Death Overdue (Librarian Mysteries) by Mary Lou Kirwin Page B

what happened?”
    “Well, as you heard, Alfredo and Sally went out for dinner and came back fairly late. Caldwell and I were sleeping, but I woke when they came up the stairs because they were so loud.”
    “Why were they so loud? Were they fighting?”
    “No, nothing like that. They were laughing and stumbling about. They sounded very drunk. Then I fell back to sleep and I was awakened by a loud crash that sounded quite near. When I sat up in bed, I saw that Caldwell wasn’t there and I was scared that something had happened to him.”
    “Why did you assume that?”
    “I wasn’t thinking logically. Just where my mind went in the middle of the night.”
    “What did you do?”
    “I jumped out of bed, opened the door, and saw Caldwell standing in the doorway of the library. He looked horrified.”
    “Had he already been in the room?”
    Oh, how I wished I could answer with any certainty that he hadn’t been. But I had to speak the truth. “I really couldn’t tell, but it appeared that he had only just come up to the door and looked in.”
    “But there was no way for you to know this,” the coroner insisted.
    “No,” I admitted.
    Brenda was the next witness, but she wasn’t much help. She was crying so hard she could barely say her own name.When she had wiped her face and settled her tears, the coroner asked her what she knew.
    “I came up the stairs from my room, which you know is on the main floor. I even have my own bathroom, right next to the garden room. Quite cozy.” She hiccuped a last sob.
    “I’m sure. What did you see?”
    “Well, they were all standing around, and it didn’t look good for Sally. Then the medic guys came and said she was dead. I couldn’t believe it, I really couldn’t. Not Sally.”
    “In your job as cleaning lady, did you ever notice if the bookcases were unhooked from the walls?”
    “No, I wasn’t really allowed in that room very often. Caldwell always said he’d dust it himself. Very particular he was about those books.”
    “So you never went in the library?”
    “Once in a while I did. To wash the floor, you know. Maybe every couple of months. It didn’t get very dirty since no one hardly went in there, except for him. That room was always kept locked.” She nodded in Caldwell’s direction.
    When the coroner told her she could step down, she stood up, then pointed a finger at me. “But it’s all her fault. Whatever happened to Sally. If that woman wouldn’t have come, everything would be like it was. Sally would still be alive.”

SEVENTEEN

The Final Witness
    I couldn’t believe what I had heard Brenda say. I knew she had never liked me—maybe because I was American, maybe because she was jealous of my relationship with Caldwell. I had always been so careful not to tell her what to do or to get in her way. But I had never been able to please her.
    Caldwell stood and addressed the coroner in a loud voice. “That is a ridiculous accusation. Karen had nothing to do with Sally in any way. Why, she had only just met her that afternoon.”
    “Please come to order,” the coroner demanded.
    I took Caldwell’s hand and pulled him down by my side.
    “We’ll have a fifteen-minute recess and then hear the last witness.”
    Brenda ran out of the courtroom before anyone else. No one went after her. I certainly didn’t know what to say to her. Caldwell and I walked out of the room slowly as people stared at both of us.
    Just to get away from the eyes, I slipped into the restroom. I looked at myself in the mirror. What had just happened? It felt as if I’d been accused of murdering a woman I didn’t even really know.
    I washed my face and dried my hands, then renewed my lipstick. My face was rather wan, but that dash of rosy pink helped.
    The doors of the stalls looked inviting. Just slipping behind one, closing the door, and reading while the inquest went on sounded like such a good idea.
    As I never went anywhere without one, I did have a book in my purse.