Лори Касс - Borrowed Crime

“That was two weeks ago,” I said. “Nothing has happened to her since then. I bet the killer got cold feet, realized that getting away with one murder was a minor miracle, and won’t try again.”

My aunt looked at the rocking chair. “What do you think?”

Eddie opened his eyes and made a silent “Mrr.”

Aunt Frances frowned. “Are you sure he doesn’t understand us?”

“Pretty sure,” I said, but my mind was still circling with the thought that had been haunting me for days.

Anyone can commit murder.

Chapter 18

Early the next morning, soon after I’d finished dressing and just as I was toweling off my hair, my cell rang. Since I was busy watching raindrops pelt against the window, I decided it was time to get some help from my roommate.

“Hey, Eddie, would you get that, please?”

My cat, who was lying in the exact middle of my bed, which was the same place he’d spent the entire night, no matter how many times I’d tried to gently shove him to one side, didn’t even lift his head.

“Some help you are,” I said, picking up the phone. “And after all I do for . . . uh-oh.” The incoming call was from Donna, my volunteer for the day.

“Minnie?” a voice croaked. “It’s Donna.” There was a pause, and I heard a distant, racking cough. “I’m so sorry,” she said when she came back, “but I woke up sick. I really don’t think I should come out on the bookmobile today.”

“Absolutely not,” I told her. “The last thing you need to do is go out in this weather. Read some of Jan Karon’s Mitford books, and I’ll see you when you’re better.” I ended the call and immediately started another one. “Kelsey? It’s Minnie.”

Two short sentences of explanation later, Kelsey said, “Let me think. My mom’s in Chicago for her annual Christmas shopping trip, and my husband’s working today. I’ll call around and see if I can find a sitter for the kids.”

Which she might or might not be able to find, and, even if she did, there was no way the sitter would be in place in half an hour, which was our appointed departure time.

“Thanks anyway, Kelsey,” I said. “I’m sure I can find someone else.”

But who? I scrolled through the numbers in my phone and called Holly.

“Oh, wow, Minnie. I’m sorry, but I promised the kids I’d take them to the indoor water park at Boyne today. They’ve been excited about this all week.”

I told her not to worry about it, and called Josh.

“You want me to do what?” He laughed. “Let me guess: I’m not going to get paid, either.”

“I’ll pay you myself,” I said, “if that’s what it takes.”

He must have heard the near desperation in my voice. “Hey, I was just joking. I’d help if I could, especially if Eddie’s coming along, but remember? My buddies and I are going to the Michigan State game this afternoon and the Lions game tomorrow.”

The voices and the road noise in the background suddenly made sense. In my half panic, I’d forgotten about the weekend he’d been talking about since August. “Sorry,” I said. “I forgot. Have a good time, okay?”

I stared at my phone. Now what? I’d exhausted all the library staff I felt able to call at this hour on a Saturday morning, Lina was out of town, and there was no way I was going to call Stephen and beg for his help. I’d go back to school, get a PhD in biochemistry, and clone myself before I did that.

I looked at my phone list again. “Hah,” I said. “Got it.” I stabbed at the DIAL button and was surprised when it was picked up half a ring later.

“Morning, sunshine,” Rafe said cheerfully.

I squinted in the direction of the marina. “You sound wide awake.”

“Of course I am. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Because you’re never awake before ten on Saturdays during the school year.”

“Au contraire,” he said. “I am always awake by seven thirty on the mornings that my kitchen appliances are to be delivered.”

My last hope circled the drain and dropped down. “Oh. That’s nice.”

“Liar,” he said. “What’s the matter?”

I debated lying some more, but knew he’d call me on it. One of these days, I really had to work on increasing my obfuscation skills. “I just needed some help this morning.”

“Sorry about that. I would if I could.”

“Yeah, I know. Thanks anyway.”

I stared at the phone. Sighed. Sighed again, this time so heavily that Eddie went to the trouble of picking up his head to look at me. I dialed one more time.

“Denise? It’s Minnie. I have a big favor to ask . . .”

* * *

Nine hours and eight stops later, I was regretting that I hadn’t given up and simply canceled the day’s bookmobile trip. I was also starting to regret the dark clothes I’d chosen to wear, as they were a perfect magnet for Eddie hair, but I’d been regretting Denise’s presence far longer. I was reaching the end of my patience and I hoped that I could keep my temper in check, at least while there were bookmobile patrons on board.

For eight hours and fifty-five minutes, Denise had been on her smart phone whenever she’d found coverage, texting, creating Facebook posts and tweets—and reading them out loud to me as she typed—about how brave she was to go out on the bookmobile so soon after her husband was killed on it, how important she was to the bookmobile’s outreach, and generally patting herself on the back so hard I was surprised she didn’t have a repetitive-stress injury.

But, in general, the stops went smoothly enough while Eddie, from his seat on the console, surveyed his small kingdom with a judicious eye and made the occasional comment.

At the last stop, a busy mother of three small children, who was checking out a pile of picture books, turned to him. “Eddie, what do you think? Is it time for my oldest to start chapter books?”

He studied her for a moment, then said, “Mrr.”

“Thought so,” she said, and added another book to the stack. “Thanks.”

I shook my head. My cat was a better librarian than I was. Of all the things Stephen didn’t need to know, this had to be in the top two.

A few minutes later, I shooed everyone out. Thanks to the heavy rain, we’d arrived at this last stop of the day a little late and, thanks to my disinclination to cut a stop short, it was now past the time we should have closed up shop and headed home.

“Thanks for coming out in this weather,” I said to the last exiting person. “See you soon.” By the time I slid into the driver’s seat, Denise had already encouraged Eddie into his strapped-down carrier and was fussing with her phone.

I started the engine and turned on the headlights. It had been one of those days of rain and low, heavy cloud cover, one of those dark gray days that made you want to stay inside with a book and a never-ending bowl of popcorn. It had never truly gotten light outside, and what little there had been was fading fast.

After peering left and right into the gloom, I pulled out of the parking lot and accelerated slowly.

“Can you believe that Shannon Hirsch?” Denise said, thumbing at her phone and making a gagging noise. “She puts the weirdest stuff on Facebook. Want to hear her latest?”

Short of slapping duct tape over Denise’s mouth or shoving plugs into my ears, there wasn’t any way I’d be able not to. I did briefly wonder why two sworn enemies would be Facebook friends, but there were lots of things I wondered about. The future of space exploration, for one. Why Eddie drank out of the far side of his water bowl, for another.

“She’s talking about the books she’s given away and wishes she hadn’t. Can you believe that?”

I murmured something vague.