the car was, and her heart stopped in her throat. With its high beams on and its engine revving, the car was headed straight for her.
CHAPTER 4
BRIAR CREEK
PUBLIC LIBRARY
A screech of brakes clawed the stillness of the winter air with a talon’s sharp edge. Lindsey jumped off her bike while still in motion, and yanked it with her onto the front lawn of the nearest house.
The driver’s side door of the car was shoved open, and Lindsey was sure she’d scared the poor driver as much he’d scared her.
“I’m all right!” she called out.
“Well, that’s unfortunate!”
Lindsey reared back as if she’d been slapped. “Excuse me?”
The person was short and tiny, and as she hopped onto the front lawn beside Lindsey, she was immediately recognizable. Marjorie Bilson.
“You heard me,” Marjorie snapped. “How dare you run Bill out of office? He has worked tirelessly all these years with little or no thanks, and then you come along and have him replaced with one of your cronies.”
There were so many things wrong with the venom Marjorie was spewing that Lindsey was at a loss as to where to begin in correcting her.
“You’re wrong,” she said.
“Liar!” Marjorie accused. Her hair was disheveled, her coat wasn’t buttoned and she looked as if she were on the brink of having hysterics.
“Marjorie, this really isn’t the time or place to have a conversation like this,” Lindsey said. “I’m working tomorrow. Why don’t you come and see me at the library and we’ll talk about it.”
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
“I…”
“Is everything all right out here?”
Lindsey heard a storm door open on the house behind them and turned to see a man chugging down the walk. He was pulling his dressing robe tight around his middle as he hurried toward them.
“We’re okay,” Lindsey said, realizing she was only speaking in the most general of terms, given that calling Marjorie okay was definitely stretching it.
When Lindsey turned to address the man, Marjorie took the opportunity to hurry back into her car. With the slam of her door and a squeal of wheels on icy blacktop, she was gone.
“Did she hit you?” the man asked. “Are you sure you’re all right?”
Lindsey shook her head. “No, she didn’t hit me.”
“You’re shaking,” he said.
She looked down, and sure enough, her gloved fingers were trembling and it wasn’t from the cold.
“My wife and I were just making some tea, would you care to join us?” he asked. “I’m Tom, by the way, Tom Rubinski.”
“Oh, thank you, Tom,” she said. “I’m Lindsey. I appreciate the offer, but I live just up the road. I’ll be home in less than a minute.”
“If you’re sure,” he said. He looked dubious so Lindsey forced a smile even though it was an effort.
“I’m sure,” she said. Then she hesitated. Maybe he could help her with information. “Tell me, do you know Marjorie Bilson?”
“Batty Bilson?” he asked. “Is that who that was?”
“Batty?” Lindsey repeated. She didn’t like where this was going.
“Yeah, I went to school with her,” he said. “She has issues.”
“Is running people over with her car one of her issues?” Lindsey asked.
“Not until tonight,” Tom said. “I’d say this is a first, but I can’t swear to it.”
“Do you suppose one of her issues could be Bill Sint?”
Lindsey went to lift her bike off Tom’s lawn. He stepped forward and took it out of her hands and lowered it to the walk for her.
“Thank you,” she said.
“Bill Sint? The old guy who lives on the Sint estate on the other side of the bay? The one with the unnaturally black hair and twitchy eyebrow?”
It was a good description and made Lindsey smile. “The same.”
“I can’t say for sure. I do know that Batty tends to love with her whole heart but not all of her mind, if you know what I mean. If I remember right, she had to go away for a couple of years in high school because she developed an unhealthy crush on our chemistry teacher,” he said.
Interesting. Lindsey wondered if she was seeing a pattern here.
“Wow, so Batty has a thing for Bill. Man, he’s old enough to be her father, possibly her grandfather.”
“Ew,” they said together.
“So, why is she coming after you?” Tom asked. “Does she think you’re competition for his pruney old heart?”
“Oh, no,” Lindsey said with an adamant head shake. “But, she seems to think I had something to do with his being removed as president of the Friends of the Library; I didn’t, but she didn’t seem overly concerned that she almost ran me down to discuss it.”
Tom gave a low whistle and then he peered at her eyes, which were her only visible feature through the layers of scarf and bike helmet she had on her head.
“Oh, hey, Lindsey. I know you,” he said. “Or at least, I’ve heard about you. You’re Lindsey Norris, the new librarian.”
“Not terribly new,” she said. “I’ve been here almost a year.”
“You’ve turned my buddy Sully into a regular library user,” he said. His eyes were teasing and Lindsey was happy that her scarf covered the hot flush that she could feel warming her face.
“He’s an avid reader,” she said. “He has excellent taste in fiction.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t think it’s the books that have him giving his library card such a workout.”
“Tom, what’s going on?” A petite woman, also in her bathrobe, came hurrying down the walkway. “Your tea is getting cold.”
“Gina, come and meet Lindsey,” he said. He turned to Lindsey and said, “This is my wife, Gina.”
The corners of his eyes crinkled and his voice dropped a note or two when he said her name. It was obvious that Tom Rubinski was very much in love with his wife.
He looped his arm over his wife’s shoulders and said, “Check this out: Batty Bilson has a thing for that old coot Bill Sint, and she nearly ran Lindsey down because Batty thinks she’s responsible for his being booted off of the library’s Friends group.”
Gina stared at her husband and then at Lindsey. “Really? That’s mental even for Marjorie. Are you all right? Would you like some tea?”
Lindsey glanced at the small woman and smiled. “No, thank you, really, I’m fine.”
She recognized Gina Rubinski immediately. She had been in the library several times over the past few months checking out baby name books. Lindsey wondered if the Rubinskis were expecting, but knowing it was none of her business, she didn’t dare ask. That did not stop her from looking at Gina’s belly however. If she was pregnant, she wasn’t showing.
“You’d better get back inside, Tom; your patient needs you,” Gina said.
“Oh, gotta go,” he said. “I’m a vet, and we have a golden retriever about to deliver her first litter. It looks to be nine pups. We can’t even come up with that many names.”
Lindsey smiled. So that explained the baby name books. “Nice to meet you, Tom.”
