The Unkindness of Ravens M. Hilliard (popular novels txt) 📖

joking that she’d cost more to replace, what with her job and the business and taking care of the kids, but Vince didn’t think it was funny. So, you see,” Dory gave me a conspiratorial look, “she might have been worth more to him dead than alive.”

“When did this happen? Have you told the police?”

“Of course I told the police. I found out Tuesday night, the night Joanna died. We were out to dinner at that fancy new Italian place, Luigi’s it’s called, and there was a big table of people from Albany All News. They arrived right after we did. We recognized some of the newscasters. I mentioned that Joanna, our FOL President, worked there and that’s when Angela told me about the insurance.”

“Which people did you recognize?” Maybe this was work related after all.

“Shannon something-or-other, the one who does the weather in the morning, and one of the news guys, Ed Dexter. The girl was pretty, but I think Ed Dexter looks better on TV. He’s awfully skinny. I prefer a man with a little more meat on his bones.”

“Your Bill is a nice, solid guy.” This was diplomacy. Bill Hutchinson was built like a tree stump.

Dory smiled and picked up her knitting.

“What time were you there?” I asked.

“Our reservation was for seven, and we were seated a little after. We left around nine.

“Were the All News people still there?”

“Most of them. They were still having dessert when we left. Ed Dexter and one other man left right after the main course. Probably doing the ten o’clock broadcast.”

“Maybe,” I said, mentally calculating the distance from Luigi’s to the manor, and how long it would take to cover with no traffic.

Dory gave me a sharp look. “Do you think Joanna’s murder has something to do with her work?”

“I don’t know, but it makes as much sense as anything else we’ve come up with.”

“Except the insurance policy.”

“Except that. If you hear anything else, will you tell me? And the police of course. You need to be careful.”

“Of course I’ll tell you,” Dory said, “and you do the same. Us snoops need to stick together.” She smiled and patted my hand. I retrieved my stack of DVDs, looked pointedly at the knitting bag, and headed back to reference.

Us snoops indeed. That’s girl detective, thank you very much. I dropped the videos on the desk and took a quick turn around the reading room. I stopped next to our mystery patron and let him know we closed at six. He looked up and thanked me. I’d definitely never seen him before. It wasn’t that unusual to have strangers stop in, but right now everything seemed suspicious.

I was both wired and tired, not a good combination. I glanced at the clock and decided to do a quick walk-around in the building. I should have a good fifteen minutes before things got busy again, and the staff currently outnumbered the patrons. I let Dory know my plan and took off.

Using the back stairs, I went to the second floor. I worked my way through all the meeting rooms, checking for strays and making sure all the windows were closed and locked. The pages normally did this at the end of the day, but nothing was normal right now. I needed to feel in touch with the manor. Dory’s question nagged at me as well. I wanted to know what Joanna had been hit with, too. Something at the scene, or something brought in and taken away again?

He hit his head on the way down, but he was hit with something else, too.

Something else.

Crime of opportunity, or premeditated? It would make a difference in the suspect list. I paused at the bottom of the stairway to the attic.

“I’ve checked everything, Greer, you don’t have to go up.”

I spun around. Millicent was coming toward me, keys in hand.

“Didn’t mean to scare you,” she said. “I thought you heard me locking up the archives.”

“No,” I said, falling in beside her as we walked toward the main staircase. “I was making sure the page hadn’t missed anything. I always check, especially since there are no motion sensors up here. It may sound silly, but I don’t want to lock anyone in.”

Millicent gave a dry chuckle.

“It’s not silly. It happened once. A college student working on a paper fell asleep in the community room. He didn’t come to for hours. The whole place was dark and he was afraid to move. He called the police to get him out. That’s what led to the alarm system and emergency lighting being updated. Before that, we only had something that went off if someone tried to open one of the doors.”

“Why didn’t they put sensors in the whole building?”

“The usual reason,” Millicent said. “Budget. They had enough money for the main floor and the stairways. Any areas the public might be wandering.”

We had come to the bottom of the stairs. Millicent paused and looked into the raven room. Apparently deciding all was in order, she said goodnight and walked out the front door. I didn’t have time to go back to the attic and look for the murder weapon, so I waited until I could see Millicent on the walk and stepped over the velvet rope into Horatio Ravenscroft’s study.

I’d have loved to have a room just like it. The floor to ceiling bookshelves and small fireplace left just enough room for a desk and a couple of comfy chairs. It was a perfect room for a scholarly gentleman.

Or a librarian, even if she was a snoop rather than a scholarly lady. I thought of Harriet Vane in Gaudy Night dozing in her alma mater’s library after spending nights patrolling for mysterious vandals. We had worse than vandals in the Raven Hill Library.

I looked at the raven. He looked back at me.

“Some goings-on in your manor,” I said. “Any thoughts?”

He didn’t answer. He never did. The only sound was the restless rustling of the trees outside the window.

“Well, you think about