Миранда Джеймс - Twelve Angry Librarians

I glanced at the bottle as Marisue paused to twist off the cap. The brand name looked familiar. Then I remembered why I recognized it.

“Don’t open that bottle.” I reached to grab it away from Marisue.

TWENTY-EIGHT

I had to stop Randi before she drank from the bottle. When I reached out for it, Marisue stared at me as if I had totally lost my mind.

“Don’t open it.” My tone was sharp, but Marisue complied with my demand. She jerked her hand away from the cap.

“What is it?” Randi demanded, now more alert than before.

“That’s the same brand of water that Gavin drank.” I took the bottle from Marisue’s unresisting hands. “Where did you get this bottle?”

Marisue looked at me, then at Randi. “Is this the one you took from Gavin’s party the other night?”

Randi nodded weakly. “Oh dear Lord, do you think it’s poisoned?”

“I don’t know,” I said, my heart still pounding, “but I don’t think we should take any chances. Is this the only one you have from Gavin’s suite?” I took a couple of deep breaths to try to steady myself. Diesel meowed and moved away from Randi toward me. I reached over and rubbed his head, and we both calmed a little.

“Yes,” Randi said. “Thank the Lord I hadn’t tried to open it before.” Her skin had an ashy cast to it, and I knew how frightened she was from a potentially narrow miss. I patted her right hand.

“You’re fine now,” I said. “I’m probably overreacting.”

Marisue went to the bathroom and came back moments later with a cold washcloth, folded it in half, and laid it on Randi’s forehead. “Thank you,” Randi said.

“I need a drink.” Marisue went over to the nook and poured a cup of wine and drank half of it in a gulp. “Charlie, how about you?” She refilled her cup.

“I’m fine,” I said. “Is there another water bottle for Randi?”

“Yes, the expensive one the hotel provides,” Marisue said. In a wry tone she added, “Worth three dollars in this case.” She brought the bottle over to Randi and twisted off the cap. Randi took the bottle and drank deeply while Marisue went back for her wine.

“Better?” I asked, and Randi nodded. “Are you hungry at all? It’s been a long time since lunch.”

“Actually, I am hungry.” Randi sounded surprised. “I don’t feel like going anywhere, though. I guess it will have to be room service.”

“I’ve already had something.” Marisue went over to the desk and found the room service menu. “I’ll order it for you and help you eat.” She studied the menu for a moment. “They’ve got only a few items, an expensive steak, an expensive salmon dish, an expensive chicken dish with pasta that sounds good, and then of course they have several expensive sandwiches to choose from.”

“Hamburger?” Randi asked, and Marisue nodded. “I’ll have a hamburger,” Randi continued. “You know how I like them.”

“With fries, potato chips, or steamed vegetables?” Marisue asked.

“French fries this time,” Randi said. “I think I’ve earned them.”

I had to smile at that. After what she’d been through today, Randi should have whatever she wanted in the way of comfort food. While Marisue phoned room service, I pulled one of the armchairs nearer Randi’s bed, making sure I was within an easy line of sight for her so she didn’t have to strain her neck to see me. Diesel, now completely relaxed again, lay stretched out beside Randi on the bed.

“Do you feel up to talking awhile longer?” I asked.

Randi nodded. “At least until my food comes.”

Marisue resumed her seat at the foot of the bed. “They said about twenty minutes. That means anywhere from ten minutes to forty-five, probably, depending on how busy they are.”

“I’m not going anywhere.” Randi grimaced. “What do you want to talk about, Charlie?”

“Gavin’s party,” I replied. “I want you to tell me whatever you can remember, both of you.” I glanced in Marisue’s direction, and she nodded.

“I’ll start,” Marisue said, “and Randi can break in when she has anything to add. We were the last to arrive, except for Lisa Krause who came in for a few minutes and then left, pretty early on.” She paused for a sip of wine. “The whole thing was awkward, of course, because no one really wanted to be there, except Gavin.”

“And Maxine,” Randi added. “You know she stuck by Gavin like a leech most of the time, when he wasn’t yelling at her to leave him alone.”

Marisue shrugged. “They definitely had a weird relationship, cooing and holding hands one minute, and the next spitting at each other like a couple of cats. Sorry, Diesel.” She raised her cup at him and then drained it.

“What mode were they in at the party?” I asked.

“They were hardly speaking to each other,” Randi said. “In fact, most of the time we were there, Maxine never went near him. Instead she and Sylvia sat together, whispering back and forth.”

“Were she and Sylvia really good friends?” I wondered whether Kanesha had found out anything useful from talking to Sylvia O’Callaghan.

“I’m not really sure,” Marisue said. “I think they’d known each other a long time.”

“They worked together about ten years when they were first out of library school,” Randi said. “Sylvia told me that. But then one of them took another job on the other side of the country, and they didn’t see each other except at the occasional convention.”

That was enough about Sylvia for the moment, I thought. “How were the other people there interacting with Gavin?”

Marisue got up to refill her cup. At the rate she was hitting the wine she might soon be a bit squiffy. Not your business . No, it wasn’t.

Marisue rejoined us. “About what you’d expect. No one was interacting with him willingly, as far as I could see. I certainly wasn’t. Gavin, of course, was going around, poking at each one of us, trying to get some reaction.”

Randi giggled. “Not literally poking, you understand, but if he’d had a stick, he probably would have.”

Marisue rolled her eyes at her friend. “Verbal poking. He knew we were all there because we were afraid of what he might do to make our lives uncomfortable.” She frowned. “It was a bit like waiting for a dangerous animal to come after you but hoping he would go after someone else instead.”

“I’m sorry you had to endure that,” I said. “He really was a piece of work, wasn’t he?”

“You’re not going to find anyone wearing black on his account, I can guarantee,” Marisue said.

“No, I guess not,” I replied. “What about the others? Can you give me some specifics about how they were dealing with Gavin?”

“I talked to a couple of the other women,” Marisue said. “Nancy Dunlap and Cathleen Matera. They were trying to avoid talking to Gavin as much as I was. He did come over at one point and make snide remarks about Nancy being a professor now with tenure.”

From my research into everyone’s careers, I remembered that Nancy Dunlap had degrees in biology and was a liaison to the chemistry department at her university. Cathleen Matera had no connection to the sciences that I could recall.

“How did she react to him?” I asked.

Marisue chuckled. “Nancy brushed him off. I guess now that she’s tenured, she’s not too worried about what he could do to her career. She’s pretty much set. When he started in on Cathleen, Nancy told him to back off. Surprised the heck out of me, but he did. I guess he figured he wasn’t going to get anywhere with Cathleen as long as Nancy was there. He glowered, but then he walked away.”

“Did he try getting at you?” I asked.

“Not right then. If Nancy hadn’t been there, he probably would have.” Marisue stared into her cup. “A little later, he caught me by myself. He did the usual things, stood too close, tried to touch my arms, you know the routine.”