On Borrowed Time, page 6
part #4 of Dark Lake Chronicles Series
“I was working here yesterday,” Destiny offered. “I definitely think I would have noticed a dead person in one of the boats.”
“I’ll have to look into it.” That went without saying, but Conners said it anyway. “Do you think you and Crispin could come down to the station later today? I’d like to ask you a few questions.”
“We’ll have to close down the library, but yeah. Of course.”
Lady could hear them continue their conversation, but something drew her attention away. She saw movement near one of the boats at the end of the pier. She took a few steps away from the others, trying to get a better look. It was small and red and moving quickly. A lizard? No, it was a salamander. She recognized it, though. It was the one she had seen when she was meditating.
***
“What do you think it means?” Lady asked Ms. Poole after dinner.
Ms. Poole wasn’t quite finished eating. She looked up from where she was buttering a dinner roll. “I think it means you’re getting better at meditating. That’s good.”
It wasn’t really the time for it, but Lady couldn’t help but feel a small swell of pride. “Dom gave me some pointers, actually. It helped.”
“Dom.” Ms. Poole raised her eyebrows. “Hmm.” She sounded surprised but nodded anyway. “Well, good.”
“The salamander, though. What do you think it means?”
“Well, a salamander is typically thought of as a fire elemental.” Ms. Poole put her knife down and paused to take a bite.
“Fire?” Lady repeated dubiously. “But it was a salamander. Aren’t those typically kind of… moist?”
“I don’t make the rules. That’s just what they are.”
“Okay, so… a fire elemental during my meditation and then again at the marina. What does that mean?”
“You know my element is water, dear. You would be better off asking Destiny. She’s a friend of yours, isn’t she?”
“Yeah.” Lady supposed she was. “But you know about stuff like this. Visions and stuff.”
“Do you feel like you had a vision?”
“I feel like it means something.” Lady wouldn’t have thought that once upon a time, but living in Dark Lake was making her believe in some odd stuff. It couldn’t be a coincidence. Well… it could, but that felt unlikely. “I see it in my mind’s eye right before we hear that Chad got murdered? And then I see it again? That’s got to mean something.”
“Was he murdered? I thought it was heat exhaustion.” Ms. Poole was discussing the particulars like they were talking about mundane local gossip.
“They haven’t done an examination of the body yet,” Lady admitted. “But come on. It was probably murder.”
“I think, maybe, you’re getting a little ahead of yourself.”
“I thought you wanted me to follow my instincts more.”
“I do.” Ms. Poole took a deep breath, like talking to Lady wearied her. “But you also need to slow down. Follow your instincts, but take these things one step at a time. Don’t just assume things.”
“Right.” Lady chewed at the dry skin on her bottom lip. “So what do I do next?”
“Next you clean the table and wash the dishes.”
“What?” That shook Lady out of her brainstorming. “But—but someone just died. I need to figure out—”
“You didn’t know him. You didn’t even like him. And he’s already dead, so it’s not like he’ll be going anywhere.” Ms. Poole pointed to the kitchen. “There will be time for investigating tomorrow. Dishes. Go. Now.”
Lady groaned, but she knew better than to argue. She would be lucky if Ms. Poole didn’t saddle her with a ton of chores the next day. There were places she wanted to go, people she wanted to see, questions she wanted to ask… as soon as she figured out what those were.
***
Lady went up to Otsuya’s room after dinner. She hadn’t come down, but she was fairly certain she was home. Lion accompanied her as she went upstairs and knocked on the door. “You in there?”
“Yeah,” said a voice from inside. That the door was closed and Otsuya wasn’t coming out was probably a bad sign. Lady had hoped things would return to normal between them, but maybe it was too soon to hope for something like that.
“Do you think I can come in?”
There was a considerable pause. “Yeah,” Otsuya said finally. “Come in.”
