Chapter Six
Micah parked the cruiser on the street in front of the Central Library. Sarah better not have mysteriously disappeared on lunch break now that we’ve finally made it here.
Noah squeezed his hand as they got out of the car, and Micah grinned at him. The last two days had been passionate and experimental. Micah had spent the last two nights at Noah’s place. They talked over dinner and got to know each other better.
The sun beat down on their backs as they climbed the library’s stairs.
“So, one of the clerks said that she was there today?”
“Yes, she finally came back. She’s apparently done grieving.”
They walked through the book sensors again and headed to the very back of the first floor. Children had begun to reappear again in the library as parents were slowly shaking off the shock of Augustina’s death. They approached the Childcare’s Desk, where a petite red head sat with a bored expression stamped on her face as she scrolled on her computer.
Micah cleared his throat and waved hello. “Good afternoon, Sarah. How are you doing?”
Sarah peeled her eyes off of the screen and asked, “I’m well. Are you two here to sign up for tomorrow morning’s story time?”
“No. I’m Detective Noah Bailey and this is Detective Micah Hughes. We’re looking into Augustina’s death still. Do you have a chance to speak with us?”
Sarah searched around her desk and noting that all of the children seemed occupied with their books and read along computer games, she pushed her chair back from her desk. “Of course, let’s chat in the craft room.”
There was a small room to the left of her desk, and it was filled with mostly children sized wooden chairs. There was a bunch of art supplies splayed across the counter next to a small sink. The long table in the center of the room had construction paper at each seat.
“I’ll grab us some adult chairs,” Micah said, as he walked out of the room and then came back with three chairs. All three of them took a seat.
Noah took out his notepad. “All right, Sarah. Could you explain to us what happened on the night that Augustina died?”
“Yes. We were all having a good time with cake and drinks. There was hardly anyone in the library that day, so all of us were just trying to cut loose a little bit for Augustina. Well, she went into the kitchen in the back after she ran out of tea... and she’d been gone for a while. I was wanting to give her my gift when I found her.” Sarah folded her pale fingers together and took an unsteady breath.
“Were you two very close?”
“Yes, she told me everything. She had always been an open book since I was hired five years ago.”
“Is it going to be difficult working with someone other than Augustina?”
Sarah frowned and smoothed her hair. “The director here, Madison, hasn’t appointed anyone yet. However, we think that Augustina might have wanted me to assume her responsibilities and handle the children’s department.”
Noah glanced at Micah, who had his head perched in the palm of his hand while he listened to Sarah. “I believe that Augustina was about to appoint Courtney Hanks to the position. Do you know her?”
“She works at the South Branch. She’s... younger.”
Micah replied, “You could put it that way. If Augustina told you everything, how come you didn’t know who her replacement was?”
“The woman was allowed to keep some things to herself. Am I being interrogated, Detectives?”
Noah and Micah shared another glance. “We’ve been asking everyone questions,” Noah said. “Is it okay that we’re asking you questions?”
Sarah bit her lip and her pale cheeks began to turn a light shade of pink. “That’s fine.”
Noah spread out his notes on the table, thin and short pieces of paper that held his scribblings about the case.
“We learned a few things about Augustina. I was hoping that you could confirm and add to our list, please?”
“Sure.”
“In 1996, Augustina helped apprehend a thief that was stealing VHS tapes and replacing them with home videos of their golden retriever. The man that was selling the VHS tapes ended up spending three months in the county jail. