The Unkindness of Ravens by M. Hilliard (readera ebook reader .txt) 📗

elbow on the subway I stayed away from the rough stuff. I tossed and turned, wondering if I should just leave it to the police. In the end I decided to carry on. Unearthing a killer didn’t necessarily mean confronting one. I wanted this thing wrapped up fast. I wanted to go back to my peaceful new life and box up all the intrusive memories Joanna’s murder had stirred up. Besides, she had been on a mission and I wanted to see it through. I wasn’t going to fail her.

After giving my desk a quick scan to assure myself it was undisturbed, I headed for the kitchen. People got chatty around the coffee machine in the morning, and I wanted to know if there had been any developments.

Mary Alice and Jill were hanging up jackets and stowing their lunches in the fridge. Dory was putting an ice cube in a steaming cup of tea while she talked non-stop to David, an older gentleman who was a part-time clerk. His pained look implied she was regaling him with all her theories on Joanna’s death. Anne Marie came in to confer with Jill as I poured my coffee. It was all hands on deck for the reopening—Helene being of the opinion that prurient curiosity would bring in a record number of patrons. I said as much to Mary Alice, who agreed, adding that our part-time reference librarian and cataloger would be in later as well. The more the merrier as far as I was concerned. I concurred with Miss Marple’s method of always thinking the worst of people, because she was so often proved correct, and that tittle-tattle was true nine times out of ten.

I leaned against the counter and waited for a lull in the conversations going on around me. When Dory finally came up for air, I spoke.

“Any new developments? I’d love to hear this really was a freak accident, so things can get back to normal.”

“Wouldn’t we all,” Mary Alice said.

“I heard the police spent a long time talking to Vince Goodhue yesterday,” Dory said.

David shifted uncomfortably. He lived on the same street as the Goodhues, but I wasn’t sure how close.

“Did you see them, David?” I asked, doing my best to sound sympathetic. “It must have been very disruptive. It’s a quiet neighborhood, isn’t it? Cul-de-sac?”

“More of a dead end actually. Older neighborhood you know, and the Goodhues live a bit farther down the road.”

He stopped. David disliked gossip and never had an unkind word to say about anyone, but if he thought his little geography lesson was going to get him off the hook he was mistaken. We all stared at him expectantly. He sighed.

“Well, they were certainly around, but I don’t know that I’d say they stayed a long time. Of course, Vince has been coming and going an awful lot, with the girls and his work on the Haunted Albany documentary. In and out at all hours of the night. I’m sure his parents will help with the children now. It’s all so sad.”

And with that he applied his attention to a breakfast bar he pulled from his pocket. We’d gotten all we were going to get.

“Of course, if you believe the papers,” Dory said, her tone making it clear that she did not, “it was all an accident, and it was Joanna’s fault for not being careful by the stairs. Well, you know who that came from. Anita, that’s who.”

“The lady doth protest too much, methinks,” Mary Alice said.

She had a point. Anita feared more than bad press. She was afraid of a lawsuit. Blaming the victim might backfire, though. Joanna had done a lot for the library. An idea formed in my mind. It’s all in the spin. The best move would be to honor Joanna’s memory while downplaying how she died. I wanted to ask questions, and Anita wanted to control the story. I could use that. I ran through some options as I listened to the staff for a few more minutes. Once I ascertained there was nothing new to learn, I got some more coffee and left.

I checked the parking lot on my way back to the office. Helene was in, but there was no sign of Anita’s car. I was sure she would be in today to gauge the public response to Joanna’s death and to do damage control if necessary. It wasn’t that Helene couldn’t handle things, it was that Anita believed as chair of the board of trustees the buck stopped with her. I had to give her credit, though I was sure some of it was driven by her sincere belief that if she wanted something done right she needed to do it herself. Which could work to my advantage, but I needed to catch Helene and Anita at the same time to put my plan into action.

“It’s easier to get forgiveness than permission.” True, but I’d learned early in life that it was easier to get away with breaking the rules if you appeared to be following them. This not only allowed you to pursue your agenda under the radar, it also bought you the benefit of the doubt if you did get caught.

Anita, and presumably the rest of the board, wanted Joanna’s death to be ruled accidental so the whole business would go quietly away. Based on the police activity and what I’d seen, it was no accident, and I was sure the board knew it, too. Still, they wanted to distance the library from the tragedy, and I wanted to stay on Anita’s good side. So, if I wanted to ask a lot of questions I needed her permission, even if she didn’t know exactly what she was agreeing to.

I wasn’t on reference until the afternoon, so I could spend time on tasks that allowed me to keep an eye on who was coming and going. I didn’t have long to wait. I heard Anita’s voice ten minutes before the library was due