Christmas Tree Catastrophe (Lily Bloom Cozy Mystery Series Book 6) (4 page)

They both looked at each other without saying a word. Nina moved toward them. “What’re you looking for? You left in quite the panic stricken hurry.”

Ryan glared at Nina but said nothing as he took Lily’s arm and pulled her back inside. Pointing to Tamara he told her, “Follow us.”

The color drained from Tamara’s face but she dutifully got up and followed them like a well-trained puppy.

Ryan pointed to one chair for Tamara and one for Lily but he remained standing. “What is going on? You think you found the murder weapon and waited to tell me about it? You just left it in the car?”

Tamara’s mouth flapped open and closed before Lily jumped in with an explanation. “Waiting was my idea. I thought it shouldn’t be handled any more than necessary and this place felt like a zoo, so we waited for you to get to us.”

He held up his hands. “Okay. What makes you think the brick you found could be the murder weapon?”

Lily took a deep breath and glanced at Tamara. “For one thing, there was something that looked like dried blood with bits of hair stuck in it covering one corner of the brick.”

“And?” Ryan motioned with his hand for Lily to keep explaining.

“It’s the brick that Tamara showed Malcolm last night at the library. The one with Tamara’s name engraved on one side as a sample for a fundraising idea.”

“Where exactly did you find this possible murder weapon, Tamara?”

Tamara’s hands twisted in her lap. “I was waiting in my car when Lily went into the market to put up a sign about the opening being rescheduled and my glove fell off the seat.” She waited for Lily to nod before she continued. “When I reached down to get my glove, I felt something sticking out from under my seat. That’s when I pulled out the brick that Lily just described.”

“How did the brick get in your car?”

Her eyes widened to big saucers. “That’s the scary part and a complete mystery. Last night Malcolm and I left the library together and he took it, saying he’d think about my idea, the fundraiser plan for the handicap walkway. I don’t actually think he planned to give it any more thought but, well, you know, I wanted to be optimistic and give him a couple of days before I brought the subject up again. Or perhaps . . .”

Ryan cut that thought off. “Only the important details, Tamara.”

She blushed. “The last time I saw the brick, Malcolm threw it in the trunk of his car as I was driving out of the library parking lot.”

“Who else knew it was in your car?”

Tamara’s hand flew up to cover her mouth and her eyes darted between Lily and Ryan. “Only Lily and Melinda. But Melinda wouldn’t take it.”

“Melinda? Your daughter?”

“Yeah,” Lily said, trying to rescue Tamara. “She saw me at the market when I ran inside to post a notice about rescheduling the opening. She walked out with me and got into Tamara’s car so we could talk for a few minutes. That’s when Tamara showed us the brick.”

“Tamara? Do you give me permission for one of the detectives to search your car?”

She looked at Lily for a clue what she should do. Lily nodded. “Okay,” Tamara said in a whisper so soft he had to ask her to repeat her answer. “Okay,” she blurted out to Ryan while she sat wringing her hands.

Ryan called someone and Lily heard him give instructions to search Tamara’s car, especially on the floor under and around the driver’s seat. He sat back, hands folded together under his chin. Lily couldn’t help but peer into those dark eyes and imagine being held in his arms. Even when he put on his tough cop mode, he turned her on. Possibly even more so, she thought, as she noticed how his muscles strained under his uniform. Pulling out of her daydream, she heard Tamara explaining about the argument she and Malcolm were in at the library.

“So, I can assume that you and Malcolm were not particularly fond of each other, Tamara?”

Tamara sputtered nervously and squeaked out a reply. “I guess you could say that, but he was very much alive when I drove out last night.”

Ryan stood up. “Thanks for cooperating. You can wait outside until they’re done with your car. Lily, I need you to stay for a bit longer.”

Lily looked around Ryan’s small, tidy office. A slight smell of his cologne lingered in the air. She so did not want all this to be happening, but with some luck there was a chance the murder would be resolved soon and then she wouldn’t need to be imagining being with Ryan. They would finally be together.

“Lily? What’s got you so distracted? Did you heard anything I just said?”

She smiled mischievously and flicked her eyebrows. “Wouldn’t you like to know, Mr. Steele? How about we run out the back door and leave all this behind?”

