"A Murder In Milburn", Book 3: Death In The Library (13 page)

She awoke in the dark untold hours later. Her internal alarms screamed to her.
 

Where was she? Her head was cloudy, her splinted arm stiff and painful. Then she remembered, Selena’s house. She hadn’t bothered to put on the lights, and now here she was, breathing in the darkness.

From downstairs, she heard a clatter, and a muffled curse. The hair on her neck began to rise again. Every inch of her body seemed to start ringing alarms about danger. Someone was in here. Had she left the door open when she entered? No, she had locked it, and here was the key in her pocket. So who could it be? How had they gotten in?

Her car was still parked outside, she realized with dawning horror. So whoever
had
come in, they knew she was in here too.

She heard slow footsteps as the person made their way up the stairs. Nora froze. What should she do? Call out? Call someone on her phone? Grab a weapon? Her brain seemed to be flooding her with ideas, her body with adrenaline.
 

But all she could do was stand there.
 

From outside, someone rattled the door to the study, then opened it. Nora’s heart began beating harder and harder. Flashbacks from the terrible night at the library flooded through her mind. Had the assailant come back to finish the job? Had Nora made a terrible mistake falling asleep?

The door opened. Nora almost let out a little scream. And then, May Almand entered.

“Oh!” She gave out a frightened little squeak and jumped back. “Nora! There you are. I didn’t expect you to be waiting in the dark like this.” She wrung her hands together, and bit her lip.

Nora took a minute to catch her breath. When she was reasonably sure that her heart wasn’t going to beat its way right out of her chest, she said, “Well, I didn’t expect you to be creeping around the house, May.”

“Creeping! I wasn’t creeping. Oh, can I put on the lights?”

“Please.”

May switched on the lights, and some of the stress in Nora’s body began to dissolve. This was no murderer, this was only May. Not the nicest lady, not Nora’s best friend, but she wasn’t a murderer, surely.

“What is it?” Nora asked her tersely.

“I… came by to see how you were doing,” May said.
 

“At..” Nora looked at her watch. “8pm? Why didn’t you call out to me from downstairs?”

“Oh, I didn’t see your car. I didn’t know you were in here.”

“So you didn’t come by to see what I was doing, then?” Nora asked. May was a terrible liar, she thought.

May turned red. Her lips trembled.

Nora gave her a few seconds of silence. She was about to change the topic, when May crumbled.

“All right. Fine. I came here because I wanted to check if Selena had a particular book she’d borrowed from me. It’s a copy of Steinbeck’s
For Whom The Bell Tolls
.”

“Hemingway wrote that,” Nora said.

This seemed to undo May completely. “Fine. I just… I was curious. I came to see what her house looked like.”

“May, it’s all right.” Nora shrugged. “Now that you’re here, why don’t we both lock up and leave? I think I’ve found a few good quotes from Selena.”

“Oh. Good. Good.” May nodded her head enthusiastically. “That’s why we’re here after all. That’s why I came too. I thought I could look up a few quotes myself. Yes. I felt guilty making you do it alone, what with Grant at the hospital.”

“May.” Nora was very stern. “Give it up.”

“What?”

“Stop making up excuses,” Nora said. “We both know they aren’t true.”

“Wow,” May said. “You’re very rude.”

Nora tapped her foot but stared into May’s eyes, until May looked away. Realizing May wasn’t going to talk, Nora bluffed. “You’re too late anyway, I found what you’re looking for.”

“The manuscript!” May shouted. “Give it to me! Right now!”

Nora smiled. So it
was
Selena’s manuscript that May was interested in.

“What are you hoping to achieve, May?” Nora asked. “I’m sure Selena had ten back ups on her computer.”

“She didn’t,” May said. “She told us that once in our Arts Council meeting. She was superstitious and believe that until it was done, a book should have only one copy. Stupid girl.”

