Chapter 35

35

When I entered Foley's office after my interview with Rosalyn, he was standing next to Whitlock, talking about her confession. They looked over at me, smiled, and Whitlock let out a long whistle.

"Way to go in there," Foley said. "You sure there's no way I can talk you into coming back and working for me?"

"I'm sure but thank you."

"We have one confession. Now we just need to get the other one out of her. Any ideas?"

I moved a hand to my hip. "You don't think she committed both murders do you?"

"I sure do. Don't you?"

"No, I don't."

"Why not? Given she had a relationship with both victims, it seems obvious."

"The murders were nothing alike. And then there's the note Whitlock found in the library, which suggests someone was hired to kill Cordelia."

"We've never been able to confirm the note has anything to do with the case."

We hadn't disproved it either.

"Then you have Eddy, who was poisoned over the course of a week and then stuck in a refrigerator," I said. "Their deaths seem too different to be connected."

"The connection is Rosalyn. The way I see it, the woman killed her husband, and then she either hired someone to murder her neighbor, or she took care of it herself."

"Why would she kill Cordelia, the one person who was trying to give her a way out, a new life, without Eddy in it?"

Foley shook his head. "Was it a way out? What if, after Rosalyn murdered her husband, she worried Cordelia might let it slip, tell someone what she'd done? Rosalyn could have wanted to tie up loose ends."

"As a murderer, she's awful at it," I said. "Think about it, Foley. If she was going to hire someone to kill Cordelia, why wouldn't she hire someone to kill her husband as well, instead of killing him herself?"

Foley turned to Whitlock. "You're being quiet for a change. Care to chime in?"

Whitlock raised a brow. "Rosalyn hasn't confessed to Cordelia's murder. It seems there may be a few more rocks that need to be turned over before we know what happened for certain."

"I spoke to Samantha yesterday, the woman who runs the library," I said. "She told me on the day Cordelia was murdered, a strange man came in."

"Well, this is news to me," Foley said. "When were you going to tell us?"

"Last night," I said. "And then you dropped the Eddy bombshell, and I decided it could wait."

"Hang on a minute. Start from the beginning. What did Samantha say?"

"On the afternoon of Cordelia's death, a man came into the library who Samantha found suspicious."

"Suspicious in what way?"

"He sat in the corner, pretending to read a book while looking around, watching who was coming and going. She tried to start a conversation with the man, and he wasn't interested. Afterward, she walked away. When she went back to check on him later, he was gone. No one saw him after that."

"What do you know about this man?"

"Samantha gave me a description, and that's all I have to go on right now. And there's one other thing. At the time the man was in the library, Cordelia was talking to Johnny, the other employee. I learned this information from Samantha. I talked to Johnny about their conversation, and he let it slip that it was more of an argument. I found it interesting because Samantha didn't describe their interaction as an argument at all."

"Do you know what the argument was about?"

"According to Johnny, Cordelia wanted to change the way they did things at the library. He wanted things to stay as they were. He didn't go into specifics, just something about getting the community more involved, and he didn't think they had a large enough community to justify the funding."

"See, it's just as I suggested," Whitlock said. "We're not done investigating. Let's kick a few more stones. We're close to solving the case. I can feel it."