“Oh, you can’t imagine how tempting that sounds but—” She saw him glance at a leather driving glove in a plastic bag on his desk. “Do you recognize this glove?”

“Where did you find it?”

“Near Malcolm’s car.”

She studied the glove. “It could be a man’s glove but it isn’t familiar to me.” She picked up the bag. “There is an unusual distinctive woven leather pattern on the back of the glove, certainly not your run of the mill leather glove. Do you think it’s Malcolm’s? Or the killer’s?”

Ryan shrugged. “We found it in the parking lot so anything is possible. Maybe it fell out of Malcolm’s pocket or his car or the killer dropped it or some random person dropped it.”

“If Malcolm dropped it, wouldn’t the other glove be found somewhere too?”

“You would think so and we only found one, for now. So, let’s start at the beginning. I know who was at the library. When did everyone leave?”

“I remember that Kari left first, she kept looking at the weather and she had the farthest to go. After that, Tamara and Malcolm walked out together still arguing. Nick told me that Crystal and Penny parked in the side lot so I didn’t see them leave but Nick told me they left at about the same time he did. Nick left a half hour before I did, maybe even longer, because I did a lot of cleaning up. I was the last one to leave.”

“Nick left after Tamara and Malcolm?”

Lily nodded. “Yes.”

“Did Nick and Malcolm have any issues?”

“No one liked Malcolm too much. He could be arrogant, condescending, and he always had to get his way. I’m not aware of anything specific that Nick might have had against Malcolm but it’s possible.”

Ryan jotted all that down, nodding. “Is there anything else you can remember from last night that might be significant?”

“One thing that I didn’t understand was about the outside lights on the big blue spruce. The timer should have been set so they would be on but when I walked out, everything was dark. The lights flashed on then went off again. I suppose the timer could be faulty, I don’t know. But it’s when they flashed on that I caught a glimpse of something under the tree.”

“What about Malcolm’s car? Did you notice if it was still there?”

“No, probably because of the storm. It was blowing and snowing so hard, I didn’t even go to my car, but decided to walk to my mother’s house.”

Ryan finished taking notes and closed his folder just as his phone rang. Lily could see him nodding about whatever the other person said. “Okay.” He hung up. We need to find the brick. Do you think Melinda took it?”

“I can’t imagine why she would unless she thought hiding the brick would protect Tamara.”

“Yeah, I’m thinking the same thing. I’ll call her. You and Tamara can leave now.” He stood up and gave Lily a hug. “Dinner at my place tonight?”

“I would love to, but I think my mother is expecting us at her house for some pre-wedding surprise.”

Ryan rolled his eyes. “That’s the last thing I feel like doing. Will you be mad if I work late and can’t make it?”

“Only if you promise to make it up to me soon. Very soon,” Lily said as she stole a kiss from him.

Yelling from the front of the station brought Lily and Ryan back to reality. They both rushed out front to find Tamara and Crystal in a catfight.

Ryan bellowed. “Stop right now!”

Silence followed immediately as the few remaining people inside turned to watch Ryan push in between the two angry women. Lily took Tamara’s arm and pulled her toward the door as Ryan escorted Crystal to his office.

Lily hustled Tamara to her car. “What is going on? That doesn’t help you to get in a fight with Crystal.”

Tamara slid into the driver seat of her pink caddy as Lily slammed the door on the passenger side. “She attacked me. I was waiting for you to get done and before I even realized she was next to me, she started shoving me and yelling at me. I can’t believe this is happening. Oh my god Lily, I’m completely falling apart. I can’t go to the opening tomorrow, someone might try to kill me next.”

“Tamara! Pull yourself together. No one is trying to kill you, but there is a lot of nasty gossip going around. You will go to the opening since you are the chair of the Friends of the Library now, not the co-chair anymore with Malcolm dead. You will keep your head up and look everyone in the eye and act like you are innocent. Do you hear me?”

Tamara put the car in reverse and nodded. “I’ll do my best,” she said as she backed up and crashed right into Crystal’s car.

“Well, that complicates things a bit,” Lily mumbled.

Ryan appeared at Lily’s side as she was assessing the damage. “What happened here ladies?”

