March was almost half-over. The cooler temperatures of winter were coming to an end, soon to be replaced by long sunny days and warmer temperatures that would bring an endless flux of tourists to the island.
Harper didn’t mind. She was ready for the rainy season to be over so she could ride her bike to the library again. For the past week, she’d driven the golf cart to stay dry.
At the library, she parked next to another golf cart and knew Martin was already in. The librarians took turns with opening, closing, and weekend shifts since they had a small team. She and Martin were the only two professional librarians who could perform certain duties, such as researching books to add to the library. Reb and the other three workers did most of the floor work, such as returning books to the shelves and checking the books back in.
Today, Harper was starting to put together the summer reading program. School would be out for the high school and elementary school at the end of May, which meant she had to organize the program and figure out what the incentives would be. Usually, they did a reading challenge to see how many books the kids could read. Each tier would receive different prizes and at the end of the summer they would have some sort of a party. Everybody liked a good ice cream party.
Halfway through her planning, Harper took a break. She went outside to take down some flyers from their outdoor bulletin board to make room for new ones for weekend events.
As she took down the flyers, a loud voice caught her attention and she turned around to see Adam Brussard, partner to Lucas Tremayne, taking photos of the library and surrounding land. He was a handsome man, with thick brown hair, hazel eyes, and tan skin, but there was something about him that was just slightly off. Maybe it was the too-loud voice or the too-wide smile. It reminded her of a greasy used car salesman.
“What on earth is he doing here? And who does he have with him?” she muttered as she watched them.
The other man opened a long tube and pulled out rolled-up papers that he spread out on the ground. Both men knelt down to study the papers and Harper had the horrifying thought that those papers looked suspiciously like ones architects and engineers used.
Quickly, Harper walked over to them, interrupting their little meeting.
“Can I help you, Mr. Brussard?” she asked politely.
“No, thanks. We’ll be done soon,” he said, dismissing her without giving her a glance.
“And just what are you doing?”
“How is that any of your business?”
“Considering I’m a librarian at this library, I’d say it’s my business in every way. Especially with everything that’s happened around here lately,” she said firmly.
At that, Adam looked up at her, appearing to realize who she was for the first time. The other man also stopped and stood up to shake her hand.
“Miss, I’m Roger Badon, an architect from Los Angeles. Nice to meet you,” he said, looking vaguely uncomfortable.
“Is it? That’s odd. I don’t remember the library hiring an architect for any sort of renovation,” she said, taking him in. He was young, probably mid-twenties, and trying harder to be older with his ill-fitting suit. His brown eyes flicked from her to Adam and he swallowed hard, his throat bobbing with the movement while he continuously shifted on his feet and wouldn’t meet her eyes for longer than a second before looking away.
“Uh, no ma’am, miss, uh. Mr. Brussard hired me to do some work for him,” Roger stuttered.
“At the library? I’m sorry to tell you, but this is a public library, not a private one owned by Mr. Brussard.”
“With that news article, I think it’d be difficult for the library to remain open,” Adam said, smirking at her.
Harper smiled at him. “You must not have heard. The article was proven to be incorrect and the newspaper has since printed an apology and retraction.”
“We’ll see if that holds up. As the future mayor, I’ll finish what Lucas started.”
“That almost sounds like a threat, Mr. Brussard, which is interesting. See, we still don’t know who sent that information to the newspaper. It makes me curious. Also, you’re not the mayor. Don’t get a new desk plaque just yet.”
Adam’s smile dropped, replaced with a frown as he glared at her.
“I don’t like what you’re implying,” he said.
“Oh? I don’t like veiled threats either, so maybe we should both part ways here. You and your off-island architect can leave, or I can call the police and tell them you’re harassing the library. I’m sure they’d be interested to know how well you’re getting on with your business now that your partner is dead.”
“What are you saying?” he growled, his tone of voice changing from slight annoyance to outright menace in a heartbeat.
“Who, me? I’m not saying anything. Just making an observation, that’s all.”
“We’ll see about that,” Adam muttered. “Come on, Roger. Let’s go.”
“Have a nice day!” she called out and then backed away towards the library while they packed up.
Harper skedaddled back inside like fire licked at her heels. Whew! She really put her foot in her mouth on that one, but the sheer anger in Adam’s eyes made her wonder if maybe she’d been spot on.
From the window, she watched Adam and his architect pack up and leave, but not before he turned back around and glared at the library.
She had wanted to talk to Adam and get his opinion on Lucas’s murder, but she didn’t expect him to fall into her lap at the library. The odd thing, though, was that it seemed like Adam was going full-steam ahead with the casino project. Despite Lucas only being dead for a little over a week, Adam wasn’t wasting any time moving the business plans along.
Did that mean Liam had the right idea about the trouble between Lucas and Adam? Could Adam have killed Lucas so he could get a bigger portion of the profits?
If the casino was built and took off—and she was sure it would bring even more tourists to the island—then Adam would be a very wealthy man with no one to split the profits with. That was a pretty heady motive for murder.