“Oh and I’m the one who’s rude?” Nora scoffed. “So here you are, May. Afraid that the secrets you’ve been keeping for so long will leak out? Poor, tragic Helen.”

“Helen?” May looked confused. “Who’s Helen?”

“Oh.” Nora was taken aback. Whatever secret May wanted to hide, she clearly had no idea about Brett’s long ago love.

“Selena…” May gulped. “Selena knew that I’ve done some things I’m not very proud of. I was afraid it might be in that manuscript of hers. I only wanted to take out any references to me. That was all. Honestly.”

“Honestly?” Nora laughed. “I haven’t seen much honesty out of you May. Here’s a question. Where were you that night when Selena was murdered?”

May turned white. Her hands began to shake.

Nora pressed harder. “Well? You were with Grant when he overheard Selena talking to Robert. My guess is you heard too, didn’t you?”

“No!” May protested, turning away.

“The Mayor was at Harvey’s party that night,” Nora said. “He didn’t come home until about 3 or 4am, did he?”
 

May’s hands were clasped to her mouth, and she shook her head mutely.

“So where were you?”

“I…”

“You were at the library, weren’t you?” Nora asked. “You wanted to talk to Selena yourself.”

“How do you know this?” May cried.

“Your body told me even if you didn’t,” Nora said. “You quaked with fear the second I mentioned you overhearing that call. I should have guessed at Anna’s Pancake house when Grant first talked about how he’d overheard. Grant gave you a very puzzled look when you pretended not to have overheard Selena talking that night. He knew you had, or perhaps he’d mentioned it to you. Is that why you tried to kill him, May? Because he knew that you had the chance to be at the library? Working in the arts council probably gave you access to the key too, didn’t it? You might have made yourself a spare!”

“No!”

“And Selena. What secret did she know? What was worth killing her?”

“I didn’t!” May cried. “It’s a horrible, horrible lie!”

“Be straight with me,” Nora said. “Before I march out of here and show Sean the manuscript.”

“Nora please, have pity!”

“The truth, May!” Nora thundered. “That’s the only way you’ll get my pity.”

“All right!” She said. “I’ll confess to everything I’ve done. I’ll throw myself to your mercy.”

*****

Chapter 17

Nora was a little stunned. She hadn’t quite expected a confession from May. Deciding to wait, she discreetly switched on the recording device on her phone, and said, “You can go ahead with your story now.”

“I… some time ago, I did something out of character. It was a moment of weakness,” May said. “I would never in my right mind have done this. I just… I was weak.” She sighed. “Selena knew about it. She would taunt me about it over and over, discreetly. It was unbearable. She told me she enjoyed seeing me quiver. She told me she was even planning to put it in her book about Milburn. I begged her and threatened her to no avail.”

“Selena didn’t like you much, did she?”

“Like me?” May laughed. “Selena would have happily skipped all the way to town if she saw me lying dead on the street. Selena hated me. She thought I was a hypocrite. I’m
not
. Selena was just too mean.”

“Oh sure.” Nora rolled her eyes. “So what happened?”

“After I’d begged, she told me that the only way I could be rid of her taunts was if I resigned from the Town Arts Council. She said she had almost prepared a mutiny against me anyway.”

“Ah.” Nora smiled. So she had been right about the mutiny.

“Selena and I never got along. On the council, we were both natural leaders, with the rest split between following us. The night in question, when Grant and I overheard her speaking about Robert, I decided to follow her to the library. If you want to know why – well, I’m ashamed to admit it - I wanted something that I could blackmail her
back
with!”

Nora nodded. “You thought you could catch her in a compromising position with Robert?”

“I did,” May said. “I followed her there, planning to… oh, I don’t know what I was going to do. I wasn’t thinking right! I was planning to leave anyway.”

“What happened then?”

“Helen,” May said suddenly. “You mentioned Helen right now, Nora. Why did you?”

Nora shrugged.

