Kilt Dead (26 page)

“Get the locks changed first thing in the morning,”
Thibodeau advised.

“And tonight?” Her voice shook.

“I doubt he’ll show up again tonight. For one thing,
there’s not that much night left.”

“But why did he come back at all? That makes no
sense”

“Call in the state police,” Dan said. “Let them figure it
out.,,

“No!”

“Liss, be reasonable. They-“

“They’ll send LaVerdiere. I don’t want to have to deal
with him again.”

“Jeff, talk to her.”

Jeff cleared his throat. “I’m gonna leave this up to
Liss. Gotta say there’s no evidence to connect this to the
murder. And nothing was taken”

“The back door was wide open when I got here,” Dan
reminded him.

“If you want, I can do the whole fingerprint-powder
thing-“

“Oh, no! Not again”

Jeff talked right over Liss’s interruption. “-but it
probably wouldn’t help. If there was someone in here, he
was most likely smart enough to wear gloves. Everybody
watches crime shows these days. And even if there are
unidentified prints, that’s just what they’ll be-unidentified.”

“So you’re saying you aren’t going to do anything?”
Dan felt his temper spark.

“I’m saying it’s up to Liss.”

“Let it go, Dan. I’m scheduled to reopen the shop in
less than six hours. Aunt Margaret can’t afford another
delay.”

She couldn’t be swayed in her decision, but after Thibodeau left, Dan pushed a heavy worktable in front of the
back door. Then he followed Liss back up to the apartment.

“I’m sticking around till dawn”

“Fine. Coffee or bed?”

“Is that a variant on `coffee, tea, or me?”’

She made a face at him. “Your timing continues to
stink, Ruskin.”

“Yeah, I know.” But when he tugged her into his arms,
she didn’t resist, and there followed a pleasant interlude
that he knew he would treasure for the rest of his life.

Just after sunrise, Dan went home. It wasn’t until he
opened his front door that he remembered he’d left the
place unlocked when he went haring off to rescue Liss.

The first thing he saw when he walked into his living
room was the looseleaf binder Liss had taken from Mrs.
Norris’s house. If he hadn’t borrowed it, it would have
been in the apartment. Was the looseleaf what the intruder had been looking for?

Picking it up, Dan flipped through the pages. He couldn’t
tell if any had been removed. The sheets weren’t numbered.
It didn’t look as if anyone had come into this house while
he’d been gone, but if someone had, they’d have found the
blue binder in plain sight. If only one page went missing,
Dan thought, no one would ever know the difference.

For the first hour after Moosetookalook Scottish Emporium was open, not a single customer came through the
door. Liss found herself wishing some of the “ghouls”
Jeff Thibodeau had predicted would show up. At least a
few of them might have bought something.

The locksmith did put in an appearance. In short order
Liss had brand new locks and a shockingly large bill to
pay.

The quiet after he left soon had her yawning. Between
the excitement of the break-in and the shamelessly romantic interlude with Dan Ruskin that had followed, she
had not gotten much sleep the previous night.

“Don’t go there,” she muttered, unsure herself which
part of her early-morning adventures she meant.

She attempted to distract herself by rearranging stock, but after she’d twice tried out new ways to display kilt
hose, flashes, and buckles and ended up going back to the
original arrangement, she abandoned the effort and returned to the sales counter.

Everything was in order there as well, from the packages of McVitie’s Rich Tea Biscuits and jars of Scottish
Blossom Honey to a stack of the mail-order flyers Aunt
Margaret sent out twice a year.

Liss frowned as she studied one of the latter. It was
nothing more than a list of items and prices. No pictures
of the merchandise. No Web address for easy ordering.
There was an email listed, but only for questions. She really
had to bring Moosetookalook Scottish Emporium into the
twenty-first century. Aunt Margaret didn’t use her computer
for more than a fraction of the things it could do in connection with the store.

Liss’s associate’s degree in business hadn’t gotten
much use in the eight years since she earned it, but she
hadn’t forgotten a thing she’d learned about promotion.
And while she’d been with Strathspey, she’d helped design and maintain the company’s website. She flexed her
fingers, literally itching to get started, but at that moment
the bell over the shop door jingled to announce, at last,
the arrival of a customer.

