On Borrowed Time, page 17
part #4 of Dark Lake Chronicles Series
“Poor girl,” Crispin muttered, watching her go. He looked torn. “Do you think I should go after her? I should talk to her, shouldn’t I?” He still wasn’t used to being someone’s boss.
“I don’t think so,” said Dom. He looked to Lady. “You should go after her, though.”
“She wants to leave.” Lady motioned after Agnes like maybe Dom had missed her storming off. “I can’t exactly stop her if she’s set on that.”
“Sure you can,” said Dom with a shrug. “She doesn’t have a car. It’s still in the shop. She got a ride from her brother this morning. Where is she going to go?”
That was right. Lady hurried toward the door. She expected some words of warning from Dom, maybe a piece of advice or two from Crispin. Neither of them said anything. They were likely as lost in all of this as she was.
When Lady made it outside, she was a little afraid that Dom had been wrong. She didn’t see Agnes anywhere. “Agnes?” she called. She started walking to the gate but saw a flash of red at the corner of her vision. A small, familiar shape darted to the right. Lady walked around to the side of the building. Sure enough, there was Agnes. She was leaning heavily against the library, her phone in her hands.
“I’m sorry,” said Lady. She didn’t know what else to lead with. Agnes didn’t look up, but she came around the building anyway. She kept an arm’s length between them, assuming that Agnes probably wanted her space right now. “I didn’t want to string you along or anything. That’s why I wanted to get it in the open now. I like you, Agnes. I really do. I want to keep hanging out beyond all this… if that’s all right with you.” Lady shifted where she stood, feeling incredibly awkward when Agnes didn’t have a response. “And if I’m way off base here, I’m sorry. I hope I am. I really do. I—”
“He’s been acting weird,” Agnes said suddenly. “Weirder than usual, I mean. He’s out of it more often. He’s been distant. I didn’t know why, but…” Agnes looked up. There were tears in her eyes. “I don’t know. Maybe he did have something to do with all this.”
Lady surged forward and took Agnes into her arms as she began to cry. She hugged her and, for a long time, they just stood like that. Agnes finally drew away, sniffing and rubbing her arm across her eyes to dry them. “I have to call him if I want a ride, but…”
Lady nodded. “Then call him. We’ll confront him when he gets here.”
Agnes swallowed. “Are you sure?”
She nodded again. “You said he’s not a bad person. If he had a hand in all this, let’s give him the chance to turn himself in.”
Dom waited out front with Agnes and Lady. He was the muscle in case things went sideways. Crispin was just inside with a phone at the ready. He sat at a window, prepared to call the cops if need be.
It took about forty-five minutes for Ben to show up. Agnes had said he sounded intoxicated over the phone. He had probably taken a bit to sober up. The car was a white sedan and he sat in it for a minute waiting for Agnes before he realized she wasn’t coming. He got out and approached everyone on the front steps. There was a slight sway to his gait that suggested he wasn’t entirely sober.
“Are you coming?” he asked Agnes, his hands jammed in his pockets.
Agnes shifted uncomfortably where she sat. She glanced over to Dom who stood and took a few steps forward, offering a hand to Ben. “Agnes’ brother, right? I’m Dom.”
Ben looked down at the hand, hesitating before he returned the handshake. “Ben. You’re Agnes’ boss?”
“One of them.” Dom inclined his head back toward Agnes. “She’s good. We’re lucky to have her.”
“Definitely,” Ben agreed readily, though he still seemed impatient to go.
“It’s a shame what happened to prompt us to hire her on, but still…”
Lady watched Ben squirm. The subject made him visibly uncomfortable. “I heard about that,” he said.
“Hard not to,” said Dom. “Did you know him?”
Ben shrugged. “We went to high school together. Ran into each other a few times since then. Why?”
“Small town. I figured you might.
“It’s been a year at least since I saw him last.”
Agnes stood at that. “That’s not true.” She looked like she might be on the verge of tears again. “You saw him a few weeks ago, at least. I know you did. I was there when it happened.”
Ben frowned. He looked from Dom to Agnes to Lady then back again. He was probably beginning to sense that there was something going on there. “Okay, so I’ve seen him more recently than that, apparently. Sorry, my memory isn’t great. I don’t know why it matters.”
“It matters because he’s dead!” Agnes took a few steps forward. “Ben, you didn’t… You didn’t have anything to do with that, did you?”