Lady opened the door and stepped inside. The lights were normal at least. Otsuya was sitting on the floor, a large book open before her. It looked like she had been reading before Lady had come inside. At least the sight of Lion made her smile. She kissed at him and motioned him over. He came running and curled into her lap to be petted. She immediately started doing just that. “You didn’t come down for dinner.” That felt like a stupid thing to say, but Lady couldn’t think of another way to bring it up.
Otsuya shrugged. “I wasn’t hungry.”
“Are you ever?” It was an honest question. She wasn’t sure ghosts actually got hungry.
“I didn’t feel like coming down,” Otsuya rephrased.
Lady took a few more steps into the room. She sat down on the floor, situating herself across from Otsuya. “How did work go? I know you and Doyle were out this morning.”
“It was work.”
Lady wasn’t sure how much more she could take of this awkwardness between them. “Did you hear what happened with the new guy?”
“What new guy?”
“Chad. You know, the guy Crispin hired on at the library.”
“What about him?”
“He got murdered.” Lady lowered her voice even though it wasn’t news she needed to be secretive about.
Otsuya sat up a little straighter. She obviously hadn’t heard anything about all of that, and the information instantly intrigued her. “Seriously? What happened?”
“Well, I don’t actually know that he was murdered.” Lady went on to relay everything to Otsuya. It had been a busy day. She might have plenty left to figure out about what had happened with Chad, but there was still more than enough to make for an interesting story. At the very least it seemed to take Otsuya’s mind off of Crispin.
“That’s wild,” Otsuya breathed when Lady was finished. “I wish I’d been there.”
“You can come with me tomorrow. If you don’t have work, I mean. I’m hoping I can get away from Ms. Poole long enough to look into it more.”
“Where are you gonna go?”
That was a good question. “I don’t know yet. I’m not sure where to start.”
“You should ask Crispin. I’m sure he knows more about this than we do by now. He was going to talk to the police, right?”
“I’m sure he already has by now.” Lady tried to pick her words carefully. They were talking about Crispin after all. That was the current source of most animosity between them.
Otsuya seemed to pick up on Lady’s hesitance. “I’m not going to try and make it weird. I’ll go with you to talk to him. It’s not like you two are going on a date any time soon. At least not now.”
That was a fair point. An employee getting murdered was sort of a mood killer. At least it should have been for most people. Lady didn’t think she would mind terribly if they went on a date tomorrow. She hadn’t really liked Chad. She would probably enjoy discussing theories about what had happened to him over a private brunch. “We’ll head over tomorrow then.” She was looking forward to the return of some normalcy between herself and Otsuya. She was about to stand and head back to her room when something else occurred to her. “You know, I was meditating earlier today and… I think I saw something. I think it might have had something to do with the murder.”
“Oh?”
Lady nodded. “It was a salamander. Ms. Poole said those were fire elementals.” She still wasn’t sure about that. It didn’t sound right to her.
“They are. Probably connected given the way Chad died. You should keep an eye out for more.”
She planned to. “Who knows,” she said, standing. “Maybe it’ll come to me in a dream.”
Chapter Six
Lady didn’t dream that night. Or, if she did dream, she didn’t remember it. It might have had something to do with how suddenly she was awoken. “Good morning!” Otsuya sang loudly, throwing open the blinds.
Lady threw an arm over her eyes as the sunlight streamed in. She groaned and tried to squirm down further into the sheets. Otsuya tore those off the bed next.
“We have somewhere to be today! Remember?” Otsuya gave Lady a friendly slap on the shoulder.
Lady supposed she should be thankful. This was what she had wanted. She had just forgotten exactly what normalcy between herself and Otsuya entailed. “I’m getting up,” she grumbled. “I’m getting up.”
“I already called Crispin,” said Otsuya standing in the middle of the small room with her hands on her hips. She was already dressed for the day, back in her tank top, shorts, and knee-high socks. “I told him we were on our way.”
