Huh.
I turned in my chair and saw, right next to the doorway into the meeting room, a small table with a stack of papers atop. Could it be that I’d walked past the agendas without even noticing? I stood as quietly and unobtrusively as I could, tiptoed to the back, picked one up, and started to read as I went back to my chair. Next would be—
“Public comment,” Ralph said. “Young lady, please state your name and address.”
Dead silence.
I looked up. Every face in the room was turned to me. “Um,” I said. “None, thanks.” The faces stayed stuck in my direction, so I did what I did best in times of stress: babbled. “Public comment, I mean. I got up to get a copy of the agenda, that’s all, I don’t have anything to say, really.” And since that was very clearly true, I sat down as fast as I could.
“Thank you,” Ralph said, so straight-faced that I suspected an underlying foundation of irony. “Next? Okay, I think your hand was first. Step up to the podium.”
“Hugh Novak, 2978 Maple Lane.”
I’d been reading over the agenda, but my head snapped up.
“Tonight,” Hugh said, “you have an action item of ‘New Township Hall,’ and I’d like to cite the reasons you should go ahead with that.”
“Besides it being next to your property?” someone in the audience called out.
Hugh whirled and pointed directly at his heckler. “You’ve lived here two years and now you want everything to stay the same for, what, the rest of your life? If you don’t like the way things are run here, then move back downstate!”
The audience murmured, with some people nodding, others shaking their heads. A sharp rap up front quieted them all. Ralph laid down the gavel. “This is the board’s public comment period,” he said calmly. “Everyone will have their turn to speak, but your comments must be directed to the board and the board only.”
I was sitting in the back corner, so my view of Hugh Novak was from the rear, and I could clearly see his clenched fists.
“As I was trying to say,” Hugh growled out, “here are the reasons you should go ahead with a new township hall.” He listed a number of items, ranging from easier voting access for the elderly to new revenue that would result from rentals of the new meeting space for high school open houses, family reunions, and wedding receptions.
When Hugh had finished his list, he gave the board a long look. “Building a new hall is clearly in the best interest of the township as a whole. Do the right thing.”
He sat, arms crossed, and spent the rest of the meeting staring forward. Even when the board voted to postpone their decision on a new township hall until the next meeting, Hugh continued to stare them down, his face blank and eyes barely blinking.
• • •
“It was weird,” I told Eddie as I climbed into bed. “And not a good weird. More a creepy weird, like how your tummy feels after eating that fourth cookie.”
“Mrr?”
“That was what you call an analogy. I didn’t actually eat four cookies, I was just comparing that feeling to how I felt at tonight’s meeting.” My only purpose for going to the meeting had been to learn what I could about Hugh Novak, and I’d been more than successful.
“Point to Minnie,” I murmured, pulling the sheets and comforter to my chin. I patted the space next to me. Eddie jumped up, completely ignored the space I’d indicated, walked across my legs, and settled down on top of my stomach.
“Okay, then,” I said. “Let’s review the progress to date. There were originally five suspects, and two have been eliminated.” At least by me. I had no idea if the sheriff’s office had the same point of view and wasn’t about to ask.
I looked down at Eddie, waiting for a response. “Right. First is Land Aprelle. It appears that Land and Rowan had a siblinglike relationship and yelled at each other on a regular basis with no lasting effects.”
In addition, I’d discovered nothing that indicated their final argument had been any different, and Land’s oddly furtive behavior was a result of his reluctance to tell the world that he wanted to be a wood sculpture artist. Ergo, there was absolutely no reason for him to kill Rowan.
“Second,” I said. “Sunny Scoles was denied a loan that would have helped her sister, but her family is looking for other ways to raise the money, so why would she kill Rowan? Besides, Sunny had an alibi.”
“Mrr,” Eddie said sleepily.
“Right. That leaves three suspects. Well, four if you count Neil.” I thought a minute. “No, let’s cross Bax Tousely off the list. Now that we know the hardware store thing was work related, the only real reason we have to suspect him is that he was seen driving past the Bennethums’ house over Christmas break.”
I stopped. Could it be that I wanted to cross him off just because he volunteered at Lakeview? That I couldn’t believe a guy who found homes for stray cats could be a killer? That I felt sorry for him because he’d looked so sad?
Eddie purred, making my insides vibrate.
“Not sure your opinion should count on that one,” I said. “I’ll leave him on the list. That gives us four possibles. Going from the least likely to the most, there’s Bax, who might have killed Rowan because he was trying to kill Anya because he thought she was the one who got engaged and he was crazy with jealousy and . . . ow!”
Eddie had extended his claws and managed to drive them through the layers of flannel, goose down, and more flannel all the way to my very tender skin.
“Okay, okay, you’re right. That’s so far-fetched it’s beyond the realm of possibility. Way beyond,” I hastened to add as I saw the paw begin to flex again. “Three suspects, again going up from the bottom. Suspect number three is Neil Bennethum. He certainly resented the relationship between Land and Rowan and could have dreamed up an affair between them, killing Rowan because he was jealous. Plus there’s the fact that he seems to have vanished off the face of the earth.”
The disappearance alone didn’t look good, and it made me think less of the man. His children needed him. Sure, they were nearly college graduates, but they’d lost their mother in a horrible way and Neil’s absence was making everything worse.
I shook my head and moved on. “Suspect number two . . . you know, I don’t know who to put at the top of the list. Stewart Funston, as much as I like him, seems to penalize people heavily for what he considers mistakes. That vandalism in the high school principal’s office, and now divorcing his wife for hiding money? Who knows what happened in the years between?” Sighing, I said, “Of course, I have no earthly clue what Rowan could have done to Stewart that might have made him want to kill her.”
Eddie grunted and got up, using my solar plexus as a base for his efforts.
“Go ahead, use me for leverage anytime you’d like. Tied for suspect number one is Hugh Novak.” I saw again those crossed arms and that intimidating stare. “He kind of scared me,” I said quietly. “He’s a big guy and I felt really small with him in the room. Not that he was mad at me, but if he was . . .”
My voice trailed off. Though I owned a concealed pistol license, I’d never felt the need to actually buy a weapon and carry it. But if I got on the bad side of somebody like Hugh Novak, maybe it was time to reexamine that attitude. Maybe it was—
Something bounced onto the floor, rolled across the carpet, and came to a rest under the bed.
I glanced around and saw that Eddie had jumped onto my dresser and was now looking in the direction of whatever it was he’d sent to the floor. When he realized I was looking at him, he sat up straight.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
In response, his right front paw reached out in a hook and sent another something to the floor.
“Seriously?” I flung the covers back. “Stop whatever that is and . . . oh, brother.”