asked Maclaine, patting her hands where they continued to grip the bedside tray so hard her knuckles blanched white.

"I'm sure it's just a formality," Maclaine began slowly, "but the police were just at the house, and they took Uncle Larry in for questioning."

The piece of toast Susanna had been nibbling on fell to the tray. "Why?" she asked in a strangled voice. "They don't think he had anything to do with your aunt's death, do they?"

"I don't think so," Maclaine answered, beginning to pace the length of the room. "They said something about his whereabouts last night. But you saw him last night, right?" Maclaine turned back to look at Susanna imploringly.

Susanna's confusion registered on her face. "No, dear, I didn't talk with Larry at all last night. Why did you think I did?"

"I worked late up at the school with Tad on Mathletes stuff, and at one point I called Uncle Larry to let him know how late I'd be." Emily clenched her teeth and tried to ignore the sharp rake of the green monster's claws as Maclaine continued, "Uncle Larry told me that he was going to your house to talk with you about his decision to run for mayor. Are you sure he didn't come by?"

Susanna stared sightlessly out the window and Emily wondered what thoughts were occupying her mind. Susanna finally said, "Maclaine, I'm very sorry, but I never saw your uncle last night. I had a terrible headache when I got home from the library, so I took a sleeping pill and went straight to bed. The next thing I know, I'm waking up here."

Maclaine paced in silence a moment. Each of the room's occupants was lost in her own thoughts. Maclaine spoke first. "Well, the important thing is you're okay. Uncle Larry must have gotten sidetracked with some other business or something."

Emily spoke up. "Did you talk to your uncle when you got home?" Part of her wanted to know the answer to check on Larry's whereabouts, but another part of her was hoping Maclaine would give some indication of just how late she had been out "working" with Tad.

"No," Maclaine answered, moving the stack of books off the visitor's chair so that she could perch on the edge. "It was pretty late, and I just assumed he was already in bed."

That didn't tell Emily much about how late Maclaine had been with Tad, but she tried to convince herself that if they had been doing anything other than working than Maclaine would find a way to rub her nose in it. Instead, Maclaine seemed more worried about where her uncle might have been. Did she possibly think Larry was responsible for the fire at Susanna's? Emily had seen the two of them arguing earlier in the day, but why would Larry want to harm Susanna? She snuck a look at the woman in the bed, but it was hard to read her expression. After a brief hesitation, Emily decided to ask the question that was bothering her most.

"Susanna," she began gently, "I happened to see you and Larry involved in a pretty intense discussion when I was walking back to my booth yesterday after getting some lunch. Was Larry upset about anything that might tell us why the police wanted to talk with him?"

Susanna plucked at the blanket covering her legs, not meeting Emily's eyes. "Oh, I don't think the police would be interested in our discussion. Larry and I were discussing Janice's plan to cut library acquisition funding. I wanted to know if the rumors were true and he was planning on running for mayor. If he was, I wanted him to rethink the funding cuts."

"That's what he said he was going over to your house to talk to you about!" Maclaine exclaimed. "He said he wanted you to know that he would not propose any funding cuts."

"Well, I'm certainly glad to hear that," Susanna said with a small smile. "But I wonder why he didn't end up coming by? Maybe he did and I just didn't hear him since I was already asleep?"

"Maybe so," Maclaine said thoughtfully, but Emily was sure they were all thinking the same thing: where did Larry go next, then? The fact that Susanna wouldn't look her in the eye when talking about Larry also had Emily wondering if her first assumption was correct. Was something more than a common interest in library funds brewing between Susanna and Larry, or more interesting yet, was it already at a full boil? Jenny Hanson had told her that Larry and Susanna were dating when Janice managed to break them up. Now that Janice was out of the picture, were the two trying to rekindle an old high school flame? Or had the flame never been extinguished in the first place? Were the rumors about Larry's affair true, only he was involved with Susanna instead of Amelia? Thinking of Amelia, Emily wondered if she was out on bail yet. She thought Maclaine might know if Tad had heard from Trent if they were together all last evening, so she asked, "Maclaine, do you know if Tad heard anything about Amelia?"

"I don't think so," the blonde answered, flipping through one of the books she had brought. "Didn't you see him last night? When we left the school, he said he was headed to your place." Maclaine seemed uninterested in where Tad had been after leaving her, so Emily relaxed a little.

"I was gone until late," Emily answered, but she was wondering if Tad had come by and wondered why she wasn't home. Would he have called Gabby? Being without a cell phone was becoming increasingly frustrating. Since Susanna seemed okay and she didn't seem to be finding any new answers at the hospital, she decided to head out and see what she could find out about Amelia's release.

Saying her good-byes and offering whatever aid she could to Susanna, Emily headed for the elevator. She was lost in thought and didn't look up when the elevator doors opened. She took a step forward and walked right into a wall of muscle. "Oh, I'm sorry," she exclaimed, stumbling backward, but to her surprise, the unknown wall of muscle reached out and grabbed her in a tight hug. The voice that murmured into her ear was one she knew well, however. "I've been looking everywhere for you! I talked to Gabby, and Pit, you got some 'splainin' to do," Tad told her in his best Ricky Ricardo voice.

The elevator suddenly seemed much too small. With nowhere to escape, Emily braced herself for the forthcoming lecture about thinking things through and not putting herself in harm's way. "Why didn't you tell me about the note?" Tad finally wound down. She could see hurt in his eyes, and she hurried to assure him that it wasn't that she didn't want him to know. "Then why the secrecy?" Tad asked.

"I wasn't trying to keep anything a secret. I went straight to the Mathletes booth to tell you about the note, but you were busy with Maclaine. And I still can't find my phone, so I couldn't call you. I had planned to come by and talk to you once the meeting was over, if anyone even showed up, but then I was stuck on the Ferris wheel and there was the fire and…" She shrugged helplessly.

"First of all, I'm never too busy for you," Tad told her, tucking her arm firmly through his as they made their way off the elevator and out to the parking lot. "And two, I'm so glad you're okay. Please promise me you won't go off by yourself again because if you're right about the fire and your meeting being related, like Gabby told me, then someone is out to make sure you keep your nose out of things."

Emily gave a noncommittal shrug, knowing she wouldn't rest until Amelia was free of the cloud of suspicion, but Tad stopped and gripped her shoulders, turning her to face him in the bright sunlight. "I don't want something to happen to you, Em. You're too important to me." Looking into Tad's gray blue eyes, Emily could see the depth of his caring for her and her own eyes grew moist.

"I promise not to do anything without you," she offered as a compromise. Tad sighed, but let the matter drop, though she had a strong suspicion it was only a temporary reprieve.

"Well then, where to now?" he asked.

"Have you heard from Trent?" she asked. "Is Amelia free yet?"

"Trent called me on my way over to the hospital this morning. Amelia is out on bail and would like to see you. I told him that we'd stop by sometime today, whenever I finally managed to locate you."

"Great," Emily said with feeling, hugely relieved to know that Amelia was not sitting alone in some lonely and depressing jail cell. "No time like the present, then. You coming with?"

"Lead on, Macduff," Tad said, following her to where she'd parked her Nissan. "My only request is we stop for some breakfast. I've been so busy trying to find you this morning. I haven't had a single thing to eat."

"Wow, you gave up breakfast to find me? I definitely feel special now." Emily was trying to make a joke, but Tad surprised her by leaning over and giving her a slow, sweet kiss.

"You
should
feel special because I, for one, find you amazing." With that proclamation, Tad buckled into his seat, leaving Emily both breathless and happy.