“They told me I’d find you here,” a familiar voice caroled.

“Gina?” Liss was off her stool and across the shop in a
flash. After an exchange of hugs they just grinned at each
other. “What are you doing in town?” Her best friend from
high school had gone on to get a degree in law and had
joined a prestigious firm based in Chicago.

“Taking a few days off so I could attend our reunion,
what else?” Gina had the slick and sophisticated look that
went with big-city success. She wore her dark hair in a
short, sleek cap that made her eyes seem enormous.

“Ohmigod! It completely slipped my mind.”

“You? Forget something? Amazing!” Gina stepped
back to take a quick survey of the shop. “Does anything
ever change in here? I swear it’s exactly the same as when
you used to work here as a teenager. God, even you look
the same, right down to the Scottish outfit!”

Liss had dressed in store merchandise -a hostess skirt
and sash in the Royal Stewart tartan and a long-sleeved
white-blouse with a jabot. “Hey, I could have worn a Billie skirt and boots” Her aunt listed Billie skirts as “fashion minis” and they certainly were short!

“Oh, I’ve missed you. You and your Scottish stuff. And
you ended up going pro with your dancing. All those
competitions really paid off for you, huh?”

“I could say the same to you”

That they’d been such fast friends during high school
could only be explained by the fact that they had both
been involved in odd extra-curricular activities. While Liss
had competed in dance at Scottish festivals, Gina had entered beauty pageants. She’d used her not-inconsiderable
earnings from winning so many of them to pay for college and law school.

“Did you really forget about our tenth reunion? It’s
only two days away.”

“Saturday,” Liss murmured. Had it only been five days
ago that she and Sherri had talked about brazening it out?
She hadn’t given reunion a thought since, not even when
she’d agreed to hold Mrs. Norris’s memorial service on
the same day.

“I gather you’ve had a few distractions lately,” Gina
said.

Now blessing the lack of customers, Liss steered Gina
to what her aunt called her cozy corner, a section of the
shop that displayed Scottish-themed books-everything
from cookbooks to mystery novels set in Scotland-and
boasted two reasonably comfortable chairs. “Sit. Tell me
everything you’ve heard”

After kicking off her shoes and curling her legs beneath her, Gina ticked each item off on her fingers. “Your
aunt is in Scotland. Her next-door neighbor was murdered. The police don’t have a clue who did it.”

“That’s it? That’s all you’ve heard?”

“What else is there? I only know what I’ve read in the
newspaper. My folks live in Fallstown, remember? They’re
not on the Moosetookalook grapevine.” She peered more
closely at Liss’s face. “How much worse is it?”

“I found the body.” She was surprised Gina’s parents
hadn’t heard that tidbit, even way off in Fallstown. According to Dan, details of her discovery had reached the
scone lady in Waycross Springs by the morning after the
murder.

“Oh, Liss. I’m so sorry. It must have been horrible for
you” A wave of sympathy flowed toward Liss, warming her.

“The worst part is not knowing who did it. And Gina …
because I found her, the police suspect me “”

“Ridiculous”

“Well, yes” Her friend’s immediate certainty had an
even more heartening effect. It wasn’t as if they’d stayed
in close touch over the last few years. As far as Gina knew,
Liss could have turned into a drug-crazed mass murderer
in the interim. “But the suspicion will be there, hanging
over me, until someone else is arrested”

She gave Gina the basics of the situation-the motive
LaVerdiere thought she had and her certainty that he wasn’t
looking at any other suspects.

Gina tapped beautifully manicured nails on the arm of
her chair. “I bet you’re thinking of staying home Saturday
night, aren’t you? Don’t deny it. I know you. Well, you
can’t. You’ve got to attend and you’ve got to make sure
everyone there ends up knowing you were just an innocent bystander. Then they’ll tell their friends and families
and popular opinion will be on your side no matter what
happens next. Simple.”

“Simple,” Liss echoed. But not easy. The idea of repeating even part of the story over and over again for the
benefit of curious classmates made her stomach churn.

“Can you recommend a good criminal lawyer, just in
case?” Liss meant the question in jest, but sobered fast
when her old friend took it seriously. By the time Gina
left the shop, Liss had three names and phone numbers
and the sinking feeling that her old friend thought she
was going to need them.

