“I can see how that would sour you on working here.”
“Yet this is where I want to be,” she said. “I even got a degree in retail management. Go figure.”
“It was your fate,” I said, although I wasn’t certain I believed in fate.
“Maybe.” She looked around the room again. “Though it’s more likely,” she said, half smiling, “that I just want to be able to play with the ship’s wheel every day.”
“Every office should have one,” I said, slipping my hands under my thighs so I didn’t reach out to give it a whirl. “But I’m not here for a donation. If you have a couple of minutes, there are a couple of things I think you should know.”
“Sounds serious.”
I sighed. “Sorry, but yes. I assume you heard about the break-in at Pam Fazio’s store the other night?”
“Horrible thing,” Rianne said. “I would have been over to help, but I was downstate last weekend for a wedding. How is Pam doing?”
“Cranky that she’s going to get weird tan lines with a cast on her arm,” I said. “And it’s the break-in at Pam’s store that got me thinking. I’ve talked to the police, but I’m not sure they’re taking it seriously.”
“Haven’t I heard that you’re dating Ash Wolverson? Isn’t he training to be a detective?”
Sometimes this town was way too small. “Yes, and he’s not sure I’m right about this.”
“About what?” Rianne asked.
“I think everything that has gone on the last couple of weeks is all about books. Or maybe even one book.”
“Not sure I’m catching this,” Rianne said, leaning back in her chair.
Yes, folks, it’s true. Everyone in town thinks Minnie Hamilton is a nutcase. Nevertheless, I forged ahead with my theory. “Your grandmother’s funeral—and I’m so sorry for your loss—was what brought Andrea Vennard to town. That’s when—” I looked at her. “Um, I haven’t figured out the relations, exactly. Was Andrea your cousin?”
“She was a great-niece to Grandma Talia, which made her my . . .” She frowned. “Second cousin? Anyway, I knew her more from school than through family, and even then not very well. She was a few years ahead of me.”
I nodded. “Andrea came north for your grandmother’s funeral and was killed in the library. The Friends of the Library book-sale room was vandalized soon after that. Then the bookmobile was broken into, and Pam’s store was burglarized.” I held up the fingers I’d been using to count. “Four incidents that involved books.”
Rianne looked puzzled. “But there was a lot more damaged in Pam’s place than books.”
“Yes, but when you look at the pictures we took of her store before we started cleaning, you can see that it was the books that were tossed around the most. Nothing was stolen from Pam’s. Not one thing.”
“Huh.” Rianne leaned back a little farther and let out a long, slow breath. “That’s downright weird.”
Hurray! Finally, there was someone who understood my concerns. “So, there are two things I wanted to talk to you about. One, if you could think of any possible link between Andrea and your grandmother, something beyond the normal family connection.”
Rianne’s eyes grew distant as she tried to come up with an idea. When I could see that she was coming up dry, I said, “What about books? Did your grandmother have any valuable books? Or maybe a journal?”
“The only valuable thing my family has ever owned is this store,” Rianne said, glancing around fondly.
Another brilliant idea bites the dust. “If you think of anything, will you let me know?”
She nodded. “Sure. What’s the second thing?”
“If this is all about books, you should be extra careful.” I thumbed toward the front of the store. “You have books, too.”
Rianne blinked, then laughed. “Minnie, I appreciate your concern, but I can’t think that our small selection of paperbacks is going to tempt anyone, no matter what this is all about.”
I’d expected that kind of reaction, but I stuck to my theme. “We don’t know what’s going on. Until this is over, please be extra careful.”
“This one be careful?” A tall man entered Rianne’s office. He wore the unofficial summer uniform for Up North male professionals: khaki pants, a polo shirt, and a blazer. “She hasn’t been careful since the day she was born, and probably was a problem to her mother in utero.”
Rianne rolled her eyes. “So nice to see you, Paul. Minnie, don’t ever hire an attorney who used to babysit you. There’s just no respect in the relationship.”
“From either side,” Paul said. “For example, when her attorney asks her to get together the items listed in her grandmother’s will for distribution to the family, she puts the list who knows where and says she’ll look when she has time.” He spread his hands. “And that will be when? October? Back before Cal died, I went through the house myself to put together the list, so I know there’s not much. Meanwhile, the estate remains unsettled and the papers continue to clutter my desk.”
His tone was jocular, but there was an undertone of annoyance. I stood. “Well, I should get going. Thanks for letting me take so much of your time, Rianne.”
“Not a problem,” she said. “I’m glad you stopped.”
Paul held out a business card. “In case you never need an attorney,” he said. “Any friend of Rianne’s is a future client of mine,” he said, laughing.
I smiled. I already had an attorney, Shannon Hirsch, who’d set up my will and advised me on some estate issues. Shannon had been one of the people who’d answered my call to help set Pam’s store to rights. “Thanks,” I said, taking the card and sliding it deep into my backpack. “You never know, do you?”
He grinned. “Nope. That’s why we have insurance and lawyers. You can’t prepare for everything.”
“Sounds like a tagline,” Rianne said. “All you need is a tune, and you’ll have the best lawyer jingle in the north.” She hummed a nonsense tune.
Paul laughed. “Lawyers don’t do jingles. It’s beneath our dignity.”
“Oh yeah?” Rianne challenged. “Didn’t I see you wearing the ugliest holiday sweater in the history of ugly sweaters?”
“That was twenty years ago.” He dropped into the seat I’d just vacated. “Way past the statute of limitations for embarrassment.”
I nodded my good-byes and walked out. As I made a left turn, back into the store, I heard Rianne say in a low voice, “What’s going on with Aunt Kim—do you know?”
Paul gusted out a sigh. “All I can say is, Bob Parmalee hasn’t been in to see me in months.”
“The rest of the family is saying they’re going bankrupt,” Rianne said in a shaky voice. “I keep wanting to call, but you know how they keep to themselves. They spend more time in Petoskey than they do in Chilson.”
“Almost makes me glad your grandparents are gone,” Paul said. “They would have been devastated about a bankruptcy in the family.”
I eased away, not wanting to be caught eavesdropping—Sorry, Mom. I won’t eavesdrop ever again, but if I do, I promise I’ll feel horrible about it afterward—and walked out into the store.
“All set?”
I looked at Brian Howe, latest in the long line of DeKeyser relatives to spend a summer working in the store. “Yes, thanks,” I said, and headed out into the day.
But as much as the sun and the fresh air tried to distract me from my dark thoughts, on the way back to the library, all I could think about was how money was one of the most common motives for murder.
Chapter 10
“Excuse me,” said a polite voice.
I jumped. “Sorry,” I said, moving away from the middle of the grocery store’s aisle, which was where I’d parked myself and a small cart. “I was just . . . thinking.”