Will was sitting in one of the lounge chairs in front of the pool house typing away on his laptop when Juliet caught sight of him. She’d rung the bell to the front door, forgetting that he probably wouldn’t be in there. It was all so awkward.
“Hey,” she said, pushing his lounge chair with her knee. “I’m surprised you’re even home.”
“Hey. I got your message this morning. What’s up? I assume it has to do with Richard Kowalski?”
“Yeah. We don’t know anything yet, but I’m going to be spending a lot of time on this, presumably anyway, so I wanted Declan to stay with you in the meantime. I don’t want him home alone any more than he has to be. God knows what that kid does when he doesn’t have any parental supervision,” Juliet said.
Will smirked. “Hopefully, he isn’t anything like I was. Of course, that’s fine. I’ve been trying to spend more time at home, for obvious reasons, and Sienna is usually here any time that I’m not, anyway.”
Juliet wondered if she should tell Will that she’d seen Sienna earlier in the day, but it wasn’t her place to talk about the case, or about Sienna’s workload.
“Okay, I’m going to get going. I’ll check in with Dec tonight,” Juliet said. “Thanks.”
“Jules, wait,” Will called as she was walking toward the gate. “Can I just run something by you real quick?”
Juliet turned back toward him, her stomach sinking. “Sure.”
He looked up at the sky and then back to her. “How am I supposed to fix this? I thought I had it all figured out with Sienna, but obviously I was wrong. She met with an attorney. She really wants this over and I don’t know what to do about it.”
Juliet sighed. Will had never been great at relationships. She’d seen him with many different women over the years. He started out romantic and interested and easygoing, but quickly slipped into that self-centered place that he liked to call home. He’d always been a better friend than anything else.
“You know I love you, Will, and I’m just trying to be honest with you. I don’t know if you can fix this. From what I can tell, she’d been pretty open with you about what wasn’t working, right? Sometimes you can’t undo what’s been done.”
“That’s not helpful at all.” Will shook his head and pouted.
“The only advice I can offer you is to just give her the space she needs. If you’re up in her face twenty-four-seven telling her that you’re a changed man, you’re just going to piss her off. Talk to her again when the time is right. Show her that you’ve changed, don’t just tell her. Maybe she’ll feel differently once she has time and space to look at things from a clearer viewpoint. Maybe not. And if she really does want it to be over, then you need to accept it.” Juliet didn’t want to hurt Will’s feelings by any means, but she also didn’t think telling him that sending flowers and chocolates was the way to go either.
Will breathed in deeply. “I don’t want to just give up though. We’re married. It’s not like it’s some fling I can just chalk up as a mistake. It’s been a sizable chunk of my life. God, I suck at this.”
Juliet smiled. “Finally, something we can agree on.”
“Real funny. Get out of here.” Will gave her a gentle shove on her shoulder.
“Okay. I’ll keep you posted as much as possible. Call me if anything comes up.”
Juliet slid into her squad car and tightly gripped the steering wheel. In her gut, she didn’t think Sienna was interested in reconciling. But stranger things had happened, so she didn’t want to dash his hopes completely.
She drove to the library in silence. No radio or phone, just silence. She wanted to collect her thoughts in peace before revisiting the crime scene. Chief Quinlan was standing out front and Officer Celeste Jeffries, who was also Juliet’s closest friend, was searching the grounds near the parking lot.
“Find anything?” Juliet asked as Celeste examined an empty nip bottle she found on the ground.
“Not really. Quinlan has the security tapes queued up and Kowalski’s assistant is going to open up his private office. She was pretty shaken up earlier when Leland called her. I guess they’ve worked together for a long time.”
“News about his death is already out. Even Will knew. Tough to keep anything close to the vest when word spreads like wildfire like it always does in this place,” Juliet said.
“Tell me about it.” Celeste bagged the bottle. “When Leland called the Kowalskis’ daughter, she’d already heard about it from Sandra Bonner, the lady that found him.”
“That quickly? How?”
“No idea. Like you said, wildfire. Maybe she thought it should come from a family friend instead of the police,” Celeste said.
“Is she a family friend?” Juliet didn’t remember Sandra Bonner mentioning that in their conversation.
“I don’t know, you’d have to ask Leland. She took statements from both of them.”
“Huh,” Juliet murmured. “Okay, I’ll go in and take a look at the security footage. Let me know if anything interesting pops up.”
Celeste nodded and resumed her bagging and tagging. Juliet greeted Quinlan and went into the library, which was even more somber than usual. Not only was it quiet, but unusually so, and Richard Kowalski wasn’t there with his warm welcome and bright smile. His absence would leave a void.
Dust motes swirled above the outdated computer that housed the CCTV footage. Juliet sat in the worn leather chair and tied her hair back into a loose ponytail. The cameras only focused on the front door, the side exit, and part of the bookshelf area of the library. The private offices and children’s play area weren’t under surveillance, and neither was a large part of the research room. Juliet fast-forwarded until she caught a glimpse of a person on screen. It was Tara Wolfe, the assistant librarian who helped Richard Kowalski with the day-to-day tasks of the library. Juliet couldn’t imagine how much work there was to be done in a library of that size, it was a run-of-the-mill small town library, but she admittedly knew nothing about the administration and maintenance that went into the upkeep of a library.
Fifteen minutes later, Juliet had seen everyone who had come and gone for the entire day before Kowalski was found. Nothing of interest stood out. A mother and two children had come in and checked out two books. A college-age kid had used one of the community computers to print something. Kowalski’s daughter had brought him something from Dunkin’ Donuts, and other than that, it was just Kowalski and Tara. They’d laughed a few times and seemed to get along pretty well. Seeing Kowalski doing mundane things like checking for dust on the front desk and straightening a Reading is Fundamental sign caused a lump in Juliet’s throat. She wondered what had been going through his head at that moment. Thinking about dinner? Wondering what was on TV later that night? None of it would matter. She swallowed and tried to refocus her attention. Apparently, Wednesdays weren’t particularly busy days at the library, even though that was the one night they offered extended hours. Once school started back up again, there would be a lot more foot traffic. It had closed to the public at seven thirty p.m. Kowalski and Tara had presumably cleaned up a bit off camera, or organized books, or whatever it was that they did before closing. Tara had gathered her things and left the building at eight forty-six p.m. Kowalski entered his private office at eight fifty-one p.m. and exited the building at four minutes past nine. Based on what she had seen and what Kellie had said at the scene, Kowalski died shortly after locking the door and leaving for the night. He hadn’t seemed in distress, though he did loosen his tie and roll his neck a few times. He had no idea that his wife was just a few miles away, lying in a ditch with a spilled container of chili and a sandwich baggie filled with shredded cheese. He had no idea that the ground outside the library would be the last thing he’d ever see.