I also hoped there was enough of my sweater fuzz on the ones I’d dumped back on the plate to deter the rest of her book club from eating too many of them.
I tapped the steering wheel, unable to stop thinking about the book the woman had dropped. It was the third time I had stumbled across a copy of that book in less than a week.
That couldn’t have been a coincidence, could it?
The only thing that was different about this woman’s book was that her copy had been brand-new. The other two books had been old, with creased and faded covers. The breaks in their spines suggested they’d been read countless times. The tape was probably the only thing holding Penny’s copy together.
My fingers stopped tapping.
There had been tape on the spine of Penny’s book. I had assumed it was holding the cover in place, but what if it had served a different purpose? I thought back to the peeling spine label on the old paperback in Mrs. Haggerty’s bedroom. Then to the novel she kept on my nightstand with the sticker residue on its spine. Libraries put tape over their labels to keep them from peeling.
I sat up in my seat.
Penny’s book wasn’t covered in tape because it was broken. It was taped because it had come from a library.
So had Mrs. Haggerty’s.
I dialed Vero’s number.
“Why are there no waffles?” she asked in lieu of a greeting.
“Because I haven’t gone shopping yet. Listen,” I said, hoping she wasn’t too intoxicated to manage it, “I need you to go to the Loudoun County Public Library’s website. See if they have a book club.”
“Why bother?” she asked, the words coming more slowly than her usual rapid fire. “You and I can give each other presents and take edibles at home. But if you’re looking for more of a club vibe, Stacey brings samples to the HOA meetings, and some of the dads are actually kind of hot.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose, willing myself to be patient. “I’m not looking for a book club for us. Penny’s Agatha Christie book came from a library. So did Mrs. Haggerty’s.”
“So?”
“What if Mrs. Haggerty and Penny were in some kind of book club together?”
“You think that’s the connection between them?”
“What else could they have in common?”
There was a prolonged silence as Vero slowly clicked the keys on her laptop. “There’s a book club at the nearest library branch. It meets once a month.”
“Are the books they’ve read archived anywhere?”
“Yup. They’re all right here.”
“Can you see the selections from the year Penny’s husband went missing? IsThe Tuesday Club Murdersanywhere on the list?”
More clicking. “Let’s see…Gone Girlwas January, NoraRoberts in February, Kristin Hannah in March,The Poisonwood Biblewas April,whoooooa… The Tuesday Club Murderswas their selection in May.”
Four months before Gilford was murdered.
If Penny and Mrs. Haggerty had been in a book club together, then they had both lied to the police when they’d claimed they hadn’t known each other. Penny had obviously been lying to protect herself, but why had Mrs. Haggerty bothered? Who was she protecting? As far as I knew, the only person she cared that deeply for was Brendan.
I glanced up from my phone at the town house, then at the cars parked along the street. Was it possible that one of these other women had been in that same book club? If so, did they know Penny? All I needed was for one of them to come forward and confirm my suspicions.
“What are you doing?” Vero asked as I got out of my van.
“Taking pictures.” I slunk around the back of each woman’s car, snapped a photo of the license plate, and texted the images to Vero. “Send these license plates to Cam. Tell him I’ll give him twenty dollars each if he can get me the names and addresses of the women who own these cars. And tell him I’ll throw in a spaghetti dinner if he can get me the information tonight.”
CHAPTER 19
Mrs. Haggerty had gone straight to bed when we got home, looking a little tipsy and complaining of a headache. Cam’s text message had come just before midnight, a barrage of screenshots from the department of motor vehicles, one for each license plate number Vero had sent him earlier that evening. His final text had simply said,When do I get my spaghetti?