A short time later, Liss picked up the phone, but the
number she punched was that of Dan’s cell. “Are you
going to reunion?” she asked when he answered.

“Liss, this isn’t a good time” His voice sounded strained
and she could hear traffic noise in the background.

“Okay. I know it’s not safe to drive and talk. Call me
back when you have a minute.”

Her phone rang an interminable quarter of an hour
later.

“I can’t talk long,” Dan said, barely giving her time to
say hello. “My sister is in labor. I’m at the hospital in
Fallstown. No cell phones allowed inside.”

“Mary’s having her baby? That’s great!”

“Not really. It’s too early. Look, I can’t talk now. Did
the locksmith come?”

“Yes. I’m all set. But-“

“Good. I’ll be by when I can but it’s looking like a
long haul. Watch your back”

He disconnected abruptly. Liss cradled the phone, letting her fingers rest lightly on the hard, smooth plastic of
the receiver.

All of a sudden the shop seemed too quiet and empty.
She’d never minded solitude before. In fact, she’d relished what little privacy she’d been able to find when she
was on tour. Now she was aware only of being alone.
Abandoned.

“Oh, stop the pity party,” she muttered.

But she jumped when the bell over the door sounded.

“How’s it goin’?” Jeff Thibodeau asked. “Thought
you’d like to know we’re going to keep an extra-close eye
on this place tonight. Just in case”

By closing time, Liss had heard from Dan again, but the
news was not good. Mary and her two-months-premature
son were both in critical condition. Everyone in the Ruskin
clan was staying put at the hospital.

“Will you be okay?” he asked.

“Oh, sure. The entire Moosetookalook Police Department is keeping an eye on me “”

They both knew how little coverage that really was.
Moosetookalook had been a much larger town in the hotel’s
heyday and it was then that the municipal building and
police station had been built. Now the force was down to
three full-time men, one for each shift, and one patrol car.
Some of the more frugal townspeople were reportedly
lobbying to do away with the department entirely and let
the county handle law enforcement.

With a long evening stretching ahead of her, Liss considered calling Gina. She decided against it. When she
stopped and thought about it, she and Gina didn’t have
much in common anymore. They’d lost touch over the ten
years since high school. It was all well and good to meet
again and renew old acquaintances, but Liss didn’t expect
to generate a lasting friendship with any of her former
classmates.

Not even Dan.

She spent a little time cleaning up after Lumpkinhe’d knocked the basil off the windowsill and a ceramic
spoon holder off the stove, breaking the latter into a dozen
pieces. After a light early supper, Liss spent considerably
more time going over her aunt’s books.

Business had picked up in the afternoon, but not by much. Apparently murder wasn’t even a nine-days’ wonder these days. The ledgers increased Liss’s pessimism
about her aunt’s financial prospects. She began to think
she should just go ahead and sell Mrs. Norris’s house.
The money from the sale, added to the rest of her inheritance, should be enough to bail out the Emporium and
still leave a bit for Liss to invest in her own future.

Tossing her pencil aside, Liss collected Lumpkin and
headed for the house next door. She had almost an hour
of daylight left, time enough to explore a bit. She hadn’t
done more than take a quick look around on her last visit.
She hadn’t even gone upstairs.

They started in the kitchen, where Lumpkin took the
lead and made sure she found his supply of cat food.
“What am I going to do with you when I leave here?” she
asked him.

He was too busy scarfing down kibble to acknowledge
that she’d spoken.

Liss wandered into the living room. As a toddler, she’d
come here with her mother. She’d sat, quietly fascinated,
watching Mrs. Norris knit and chat with Violet MacCrimmon. Only years later had Liss discovered Mrs. Norris’s library and their mutual love of reading.

It occurred to her now that she didn’t know much
more than that about Amanda Norris. Mrs. Norris had
taught school. She’d knitted. She’d baked. She’d taken an
interest in her neighbors. And she’d been an avid reader.
But Liss had only known her in her later years. What had
she been like as a young woman? And what had happened
to Mr. Norris? He’d been out of the picture by the time
Liss first met his widow.