Black Beans & Vice (25 page)

Jane listened, horrified, as he described Tia's thin legs, clad in
those silly striped socks, sticking out from behind the bed.

"I'm relieved not to have seen more than that," James declared
with feeling. He set out a water bowl and two dishes of kibble for the animals. "She was just a girl, really, and so infused with vitality.
She had a whole life to lead yet. I didn't like her, Jane, but when
I saw her pets, I couldn't just leave them there to be collected by
animal control in the morning. I felt like I owed her something for
having been there, for having seen what I shouldn't have seen."

Nodding, Jane reached out and scratched Miss Pickles under
the chin. "What if Tia's family wants to reclaim these guys? I know
you were acting out of kindness, James, but Eliot is going to go
berserk when he discovers these two tomorrow. He will love them
instantly. How can we let him become attached to these sweet
creatures when they might be taken away in a day or so?"

"I hadn't thought that far," James confessed. "When I saw the
faces of her pets and thought of how passionately she fought for
animals..." He broke off, smiling as Miss Pickles began to bat
about a rubber band across the kitchen floor. "I'm sorry. I didn't
mean to create any more drama for us."

Snickers licked Jane's hand and she giggled. "You did the right
thing, honey. We'll simply explain to Eliot that we're acting as a
foster family and that these animals might not be staying with us
permanently." She kissed the mini schnauzer on the crown of his
head and smiled. "I always wanted a dog when I was a little girl,
but my father was allergic to anything with fur. I had goldfish instead. Not very exciting pets, let me tell you." Snickers rolled on his
back, put his paws in the air, and gazed at Jane with a look of pure
adoration. "Oh, I hope we do get to keep you both! Come here,
Miss Pickles. Let Mama get a look at you!"

Jane played with the animals for a little longer, but ultimately
decided she was too exhausted to keep James company while he
watched mindless television. James was tired as well. It had been a trying day, but he found he couldn't go to sleep. He sat on the sofa
while images flickered on the screen and blue light danced across
the dark living room, but his mind refused to focus on a particular show. Instead, his thoughts kept returning to the events of the
past week. He replayed the night of Jackson's stroke and called
forth every physical detail of the sinister paper airplane delivered
to Eliot. He then closed his eyes and traveled back into Tia's room,
seeing the overturned lamp, the posters on the wall, and the dead
girl's legs.

As the hours passed, James was incredibly grateful to have the
animals beside him. Both of them had explored their new environment and had a snack. Now, as weary from the emotional evening
as James, they curled up against his legs and placed their heads in
his lap. He stroked each animal, feeling comforted by the warmth
of their bodies and the soft sounds of their breathing. It was well
past midnight when James finally drifted off to sleep.

He didn't recall waking during the small hours of the morning
and making his way to the bedroom. Yet he was right beside his
digital clock when the alarm went off at a quarter to seven. Jane let
out a groggy groan and Snickers jumped up from where he'd been
sleeping between James' feet and began to yip in excitement.

Within seconds, Eliot was in the room and on top of the bed
too, squealing with happiness as he hugged Snickers, Jane, and
James again and again until Miss Pickles meowed from the doorway.

"Holy moley! A cat too!" he cried in ecstasy. "This is the best
day ever!"

Jane wasted no time in explaining the situation to Eliot and the
boy seemed satisfied to live in the moment. As James sat down for breakfast at the kitchen table, listening to the new range of noises
filling his house, he felt a surge of renewed hope.

"Is the coffee really that good?" Jane glanced his way and then
popped open a can of Fancy Feast. Miss Pickles stood on her back
feet and stretched her front paws out toward the cat food.

"I was just thinking that I am one lucky man to be able to wake
up to this happy hubbub all summer long." He waved his hand
around the room. "Our little nest-it's almost as if no one can
touch us in here."

Jane pointed at her chest. "Or in here."

Later, she sent him out the door with a kiss and a brown bag
lunch.

From that point on, James' day only grew brighter. The library
was busy and nearly every patron stopped by the reference desk to
ask after Jackson's health. By midmorning, he was able to share the
wonderful news that his father was being released from the hospital.

