“I—” Lindsey began, but he cut her off.
“Lindsey Norris, I have been in love with you from the very first time I saw you ride your bike through town with a smile as wide as the sky.” Sully glanced down at the ground and then slowly lowered himself to one knee. “I can’t imagine spending a minute, an hour, or a day without you in my life. You’re my best friend and the person I want to spend all of my tomorrows with.”
Lindsey felt like she ought to stop him, but her throat was tight and she couldn’t pull the words together to say anything, much less tell him to stand.
“This wasn’t how I thought to propose, but since we’re here and I feel the need to make my feelings on this matter perfectly clear, I am going to ask you right now. Lindsey, will you marry me?”
“Yes.” The answer flew out without hesitation or a second thought, and Lindsey knew it was the correct one, because it felt right all the way to the marrow of her bones.
She cupped his face in her hands and stared into his eyes. “Yes. Yes. Yes.”
Then she pulled him back up to his feet and kissed him. It was a promise. That she loved him as much as he loved her and that there was no amount of morning whistling that could ever change that.
Sully broke the kiss and leaned back to study her face. Whatever he saw there made him smile. He opened his mouth to speak, but his phone rang, interrupting him.
“It might be Emma,” Lindsey said.
With a sigh, Sully let her go and took his phone out of his pocket. He tapped the screen and put it on speakerphone. “What’s the good word, Emma?”
Clearly, it wasn’t a good word. In fact, it was a string of outrage so loud that Sully had to hold the phone away from them while Emma let loose. Apparently, the suspect had led them into New Haven, where he or she had ditched the car and fled on foot into a crowd at the train station. There were several trains about to depart, so there was no way of knowing which train they might be on, if they’d jumped on a train at all. Emma’s frustration was palpable.
“Are Theresa and the Norrgard brothers okay?” Sully asked.
“Yes, they called in from Milstein’s boat,” she said. “The Norrgards were bringing Theresa home from a doctor’s appointment when they were shot at while stopped at an intersection on the edge of town.”
“Was Milstein with them?” Lindsey asked.
“He was at a business meeting,” Emma said. “And Liza was in class. It was just the three of them.”
“I wasn’t accusing—” Lindsey began, but Emma interrupted her.
“I know, but they are the principals in the case, so it stands to reason that their whereabouts must be accounted for, since we have no idea who is trying to harm Theresa and it’s clear that she is still very much a target,” Emma said. “Hey, Sully?”
“Yeah,” he said.
“Nice work on getting the VIN and the plate,” she said. “They confirmed the car we found at the station is the same one as on the scene.”
“No problem,” he said.
“Speaking of the station, can you kids get there and give me an official statement?” Emma asked. “I’m on my way there now.”
“Sure thing,” Lindsey said.
“We’ll be right there,” Sully confirmed. He ended the call and pocketed his phone. Then he reached for Lindsey, pulling her close and whispering in her ear. “We’ll be there as soon as I finish making out with my fiancée.”
Lindsey laughed. She put her arms around his neck and held him tight. She supposed it was crazy to feel this happy after chasing a gun-wielding nutjob through the woods, but she couldn’t help it. She was going to marry this man!
Their visit to the station was brief. Emma took their statements, but given that they’d never gotten a good look at the person who was after Theresa and the twins, they didn’t have much more to offer other than the fact that they had definitely been shooting at the yacht.
Emma gave them a brief lecture on how they could have been killed and how she didn’t want to have to do the massive amount of paperwork involved in that, but she didn’t belabor the point, so Lindsey figured she knew it was a lost cause.
“Any luck tracking those barcodes?” Emma asked.
“Not yet,” Lindsey said. “I was just opening the database when the shooting in the center of town started, but I should have a name for you soon.”
“The sooner, the better,” Emma said.
Her face was grim, and Lindsey knew that the chief was worried that whoever was after Theresa would get to her first. Knowing that she might have the record of the potential killer was all the motivation Lindsey needed.
As Sully helped her into the truck, she said, “Can you drop me off at the library?”
“It’s closed now, isn’t it?” he asked.
“Yes, but I can get in with my security code. Besides, all of my things are in there, since I ran off without my phone or anything,” she said.
Sully nodded and climbed into the driver’s seat. The library was just down the street from the police station, so they were there in no time. It was locked up tight for the night, so Lindsey had Sully park in the employee lot in the back of the building.
When he got out of the truck, Lindsey shook her head at him.
“You don’t have to see me in,” she said.
“See you in?” He gave her a wide-eyed stare. “I’m staying with you. Until we know who is running amok in town, trying to kill Theresa Huston, I think we need to play it safe, and being alone in the library at night is not safe.”
Lindsey knew there would be no talking him out of it, and if she was honest with herself, that was totally fine. She hated to admit it, because her library was one of her favorite places in the world to be, but the thought of sitting there alone did unnerve her a bit, which was just one more reason to be furious with whoever was gunning for Theresa Huston. They were stripping away the simple joys of small-town life, like feeling safe and secure, and that was intolerable.
“Coffee?” Sully asked.
“Yes, please,” Lindsey said.
He left her at the door to her office and went to the break room to make coffee. Lindsey waited for her computer to reboot. She’d gotten a text from Ann Marie saying that they’d shut the library down per usual but that she’d also shut down the computer in Lindsey’s office. Lindsey took a moment to appreciate her staff and sent Ann Marie a quick text thanking her.
