amazing.”
“No, it wasn’t,” Carrie said. Then she snorted. “The truth is, I was afraid the old bat would haunt me if I broke my promise. The only person more high maintenance than Markus was his mother. God rest her soul.”
“I think you were wise. If there was a woman who could haunt you, it would be Jane Rushton,” Nancy said. “You were right to be afraid.”
The two women looked at each other with sheepish grins. Charlie looked at them like they were both loony, which made them laugh.
He looked at Lindsey for backup, but she had started to crack up as well. Probably, it was exhaustion creeping up on her, but she couldn’t stop the indelicate snort that escaped through her nose.
Surprised, Charlie laughed at her, and Heathcliff hopped to his feet to lick any face he could reach.
A deep, repeated banging broke through their laughter.
“What was that?” Nancy asked.
They all went silent, listening. Then the banging started again.
CHAPTER 18
BRIAR CREEK
PUBLIC LIBRARY
For a crazy second, Lindsey thought it was Jane Rushton coming to haunt them for being so callous as to laugh at her.
Heathcliff, the bravest of them all, charged the door, barking a warning.
“It sounds like someone knocking on the front door,” Charlie said. He rose slowly to his feet. “Who would be insane enough to come out in this weather?”
“Well, you did,” Lindsey said.
She stood, too, feeling more nervous than she wanted to let on. At least Charlie lived here. It wasn’t so odd that he’d tried to get in during the storm. But now that all of the residents were accounted for, there was no reason for anyone to be knocking.
“Well, we won’t know until we answer it,” Charlie said. He picked up a flashlight and led the way, leaving Lindsey and the others to follow him. He opened Nancy’s apartment door and peered out into the darkness.
“Hello?” he called.
There was no response.
Heathcliff began to growl low in his throat. Lindsey reached down and stroked his head. The fur between his shoulder blades bristled, and Lindsey tried to soothe him with whispered words of comfort. Heathcliff wasn’t having any of it.
“Stay back,” Charlie said. “I’ll answer it.”
“No, don’t,” Carrie said. “It could be the murderer.”
“We have to,” Nancy said. “It could be someone in trouble.”
“Nancy’s right,” Lindsey said. “You two stay back. Nancy, get your cell phone ready. If it is someone bad, shut yourselves in a back room and call nine-one-one.”
Nancy opened her mouth to say something, but the pounding on the front door resumed and they all jumped.
“Go now,” Charlie ordered.
As the two women stepped back into the apartment, Charlie and Lindsey stepped forward. She held Heathcliff’s collar to keep him from jumping.
Charlie unlocked the door and pulled it open just a crack. “Who’s there?”
“It’s Sully, and I’m freezing.”
Charlie yanked the door open. “What are you doing out in this weather, boss?”
“Looking for Lindsey,” he said. He had to shout because Heathcliff started barking an enthusiastic greeting and launched himself at Sully, obviously recognizing him.
“You found me,” Lindsey said with a wave.
Sully knelt down and let Heathcliff lick his face. “How are you doing, boy?”
Heathcliff wiggled even closer to Sully, and Lindsey had to smile. There was a definite mutual-admiration- society thing happening there.
“Come on in,” Lindsey said. “We have a fire and I’m sure Nancy has some hot tea.”
“Sounds nice,” he said.
They stepped toward the door and Lindsey realized Charlie wasn’t following.
“Are you coming?” she asked him.
“In a minute,” he said. He started up the stairs. “I need my guitar. ‘Looking for Lindsey’ sounds like a top-ten hit to me.”
Lindsey and Sully exchanged a look and then a shrug. Charlie was always looking for his one-hit wonder.
Nancy was already making Sully’s tea when they returned to the living room.
“Michael Sullivan, what are you thinking?” Nancy asked. “What could bring you out in this?”
Lindsey glanced at Carrie. She was looking at Sully with scared eyes, as if she had expected something much more malevolent and couldn’t quite process the large quiet man before her.
“Bad news, actually,” he said.
He had their attention now. Lindsey mentally ran through a panicked list of people who could be in trouble. Was it Beth? Or Jessica? How about Ann Marie? Her boys? Surely, nothing had happened to them. Was it one of her crafternoon buddies? Or Milton? What about Milton? Yes, he was fitter than men half his age, but he was still in his eighties and he lived alone.
Sully took a sip of his tea and then glanced up. Lindsey realized that the others must have looked as nervous as she did, because he frowned and said, “No one is hurt.”
“You might want to lead with that next time,” Nancy said, and she swatted him with the dish towel she’d been fretting in her hands.
“Sorry,” he said. To his credit, he really did look remorseful.
“What’s the bad news, then?” Lindsey asked. She gestured to a seat by the fire, and Sully gratefully sank down into it.
Heathcliff took the opportunity to wriggle into Sully’s lap, even though he was by no means a lap dog. Sully grinned and let him try to curl up on his legs while he held his tea out of tail-knocking range and steadied the puppy with his other hand.
Lindsey glanced at his face and realized he must have been working all day and well into the night. His skin looked stretched and his eyes had a heavy-lidded weariness that bespoke someone who hadn’t slept in a few days.
“The heavy snowfall caused the roof to collapse on the Drury Street storage facility,” he said.
“Oh, no,” Carrie said. “Are you sure no one was hurt?”
“Luckily, because of the weather, no one was out there, but the damage to the goods inside is going to be severe.”
Carrie nodded. Then she turned to Lindsey and said, “That’s where the Friends store all of their donated books for the annual book sale.”
Lindsey thought the name sounded familiar. “That’s the one on the edge of town that’s owned by Owen Pullman, isn’t it?” she asked.
“Yes,” Nancy confirmed. “Was the whole place destroyed or just a few of the sheds?”
“About half,” Sully said. “Owen called me a few hours ago. I use a shed out there to store old paperwork and boating equipment. Owen was pretty distraught, so I told him I’d get word to the other owners if he gave me a list.”
“I hope he was insured,” Lindsey said.
“I think the physical structures will be covered, but I don’t know if the contents will be,” Sully said.