"I just got off the phone with Milla!" James shouted in the break
room. "Pop's going home this evening!"

Francis, whose mouth was stuffed with an Italian hoagie, gave
his boss a hearty thumbs-up.

"He'll still need to go to rehab every day, but I know he'll get
better faster once he's sleeping in his own bed again." James spoke
mostly to himself.

"And to be eating Milla's cooking instead of hospital food."
Francis grimaced at the thought. "But Professor, how is Mr. Henry
going to get up and down the stairs? Didn't you tell me his left side
is super weak?"

James hadn't considered the extent of his father's disability
until that moment. He stood in the center of the room, awash
with guilt. "There's been so much going on. I hadn't even thought
about how different things will be for him now."

"Don't worry, Scott and I will meet you at their place after
work." Francis gave him a reassuring smile. "We can just move his
bed into the den."

"Brilliant!" James clapped Francis on the back so hard that the
younger man nearly choked on an enormous bite of his salami,
ham, and provolone on rye sandwich.

Once the twins were done with their break, James laid out the
lunch Jane had prepared, noting that he was enjoying his vegetarian diet more and more. He gobbled up an egg-salad sandwich
made with a hint of Dijon and lots of salt and pepper, and savored
a bowl of fresh strawberries with a side of Creme Fraiche. When
he unfolded a Post-it note from the bottom of his brown bag at
the end of his meal, he smiled to see that Jane had drawn a heart
with their initials inside with a purple crayon.

In the remaining minutes of his lunch break, James called
Milla to discuss the relocation of the master bedroom. She made
several jokes about how Jackson would never go to therapy if he
could spend all his time watching reruns of The Price Is Right instead, but was grateful to the Fitzgeralds for both the idea and the
willingness to move furniture.

"And James," she whispered conspiratorially. "If your daddy's
singing catfish plaque happens to disappear during this little rearrangement that would be perfectly fine with me."

Jackson voiced a garbled protest in the background and Milla
laughed. "Just seeing if you were paying attention, darling!"

During the afternoon, Francis led a book club discussion while
Scott assisted patrons in the tech corner and Fern manned the circulation desk. James offered recommendations to several mothers
while their children played in the new and improved storybook
area. Scott and Francis had recently built a small wooden puppet
theater, and Fern, who was not only a talented photographer but
apparently a skilled seamstress as well, had sewed a dozen puppets. She made the Big Bad Wolf, the Three Little Pigs, Little Red
Riding Hood, Peter Pan, Captain Hook, Tinkerbell, a crocodile, a
prince, a princess, and a fire-breathing dragon. She'd also set up
a special display of picture books containing the characters she'd
turned into puppets.

As James carried a stack of strays back to the circulation desk,
he smiled at his newest employee. "Everything going okay?" he
asked. "Are you adjusting to your career as a librarian?"

Fern showed him a dazzling smile. "I love it! Aside from my
photography, this is the most rewarding job I've ever had. I feel
like I was meant to be here."
"

I was just thinking the same thing," he told her warmly.

She checked out a stack of romance books for a shy and blushing patron and then took a step closer to James. "I've been thinking about what we discussed the other day." She paused, gathering
courage. "I do have feelings for Scott. I'm going to meet with the
other guy and tell him I'm not interested in anything but friendship."

James nodded. "Good for you, Fern. You and Scott..." he trailed
off, searching for the right words. "You seem to fit together. Like
we all fit here in this library. Sometimes it takes a crazy chain of
events to bring us where we are supposed to be."

"Waxing philosophical, Professor?" an elderly patron teased.
With a self-effacing grin James wheeled the reshelving cart to the
fiction section. He'd barely placed the latest Lee Child novel on the
shelf when someone tapped him on the elbow. It was Lucy. James
took in his friend's glassy eyes and slumped shoulders. Abruptly,
the memories of the previous night he'd been able to hold at bay
by concentrating on routine tasks came rushing back.

"How are you?" he asked softly.

Lucy tucked a lock of stray hair behind her ear. "It was a long
and disappointing night. We found no clues. Not one!" Her mouth
thinned into a line. "Sometimes this job is damned frustrating."

