Page 5

Sunday morning, Rarity was on her way to dress after her swim when a knock sounded at her door. She went and unlocked the door. Sam stood there, decked out in yoga clothes.

“Don’t tell me you forgot.” Sam pushed her way into the house and headed to the kitchen. “No worries. I figured you’d run late so I’m early. Go get ready and I’ll pour us coffee for the trip.”

“Good morning to you too.” Rarity closed the door and followed her friend. “Did w e have plans?”

“Come on, Rarity. We go through this every month. You’re always too busy to go to Flagstaff for Yoga in the Park. Well, today, I know your morning is free. I called Archer and he assured me that you two didn’t have plans. In fact, he sounded weird. What’s going on with you two? Did you have a fight?” Sam pulled out two travel mugs fro m the cabinet.

“Why, what did Archer say?” Rarity had been ghosted in high school after junior prom. The guy had dropped her off at her house then never talked to her again. He hadn’t even tried to kiss her. At least he hadn’t gone to her high school; that would have been awkward. This was feeling a lot like that time.

Sam turned around from filling the first cup. “Now you’re sounding weird too. He said that you two weren’t doing anything today and I should call you. Then he said he was busy and hung up. Wha t’s going on?”

“Honestly? I don’t know.” Rarity wasn’t going to cry over something that might not be happening. “Let me get dressed and we can talk in the car. I think some yoga and getting out of the house is what I need. May be lunch too.”

“I’m game,” Sam said. She didn’t push on the Archer thing.

By the time Rarity was ready, Sam had already filled Killer’s food and water bowls, let him out, and given him his favorite toy. Sam smiled as Rarity came into the living room. “Maybe he’ll be mad at me and not you when we get home.”

“Probably not. He has a long memory.” Rarity picked up the Yorkie and gave him a snuggle. “I’ll text Terrance and let him know I’m out this morning. He might swing by and take him on a walk if he has time.”

As they walked out of the house, Sam studied the house next door. “I didn’t know that Terrance was working at the nursing home until Friday night. Shirley ignored him until George came up and slapped him on the back. They act like they’re best friends.”

“Yeah, Terrance is working on their security system. It keeps going down and unlocking the main doors. He worked in security in the navy.” Rarity didn’t want to comment on the Shirley connection. “I guess he and Georg e hit it off.”

“Which is weird, right?” Sam backed out of the driveway and headed to the highway. “Tell me what’s going on with you and Mr. Perfect. I never thought the two of you would have issues.”

Rarity blinked back tears. “N either did I.”

She told her friend about the last few conversations. “I don’t know where we stand. He won’t tell me why he’s reconsidering, but I can see in his eyes that he still cares about me. Or am I fooling myself? I’ve done that before.”

“You’re not fooling yourself. I wasn’t joking when I called Archer Mr. Perfect. He is that, for you.” She reached over and squeezed Rarity’s hand. “We’ll figure it out. I promise. Or I could give you Drew. He’d probably be a lot happier.”

“Don’t even joke about that. You and Drew are meant to be. I know that. I was a shiny rock that he saw first.” Rarity wiped her face, hoping that none of the tears had fallen. “Besides, I’m committed to figuring out what happened to Archer and me. Maybe I’m a ba d girlfriend.”

“Not possible. It’s never about us. Remember that. You’re the star of your own movie. Not the boys.” Sam glanced at the road. “We still have thirty minutes. What else is going on? I don’t want to talk about the conversation Jonathon and I had about Drew’ s blind date.”

“Someday, you need to tell me, but I’ll give you a bit. I know you. It might be entertaining.” Rarity took a deep breath, trying to push ba ck the emotion.

“It wasn’t entertaining for Jonathon.” Sam laughed. “I’ll tell you someday. So what’s going on at the bookstore? Is the sleuthing club being called into servic e on Tuesday?”

“Does a bear…” Rarity began, but then she changed the subject. “First, I need to tell you about a book that showed up at the store.”

Rarity told Sam all about the book and how Jonathon realized it had belonged to Archer’s grandmother. “Archer confirmed it. At least it’s at the police station. I’ve looked up the approximate value of the thing, and I don’t want it in my shop or at the house. It should be in a museum somewhere under h igh security.”

“And it showed up?”

“In the women’s restroom. What if someone had dropped it in the sink? Or in the trash? It could be sitting in Sedona’s landfill by now.” Rarity sipp ed her coffee.

Sam was quiet for a few minutes. “The weird thing is the book shows up at your bookstore. Especially since you are dating Archer. It’s like whoever left it wanted to get it back to Archer, but didn’t want him to know he or she had it. You’re like a property drop in those movies. Or those safe baby haven spots at a fire station.”