The sound of a fist banging on glass brought her attention to the front of the library. The security light was on outside, and standing under its glow were Nancy Peyton and Violet La Rue. Nancy was carrying something that looked suspiciously like a cookie tin. Lindsey’s stomach growled. It would be horribly rude not to see what her two friends wanted so late at night.
She left her office and crossed the library. When they saw her coming, Violet waved, and Nancy held up the tin of cookies as if she knew a bribe was required to get the library open after hours.
Lindsey crouched and unlocked the door. Once the latch clicked, she pushed the door open, and the two women filed in. Just as the door was sliding shut, a hand shot out and stopped it. Lindsey glanced up to see Robbie standing there, looking quite pleased with himself as he stepped into the library.
“All right, I’ll bite—what are the three of you doing here?” Lindsey asked.
“The two of us just happened to be in the neighborhood and thought we’d bring you some cookies,” Nancy said.
“Exactly right,” Violet said. “They’re snickerdoodles, your favorites.”
Lindsey gave them a suspicious glance as she took the tin. “Thank you.”
“Well, I don’t have cookies,” Robbie said. “But I heard from a reliable source that you took off after the car that was chasing down Theresa Huston, and I want to know what happened. My girlfriend is being annoyingly hush-hush about all of it.”
“Well, she is the chief of police,” Violet said. “She can’t talk about these things.”
“Even with her fella?” Robbie asked. “That doesn’t seem right.”
“No matter,” Nancy said. “Lindsey will tell us what’s happening, won’t you?”
Lindsey blinked at them. “Do I really look like I can be bribed with snickerdoodles?”
“Yes,” all three of them answered as one.
Sully came from the back room and took in the group at a glance. He turned on his heel and said over his shoulder, “I’ll go make more coffee. And if you want details, Nancy, those had better be snickerdoodles.”
Distracted by the cookies, Lindsey hadn’t relocked the door. In seconds it was yanked open, and Emma Plewicki charged into the room. She stared at them all and then looked Robbie over and plopped her hands on her hips.
“I thought the library was closed.”
“It is,” Lindsey said. She shoved the tin at Emma and crouched to relock the door. When she rose, she took the tin back and marched toward her office, knowing that the group would follow her. “Was there something I can help you with, Emma?”
“I was hoping you already had,” Emma said.
Lindsey waved the tin in the air. “Haven’t really had a chance.”
“That’s just as well,” Emma said. She cut ahead of the others and followed Lindsey into her office, shutting the door behind her.
Through the glass, Lindsey saw Robbie throw his hands in the air while Nancy crossed her arms over her chest and Violet tipped her chin up at a defiant angle. She hoped Sully could soothe them with some coffee, because there was no way she was opening the door without Emma’s okay, and she wasn’t giving up the cookies without a fight.
“So, what’s up?” she asked Emma.
“Right after you left, I had a visit from Detective Trimble of the state police,” Emma said.
“Have they identified the man who was killed?” Lindsey asked.
“Possibly. We think his name was Chad Bauman,” Emma said.
Lindsey frowned. She didn’t know any patrons by that name.
“I don’t know the name either, but there was a receipt for a nearby motel found in the car, and the desk clerk identified a man fitting his description as having stayed there,” Emma said, accurately interpreting Lindsey’s expression. “We suspect he’s from out of state, since the only Chad Bauman in Connecticut is a twelve-year-old who lives up in Kent. Our Chad Bauman also had a woman with him, but the desk clerk didn’t get a good look at her. The crime unit did, however, find this in the CD player of the car.” She reached into her jacket pocket and withdrew a clear plastic evidence bag that contained a single CD. The Briar Creek Public Library sticker was placed prominently around the middle, with an item barcode visible just below it. She handed it to Lindsey.
Lindsey stared at the CD. It was an audiobook, the third CD in a set for Albert Camus’s The Stranger. This was it. The key to whoever the dead man in the car was. This would likely identify him and give them their first clue as to who wanted to kill Theresa Huston.
Her fingers shook a little bit as she turned to her desk, sank into her seat, and double-clicked on the icon that would open her circulation module.
She peered at the numbers and then input them in the search-by-barcode option on the module. As soon as she hit enter, a record appeared on the screen. She saw the name that popped up, and a wave of confusion swamped her. How could that be? It didn’t even make sense.
She felt Emma press closer, and she closed the window and turned the monitor away from the chief of police. She didn’t want to be a hard-ass, but she would be, especially now, because a patron’s right to privacy was not negotiable.
“Lindsey—” Emma said.
“You know I can’t tell you who it is without—” Lindsey began.
Emma stopped her by pulling a piece of paper out of the same pocket she’d had the CD in.
“Your subpoena,” she said. “It was issued this evening, right after I sent you the barcodes.”
“You could have led with that,” Lindsey said. She held out her hand and took the paper. She trusted Emma, but she glanced at the paper just to be a stickler.
“I could have, but I like watching you flex your librarian muscle,” Emma said. Her teasing grin grew serious. “It’s good that you look out for your patrons like that, and I’m sorry I gave you a hard time about it.”
“Thanks,” Lindsey said. She folded up the paper, which looked legit, and spun the monitor back. Then she maximized the window. “The person who checked out the CD found in the car stereo was Toby Carter.”