Page 25 of Dying to Read

His phone buzzed and he glanced at the text. “Sorry, I’ve got to run.”

“But…” Rarity didn’t even get to finishher sentence.

Archer paused at the door. “Look, I promise, we’ll sit down soon and talk.”

As he drove away, she watched from the front window. Killer whined at her feet, and she picked him up and stepped over to lock the door. “What do you say? Ice creamfor dessert?”

Killer licked her cheek as she walked over and put himon the couch.

“Or maybe we should find a sad movie and do popcorn.” She rubbed his back. It seemed like Killer was up for anything. At least he didn’t have to run at the sight of a text.

She sat up for a minute. Why would Archer take off like that? Dinner was nice. Quiet, but nice. They’d gotten along. They were talking after Jonathon left; then the text had thrown a switch and then Archer had left.

And Rarity was left with more questionsthan answers.

She turned on the television and went to the dining room to find her tote. Her murder book was in there. She made notes onMarilyn’s murder page about the new book being found. Then she turned to the page with Jully’s murder.

Who was William Jully? That was a question she could try to answer. Or at least paint a partial picture. When she got to work tomorrow, she’d be swallowed up by prep work for the festival that started on Friday. Tonight, she could do some internet research and see if she could figure out who the grumpy, dog-hating, junior administrator who had died at Sedona Memory Care was.

She grabbed a blank piece of paper and started Googling his name again. She went down several rabbit holes but eventually got stumped. According to Google, Wiliam Jully had worked at two other facilities, staying approximately eighteen months at both. He’d only been at the Sedona center for the last six months. And before those three jobs? There was no mention of the manever existing.

Rarity reverified his age. The statement the nursing home had put out said William was thirty-five. So if he graduated from high school at eighteen, then went to college for four years, there was still almost a decade of years unaccounted for. So what had he been doing before he started working atnursing homes?

She wrote down the other two nursing homes and wondered if she could talk to the administrator at the Sedona facility without raising a flag. She wrote down Sally’s name. She didn’t know her last name. So she went to the website for Sedona Memory Care. Sally Ball was listed as the facility administrator. William Jully was listed with a short bio listing the two facilities Rarity had alreadywritten down.

And nothing else. He didn’t even have a picture up yet. The placeholder said, “Coming soon.” But soon the website would update and a new junior administrator’s bio and photo would be put up instead.

Working at a place for six months should be enough time to update your bio and snap a picture. Why hadn’t Jully updated his profile?

Since she had hit a dead end, she researched Ruth Agee. There was even less on her, except for her obituary. She’d been widowed when she was in her sixties and never remarried. She had been an attorney in Flagstaff, and her husband had owned a chain of coffee shops that she’d sold after his death. Desert Coffee and Cream had been a regional chain until the buildings and brand had been bought out by the Seattle-basedcoffee giant.

According to the article in theFlagstaff Press, she’d given away over a million in her will to the Flagstaff Performing Arts School. And a smaller grant to the Sedona Library, which had plans to build a new library building near the elementary school. Robert Agee Community Library. And there were a few other charity and personal bequeathals.

Rarity tried to find the court probate information online but hit another dead end. She texted Holly and asked where she could find probate information.

The three little dots bounced for a long while. Whatever Holly was typing was a big explanation. Rarity had only been looking for a place.

Finally, the message came through, and Rarity realized that Holly had been looking into Ruth’s estate as well.

Still pending probate, but there was a codicil filed last month to add another beneficiary for a specific sum and the house in Flagstaff. A nice house in Flagstaff. Want to guess who the mystery beneficiary was?

Rarity took a deep breath. She looked over at Killer. “I bet I get three guesses and the first twodon’t count.”

She answered the text with WilliamJully’s name.

Bingo. We have a winner, folks. Seriously, I’ve been waiting for some software to upload so I’ve had some time. I should have a nice report for Tuesday’s meeting. What are you doing up so late?

Rarity peered at the time on the right-hand side of the laptop. It was already after one. She had to be at the bookstore early tomorrow to finish stuffing the last few eggs before Heidi showed up at two to pick up the finished baskets.

Her eyes felt like grit as she shut down her laptop and walked over to plug it in at her desk. She put her murder notebook into her tote and let Killer out, one last time. As she waited, she texted Holly back.

Long story. I’ve got an update on the cold case too. Another one of Marilyn’s books was dropped off at the store today. Archer and Jonathon were at the house. Then I needed a distraction after he left. I started down the Google rabbit hole on our victim,William Jully.

She knew she was writing a novel rather than a text, but the words were flowing out of her and she was too tired to edit them intosomething more concise. Who was it who said, “I didn’t have time to write you a short letter, so I wrote a longone instead”?

Rarity would have to look that quote up. But not tonight.

Chapter 10

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