Read Online Death Overdue (Librarian Mysteries) by Mary Lou Kirwin - Free Book Online

still looking down at the papers in his lap.
    I didn’t have to think but a moment to answer that question. I could have answered it almost to the hour, but I resisted. “I met him last fall. We’ve known each other for nearly six months.”
    “How did you come to meet him?”
    “I was a guest at his B and B.”
    “Just yourself ?” He lifted his head up and squinted at me.
    “Yes, my traveling companion bowed out at the last minute.”
    “I see,” he said.
    I knew he didn’t. The calmness of my voice in no wayacknowledged the trauma of that event. My boyfriend had dumped me hours before we were to leave for my first trip to London. And then things had proceeded to get worse. But I didn’t think now was the time to mention the other deaths.
    “And you’ve become close with Mr. Perkins?” he asked.
    “Yes, quite close,” I acknowledged proudly. “We have so much in common. We both love books.”
    He humphed, and I took that to mean that he didn’t need the gory details of our bookish romance. “What do you do, Ms. Nash, when you are not visiting our lovely city?”
    “I’m a librarian.”
    I thought I saw a flicker of a smile cross his face. “And you’re from where in the States?”
    “Minnesota. Sunshine Valley, which is a suburb of Minneapolis.”
    “Minnesota?” He thought for a moment, thumping his lip with a forefinger, then smiled. “Jesse Ventura, the wrestling governor.”
    Of all the things to be known for. I forced a smile. “Yes, our former governor. I didn’t vote for him, but I actually agreed with him on a few issues.”
    “How well did you know Ms. Burroughs?”
    “Not at all. I had only just met her the afternoon before . . .” I waved my hand to encapsulate all that had happened.
    “And am I to understand that she was Mr. Perkins’s former partner—both business and otherwise?”
    “Yes, that’s right.”
    “And that she had come back to claim her share of the B and B?”
    “Well, she said that’s what she wanted. But she had left the business to Caldwell when she deserted him.”
    “How did she desert him?”
    “From what he’s told me, Sally cleaned out their bank account and left without a word. Just a note saying he could have the B and B.”
    “Have you seen this note?”
    “No, but I believe Caldwell.”
    Blunderstone made a slight snorting noise through his nose. “And how did you feel about Ms. Burroughs’s reappearance, reclaiming the B and B?”
    Here I stopped for a moment to collect myself. I was worried and tired. I didn’t want to say anything wrong. I decided to just tell the truth and not to try to figure out what Blunderstone might make of it. “I thought it was preposterous. She had been gone nearly seven years, during which time Caldwell had made a success of the business. Without any warning she descends on us and claims that he owes her half the B and B. I think not.”
    “Did they have any legal documents drawn up when she left?”
    “Not that I’m aware of. I doubt it, since Caldwell didn’t even know she was leaving him.”
    For the first time he made a note of something on a piece of paper sitting in his lap.
    “And what exactly is your relationship with Caldwell Perkins?”
    The question of the hour. “We are trying to sort that out. Caldwell would like me to move over here. We had talked of selling the B and B, then starting a bookshop together.”
    “So it would be in your best interest if Ms. Burroughs hadn’t come back or if she would just disappear.”
    “I see them as two separate issues. I don’t feel that Sally has much of a claim on the B and B, and, even if she did, Caldwell and I might still go ahead with our plans to start a new business.”
    “Did you feel threatened by her?”
    I thought of how I had felt when she showed up, looking so lovely and pulled together. “I wouldn’t say that. More in awe. I always envy women who are taller than I am. She was a stunning woman, very sophisticated. More I felt