Tamara sat inside clutching the steering wheel with tears streaming down her cheeks. “Lily, can you deal with this for me?” she asked in between her sobs.

Lily examined the two cars. “Not a scratch on Tamara’s car but Crystal’s sedan has a big ding in the fender,” she told Ryan.

Lily handed over Tamara’s insurance papers as she watched Crystal come flying out of the station, red faced, and mad as a hatter, screaming and waving her arms around wildly. “What did she do now? That woman should be behind bars,” Crystal said as she pointed to Tamara.

Ryan asked Crystal for her insurance papers and he wrote up an accident report. Crystal ranted the whole time about what a menace Tamara was to Misty Valley. Lily leaned on Crystal’s car, waiting for this latest drama to end. Crystal bumped against Lily as she opened her car door. As Lily caught her balance, the corner of her eye focused on something on the floor of Crystal’s car. “Hey, what’s that?” Lily asked as she pulled Ryan over and nodded toward Crystal’s car.

Ryan casually finished his paperwork, watching Crystal as she slammed the door closed and glared at Lily. “Mind if I take a look inside your car Crystal?” Ryan asked.

“Yes. I do mind. I’ve already wasted most of my morning waiting in your retched police station with all the riff raff from Misty Valley, and now that murderer damaged my car,” she screamed as she pointed to Tamara still sitting inside her car.

“Okay. You can go. Thank you for coming down and helping me understand the events of last night.”

“I don’t know what you are having trouble understanding. Your murderer is sitting right there, a menace to all of us until she gets locked up.” Crystal hurled the insult before climbing into her car and spinning her tires so melted slush sprayed over Ryan and Lily.

“Why is she so fired up against Tamara?” Lily wiped the splatter off her jacket. “And why did you just let her go? Didn’t you want to check the bricks in her car?”

“She didn’t give me permission to go poking around inside her car and,” he paused before telling Lily the real reason, “I talked to Melinda.”

“Oh?”

“She admitted to taking the brick and should be here any minute to hand it over to me.”

Lily shook her head and slid back into Tamara’s car thinking she needed to get to the bottom of this one herself. “Let’s go Tamara, we have some work to do. Do you have keys to get into the library?”

“Of course. Do you still need to finish some decorating?” Tamara was starting to sound more like her old self now that she had something to focus on besides her own troubles.

“Well, not decorating, but I need to check something.”

The parking lot and the space under the blue spruce was almost empty of snow. Lily was surprised so much snow was gone but assumed the police trucked off anything with even a trace of blood. All signs that a murder had taken place so recently were gone. Only the beautiful blue sky and bright sun shined down.

Inside the library, it was eerily quiet after the bustle and Christmas music of the night before. Each step echoed on the marble floor of the main room in the center of the library. Lily walked with a purpose, quickly surveying the decorations and smiling to herself at how festive the space felt with the laurel roping, Christmas tree, poinsettias and gift wrapped books for the children who would be coming to the opening.

Tamara stopped and held onto Lily’s arm. “Oh, this is stunning. I left before you were done. Noah Lyman must be smiling down on this from wherever he is. But why aren’t the lights on?”

“Exactly what I’m wondering too. I think something must be wrong with the time clock. Let’s go downstairs and see if we can sort it out.”

Tamara led the way into the utility room in the basement. She purposefully opened the panel to study all the electrical connections. “Here it is. Someone set the timer to come on at 8 in the morning instead of 8 at night. It’s a simple adjustment and I think the settings needs to be changed anyway since it gets dark by five now. I’ll set the lights to come on at four pm and go off at eight am. On second thought, since the opening is tomorrow, I’ll set the lights to come on at three pm, well before people start to arrive.”

“I didn’t know you knew so much about electricity. I’m impressed.” Lily stared at all the wires which resembled a lot of octopus tentacles to her.

Tamara smiled at the compliment. “It’s not hard if you are logical about following the wires. Why don’t you go back upstairs and I’ll run through the cycle to make sure the lights go on and off when they’re supposed to.”

Lily turned quickly. “What was that? It sounded like a door closing.” She took off running to get upstairs to see if someone else was in the building.

“Wait for me, Lily. I don’t want to stay down here by myself.”

Lily shushed Tamara with her finger to her lips and whispered. “Wait here, I’ll be right back.”

