"What's going on?" Bethany asked as I emerged from my rooms looking rather like the walking dead. "You look like you got hit by a truck up there."
"More or less."
"But sales have been so good! And the opening night was a huge success."
"I know," I said. "But Agatha's still going after the store." I told her the details.
"Still?"
"Yup," I said. "And unless I can prove her wrong, there's nothing I can do."
"It makes no sense at all," she said. "You know who you need to talk to? Miriam Culpepper."
"Who's that?"
"She's Loretta's next door neighbor. They had tea every Wednesday; she grew up with Agatha and Loretta." She wrote down the woman's name and address and handed it to me. "Any word on what happened to Cal?"
"Nothing yet," I said, "and they haven't been by to arrest me, so that's some good news. Have you heard any rumors about him? Or his romantic life?"
"He's been seeing some woman for the last year or so, apparently—I don't know if he still is, or was at the time of his death; but he was a few months ago—but they don't really go out in public together. I don't know why. Maybe she wouldn't be good for him politically?"
"Then why would she be there?"
I shrugged. "I don't know."
"Do you know anything else about her?"
"I know she drives a nice car, but that's only because a friend of mine works for a catering company that did his party when he won the selectman position."
"Who?" I asked.
"Dining Downeast," she said. "I'll ask her when I see her at class."
"Great," I said. "Any other talk around town about who might have wanted to kill him?"
She averted her eyes.
"They still think it's me?"
"Well, it was right by the store," she said, "and it was your flatiron."
I sighed. "Have the police been by anymore?"
"Not yet," she said, in a tone of voice that didn't inspire confidence.
Great.
I sighed. "Thanks for letting me know. I'll see if I can get in touch with Miriam to see what she can tell me about Agatha. In the meantime, why don't you head out for the afternoon? I'll take care of the store."
"Are you sure?" she asked. "I'm trying to get this chapter finished today."
"Go," I said. "Winston and I will hold down the fort."
"Okay. But call me if you need me!" Bethany slung her backpack over one shoulder and headed out the door, and as I watched her go, I found myself grateful once again that she had come into my life. As I looked around me at the colorful books filling the shelves, with Bethany's hand-lettered signs marking the different genres, I felt a warm upwelling. I hoped the two of us could find a way to make a go of the store.
My eye was drawn again to the shelf that the intruder had attacked the other night. I walked over, wondering what whoever it was had been looking for when they started pulling away the shelves. Was something hidden in the store somewhere? And if so, who had hidden it? Loretta, or whoever had owned the store before her?
I felt the edge that had been pulled away. There was nothing behind it, but what about the other shelves?
I walked from shelf to shelf, moving the books away and knocking gently on the wood, listening for a hollow sound. I had made it through Religion, Nature, Self Help and Cooking when the bell rang. I put the books back on the shelf, feeling self-conscious, and turned to greet whoever had walked in the door.
It was a woman I didn't recognize; she gave me a shy smile and headed over to the fiction section, where she selected a few Maeve Binchy books, and then she got a cross-stitch guide from the craft section.
"Find what you needed?" I asked as she put her treasures on the counter.
"I always love Maeve Binchy," she said. "I'm so glad you took over the shop. I miss Loretta, of course, but I knew she was happy with you taking it over. And I love what you've done with the place. Did you make the pillows on the chairs yourself?"
"I did!" I told her. "Thank you so much for noticing!"
"I bought some of the same fabric for a quilt for my granddaughter," she told me. "I just love the bright colors; I know Loretta would have loved it, too."
"Did you know Loretta well?" I asked as I rang up her purchases.
"We were in elementary school together," she told me.
"Really! You knew each other a whole lifetime, then."
"We did," she said, nodding. "I'm Miriam Culpepper, by the way."
"Oh! Bethany just told me about you; I was just going to look you up! I'm Max Sayers," I said. "Lovely to meet you."
"Likewise, and I'm so glad you have the store. Like I said, I've known Loretta almost all my life, and if she picked you, there's a reason." She gave me a smile that warmed my heart.
"And you know her sister, Agatha, too?"
"Oh, Aggie. Always jealous of her sister. Their father always favored Loretta... she was the oldest, and ever so clever in school. Aggie never could keep up, and she resented the heck out of her big sister."
"Did they ever make up?"
"After her mother died, Loretta told me she tried to make things right with her sister. That's what she said to me, anyway... I don't know what she meant. And it worked for a while, but there at the end, Agatha was after her again."
"When she was sick?" I asked.
Miriam nodded. "Aggie started making noise about how she didn't get her fair share. That Loretta had duped her out of what she deserved, and that she'd find a way
