minivans. Outside, the potentilla shrubs clung to a last bit of color, but I’d need to trim them and clean the cigarette butts from the rock garden before the first snows hit. There’d be time.
A feeling of utter relaxation seeped into my bones. I knew how I’d be spending tonight, and it felt good. Just had to make sure the library was in capable hands, and I’d go home and check out for the night.
“You get laid?”
“What?”
Mrs. Berns was sitting on a rolling chair in the center of the library with her cast propped in front of her on another chair. She was painting her free toenails a hot pink. “I asked if you’d gotten some action. You’ve got a goofy look on your face, and you either got laid or you’re…” Her eyes sharpened. “Go get it.”
“Get what?” I’d already started backing toward the door.
“The bottle.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” That was the wrong answer. I always knew what she was talking about, even if I didn’t want to, and Mrs. Berns was fully aware of that fact.
“You’re going to make a crippled old lady get off this chair and fight you for a bottle of wine?”
“Vodka.”
“That bad, huh?”
“How’d you get here anyhow?”
“Well, I can tell you for sure that gravity didn’t lend a hand.” She capped the bottle of polish and blew on her toenails. “I’m trying out this color for my wedding. What do you think?”
“Looks fine.”
“From there, yeah, but come close so you can see it from my perspective.”
I strode over and peered at her toes. “A little bright, but nice.”
“What’d you do that for?” She’d hit the same spot I’d bonked on the underside of the table when trying to spy on Wohnt and Glokkmann.
“Because you’re a dumbass. Things get tough and you go back to drinking? I never understood why you were giving it up in the first place, but since it was your choice, you’d think you’d have a little more backbone about it.”
I rubbed my head. “Sarah Glokkmann killed herself this morning.”
“I know.”
“Her daughter looked crushed.”
“You’d expect that.”
My eyes felt hot. “It’s just a lot to process, you know? That’s two deaths and a suicide this week alone. And now, there’s a girl without a mother.”
She squinted at me. “That must be tough, losing a parent.”
“Yeah.” The heat in my eyes was turning wet.
“Probably make somebody a big baby forever.”
“Most likely.”
“Come here.” And she pulled me to her and held what parts of me she could reach in a surprisingly tight hug, squeezing more tears out of me than I knew I possessed. She patted while she held me and didn’t let up until the tears stopped. “Are you better?”
“Yes.” I didn’t want her to let go. Up close, she smelled like old-fashioned lipstick and fresh bread.
“Then get off of me. Hey, Harold!”
I glanced behind to see an uncomfortable-looking Harry Lohwese trying to sneak out of the library.
“Don’t worry,” Mrs. Berns said. “The crying isn’t contagious. Mira here just found out she’s allergic to vodka, right after she bought a bottle. Do us a favor and take it off her hands. It’s the brown Toyota out there, doors are open.”
He nodded happily and walked out. I took advantage of the break to blow a pound of snot out of my nose. “Thanks.”
“You want to thank me, you find the killer.”
“Done. Glokkmann confessed to it in her suicide note. Bernard didn’t come tell you?”
She appeared momentarily flustered but covered well. “He’s his own man, not p-whipped like your Johnny. So, the representative killed the bobber after all.”
“Blogger.”
“Gesundheit.”
I sighed. “Thank you. Can I ask you something? I haven’t gotten a chance to ask Bernard, but what did he do to land in jail in the first place?”
“Bar fights, mostly, with a few DWIs thrown in for flavor. He’s got a temper on him when he drinks.”
I considered the police blotter I’d uncovered and his rude outburst at the motel today. It wasn’t just when he drank. “He drink around you?”
“Not often.”
“He’s doesn’t deserve you.” I reached into my purse and fished out the print-outs from the
She scanned the paper. “You think I don’t know all about this?”
“Do you?”
Her shoulders drooped. “Well, not this exactly, but I’m not blind to his issues.” She sighed and looked me in the eye. “Fine. I didn’t tell you the whole story. We’ve got a business arrangement, Bernard and I. The plan is that he and I party together for a few weeks, get married, and Conrad loses interest in having me declared mentally incompetent. Then, Bernard and I get divorced, I pay him $5,000, and I never see him again.”
I whistled through my teeth. “So why Bernard?”
“That’s all I had time for. He and I first met in the gas station, like I told you, and we had a couple weeks of fun. Then Conrad shows up, and I have to quick-like unearth a fiance. Bernard was convenient. He’s got poor character, it’s true, but that makes him easier to bribe and it means he knows how to keep a secret. The bobber’s death almost ruined it all, but it looks like that’s been cleared up, too.”
“I never did get a chance to ask Bernard why he and Webber didn’t get along.”
“Professional rivalry, near as I can tell. It’s just that when you’re on probation for an assault charge, and the man you’d happened to publicly threaten at a certain small-town beer festival shows up dead the next day, you like to cover your tracks.” Her toenails dry, she pulled on her sock and tennis shoe.
I chose my words carefully. “Elizabeth came to see me today.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“She came by afterward, told me that she wasn’t going to sign off on the mental incompetency papers.” She looked serious.
“Well, yeah! That’s great news, isn’t it?”
“She said she didn’t feel close to me anymore.”
“Oh.” I considered returning the hug. “She does live far away.”
“That shouldn’t matter.”
“So what’re you going to do?”
A glint sparkled deep in her eyes. “I’m going on vacation. Ever been to Sedona?” She pronounced every syllable.
“Nope.”
“I hear there’s a lot of sugar daddies there.”
I smiled hopefully. “That mean you’re not getting married? You wouldn’t have to anyways, now that your kids are off your back.”
“Just one kid. Conrad is still behaving like a coonhound with shit on his nose, and he could talk another one of my fool kids into putting me away at any time.”
“So you’re going through with the wedding, even though you know Bernard has a violent temper and a possible drinking problem?”