“I think that’s who she and Robert were talking about,” May said. “I heard her say something about…” May’s voice trailed off. She held her head in her hands, concentrating furiously. “What was it about?”

“Take your time,” Nora said. Internally, she wondered if May was being honest. There was something about the way she spoke, that made Nora think she was still hiding a lot.

“Well, now I remember, they were talking about Helen. Well, Selena was talking about Helen. She was saying something about Helen being the Princess of Troy?”

“Helen of Troy?” Nora asked. “Was she comparing Helen with Helen of Troy?”

“Yes, well, I wasn’t sure if she and Robert were talking about a person or a fictional character. Selena said that Helen could cause a war even in this day and age.”

So Nora’s suspicions had been right. She felt gleeful. Selena had been focussed on finding out what happened to Helen. That had to be the reason she was killed.

“Then what?” Nora asked eagerly.

“Robert didn’t care much about Helen. He kept changing the topic back to him and Selena. He started a huge fight with her. He told her he had as much right as she did to write about Milburn. She got angrier and angrier, telling him he was copying her work all over again, that he hadn’t changed since college,” May said. “That made Robert really angry. He started saying,
You know, back in college, I thought the world revolved around you. It doesn’t. Stop thinking that way, Selena. I’ll admit though, that when I first decided to write this book it was all about you, but not because I was copying you. Because I wanted to be closer to you. It’s more than that now. I love the project. I love researching about this fascinating town. As for you, I’d love if you co-authored with me on this project. I know it’s been years, I know you might have forgotten that I even exist. But I still love you. I want to be with you. You’ve never left my heart.”

“Oh.”

“Yes. I was taken aback, and so was Selena. She told him she couldn’t possibly answer him right now. That college was years ago. He began to push her, pressing for an answer, and she kept getting angrier, saying she needed time. Finally, when he’d pushed her a little too much, she angrily told him that she would never consider getting back with him, even if he won the Nobel Prize. Robert told her that she’d get back with him, sooner or later. He’d see to it.”

“Wow.” Nora whistled. That was a very different account from the almost peaceful story Robert had tried to feed her.

“What then?”

“Robert left,” May said. “He stalked out of there muttering threats and abuses.”

“He clearly had issues with his temper,” Nora said. “Even all these years later.”

“It sounded to me like Selena made the right decision getting rid of him,” May said. “Oh, well, poor Selena.”

“But you said Robert
left
,” Nora pointed out. “That’s what he claims too. You’re his alibi. What time was this?”

“I don’t remember,” May said. “But close to midnight, I’m sure.”

“What happened then?”

“I… I tried to talk to Selena,” May said. “I came out from where I was hiding, and told her she had to stop writing her book about Milburn.”

“Oh.”

“Selena flew into a rage,” May said. “She accused me of being an eavesdropper. She accused me of trying to censor her. I told her I didn’t care what she wrote as long as she left me out of it. I threatened her. I told her,
If you put my name in that book, I’ll come at you with an entire New York Firm’s worth of Lawyers, see if I don’t.
She said, she didn’t care, that liars and hypocrites deserved to be exposed. She said that time shouldn’t be able to erase evil deeds. They still deserve punishment. We fought for maybe fifteen minutes- before I gave up and walked away.”

“Just like that?” Nora asked. “You just gave up and walked away?”

“Brett had said he’d be home by midnight,” May said. “I couldn’t afford to stay out too long. I didn’t want him finding out about my… misdeed.”

“What was this misdeed?” Nora asked. “What was Selena blackmailing you about?”

“Never mind that,” May said, blushing.

“You need to tell me, May. The matter’s too serious for you to keep hiding. A woman’s been murdered. Grant’s still in a coma.”

“It was…” May shuddered. “It was stupid, I tell you.”

“Did you cheat on Brett? Is that what Selena knew?”

“What!” May had two bright red spots on her cheek. “What impertinence! Mind your place, girl! Just because you think you… how dare you even imply--”