“Well, it’s going to take me a minute.” Lady sat up and swung her feet over the side of the bed. She had taken a shower the night before, but she still needed to brush her hair and teeth and put on clothes and maybe eat a little breakfast. She’d like to put on a bit of makeup as well. She didn’t always, but they were going to see Crispin and she had been thinking about her appearance a lot around him as of late. She doubted Otsuya would give her the time to complete all that, though. She would have to prioritize.
“Don’t take too long,” Otsuya warned. “Oh, and don’t worry about Lion. I already fed him.”
Lady watched Otsuya leave. She wondered if Lion had had a nutritious cat breakfast or more people food. She really needed to lay down some ground rules about how other people interacted with her cat.
***
The bathroom was free at least. Lady pulled her hair into a braid. It was getting awfully long, she noted. It was well past time for a haircut. A short pixie cut would be nice right about now.
Lady put on a little foundation and mascara but didn’t risk spending time on much else. Time was a factor, and she didn’t really want Otsuya noticing either. Yeah, she wanted to look her best for Crispin, but she didn’t want Otsuya to know she was trying. The tank top and frayed cut-offs she was wearing didn’t scream effort. She had gotten most of her current wardrobe from local thrift shops which suited her fine. She felt like she was pulling off a decent grunge look.
Otsuya was in the kitchen when she left the bathroom. Lady found her when she followed the smells of breakfast.
“Otsuya says you’re heading out,” said Ms. Poole without looking up from the stove. Something was popping and sizzling there. Probably some kind of breakfast meat. Lady thought she smelled sausage.
“Is that all right?” asked Lady, feeling a slight but sudden swell of anxiety. She hadn’t realized Otsuya would demand they leave first thing in the morning. She should have but hadn’t. Those plans were something she probably should have run by Ms. Poole first.
“Of course it’s all right.” Otsuya was leaning back against the island, Lion in her arms. She didn’t seem the least bit concerned. She didn’t need to be. It wasn’t like she worked for Ms. Poole. She was a paying guest at the Fisherman Inn.
Ms. Poole hummed. It was an annoyed sound, one that said she and Lady were going to have a serious conversation the next time they were alone. “I want you to call me with regular updates. I’d like to know how my nephew is doing with all of this.”
“Sure.”
“And stop by the store on your way home. There are some things we need. The list is on the fridge.”
“Got it.” Lady was sure they would still be having that talk later, but she was grateful she didn’t have to change her plans. “Do you think we can borrow the car?”
“Don’t push it.”
***
It was a little cooler out today. Lady gave in when Otsuya asked if they could bring Lion along. “He can help,” she insisted, and Lady couldn’t definitively say she was wrong.
It was still too warm for Lady to put Lion in her tote bag, so he followed alongside them. She wasn’t worried about him wandering off. He was smarter than most dogs. Ms. Poole said he was her familiar and that he was an impressive one at that. Maybe that had something to do with it.
The walk was more tolerable than it had been the day before; partly because it was cooler and partly because she had company. It was like they had never fought. Otsuya was calmly discussing the day, carrying the food Ms. Poole had packed for them. She tended to pack them some food if she knew they were going to visit Crispin. She cared about him despite her cool demeanor. Being chilly was just her default.
“What did Crispin say when you called him?” asked Lady when they were almost there.
“Not much,” said Otsuya. “We didn’t talk for long. I think he was busy.”
“He is at the library, though?”
“Of course. You think we would walk all the way there otherwise?”
“I just didn’t think they would open it today.” With Dom and Crispin both dealing with the police, Lady wasn’t sure who would be around to run things. The only other employee was dead now.
“I don’t think they did open it.” Otsuya turned out to be right. When they reached the library, the doors were locked. A sign had been posted out front that said they would resume normal business hours soon. Lady wasn’t sure anyone had actually seen the sign. The library could probably close indefinitely and no one in Dark Lake would be any the wiser. Not that Lady would ever say any of that out loud, at least not to Crispin.
