A book to kill for, p.15
A Book to Kill For, page 15
“That’s Poe. He’s still there.”
As Gloria chatted with Maggie, a ruckus came from the pen. Heath was pacing back and forth, mumbling and coughing like a little boy trying to get attention.
“I’ll have to stop in there again sometime,” Gloria continued.
“Joshua has changed the place a bit. There are more books, and there is a café, and he’s talking about putting in a lounge, too.” Maggie found it easy to talk to Gloria after knowing that she’d been in the bookshop. But as she tried to talk, in the background, Heath just got louder and louder.
“I’m entitled to a phone call! I want to know where my parents are!” he whined.
“I hate when they get loud,” Gloria remarked. “If there was anyone else in that cell with him, he wouldn’t be saying a peep. Funny how pretty boys like him seem to clam up when a real career criminal is sharing their space.”
Just then, tires screeched on the slick pavement outside. Bright headlights nearly blinded Maggie as she looked out the glass door and saw a silver Lexus SUV come to a stop in front of the police station. The very angry-looking Calvin and Samantha Toonsley appeared, she with an umbrella to protect her hair from the rain and he with a Titleist baseball hat on.
Mr. Toonsley yanked the door open and stomped inside. “Where is my son?” he barked.
“Dad!” Heath shouted.
“Mr. Toonsley, you son is under arrest for robbery, assault with a deadly weapon, and the murder of Bo Logan,” Gloria said calmly.
“What?” Samantha almost screamed before she focused on Gloria. “Where is he? I want to see him immediately!”
“He’s in the pen, ma’am. You’ll get to speak to him soon enough,” Gloria replied.
Meanwhile, Maggie watched as Samantha flipped her hair, shifted from one foot to the other, and tried to sweet-talk Gloria into letting her visit her son. Nothing worked. She was amazed at how cool Gloria remained even as Samantha and Calvin switched tactics and ganged up on her.
“I’ll have my lawyer here, and you’ll be sorry. Son! Don’t say a word!” Calvin turned back to Gloria. “You’ll be sorry for this. You’re going to be out of a job.”
Gary and Joshua emerged from the conference room. “Your son already confessed,” Gary said.
“That’s not true, Dad. He’s lying!” Maggie heard Heath say.
With Gary there and Tim not far away, Gloria opened the half door and let everyone come in. As soon as Samantha saw her son peeking out of the cell, his hands wrapped helplessly around the bars, she ran to him.
“Is there any real reason he’s locked up like this?” Samantha demanded and pointed at Joshua. “This is an outrage. You obviously have the wrong person. The right person is standing right there.”
“Gary, I want to know what in the heck you have my boy locked up like a darn animal in a cage for. My lawyers are on their way and…” Calvin started. He was a lot calmer than Samantha, and as Maggie studied his face, she was sure she saw a hint of concern that what he was about to hear was indeed his boy’s fault.
“Samantha, calm down,” Gary ordered.
“Not while he’s chained up in there. This is cruel and unusual punishment! I’ll have your jobs,” she hollered, sounding just as spoiled and rude as her son had just a few minutes ago.
“Heath confessed, last night, after we rescued him from the Hickory Creek Bridge, to flipping the electrical switch at the Bookish Café bookshop and intentionally electrocuting Bo,” Gary said.
“It’s a lie, Mom. They threatened me! They made me say it,” Heath blubbered.
“What? That’s crazy,” Samantha said. “Why would he do that?”
“To get the book and sell it for the money,” Maggie muttered. Everyone stopped and looked at her.
“You can just mind your business, Little Miss Bookworm,” Samantha snapped. “Heath doesn’t need money. We have plenty of money. More than everyone in this room combined.”
Before Samantha could even finish the sentence, Calvin pulled out a chair and sat down. He looked at his son, and his face turned stoic.
“I’m sorry, Samantha, but we have a witness who can place Heath fleeing from the scene. He almost got away with it. It was looking very much like Josh was our main suspect. But criminals are criminals because they aren’t that bright,” Gary said. “He didn’t get what he was looking for the first time. He had to go back. Stealing a book worth ten thousand dollars? How hard could that be, right, Heath?”