James had rarely seen Lucy so irritable, but he assumed that
part of it was due to fatigue. "Was Tia strangled?" he whispered.

"Doesn't look like it. Someone pinned her down on the floor
and held her by the neck, but that wasn't the cause of death. The
ME's still working on that. With her parents being who they are,
this case is the top priority of the department." She ran her finger along the spines of the books on the shelf nearest her arm.
"I heard Sheriff Huckabee break the news to them this morning.
They couldn't be reached last night because they're on some exclusive Caribbean Island where there's no cell phone service. They'll
be here in a few hours though. Having a private plane comes in
handy at times like this," she added wryly.

James guessed the reason behind Lucy's anger. "No suspects
yet?"

Lucy shook her head. "None. The guy must have worn gloves.
I'm assuming the killer is male because of the size of the bruises on
Tia's neck. We've matched most of the prints in the room to Tia.
Her mother thinks the other unknown set belongs to the cleaning woman. The parents haven't been upstairs since Tia moved in. I
take it they weren't very close to their daughter. Can you imagine
never having been in your only daughter's room?"

"Does Tia have siblings?"

"Two brothers. Both work for daddy, live in McMansions,
and jet around the globe. They've never set foot in Tia's house."
She glanced at her watch. "I need help with this case, James, and
I don't have time to chase a bunch of dead ends. I'm gonna call a
supper club meeting so we can bat around a few theories. Plus, I
want to ask Gillian to call Kenneth's office and pretend to be a client. If anyone can worm information out of a tight-lipped lawyer,
it's Gillian"

James reached out, briefly squeezed her shoulder, and then
shelved the latest Booker prizewinner. "Let me make the arrangements. And don't even think about spending your last ounce of energy driving by my place. Go home and get some sleep."

"Sullie's going to do the drive-by on the way back from Luigi's.
There's no way I'm cooking tonight so we're having giant plates
of pasta. I plan to fall into a food coma afterward." Suddenly, she
brightened. "With all this drama going on, I forgot to tell you that
Luigi and Luis' mama have been spending an awful lot of time together. He's even taught her how to toss pizza dough and shape it
into a pie. Word is she's a natural."

James was astonished. "They like each other? Romantically?"

Lucy laughed for the first time since she'd entered the library.
"Stranger things have happened." She passed him a copy of Sue
Monk Kidd's Secret Life of Bees. "Is this any good?"

"Very. Do you want to check it out?"

"No thanks." Lucy took her keys out of her pocket. "My reading material is going to consist of the report from the medical examiner, Sullie's notes from the crime scene, and any background
information I can find on Tia Royale."

"Some people have all the fun," James teased and walked his
friend to the door.

After work, James, Scott, and Francis spent two hours at the
Henry house moving furniture from the den to the dining room
and from the master bedroom to the den. When they were done,
Scott hobbled around the room on one leg, using a broom as a
crutch.

"Dude, that is not cool," Francis scolded his brother.

Scott shoved his glasses up his nose and frowned. "I'm not
making fun of Mr. Henry, bro. I just want to be sure he's got
enough room to maneuver with his crutches." When Scott banged
his knee sharply into the dresser, all three men winced.

"I'm glad you decided to put our arrangements to the test,"
James declared as he and Francis moved the dresser to the far
side of the room. Standing back, he surveyed their work and was
pleased with the results. Jackson and Milla now had a convenient
first-floor bedroom and Jackson's ugly and aged den furniture had
been temporarily hidden under tablecloths.

Turning to the twins, James said, "We'd better get going. Pop
won't want us to see him struggling inside. I'll need to give him
at least one night to get used to all of this. Now, I'd like to buy
you both dinner." He reached for his wallet, but Francis held out a
hand to stop him.

"You're like family to us, Professor. And Milla cooks for us all
the time, so we are totally even."

Scott nodded in agreement. "Yeah, we should be paying you.
We're always getting free treats from Quincy's Whimsies too. We
are so spoiled by your family that it's like Christmas all year long."