The door to the hall pushed open and Ruby came in. She looked around, caught sight of me, and hurried across the floor “Am I late?” she asked, yanking off her gloves.
“It’s okay,” I said. “Maggie’s adjusting Eddie’s legs.”
Ruby looked over at Mags pulling on Eddie’s leg like a demented chiropractor, and handed me a canvas bag. “These are the lights Maggie wanted.”
“Thanks,” I said. I studied her face for a moment. She seemed unsure whether to go or stay. Before I could ask her if everything was all right, Lita poked her head out of the door to the kitchen.
“Ruby, hang on for a moment,” she called. “I have something for you.” Lita skirted the long tables and joined us. She was carrying a black cloth bag from the grocery store. “I was so sorry to hear about Agatha,” she said.
Ruby nodded. “Thank you.”
“I know the two of you were close.” She held out the bag. “Agatha left this here the night she . . . died. I didn’t know what to do with it.”
“What is it?” I asked. I remembered Agatha had had the bag at Eric’s.
“Just odds and ends,” Lita said.
Ruby took the bag, hugging it to her chest. “Thank you,” she said in a low voice.
Lita nodded and went back to the kitchen.
Ruby pressed her lips together and swallowed a couple of times. “I’m not very good at this.”
“You’re doing fine,” I said. Agatha’s death had hit her hard. Her usual resilience seemed to have deserted her.
“David—Agatha’s son—called me. It’s going to be at least another three or four days before he can get here.”
“I’m sorry.”
“He asked me to pick some clothes for her to be . . .” She let the end of the sentence trail off. Then she cleared her throat and continued. “And check on the house.” She had to clear her throat again, and I could see the effort it was taking for her not to give in to tears. “I said I would, but when I think about it . . .” She took a shaky breath.
“I’ll go with you if that would help.”
Ruby looked at me. “Seriously?”
“Yes.”
Her shoulders sagged. “That would help a lot. Thank you.”
“When do you want to do this?”
“Any chance we could go before the supper tonight?”
“I don’t see why not,” I said. “The library is closing early because of Winterfest. Where did Agatha live?”
It turned out the older woman had lived close to the Stratton Theater, ten minutes, maybe less, from the library. We agreed to meet just before five thirty.
“It won’t take long,” Ruby promised, setting the bag on a chair and shedding her coat. She took the lights back from me. “I appreciate this, Kathleen.”
“It’s not a problem,” I told her.
Maggie was standing back studying Eddie again. From where I was standing, his legs didn’t look any different from the way they did before she started pulling and twisting them. Ruby walked over, gave Maggie the bag and studied Eddie, too. Whatever it was they were concerned about, I couldn’t see.
“Hello,” a voice said behind me.
Startled, I jumped.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.” It was Ruby’s boyfriend, Justin. He smiled. “Ruby says she’s going to stick a warning bell on me. She says I must’ve been a cat in a past life.”
I thought about Hercules and Owen sneaking around the house. They were always catching me unawares.
“Hello, Justin,” I said. “Ruby’s helping Maggie. She shouldn’t be too long.”
He pulled off his gloves and stuck them in the pocket of his brown leather jacket. “Actually I was hoping to talk to you. Ruby said you’d probably be here. Could you answer a couple of questions about the reading program you set up at the library?”
I frowned. “You mean Reading Buddies?”
“Yeah,” he said. “You got a Franklin grant for that, didn’t you?”
“We did,” I said.
Reading Buddies was a program we were doing through the schools. It paired kids in kindergarten and grade one with older kids in grades four and five—supervised, of course.
“I’ve been working on a project to build a camp for at-risk kids. You know, the ones who for whatever reason don’t fit in at a regular school.” He pulled a brochure out of his pocket and handed it to me. “It’ll give them the chance to learn responsibility and life skills.” His face got dark. “We have a piece of land, but the funding for the next stage fell through.”
“I’m so sorry to hear that.”
“People can be shortsighted.” His voice was laced with anger. He took a deep breath. “Ruby thought maybe I would be eligible for a Franklin grant.”
“Maybe,” I said, glancing at the pamphlet he’d just given me. “With a Franklin grant you have to document the need when you apply. They like numbers. They like statistics.”
He rolled his eyes. “Isn’t it kind of obvious that there are kids living on the street? Kids that need a chance?” He snapped the two elastics around his wrist.
“It’s easier for some people to connect with the problem—whether it’s kids who can’t read or kids who are homeless—if they have specifics.”
He sighed and shook his head. “I’ve been working on this project for over a year. So many pieces of paper, so many trees used, and nothing happens.”
His dark hair was slicked back with gel. He smoothed a hand over the top of it, then let out a breath and smiled at me. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I get a little crazy about this.”
He looked over at Maggie and Ruby. “I’m worried about her,” he said quietly.
“She was close to Agatha,” I said. “It’s understandable that she’s upset.”
“She’s not getting any sleep. She has nightmares,” he said shifting restlessly from one foot to the other.
“She found Agatha’s body. That would give anyone nightmares.”
At that point Ruby caught sight of Justin. She waved to him, said something to Maggie, who was on her way down the ladder, and walked over to us.
“Hi,” she said. “Did Kathleen answer all your questions?”
He nodded, reaching to brush something from her cheek. His fingers lingered on her skin for a moment. “Yeah, she did.”
I did? I didn’t think he’d actually asked any. I touched Ruby’s shoulder. “I’ll see you later.” She smiled and nodded, but her attention had already been pulled back to Justin.
I walked over to Maggie, tucking Justin’s brochure in my pocket. “Am I just a bitter, cynical person? Because he gets on my nerves,” she said.
I held up my thumb and middle finger about an inch apart. “Maybe just a bit,” I said. “I thought you liked Justin.”
“I don’t dislike him.” She leaned in close to me. “He’s just so intense,” she said, stressing the words the way Justin did when he spoke.
I couldn’t help laughing.
Maggie grinned and then her attention went back to Eddie.
“He looks good, Mags,” I said.
“Are you saying that because it’s really what you think or because you’ve decided I’ve crossed the line into Wack-a-doodle Land?”
I waggled one hand at her. “About sixty-forty.”
“I can live with that.”
She turned her attention to the photo collages. The new lights were clear and natural, a lot more like outdoor sunlight than anything else. Maggie looked up at the ceiling.
“Would it help if I went up the ladder and you nitpicked over how the lights are positioned?”
“Yes.” She smiled at me. Sometimes Maggie was like Owen and Hercules; sarcasm was totally wasted on her.
I moved the ladder about a foot to the left, checked to make sure it was steady and climbed up. For the next ten minutes or so I made miniscule adjustments to the lights until Maggie was satisfied.
“That’s it,” she said, holding out both hands. “I’m not touching anything else. I swear.”
Rebecca came across the tile floor, beaming. “Maggie, this is fantastic,” she said.