I had just turned the corner toward the library when a man stopped me on the sidewalk. He looked to be in his late sixties or early seventies; a tourist, I was guessing, since his face didn’t look familiar. “Excuse me,” he said with a polite smile. “Could you tell me if I’m headed in the right direction for the library?”
“Yes, you are,” I said. “I’m headed there myself. I can show you.”
The man smiled. “Thank you,” he said. He offered his hand. “I’m Victor Janes.”
Victor Janes was maybe five foot nine, with salt-and-pepper hair. He was on the thin side, I noticed, and there were dark circles under his eyes, but his handshake was strong.
“I’m Kathleen Paulson,” I said. “Are you related to Simon Janes?”
“Simon is my nephew,” he said. “His father and I are brothers.” We started walking. “Is Simon a friend of yours?”
Were Simon and I friends? I wasn’t sure how to answer that. We’d met at a fundraiser for the library’s Reading Buddies program. At the time his daughter, Mia, had been our student intern. Simon and I had gotten to know each other better over the past few weeks, working together to try to figure out if a proposed development out at Long Lake had had anything to do with the death of an environmentalist. Did that make us friends?
I settled for saying, “Mia works for me.” I gestured at the library building. “I’m actually the librarian here.”
“It’s been a long time since I’ve been in the library,” Victor said. “And I wasn’t what you’d call the studious type back in the day.” He smiled and looked up at the roof and the copper-topped cupola. “That can’t be the original weather vane?”
“It is,” I said. “It had a bit of a cant to one side, but we managed to get it straightened out. Rumor has it that happened one year at Homecoming, when a surprisingly lifelike effigy of the high school principal ended up on the roof.”
“It was tied to the weather vane and it was a lot heavier than it looked.” He shifted his gaze to my face. I was having a hard time keeping a grin in check. Victor Janes cleared his throat. “Or so I heard.”
“I’m sure it was,” I said.
I led him down the sidewalk to the main entrance. Inside he stopped and looked around, taking in everything from the wide plaster medallion on the ceiling over the circulation desk to the sun coming through the stained-glass window. “I heard the building had been restored, but I didn’t expect anything like this,” he said. “Very nice.”
“Thank you,” I said. I looked in the direction of the stacks. “Is there anything I can help you find?”
“Could you tell me where I could find whatever you have on vegan cooking?”
“The subject in general or cookbooks?”
“The subject in general,” he said. “I’ve been following a vegan diet throughout some . . . health issues, but I left my books at home.”
I wondered if those health issues were why he seemed a little gaunt and pale. “They would be in the 613s.” I pointed across the room. “Go down to the end of those shelves and turn right.”
Victor smiled. “Thank you,” he said. “It’s been a pleasure to meet you. I’m sure I’ll see you again.”
“If you need any help please let one of us know,” I said. He headed for the stacks and I turned and walked over to the front desk. Mary was there, staring unabashedly after Victor Janes.
She shook her head. “Lord love a duck, it can’t be,” she said, more to herself than to me, it seemed.
“Can’t be what?” I asked.
“That can’t be who I think it is.” She was still staring after Victor, who had disappeared “I didn’t really think he’d come.”
“It’s Simon’s uncle.”
She turned her attention to me then. “I know that. You might want to go get a fire extinguisher.”
I frowned at her. “What on earth are you talking about?”
“If Victor Janes is back in town there’s a good chance we’re going to be struck by lightning.” Mary made a face, two lines forming between her eyebrows. “Don’t tell me no one told you?”
I stifled a sigh of frustration. “I think it it’s pretty clear no one did since I’m completely lost.”
She patted her heavily hair-sprayed gray curls. “I don’t want to be a gossiping old busybody but since darling little Mia works here you should probably understand the nuances.” Her expression was serious.
“All right,” I said.
“Like you said, Victor is Simon’s uncle, his father—Leo’s—twin. Victor had an affair with Simon’s mother, Meredith. He convinced her to run off with him and shortly after she was killed in a car accident.”
I didn’t know what to say.
“Simon was about fourteen or fifteen. Leo was devastated and disowned his brother. No one in that family has spoken to Victor in more than twenty years.”
“Why would he come back now, after all this time?” I said.
“He’s sick,” Mary said flatly.
I stared at her. I’d never heard so little compassion in her voice.
“Apparently he has cancer. I don’t know what kind. Leo’s here for the first time in years and I’d heard that he invited Victor to come for a visit, and maybe even for some kind of reconciliation.” Her mouth twisted. “I guess blood is thicker than water.”
Something of what I was thinking must have shown in my face.
“I must sound cold to you,” Mary said. She was several inches shorter than I am and she cocked her head to one side and looked up at me. “Meredith was my friend, Kathleen. I haven’t told Mia that because as far as I know Simon never talks about his mother and I didn’t want to go stirring things up. I know Meredith wasn’t blameless in what happened. But there was a rumor that she was on her way back to Leo and Simon when she was killed.” She stared past me, at some memory maybe. “I didn’t realize how much I still blame him. I guess I’m more judgmental than I thought.” Her gaze came back to mine.
I reached over and touched her arm. “I don’t think you’re judgmental,” I said. “I think you’re a good friend.”
The phone rang then and Mary reached for it. I headed up to my office.
• • •
I had just finished updating the public-access computers later that afternoon when Mia Janes came in—half an hour early—for her shift. I didn’t need Mary or anyone else to tell me the man with her was her grandfather, Simon’s father and Victor Janes’s twin brother. I could see the resemblance.
As usual Mia was sedately dressed in a white shirt, gray jacket and dark pants with no holes or worn spots. Her hair was streaked a deep plum color, which looked good with her fair skin.
Leo Janes was smiling at Mary across the circulation desk as I joined them. “Mary, it’s good to see you,” he said.
“It’s good to see you, too, Leo,” she said.
Leo turned to his granddaughter. “Mary was friends with your grandmother.”
“I didn’t know that,” Mia said.
“I probably have some pictures of us from high school,” Mary said. “Would you like me to see if I can find them?”
Mia beamed at her. “Yes,” she said. “I mean, if it’s not too much trouble.”
“It’s not any trouble,” Mary said. “You have to promise not to laugh at my clothes.”
“I wouldn’t do that,” Mia said, looking a little puzzled.
“I have two words for you. Go-go boots.”
Mia pressed her lips together in a valiant attempt not to laugh. I did laugh and then tried to disguise it into a cough. It didn’t work.
Mary turned, pointing an accusing finger at me. “Are you laughing at the idea of me in a minidress and white patent-leather go-go boots, Kathleen?” she asked. I could see a hint of smile lurking behind the mock frown she gave me.
“I am making every effort not to,” I said as my shoulders shook with laughter.
Mia smiled. She was a serious young woman and it made me feel good to see her so clearly happy. She turned to her grandfather. “Grandpa, this is Kathleen Paulson, my boss.”