Before I could comment, the back door opened and the mob that had been waiting poured into the meeting room. I caught Dylan’s eye, and he headed over to make sure people didn’t trample one another in their eagerness to get what they considered the best seats in the house.
Soon every chair was occupied. A few patrons remained standing in the back of the room. I nodded to Dylan, and we took up positions against the side wall. Sally walked to the front of the room to address the audience.
“Good evening. The Clover Ridge Library is happy to welcome the four stars in Firestone Production’s I Love You, I Do—Serena Harris, Charlie Stanton, Tom Farrell, and Marissa Varig. As you know, next Saturday evening they will be presenting a reading of A. R. Gurney’s The Cocktail Hour. Tonight is a run-through of their reading. They will be stopping occasionally to discuss whatever they choose to discuss, so if this isn’t to your liking, you’re welcome to leave and come back Saturday night—if you have a ticket.”
Sally paused. No one stirred.
“Though this is an informal rehearsal, I ask that you not talk among yourselves.”
Much as I wanted to, I couldn’t get absorbed in the play—about a playwright and his family—because every few minutes one of the actors stopped to make a comment or raise a question off-mic. The remarks were often humorous, judging by the laughter from the viewers in the first few rows. When Charlie called for a fifteen-minute recess, Dylan signaled to me that he’d like to leave, which was fine with me. We were coming on the following Saturday night to see the play in its entirety. I waved good-bye to my mother and headed for the door.
We weren’t the only ones who had decided to call it a night. As we started up the stairs, I realized I was right behind Al Tripp, Clover Ridge’s mayor and Uncle Bosco’s good friend. He was with one of his teenage daughters. Al huffed and puffed so loudly, I feared for his heart. He paused when he reached the top of the stairs.
“Are you all right?” I asked.
“I will be, soon as I catch my breath.”
“We do have an elevator,” I said.
He continued to huff and puff. His red face had a sheen of perspiration. I exchanged worried looks with Dylan. “Al, I think you should sit down a minute.”
He looked around. “Lindsay won’t know where I am.”
I spotted his daughter chatting with one of her friends.
“I’ll tell her where you are,” Dylan said.
I shot him a smile of appreciation and led Al to a seat in the reading room. Then I walked over to the coffee shop and asked Katie Rollins for a glass of water.
Al gulped down most of the water, then sat back and sighed. “Don’t tell Dolores,” he said.
“I wouldn’t dream of it.”
“She’s after me to start a diet and an exercise regime. And I will—one of these days when I don’t have a luncheon to attend. Or a dinner or late meeting.” He exhaled heavily. “All of which involve food and drink.”
“I know, but you have to consider your health.”
He looked up at me. “Would you mind getting me some more water?”
“Of course not.” I got him a refill, which he sipped slowly.
I sat down in the chair next to Al. “You’re making a good start,” I joked. “Drinking water’s good for you.”
Al rested his head against the back of the chair and closed his eyes. “You’re doing a terrific job here at the library, Carrie. From what I hear, more Clover Ridge people are using its services than ever before. And that Haven House you got your uncle to run for the homeless is a godsend.”
“I didn’t start Haven House,” I protested.
The mayor shot me a perceptive glance. “Maybe not, but you sure put it into the right hands.”
I shrugged.
“Your Uncle Bosco is so very proud of you.”
“That’s the nicest thing I’ve heard all day,” I said, smiling.
“You’re an asset to this town, Carrie.” He grinned. “Maybe one of these days you’ll run for town council.”
I burst out laughing. “I doubt that very much. I have enough going on in my life without being on the town council.”
“I suppose that’s the case right now, especially since you’ve been instrumental in solving several homicides,” Al said.
“Not the latest cases, I’m afraid.”
Al shook his head in dismay. “Terrible that two beautiful young women were murdered. John’s working hard, trying to find their killer, but so far he’s come up with zilch.”
“This one hit close to me. Daphne and I were getting to be friends,” I said. “And her brother Billy works at the gym Dylan and I belong to.”
He nodded as he gazed down at the floor. Not going to speak? In that case, I was going to prod.
“Aunt Harriet told me you were friendly with Daphne and Billy’s mother.”
The tips of his ears turned red. “Sure, I knew Pattie. I knew her husband Chet. The town was smaller twenty years ago. We all knew one another and everyone’s business.”
I grinned. “I heard that Patricia Harper was quite the beauty and you had something of a crush on her.”
“Come on, Carrie. She was a married woman. A harried, married woman and a mother who worked two jobs.”
“And attracted the attention of several men. I heard Lester Brown thought highly of Patricia too.”
Al exhaled a gallon of hot air. “Les did. I did too. Part of it was, we felt sorry for the woman.”
“Was that all it was?” I asked, my tone teasing.
“All right. I was smitten. Beautiful, unattainable woman in need of a man to whisk her away from her awful abusive husband. At the time, I was so busy working that I hadn’t had a date in months. Too thick to see how trite the premise was. The draw of a damsel in distress. Nothing more than a fantasy.”
I stared at Alvin Tripp, impressed by his insight. “That’s looking at it in hindsight. What did you and Patricia Harper talk about?”
“Various things. Her children. Her jobs. The hopes she’d had when she was young. I told her I’d get her a divorce pro bono. She simply smiled in her Mona Lisa way and said a divorce was impossible. Chet would kill her before any papers were signed.”
“She seemed resigned to her fate?” I asked.
“Not resigned so much as certain that while I couldn’t help her via the usual channels, someone else was going to.”
“And she never said who this person was?”
Al shook his head. “I got the feeling it might have been someone she worked with, but to this day I’ve no idea who it was.”