The color immediately drained from Ben’s face. “What?”
“I know you wanted me to get that job. I know you’ve been weird ever since the murder. I… I don’t want to accuse you of anything. I… If you tell me you didn’t do it, I’ll believe you.” Agnes sounded all over the place. It was no wonder why. She didn’t know what to think about any of this. She knew what she wanted to think.
Ben swallowed. He stared at his sister like he had forgotten everyone else was there. “I…” He trailed off.
“Did you have anything to do with it?” asked Agnes. “Just tell me you didn’t. You didn’t, right?”
“I…” Ben swallowed again. “I didn’t—” He winced but didn’t look away from his sister. “It was an accident,” he said finally, suddenly.
Agnes started to cry, but she didn’t back away. “Why—How—What happened?”
“It just—It was an accident!” Ben scrubbed his hands over his face, wincing again. “He was buying from me. Had been for a while. When he got the job you wanted… He was a tool. I never liked him. You deserved the job more than he ever did, and I… I gave him a sample. He was wasted, so I… I was pretty hammered too. We took Dad’s car out. I thought maybe I’d make it look like he went on a joy ride, get him arrested. I left him there and walked to the bus stop. I didn’t expect him to move to the back to lie down. He fell asleep back there. I guess he locked himself in by accident, and… I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. When I got back he was already…” Now it was Ben who was starting to tear up. Lady believed him. It didn’t seem like he had meant for any of it to happen.
Dom didn’t say anything, neither did Lady. Agnes hadn’t moved from the spot. She was looking at her brother, waiting for him to say something else.
“Dad was wasted, so he didn’t notice… or maybe he did. I don’t know. He hasn’t said anything about it, but… This’ll kill his career.”
Agnes still didn’t say anything. She took a few steps forward and hugged her brother. He went stiff for a second then hugged her back. “We have to go to the police,” she said gently.
“I really didn’t mean for any of this to happen.” It sounded like Ben was crying.
“I believe you,” said Agnes, with a surprising amount of composure. “Come on now. We need to tell the authorities. I’ll go with you.”
Epilogue
It was after hours, and they had Chinese takeout on a quilt in the central aisle of the library. “This is nice,” said Lady before popping part of an eggroll into her mouth.
“Is it?” Crispin asked doubtfully.
“It is.” Lady gave him a wink. After the week they’d had, this was more like a celebratory dinner between friends than a date. They were both exhausted, emotionally and physically. It was nice, though. Lady wouldn’t have changed anything about it.
Heck, Otsuya had even seen her off. She had helped her get ready. She’d asked where she was going as she headed out the door. Lady had been hesitant to tell her, but she did. There was no way she couldn’t. Lying to Otsuya was out of the question.
She told Otsuya where she was going, expecting her to give her a curt nod or say nothing at all and head back upstairs. To her great surprise, Otsuya had looked her up and down and sighed. “You need earrings.”
“What?”
“To pull that outfit together,” Otsuya had said impatiently. “You need earrings.” Then she had retreated back upstairs to her room. She returned with a pair of stud earrings. They were little blue flowers that matched Lady’s eyes.
Lady had found herself quite unable to stop smiling as she put them in under Otsuya’s watchful eye.
“Much better,” Otsuya said, and Lady hugged her. The way Otsuya returned the hug was a little stiff, but she returned it all the same. Lady was thankful to have a friend like her, thankful that the strain recent events had put on their relationship hadn’t ruined everything. She was lucky. She really was.
Weird as they all were, it was undeniable. She had a family here in Dark Lake.
Things really had worked out as well as they could have. Ben was probably facing jail time. Lawrence too, probably. He was certainly under investigation about how much he had known.
At least they were taking it slow with Ben. They let Agnes be there for him through questioning. It was unclear how long she would be busy with that, but Crispin had made it clear that her job would be waiting for her when she got back—assuming she still wanted it, of course.
Agnes said that she did. Lady wasn’t sure if that would work out, that working at the library wouldn’t stir up too many bad memories. She hoped Agnes stuck around, though. She hadn’t gotten the job just because of her brother. She’d be good at it. Lady was sure of that.
“So, what now?” asked Crispin, bringing Lady’s thoughts back to the present.
Lady wasn’t sure if he was talking about the two of them or the future of the library as a whole. Either way, the answer was the same, “I don’t know.” She gave him a smile. “I guess we’ll find out together.”
Raven Snow, On Borrowed Time