“Ten thousand…that’s nothing. If he needed money, he would have come to us,” Samantha said. But when she looked at her husband, it was her turn to grow pale. “Cal, what is it? What’s wrong with you? Why are you just sitting there, letting them crucify your son?”
“You did it, didn’t you,” Calvin barely whispered.
“It’s your fault!” Heath shouted at his father. “I wouldn’t have had to do it if you didn’t cut me off! Dad cut me off and told me if I said anything to you, I’d be out of the will for good,” Heath shouted before looking to his mother. “And you! I wouldn’t be in this mess if you’d just bought the book!”
“What?” Samantha looked hurt and confused at her son’s accusation.
“If you had just bought the book like you’d been bragging to everyone you were going to do, I wouldn’t have had to try to get it myself!” Heath shouted.
His face was red with anger of all things. Maggie realized there was not a shred of remorse for not just what he’d done to Bo but for how he was talking to his parents right now. His eyes blazed, and had he not been behind those bars, who knew what he would have done to them.
“If I bought it, it would have been mine. Were you going to steal it from me?” Samantha asked.
Heath said nothing but just scowled at his mother.
Maggie also couldn’t tell if Samantha was more upset that her son had killed a man and tried to hurt Joshua and herself or that he was willing to steal from her.
“What happened to your shirt?” Samantha pointed to the rip in his black shirt.
Beneath it, Maggie saw a quick flash of white bandage.
“Well, when your son decided to pull a knife on Miss Bell,” Gary said, “he accidentally tripped and stabbed himself. Then he bled all over the floor in the bookshop and poor Ruby Sinclair, as if she doesn’t have enough problems of her own. She can testify to his fleeing the bookshop in a hurry and carrying the stolen book with him. There’s also a little detail called DNA that puts him there. So he’s looking at murder, attempted murder, and theft.”
“Don’t say another word, do you hear me?” Calvin stood up and approached the bars. Now it was Heath’s turn to look afraid. “Don’t you say a darn thing until the lawyers get here. Then we’ll go home and figure out what to do…”
Just then, Sheriff Lee Smith came waltzing into the office. He had been in several Strong Man competitions in the late nineties and early two thousands. Although at first glance, someone might think he had had his fair share of donuts, all he had to do was remove his coat, as he did now, and they’d see the short sleeves of his shirt struggling around his bulging biceps. His pants suffered in a similar fashion over his thigh muscles.
“Oh, no. He’s not going home. Morning, Gloria. Coffee ready?” Lee asked.
“It’s in your office,” Gloria replied without looking up from her paperwork.
“My goodness, it’s like a regular town hall meeting in here. Gary, what are all these people doing here?” the sheriff asked. He strutted past the desks, Maggie, Joshua, and the Toonsleys, who were standing next to the cell from which Heath peeked out.
Gary cleared his throat and made all the proper introductions before the sheriff nodded. “All right then, get their statements and see if this young man would like to have a discussion in private with you once you are done,” Sheriff Lee said then turned to go to his office.
“Sheriff, we’d like to take our son home now. If you could let him out of this cage, we’ll discuss what’s to be done with our lawyer and be back tomorrow. By the way, I think I remember seeing you at the golf club a few weeks back. Didn’t know you were a member, but now that I do, we’ll have to hit a few balls together,” Calvin said with a smile.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Toonsley, but that isn’t how things work. Your son will remain in our custody. A court date will be set, and then bail will be arranged. Until then, he’s staying put,” the sheriff said before slipping into his office and shutting the door.
“Mom, you can’t leave me here. Dad, this is what they do to people without any money. I don’t belong here! Do something! Get me out of here! I won’t stay here! This is not fair!” Heath was nearly hopping up and down in a tantrum to rival a hungry toddler who had missed his nap.
“Calm down. You’re making a scene that these people will spread all over town,” Samantha scolded as she tried to calm her son.