Lily took the stairs two at a time, almost slipping on the slick marble but she caught herself. Another door closed behind her, not the main entrance where they had come in. Running to the side window, she caught a glimpse of what appeared to be Crystal’s car just before it disappeared around the corner of the library and was out of sight.

By the time Lily got back downstairs, she expected to find Tamara cowering in a corner of the utility room holding her phone up as a weapon. Instead, she was pleasantly surprised to discover Tamara was still studying the wiring. “Did you find something else?”

Tamara’s fingers were following one wire. “Yeah. Come over here and I’ll show you what I found.”

Lily poked her head around Tamara’s shoulder but the jumble of wires still looked like an octopus to her. “What?”

“See this wire? It should be plugged into the time clock but apparently someone carefully unplugged it and tried to hide it behind all these other wires. Go back upstairs and call me when the inside lights come on and check if the outside lights are on too.”

Lily did as she was told and called Tamara’s phone when the inside lights flashed on. She walked to the front door looking at the outside Christmas tree. “The outside lights are still off.”

“Okay. Wait where you are while I plug this in,” Tamara said from the utility room.

Lily jumped. “You’re right. Those lights are on now too.” She closed her phone and rushed back to the basement.

“You figured out one clue. Someone unplugged the outside lights so no one would witness Malcolm getting murdered.”

Tamara’s eyes bulged out. “I’m pretty sure the lights were on when I left.”

“Maybe whoever killed Malcolm went back into the library to make sure the lights were off. I must have still been inside working while the killer fiddled with the wires.” Lily shivered at the thought. “Who has keys to the side door?”

“The board of directors, me, Malcolm and the librarians. I think that’s all. Why?”

“Let’s get out of here. I figured out what I came for.”

“Aren’t you going to explain it to me?” Tamara asked as she huffed and puffed after Lily up the stairs.

“Yes. But not here. We’ll go to my mom’s house, get some lunch and work this out.”

“Lunch. Fantastic idea. I’m about to faint I’m so hungry.”

Lily chuckled to herself thinking Tamara could do with skipping a few meals but she wasn’t going to be the one to tell her.

Just as they walked outside, the sound of sirens followed by the sight of blue flashing lights turned into the library parking lot.

“Oh crap,” Lily said. “This is what we don’t need.”

Ryan’s cruiser stopped in front of the big front entrance. He had a scowl on his face when he found Lily and Tamara standing in front of the library. “What are the two of you doing here? I got a 911 breaking and entering call that someone was at the library. Care to explain?” He stood with his arms crossed, waiting.

Lily smiled her best flirty smile, hoping to soften Ryan up a bit. “Well, we, um, had to check on the decorations for the opening.” Not exactly a lie, she thought to herself.

“In the basement?”

Darn, he had more information than she hoped. “The lights on the decorations weren’t working properly and Tamara figured out what was wrong.” Lily patted Tamara’s arm.

“Show me what you found,” Ryan said without cracking a smile or giving any hint of his mood, making it impossible for Lily to read him.

Tamara got her keys out again and they filed through the library down to the utility room. Tamara showed Ryan what she had fixed to get the lights working again.

“And,” Lily said, “when we were down here, I heard a door close and saw Crystal’s car leaving from the side parking lot.”

“It was Crystal who called. She was coming in to get some paperwork or something and heard noises in the basement. What did you think, she was coming in to murder you? And if she was the murderer, how were you going to protect yourself? Your plan wasn’t very well thought through, getting trapped down here where no one would find you for days.” He turned and started to walk out before turning back toward Lily. “And how do I know Tamara didn’t sabotage the wiring and just now, miraculously and cleverly, figure out how to fix them for you?”

Both women stood with their mouths open. “I can’t believe you think that way Ryan Steele,” Lily said as she stormed up the stairs, pulling Tamara with her.

Ryan yelled back, “I can’t believe you put yourself into these dangerous situations where something unexpected could happen, Lily Bloom.”

Tamara whispered to Lily, “I think he’s mad.”

Lily glared at her. “I am too. Let’s go.” With a toss of her head, they drove to Iris and Walter’s house next door to try to calm down, think and eat. And not necessarily in that order.