Chapter Twenty-One
The Missoula Main Library was a relatively nondescript brick building, located in downtown Missoula. Mark asked for directions from the man at the circulation desk and then made his way to the area where young adult books were kept. He took a moment to peruse the shelves, noting the white stickers at the bottom of the spines indicating the author and location and the yellow sticker near the middle with a large number on it, indicating how long the book was available for loan. Harper was right.
There was a woman standing in front of a library cart nearby, reshelving books, and Mark headed in her direction. As he approached, she looked up, removing her glasses and dropping them so they hung on the chain around her neck. "Hello."
"Hello, ma'am, Agent Gallagher with the Montana Department of Justice." He opened his wallet and showed her his badge, which she glanced at quickly, her eyes widening. "I'm hoping you can assist me."
"Oh. I can try. What is it I might help you with?"
Mark pulled out his cell phone and showed her the photos he'd taken of the books that had been on the nightstand at the Larkspur. "Is there anything you can tell me about these titles and whether they might have come from this library?"
She studied the photos, swiping between the one of the covers and the one of the spines. She looked up at Mark and handed him his cell phone back. "Yes, they did. I helped the woman pick these out myself after she asked for my help. Then instead of checking them out, she stole them."
Mark reached in his pocket, bringing out his notebook and the picture of the woman inside that the morgue had forwarded him. "Is this her?"
The librarian peered down at it. "Yes." She raised her gaze to Mark's, her eyes wide. "Is she dead ?" she whispered. She brought her hand to her stomach, appearing ill.
"I'm sorry to say she is. Any information you can give me on her demeanor or something she said that seemed off to you would be very helpful."
The woman bobbed her head. "Um, yes, well, she asked me if I would help her choose some books for a young man. I asked for a specific age or reading level, and she seemed not to know how to answer that, and so I chose a few of our most popular titles for mid- to young teens. She seemed appreciative, but then I noticed later that the books were missing. I just got this weird feeling, you know, so I checked the computer and found that they'd never been checked out. Are you able to tell me what happened to her, Agent?"
"Unfortunately, she was murdered."
"Oh. Oh, that's terrible. My goodness…" She trailed off, and Mark nodded.
"Is there anything else at all you can tell me about her?"
"Oh, um… Oh yes, one thing. She used the computer right over there." She pointed to a couple of monitors. "She was sitting at the computer, actually, right before she asked me for help, so that's why I noticed. She stood up from the monitor and came toward me where I was reshelving books."
"Does the library have security cameras?"
"No, no cameras."
Mark nodded. "Okay. Would the history still be on that computer?"
"If she was using the internet, I think so. Or at least we don't delete the history regularly. That was, what…two weeks ago?"
"Yes, about that."
The woman came out from behind the desk, and Mark followed her to the computer monitor, where she sat down and logged in, bringing up the internet and then going to the browser history. "Let's see," she said softly, "that would have been Monday…no, Tuesday." She smiled up at Mark. "I'd come back from lunch with my sister earlier, and we always do Taco Tuesday down the street." She turned back to the monitor. "Okay, hmm…there wasn't a lot of activity on this computer, but visits to pages don't have time stamps. However, it looks as though all these entries are related to ancient China…probably a research paper of some sort…and then there's a visit to the contact page of Fairbanks Lumber Company and then…to the contact page of the CEO of the company, Halston Fairbanks."
"Could you print the entire history out?"
"I can take a screen shot and print it for you."
"That would be very helpful, ma'am."
Ten minutes later, Mark exited the building, the printout in his hand. Had the woman killed at the Larkspur looked up the contact information for Halston Fairbanks, a local lumber company CEO? And if so, why? Moreover, why had she stolen books from the library that looked to be for a young man? He had nothing to go on regarding the stolen books, but he'd contact Halston Fairbanks and hope to God the man was able to provide some information that would move this case forward.