Secrets in the Stacks by Alexandra Ivy

Author:Alexandra Ivy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lyrical Press
Published: 2022-06-21T19:04:52+00:00

Chapter 13

After the housekeeping items were done, Rarity opened the floor to a vote. Talk about the book they’d read or talk about Catherine Doyle’s murder. It was a landslide.

“I think we need to make sure Darby’s not a suspect anymore.” Holly pointed to the whiteboard, where Rarity was writing down the brainstorming ideas. “Can’t the time of death fix that? She was at the festival most of the day on Saturday.”

“Except the time I was at the bookstore, picking up more books after lunch. I don’t have anyone to verify my alibi from about one to one thirty. Except you had given me the list of books as soon as I finished lunch that day.” Darby shook her head. “I think I’m still on the list because I could have had the books already packed up, ran to the house, killed Grandma, and then ran back and delivered the books.”

“Except, like you said, I didn’t give you the list until after lunch.” Rarity put her name by the item. “I’ll drop by and see Drew and make sure he knows this. So that should take you off the list.”

“Not if she hired someone to kill Catherine,” Malia said through a mouthful of cookie.

Everyone turned to stare at her. Finally, Holly said, “We’re trying to keep her off the suspect list, not give a bunch of ways she should still be on it.”

Darby shook her head. “Malia’s right. Even if Rarity convinces the police that I couldn’t have done it, they still can come back and say I hired someone. But unless they did it on commission or took a payment plan, I don’t have that kind of money available to me. Even now, I don’t have full access to Grandma’s accounts until next week. Most murder-for-hire guys don’t like waiting around for their money.”

“I think they don’t trust their employer.” Malia nodded. “That’s an angle I hadn’t thought of to keep you off the list.”

Rarity wrote down the issue of money to hire a killer and put her name by that, too. “I’ll run this by Drew. I hate to give him another reason to suspect Darby, but like you said, if there isn’t someone who does the job up front and waits for the money, it has to clear her.”

“Or at least put Darby at the bottom of the list. The problem is I don’t know anyone else who should be on the list. Does anyone?” Shirley had her notebook open and a pen in her hand. “We need alternate options for our police detective to go look at if we want him to leave Darby alone.”

“Good point.” Rarity tapped the closed marker on her lips. She had a bad habit of doing this with or without the top on the pen, so now she made sure she closed it before she got to thinking about something. “I still think there’s something with the books. I didn’t find any valuable books on the lists you all gave me Sunday.

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