Free "A Murder In Milburn", Book 3: Death In The Library by Nancy McGovern Page A

I’d reckon. He was awfully heartbroken.”
    “How romantic,” Nora said.
    “How unrealistic,” Harvey said. “He should just have moved on and gotten another girl.”
    “Oh but some men are sensitive,” May said. “They meet one girl, they fall in love, and they live the rest of their lives thinking about her even if they’re married to someone else. I say it’s better for him to be a bachelor if he can’t emotionally be there for his new girlfriend.”
    “Robert was like that, I think,” Nora said. “About Selena, I mean.”
    “So I heard,” May said. “I read his book, you know. I started skimming through it as soon as he got arrested. It seems obvious that he was writing about her. I suppose he got so angry that he eventually killed her.”
    “How do you know it wasn’t Grant?” Harvey joked. “Maybe he was in love with Selena.”
    “Oh don’t be silly. Grant was in love with a girl from my batch in high school. Long before Selena’s time.” May scrunched her eyes. “What was the girl’s name? Madeline? Maude? She was a sweet girl, very pretty and shy. I think she became a nurse?”  
    “What about Dr. Neil?” Harvey said. “He’s single too. Did he have a tragic love life in the past?”
    “Dr. Neil? I think he’s always been a little too busy to settle down,” May said. “He had his mother to take care of for the longest time. I always like men who are dutiful to their mother. Look at Sean, or even Sam. Selena never really cared as much as Sam did when their mother was sick. Sam was the one who accompanied her to every visit at the clinic. Poor Sam. Such a sad life, losing his father in his twenties, his mother in his thirties, and now Selena. Whoever did this--”
    “There we are, back on the murderer’s trail,” the Mayor sighed. “Let Sean do his job and let’s enjoy our meal, shall we?”
    “Sorry, darling.” May put a hand over his. “I suppose we’re all a little too starved of drama in this town sometimes.”
    “Oh, I think it’s more likely that we’re all too addicted to drama.” Harvey laughed. “This town is a regular industrial gossip complex.”
    “Don’t be naughty, Harvey, we aren’t all that bad.” May laughed. “Why, we’re very loving of our neighbors here.”
    “Oh yes, we love our neighbors. The problem is we also love to talk about our neighbors.”
    From Nora’s purse came the buzz of a phone. Somehow it reminded her of having breakfast earlier that day with the Mayor.
    “Oh, did you ever get back to the people who were trying so hard to reach you today morning?” Nora asked him casually.
    The Mayor’s face grew red. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    “Well… your phone was ringing constantly at Anna’s this morning,” Nora said.
    “Oh. Right. Just my insurance agent,” The mayor said lamely. “Everything’s fine, thank you.”
    Nora gaped at him. The Mayor’s insurance agent, she knew, was Derrick Coleby, who, at the time, had been at Anna’s along with the rest of the town, gossiping about the murder. Why was the mayor lying?
    She wanted to ask more, but the mayor now had his hand around his wife’s shoulders, and was rubbing his stomach with one hand. “My, I’ve never been this stuffed. Harvey, you sure know how to throw a good party.”
    As Harvey smiled and began his routine of complimenting the mayor, Nora took out her own phone to peek at the messages. It was an unknown number.
    Meet me at the library tonight. Urgent. Robert.

    *****

Chapter 12
    When she’d asked Harvey to drop her off at the library after dinner, he’d point blank refused. All the anger that they’d both tried to control seemed to come boiling out.
    “Do you even know how mad you sound?” Harvey said. “He’s trying to proposition you, Nora. That’s why he wants you to meet him at the library.”
    “That’s not why, Harvey, and I think I should go,” Nora said.
    “I’ll come with you.”
    “If you do, he won’t talk