Murder by the Bookend by Laura Gail Black

Author:Laura Gail Black
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books

Chapter Fourteen

“Jenna!” A muffled voice came through my front door. “My hands are full. I can’t even knock!”

I rushed to open the door, finding Keith on the other side holding three pizza boxes in the crook of one arm and a half case of beer under the other.

“I come bearing gifts.” Keith grinned.

Before I could step back, Mason pushed past me and grabbed the pizza boxes. “Yum! Just what we need.”

Mason placed the pizzas on the table next to a stack of paper plates I’d already grabbed, while Rita took the beer and slid it into my mostly empty refrigerator.

“Okay, gang, time for us to figure this thing out.” I herded everyone to the table.

“Sure thing, boss lady,” Mason mumbled over a mouthful of pizza.

Rita poked him in the shoulder as she took a seat next to him. “Don’t talk with your mouth full.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he mumbled and swallowed.

I slid into the chair next to Keith. “Guys, I need your help. Someone tried to kill my dog, probably because they think he can identify them as Linus’s killer. We’ve got to figure this thing out, and I figure four heads are better than one.”

Rita sipped a beer. “You said you’d found out more today.”

“I did.” I nodded. “I went to the library today, under the guise of looking at how they run their inventory tracking processes. What I discovered is that two more books have gone missing since Linus’s death.”

Mason whistled low. “That makes”—he looked at the ceiling and counted the tips of his fingers—“between thirty and thirty-five missing books in a year and a half.”

Keith pulled two pieces of pepperoni pizza onto his plate. “That’s way too many at too steady of a pace to be a coincidence.”

“I think your partner is missing the boat on this thing.” I took a slice of everything pizza and bit into it, burning the roof of my mouth on the melted cheese. I rapidly blew in and out to cool my mouthful of pizza off before I could chew it. I shushed my mother’s voice in my ear, which told me that was bad manners, by insisting it was okay because I was holding a napkin in front of my mouth so no one could see the food.

Keith shook his head. “I don’t know. This could be completely unconnected. All we know for sure is some books are missing. At this point, we don’t have a strong enough link to tie it to the murder. At least not in Sutter’s eyes. Let’s just say I can neither confirm nor deny that he is convinced the case is coming from a political angle.”

“I agree with Jenna.” Rita came to my rescue. “I think it’s a bit too coincidental that he’s tracking expensive books that have gone missing and ends up dead. What is it they’re always saying on the cop shows? Follow the money. My question is, if someone’s stealing books, who’s benefiting?”

“And was it—” Mason caught Rita’s glare at talking with his mouth full and swallowed.

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