“I don’t care! Get me out of here!” Heath screamed.
Joshua walked over to Maggie, and his eyes were wide with shock at the display taking place. “I need to talk to you.”
“About what?” Maggie replied and pushed her glasses up on her nose.
“Not here,” Joshua said.
Maggie’s heart began to pound. She wasn’t sure if she was ready for any more conversations or meetings with Joshua. After everything that had happened, she felt as if she hadn’t slept at all.
“Where is my car? I’ll at least drive it home,” Calvin barked at Gary.
“Your Mercedes is at the impound. I don’t believe she’ll run anymore. She was underwater for over half an hour,” Tim replied. “The hazard lights had been on when we arrived, but by the time we were able to pull Heath from the car, it was good night, Irene. Plus, the tree that fell on it didn’t do you any favors.”
Calvin bit his lip and looked at Samantha, who was still standing by Heath, unwilling to believe that he’d really done anything wrong.
“You two are free to go. I’ll call you if I have any more questions,” Gary said to Maggie and Joshua before turning his attention to the Toonsley family.
Maggie wrapped her arms around herself and hustled to the door. She fumbled awkwardly with the little latch that kept the half door from swinging open.
“I’ll get that for you,” Gloria said. “I’ll stop by the bookshop soon.”
“That would be great,” Maggie replied. She stepped back out into the drizzle, which had decided to remain just a fine mist.
“Wait, where are you rushing to? Have you got a date?” Joshua joked as he followed Maggie outside.
“No. I don’t,” she huffed.
“Well, I know today is your usual day off, but I was hoping that you could stop by the café?” Joshua asked.
“I’m afraid I can’t. I’ve got a million errands to run, and I won’t have any time during the week to get to them,” she said. She got to her car and yanked the driver’s-side door open before collapsing her umbrella and tossing it into the passenger seat.
“I guess it can wait until tomorrow.” Joshua shrugged.
“Good. Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow,” Maggie huffed before getting in her car and pulling away. She watched Joshua for a second in the rearview mirror but then quickly focused on the road.
“He wanted to talk to you alone in the bookshop. You said no. Too busy,” she scolded herself. “What errands were those that you were babbling about, Margaret? You don’t have any errands. You don’t have anything to do.” She twisted her mouth to the right. “Could you be a bigger dope? Probably not. But it’s still early.”
Chapter 24
As Maggie left her house the following morning, she had to admit she’d barely slept a wink. Whatever Joshua Whitfield wanted to speak to her about had tickled at the back of her mind every time she sat down to do something. While she had been doing her laundry, writing her schedule for the week, or trying to read her book, his handsome face had kept creeping into view. She had gone to sleep convincing herself he was probably going to cut her hours or let her go altogether in order to hire someone with pink hair or those loopy things in their ears to give the bookshop a more contemporary edge.
“You’re imagining things,” she muttered as she drove her familiar route to work. The leaves were slowly starting to change as the colder weather was getting ready to settle in.
Her gut folded over on itself as she drove to the shop. There was a parking spot right in front, and when she got out of the car, she thought the day had started strangely, the same way it had the day Mr. Whitfield had died. The memory of that didn’t make her feel any better. She walked to the door and was about to unlock it but discovered it was already open. Joshua was already up and about and waiting for her.
When she walked in, the pleasant smell of coffee was wafting through the place. Maggie set her umbrella behind the counter and rubbed her sweating hands on her skirt.
“Margaret? Is that you?” Joshua yelled from the café side.
Maggie took a deep breath, squared her shoulders, and leaned through the door that joined the shops. “Yes,” she said without emotion.
“Good,” was all Joshua said. He looked adorable in a white apron over his T-shirt and blue jeans as he stood behind the new counter and finished installing some contraption that probably made a coffee drink no one had ever heard of.
“What is it you wanted to talk to me about?” Maggie folded her arms over her chest.
“Let’s go into the bookstore. I think you might want to have a seat,” Joshua replied.