“If the book was a baby.” Rarity thought about Sam’s statement. Maybe she was right. Everyone in town knew she was dating Archer. The small-town rumor mill ran rapidly here. She’d tried to keep the fact that he was reconsidering their relationship under wraps. Except Terrance had seemed to know Saturday when he came to walk her home. Who had told him?

Rarity had told Terrance that their Monday night date had been canceled due to Archer having to work. But who had told him to show up on Saturday? It had to be Archer. Maybe he had asked Terrance on Friday night?

And maybe all this overthinking over a relationship wasn’t doing her any good. It was time to think about other things, like the expensive, antique book that had shown up at her bookstore. She also needed to figure out who killed William Jully, although she thought everyone who’d ever met the man would probably b e on the list.

Who didn’t love puppies?

* * *

The trip to Flagstaff had been the distraction Rarity had needed. When Sam dropped her off, she’d gone straight to the couch and had called Killer over to join her. She had things to do, but after working out twice in one day, she didn’t feel like jumping into the house chores. She could do those tomorrow. It wasn’t like she had a date or something. She turned on the television.

A knock on her door later that evening got her off the couch. She paused the reality show she’d been watching—okay, she’d been binge-watching. She opened the door, “Oh, I thought you were my Chines e food order.”

“You’re in yoga clothes and eating Chinese food?” Drew stepped into the living room and shut the door. “Things are worse than I realized. Is Archer still ignoring you?”

“How did you know?” Rarity went back to the couch and sat, hugging a pillow since Killer had run to sit on Drew’s lap. Drew was one of Killer’s favorite people. Probably in the top three. “With Archer gone, you might move up on K iller’s list.”

“He’s not gone.” Drew leaned forward. “Look, I know this is a hard time for the two of you, but can we talk about something else? I don’t want to break his confidence. He might be an idiot, but he’s also my best friend.”

“Sure, but don’t tell me who won this season of Project Runway . I’m only on episode five.” She leaned back, considering what she’d learned. Archer had talked to Drew about their situation. Maybe Drew was the one to call Terrance. Or maybe Archer was telling everyone but her what was going on?

“Not a show I watch, even when I’m depressed. When Sam and I were having issues, I watched The Walking Dead . Seeing all those zombies getting killed w as cathartic.”

“I can’t even comment on that.” Rarity rolled her eyes. Drew always knew how to make her laugh. “Anyway, why are you here?”

“I wanted to talk to you about that book you found. I’m not going to have a lot of time to work on who it belongs to, not with this murder, but I’m waiting for reports now.” He pulled out his notebook. “Tell me when you d iscovered it.”

“You know it belongs to Archer. Or maybe his parents.” Rarity sat forward. “I guess it depends on if his grandmothe r had a will.”

“I’m more interested in who had the book for the last twenty years,” Drew explained. “Did anyone stick out that day at the shop?”

“I wasn’t working. Katie took that Monday. I was going to go through the security videos on the front door and see if I recognized anyone coming in.” She pulled out her planner. “Do I need to do t hat tomorrow?”

“Do you have plans?” He nodded to the television. “Oh, well there’s that. Tuesday’s fine. I don’t want to interrupt your important binge-wa tch schedule.”

“Shut up. I was going to clean the house. Katie’s working tomorrow and I don’t like to pop in on them when they’re working alone unless they ask. I don’t want them to think I don’t trust them.” She tapped her planner. “Besides, I’d like your dad to watch it with me. Since he was the investigator back then, maybe he’d recognize someone. I didn’t even live here when the book disappeared.”

“Not a bad idea.” Drew snapped his notebook shut. “So are yo u doing okay?”

Tears threatened again. She wished people would stop asking her how she was feeling. “I don’t know. I guess it depends on the outcome. He needs to know that I’m not waiting around forever. Even thoug h I love him.”

“I’ll relay the message.” Drew stood and, using one hand, passed Killer over to her. “Rarity, I promise Archer’s going to come to his senses soon and come begging you to forgive him.”

The doorbell rang and Drew stepped over to open the door. A young man stood there, a bag in his hand. “Rarity Cole?”

“Chinese food, I take it?” Drew reache d out his hand.

“The best in town.” The kid handed the bag over. “Thanks for the tip.”

As he ran back to his car, Drew turned and shut the door. “I guess you tip on the website. Where do y ou want this?”

“Right here. And grab me a plate, fork, and paper towels if you don’t mind. I don’t want to disturb Killer.” Rarity opened the bag and started pulling o ut containers.

Drew went to the kitchen. “Do you want a soda to go with th at, princess?”

Rarity smiled at the barb. She could have gotten up but then again, Drew could have told her what was going on with Archer too. “Sparkling water, please, and thank you. Don’t you tip on the website?”