Otsuya pounded on the door. “Open up! We’re here!” They had to be inside. Lady could see their cars out front. Even so, no one answered. They stood outside for what felt like a full minute before Otsuya pounded on the door again. “We’re here!”
Lady pulled out her cell phone. It would probably be easier to just call Crispin and let him know they were outside. For all she knew he and Dom were in the back. It was a big library. They wouldn’t be able to hear everything. Chad had been right about one thing. Some kind of digital bell at the front door wouldn’t be a bad idea.
Lady’s thumb was hovering over the call button when she heard something from inside. It sounded like someone was unlocking the door. “Finally,” sighed Otsuya.
One of the big doors creaked open and Dom poked his head out. He looked tired and grumpier than usual. There were dark bags under his eyes. “What are you two doing here?”
That wasn’t the greeting Lady had expected. Not even from Dom. “We came to help out.” Lady still wasn’t sure what they were helping with exactly, but Crispin definitely needed help in some sort of capacity.
“We brought breakfast,” Otsuya said, holding the bag Ms. Poole had packed high enough for inspection. It still radiated heat and smelled like crispy breakfast meats.
The door opened wide enough to allow them both in. There was still a frown on Dom’s face though. It didn’t really look like he expected them, much less wanted them here. “Didn’t Crispin tell you we were coming?” Lady asked as she passed him on her way in.
“Who is it?!” called Crispin’s voice from somewhere in the vicinity of the front desk. Nope, it definitely didn’t sound like anyone had expected them.
“It’s Otsuya and Lady!” Dom yelled back. This was the first shouting Lady thought she had ever heard in the library.
Crispin did indeed seem surprised to see them when they neared the desk. He was sitting behind it and stood when they approached. Like Dom, he didn’t look like he had gotten much sleep. He was wearing a t-shirt and jeans, the sort of casual clothes Lady didn’t see him in often. “What are you—” His gazed turned to Otsuya. “I told you not to come.”
Lady froze where she was, feeling suddenly awkward. “She told me she told you we were coming.”
“I did,” Otsuya said brightly, continuing on to the desk. She put the bag down on it. “Here. I brought breakfast.”
“Should we leave?” Lady asked slowly, glancing over her shoulder as Dom walked by.
Crispin sighed and sat back down. “No, it’s fine. I just didn’t see any point in you coming over.”
“We’ve been arguing,” Dom said, being blunt about it. He hopped up and sat on the counter itself. “He probably didn’t want you around for that.”
Lady closed the rest of the distance between herself and the counter as Otsuya hopped up beside Dom. She wasn’t going to pry and ask what they had been fighting about. She knew Otsuya would do it for her. “What were you arguing about?” Otsuya asked, true to form.
Crispin frowned. He obviously didn’t want to say. “I think we should call in one of the other people we interviewed for the library position,” said Dom, having no such reservations. It felt like he was appealing to Lady and Otsuya as well. He wanted someone else on his side.
“It’s too soon for that,” snapped Crispin. He sounded exasperated, like he had made this argument several times before.
“It’s a job,” Dom said. “He was our employee, and we didn’t even know him that well. It’s not like there’s a mandatory mourning period for when an employee dies. You just hire a new employee. That’s how it works.”
Lady opened her mouth to say something but closed it just as quickly. She wasn’t sure whose side she was on just yet. It did seem a little weird to turn around and hire someone immediately. Then again, she hadn’t even liked Chad.
“We need someone to work here,” Dom continued. “Especially with the both of us helping the police. Do you seriously plan on leaving the library closed this whole time? We don’t know how long it’ll take. It could be weeks. Are you telling me you’re all right with that?”
“That’s not fair.” Crispin sank down in his chair and glared at Dom. “And it’s not like someone could just come in here and take over. We would have to train them. They couldn’t come in off the street and be expected to run things.”
Dom didn’t look bothered by that. “One of the candidates worked at her college library. She’s used to the ins and outs. It wouldn’t take long to walk her through the basics.”
“I can hang out and keep an eye on her,” offered Otsuya.
