Page 21 of Dying to Read

She tried to find any mention of where he’d come from. If he’d had the same type of job in another city, they were being tight-lipped about this information.

Rarity’s phone rang. She glanced at the caller ID and then answered the call. “Good evening, Archer.”

“I was checking to see if you got home all right.” Archer paused. “Drew said that Jonathon would walk you home.”

“I’m home. No problem at all. Thanks for asking.” She hated the stiffness in her voice. She tried to warm it a little by smiling as she asked, “What are you doing?”

“Getting ready for bed. Were you in Flagstaff on Monday?”

The question startled her. He knew she had been since they’d locked gazes. She was itching for a real fight, so she answered the question. “I went to an old bookstore. It has rare books.”

“I know. We were checking to see if Arthur had seen theAlicebook. Maybe sold it to someone. He denied even knowing about it, which I know is a lie since Grandma used to take all her books to Arthur to be validated when he owned the Sedona shop. I used to go with her. She worked for him for years.” A woman’s voice called out, andRarity could hear a mumble as he held his hand over the microphone on his phone. “Look, Rarity, I’ve got to go. Staysafe, please?”

She would have answered him, but he’d already hung up the phone. So whoever had been in his Jeep yesterday when he went to the bookstore was still at his apartment. Maybe it was a family member. His sister, Dana? Was she in town?

Whoever it had been, the connection was strong enough for him to end the call and come running. Rarity reached for the mystery murder book and opened it up to notes on the cold case. She added Arthur Wellings to the list of suspects and a paragraph on who he was and the bookstore he’d owned in Sedona. Had Jonathon investigated him and his connection to Marilyn?

Then she turned back to her laptop. Maybe she’d been thinking about Marilyn Ender’s murder wrong. She keyed in “Sedona bookstore,” and after filtering out articles and mentions about the Next Chapter, she found a couple of long articles about the rare manuscript bookstore. One was on the store’s relocation plans and the other seemed to be an earlier piece on how to establish if a book was a first edition. A picture of a much younger Arthur Wellings standing near a shelf of books accompanied the first article in theSedona Press. She printed out both and put them inher notebook.

Killer barked to go outside, and Rarity realized it was after eleven. She’d been researching for several hours. Plus she’d been working from nine that morning until the book club ended. Her eyes felt heavy as she opened the back door to let Killer out. He didn’t go far, and Rarity used the flashlight she kept by the door to sweep over the yard and pool area.Just in case.

It was way past time to call it a night.

* * *

Shirley was already at the shop when Rarity came in the next morning. She jerked her head toward the back room. “Coffee’s on and there’s a coffee cake and a dozen cookies in there as well. I didn’t sleep well last night.”

“Why are you here? I thought you’d be off this week?” Rarity took Killer off the leash and he ran to Shirley, who picked him up and cuddled him.

“Kathy is driving me crazy. She acts like I’m a hundred years old and won’t let me out of her sight. I swear, she thinks I killed that Jully character myself.” Shirley kissed Killer on the head and then tucked him into one of his beds, which were scattered all around the shop. “Anyway, I told her she was welcome to stay but I was going to get back to my life. Then I got ready for work.”

“I bet she didn’t like that.” Kathy had made a fuss when Shirley had wanted to stay at the book club last night. Having Shirley back in the world was probably freaking her daughterout to no end.

“Not in the least. I guess I should be glad I raised a strong, independent woman who knows how to say what she thinks. Instead, I’m worried she’ll say something and hurt one of my friends or get George riled up. Can you imagine how upset his girlfriend will be if she discovers he has kids with me? She already hates thatI’m his wife.”

“You realize how crazy this all sounds, right?” Rarity went into the back and poured herself a cup of coffee. When she came back, she also had a cookie in her hand. It must have jumped on board for the short walk.

What? Thatwas her story.

“So what’s going on with you and Archer? Why didn’t he come to walk you home?” Shirley sipped her coffee as she watched Rarity’s face. “And don’t tell me he was hiking. You and I both know that wasn’t the reason.”

“We’re…” Rarity shook her head and started over. “No,he’shaving second thoughts about our relationship. So we’re on a break. I guess.”

“Well, that wasn’t what I expected to hear.” Shirley reached over and rubbed Rarity’s back. “Men, they make us crazy.”

“Definitely. I’m so glad you’re here today. With the spring festival coming up this weekend, we’ve got stuff to get ready for our booth. And we haven’t finished stuffing those stupid eggs. I’d forgotten about them.” Rarity had gotten a call from Heidi that morning to see if the project was done. “So that has to be finished no later than tomorrow night. Heidi’s coming over Thursday and pickingup the eggs.”

“I hate to say this, but I’ll call Kathy and have her come down. We should be able to finish today with her help.”

“Tell her I’ll buy her lunch.” Rarity didn’t know if that would entice Shirley’s daughter or not. But the eggs needed to be finished.

Shirley made the call and then came back to the counter. “She’ll be here in twenty minutes. What do you want me to start with?”

“The boxes in the back. Most of the books are for the event, but there are a few special orders we need to cull out.” Rarity handed her a list of the orders. “Can you go through the boxes, pull out these books, and then mark the ones that are ready to goin some way?”

“How are we going to get all of these over to the park?” Shirley asked. “I wish I still had my soccer van. That thing could carry an entire teamwith luggage.”

Rarity shook her head. She hadn’t thought about that detail. “Archer was going to move us with his bus, but I think he’s busy on another project. Maybe I can ask Terrance to help on Friday morning? I’m closing the store while we’re over atthe festival.”

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