“How do I know how it’s going to arrive?” He set everything in front of her then took one of her egg rolls she’d just set out. “I’ve got to go. Call me if you need anything else. Or call Sam. She’s going to be bored with me being so bu sy with work.”

As he walked to the door, she called after him. “Drew, you have to know that George didn’t k ill that guy.”

“I hope your instincts are spot on this time.” He glanced over to where Terrance’s house was even though he couldn’t see it through the wall. “He’s not the only one I’m conside ring, though.”

“Don’t even go there. I’m certain that there’s no way Terrance did it. He’s head of the neighborhood watch. He’s all about protecting those who can’t protect themselves.” Rarity opened her water and took a drink.

“That’s why I’m looking at him as a suspect. This William Jully had it in for George. He wanted him out of the home; he’d talked to several people about it. He said he was getting paranoid as well as having memory issues.” He nodded to the television. “Do me a favor, watch your shows. I don’t want to be worrying about you investigatin g this thing.”

“Which thing?” Rarity asked as he walked out the door.

“You’re a pill. You know I love you, so listen to me and take care of yourself. Sam would never forgive me if something happened to you. And she’s already mad at my folks.” Drew left, locking the door after him.

Rarity ate her dinner as she watched the television. Afterward, she cleaned up and took out the trash so Killer wouldn’t be tempted to find his way into it. She wasn’t going to fall into a pit of despair over a man. Even when the man in question was Archer. She pulled out the notebook that Shirley had made for their sleuthing club. She took some of the looseleaf paper out and started writing down what she knew about the book mystery. She smiled as she wrote at the top: Wh ere was Alice?

Once she was done with that, she studied the information and wrote, Action Step #1: Check the video with Jonathon to see if he recognizes anyone. She’d copy this page for Jonathon and give it to him when he arrived on Tuesday for the club. If they didn’t have time before, they’d do it afterward, and she’d have someone to walk her home.

She was probably going to have to get used to walking h ome alone now.

Rarity pushed the image of Archer away and took out a second page. This time, she wrote, Who Killed William Jully? on the top. She already knew two of Drew’s suspects. However, neither man could have done something like that. She wondered if George’s doctors would say that he wasn’t violent. The nurse they’d talked to Friday night said he was kind and always helping others. If a medical person said it, Drew might listen to them. But was it enough?

Instead of following that tangent, she wrote what she did know. William Jully had been killed at the nursing home after the group had left with the puppies. Terrance had been in that group. George was inside, yes, but by the time Jully was killed, George should have been asleep. And who was this woman who had di ed months ago?

Ruth Agee. She wrote down the name, then texted Drew her name and what George had said. He’d know she wasn’t staying out of it, but did he th ink she would?

She finished making notes and, looking over them, realized she didn’t have any other suspects to send Drew’s way. If Jully had killed Ruth, it would give more motivation to George killing him in revenge. Or for a weird vig ilante reason.

Was George helping others by getting rid of a predator? And if Jully was a predator, how would they prove it?

She tucked the paper into the notebook. She didn’t have an action step written down on this page, but Rarity knew her next step. It was time to call in the troops. The Tuesday Night Survivors’ Book Club really was turning into the Tuesday Night Sleuthing Club, as Jonathon called it. Or at least they would as soon as they discussed this week’s book and let the nonsleuthing members leave.

She glanced at the book on her table. The one she still hadn’t finished. That was what she could do tonight. And having something to do to keep her mind stil l was helpful.

Rarity couldn’t solve all the problems and mysteries in her life right now. But she could finish What Never Happened. And since the book had an unreliable narrator, she could understand the woman’s actions. Even though she would have been off that island before she even got there.

What we wouldn’t do for family.

Rarity left the television running as she curled up with the book and Killer sleeping next to her. Tomorrow she’d finish her house chores and maybe order Italian for dinner. And watch another season of P roject Runway .

If Archer stayed away for a few weeks, she’d be all caught up on the shows she’d missed when they were o ut having fun.

That sounded bad. Like she wanted a break from her boyfriend so she could wat ch television.

Right now Rarity didn’t care how she sounded. Even in her head. She had a plan. Besides, Archer had a secret. Drew knew what that secret was, and she was going to find ou t what it was.

Even if she didn’t have a sheet of paper on this problem.

Now she had three myste ries to solve.

She focused on the page. They did it in books all the time. One mystery added to the other and sometimes, they all fell like dominos. You solved one, you figured out the missing pieces of the other.

The book was the key. But Archer had been surprised when she’d shown it to him. He truly hadn’t seen the book since before his grandmother had been murdered.

So where had it been hiding? And with whom?

It was time for Rarity to meet Archer’s parents. Even if it was only on paper. If she could figure out their story, maybe that would answer the book question.

Or at least, she’d know more about Archer.

She focused on the book in her hand. The one thing she could do ri ght now. Read.