Vampire Book Club Boxed Set: Books 1-3 by Warren Nancy

Author:Warren, Nancy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ambleside Publishing
Published: 2023-10-11T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 10

Tuesday, I was working in the shop when an older woman came in. It took me a second to recognize her as Brenda’s former teacher, Bridget Sullivan. She didn’t even pretend she was here to look at books. She came straight up to me and took my hand. “I heard that you were the one that found our poor Brenda.”

She seemed so much older than the last time I’d seen her. “It was Archie Mahoney who discovered her, but I was there soon after. Would you like to sit down?” I gestured to the pair of overstuffed, chintz chairs where I’d given Brenda tea only a few days earlier. She nodded and sat down. “I don’t know why I came to you. I wanted… I need to understand what happened.”

I understood how she felt. “All I can tell you is what I found. Do you really want to hear it?”

“No, I don’t want to. But I feel I should. I can’t stop thinking about poor Brenda.”

There was someone waiting at the till to pay, so I asked her to wait a moment. I took care of my customer and then put the “back in ten minutes” sign on the door. I put the kettle on and brewed a cup of tea. If I’d ever seen anyone who needed a cup of calming tea, it was Bridget Sullivan.

“Thank you, dear,” she said, then she sipped and sat back and seemed to gather her forces together. “Tell me what you found.”

I respected this woman too much to lie to her, but I could honestly say that I didn’t think Brenda had suffered. I told her she’d asked me for water when I got there and that she’d seemed to fall asleep. And then Andrew Milsom had gone with her in the ambulance to the hospital.

She nodded. “That’s good. I’m glad she wasn’t alone at the end. She had people who cared about her.”

“Yes, she did.”

I asked Bridget Sullivan what I’d been asking myself over and over. “But who would do such a thing?”

She looked at me with her sharp, old eyes and then dropped her gaze back down to her tea. I was transported back to the argument I’d witnessed at Billy O’Donnell’s wake. “I saw you with Brenda and a man at the wake. They were arguing, and you broke it up. You told him he couldn’t come inside the house. I didn’t overhear everything, but I’m sure he told you that Brenda had ruined his life.”

Her laugh sounded bitter and rusty. “The boot was on the other foot. Jack Buckley was one of those boys who seemed they could do anything they turned their mind to. He was always beautiful and engaging and cheeky, and he used to get away with murder. Brenda was studious. One of the brightest minds I ever had the pleasure of teaching. And she loved to learn. But when a girl gets to a certain age, she enters a period where scholarship isn’t the most important thing on her mind.

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