Scandal in Fair Haven by Carolyn G. Hart

Author:Carolyn G. Hart [Hart, Carolyn G.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General, Mystery & Detective, Fiction, Women Sleuths, (¯`'•.¸//(*_*)\\¸.•'´¯), Henrie O (Fictitious Character), Women Journalists, Detective and Mystery Stories, Women Journalists - Tennessee, Tennessee
ISBN: 9780307569998
Publisher: Bantam
Published: 1994-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

12

I knocked on the partially open door.

“Come in.”

I stepped into a tiny office. It was one of a pair tucked between the rest rooms and the elevator on the first floor at the back of the bookstore.

The young woman slowly looked up from the catalogue on her desk. She forced a smile. It didn’t reach blue eyes loaded with distress. “Yes?”

Stevie Costello, the manager of Books, Books, Books, was trying for a business-as-usual demeanor. I could have told her she wasn’t making it. She looked like she hadn’t slept, and her orange cardigan didn’t go with her burgundy skirt. She was in her early thirties, slender, with masses of soft curly brown hair. Stevie Costello had that kind of fragile, china-shepherdess prettiness that age or hardship can so easily destroy.

“Miss Costello, I’m Craig Matthews’s aunt. Henrietta Collins.” I shut the door behind me.

“Craig’s aunt?” One hand touched the coral beads around her slender throat. “Did Craig send you?” Her eyes remained uneasy, but eagerness lifted her voice.

A purist might contend my answer should have been no.

In my view, Craig’s acceptance of my aid gave me carte blanche to claim Craig did send me.

“Yes.” I took the single straight chair facing the cluttered desk.

“In the paper it said he’d been arrested—I can’t believe it. He’s such a gentle person. To think he—I can’t believe it.”

“Arrest is no proof of guilt.”

Her fingers tightened on the beads at her throat. I feared she would snap the necklace. But she didn’t answer.

“Craig should be out on bail later today.”

“On bail? That means the police still think he shot her. He didn’t do it. I know he didn’t. Craig would never hurt anyone.” She said the last so forcefully, I knew she was battling a lingering wisp of fear that Craig, gentle though he might be, had indeed shot his wife.

“You’re preaching to the choir, Stevie. I’ve good reason to believe Craig had nothing to do with his wife’s death.”

But qualifications buzzed in my mind: Craig lied about the time he left the bookstore—if I believed the clerk’s stubborn assertion. And I couldn’t forget the maid’s enigmatic remarks about Craig’s visits to the Sandalwood apartments.

I was still confident.

But not positive.

“But the police arrested him.”

“Craig’s lawyer and I hope to persuade the police that they’ve made a mistake.” I told her how I figured the crime had occurred. “And you can help us.”

“I can? How?” She stared at me, her face eager and dubious and a little bit frightened.

“Tell me about Craig. How he acted this past week. What you know about Mrs. Matthews. If you know of anyone who’d quarreled with her.”

The necklace broke in her hand. Beads scattered. She ignored them. “Craig was just as usual. Just as usual.” She spoke with utter surety. I wished Captain Walsh were hearing this.

“Everything was fine. And the idea that he’d get mad enough to throw things around—why, that’s silly. He’s not like that. Ask anyone who knows him.”

“Stevie, how well do you know Craig?”

The comfort zone swiftly eroded.

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