A Midwinter's Tail

24

“Good dog!” Maggie exclaimed.

“You think my grandparents owned a copy of this book?” Brady asked, pulling a hand over the back of his neck.

“I don’t know,” I said. I couldn’t tell him that I thought his mother might have had something to do with stealing the book. First of all, it was a big leap to think that Nic Sutton’s father had had a copy of a very old and rare book and that it had been stolen, and yet he hadn’t said anything about it to the police and his insurance provider. And second, I couldn’t tell Brady that I suspected his mother had been involved somehow in that pawnshop robbery. It would have been cruel, especially since I didn’t have any proof.

“I need to tell Marcus about this,” I said.

Brady shrugged. “That’s okay.”

His mind was somewhere else. Replaying that visit with his mother, I wondered.

He loosened his tie. “Thank you, Kathleen,” he said.

“I’ll see you at class,” I said to Maggie.

“Thanks,” she said, wrapping me in a hug. “There’s more, isn’t there?” she whispered against my ear. She studied my face when she let me go and I nodded, almost imperceptibly, but I knew from the way Maggie pressed her lips together that she’d seen.

I touched her arm. “I’ll see you later,” I said.

I called Marcus as soon as I got home. I told him I thought the address Dayna Chapman had dropped wasn’t an address at all and explained about the value of the book. Tamerlane and Other Poems was Edgar Allan Poe’s first published work, and a 2009 sale of a first edition had been big news. Well, at least among librarians and book collectors. I could tell from the tone of his voice that he wasn’t convinced.

Maggie must have been watching for me, because she came over to me as soon as I stepped into the studio. “Did you talk to Marcus?” she asked.

I nodded.

“What did he say?”

“I don’t think I convinced him that Dayna had written down the name of a rare book and not a nonexistent street,” I said, adjusting the drawstring waist of my workout pants.

“What didn’t you say to Brady?” she asked.

“Mags, don’t ask me that,” I sighed.

Her eyes narrowed. “Why?”

“Because . . . because I’m way out on a limb. Because I don’t want to say anything that might hurt Brady when I don’t have any proof. And because I don’t want you to have to lie to him.”

She swallowed and nodded. “Okay.”

I gave her arm a squeeze.

* * *

I’d left the truck parked on a side street about halfway between the studio and Eric’s Place. After class I walked over to the restaurant. I knew there was a good chance Nic would be there, and I needed to see if he knew anything about his father having a copy of Tamerlane.

He was just delivering a tray full of food and I waited at the counter. “Hi, Kathleen,” he said. “What can I get you?”

“A large hot chocolate with marshmallows to go, please.”

“Just give me a minute,” he said as he disappeared into the kitchen. He came back with a tall take-out cup, the top rounded over with a pile of the Jam Lady’s handmade marshmallows.

“May I ask you a question about your dad’s pawnshop?” I asked as I snapped the take-out lid on the top of the cardboard cup.

“Sure,” he said with a shrug. “What did you want to know?”

“There were two first editions stolen in the robbery.”

He nodded. I noticed a tiny flush of color in his cheeks.

“Did your dad get a lot of rare books in the shop?” I asked.

Nic fingered the knot in the strings of the long apron tied at his waist. “A few. In a pawnshop you never know what’s going to come through the door.”

“Like a very rare, very valuable book that might have some questionable lineage?” I asked. That was about as diplomatic as I could word things.

Color flooded his face. He looked down at the floor for a moment. “I don’t know,” he finally said. “Not for sure. But it’s . . . possible.” His mouth twisted to one side. “My grandfather started that pawnshop. Not everything he did was on the up-and-up. Some of his customers still brought my dad business. He didn’t turn it down.” His eyes narrowed. “Why do you ask?”

“I’m trying to figure why someone would have wanted to kill Dayna Chapman. Maybe then I can figure out who did.”