“Look, if you are going to fire me, just do it. I’m not a child. I can handle rejection. And although I know more about how the bookstore operates than you do, I understand that we just don’t click.” Maggie had prepared this speech but hadn’t expected to just launch into it.
“Fire you?”
Maggie pinched her lips together and pushed her glasses up on her nose.
“Why would I fire you? Everyone in town knows you work here. I’m not going to fire you. Do you ever think a pleasant thought, or is it all doom and gloom all day, every day?” Joshua put his hands on his hips and chuckled at her.
“You know what they say: hope for the best but prepare for the worst,” Maggie replied. “What do you mean, everyone in town knows me? I don’t know anyone in town. I’ve seen them, yes. I might recognize them in a lineup of sorts. But I don’t really know anyone. And I like it that way.”
“You are too much,” Joshua said and walked to the bookshop.
Maggie followed him to what had been his father’s cubby. There was a stack of books with a red ribbon around them. One of the books was the first edition of Sierra Madre Heights that she’d thought Heath Toonsley had stolen and then ruined in his flooded car.
“What is all this?” Maggie asked.
“My dad had a will. He knew I’d want to try to make the business work. So he left me the building and his apartment and all of his treasures up there.” Joshua smiled. “But he left you these books.”
“What?” Maggie was so shocked she forgot about being awkward around Joshua.
“Yeah, that’s why I couldn’t let Heath Toonsley or his mother have Sierra Madre Heights. Had the guy had half a brain cell working, he might have noticed I gave him a copy of the 1969 second edition of Webster’s Dictionary.”
“I don’t believe it,” Maggie breathed as she regarded the books in the pretty red bow. “How did you find them? I mean, there was a rather elaborate system set up here and…”
“When I saw you hadn’t thrown out any books, I just peeked around. I found your hiding spot behind the books already shelved about a week ago. After I reviewed Dad’s will, I slowly collected the books and put them all together. I was going to give them to you sooner, but with all the excitement around, I had to wait.” Joshua smiled.
“But they belong to you,” Maggie said.
“No. Like I said, Dad left me the business. Now it’s up to me to get it going. He left these for you. I don’t really read.”
Maggie glared at Joshua as if he’d just admitted to eating raw liver.
“In his will, he said he never paid you very well. These are worth some money. His instructions were that you were to sell them if the need arose to buy yourself a small house and live a happy life.”
Maggie felt her eyes sting with tears as she touched the red ribbon. All this time, she’d been worrying about her future, and that rascal Mr. Whitfield had, from the grave, in one fell swoop, given her a solid foundation to build on. He’d had some secrets, that cunning old man. All this time, Maggie had thought he was just a pleasant fellow who loved books like she did, when in fact he had been helping people all over town without her even knowing. And now he had helped her in a way she’d never have expected.
“Who put this on there?” she asked quietly, gently touching the ribbon.
“I did,” Joshua admitted. “I wanted it to look like a gift.”
There was no stopping a couple tears from rolling down her cheeks. Maggie swallowed hard and picked up the books. They smelled old and musty like a good book should. In addition to Sierra Madre Heights, there was a first edition of Gone With the Wind, King Philip’s Chair, Ivanhoe, The Whip, The Hoosier Schoolmaster, and Fallen Timber.
“Your father was a wonderful man,” Maggie replied.
“Well, he obviously thought very highly of you too.”
“I’ve got just the place for them in my house,” Maggie gushed.
“Great. And since you brought it up, places for the books. We need to figure out how to best use the space so we can get a few more new titles out in the open. I was thinking that if we build a couple shelves with a glass door, we can keep some of the older titles back here in a display case and…what?” Joshua asked after Maggie wrinkled her nose.
“More new titles? Like what?”
“I heard the reviews of Illegal Death were good, and that self-help guy on television has a new book out called…”
“Everyone’s Crazy? Are you serious?” Maggie huffed. “The only people who are going to read that book are the people who watch his show. Do you really want people looking to legitimize their own insanity roaming through the store? I don’t think we should be trying to fill the gap of what only a registered psychologist can properly diagnose.”
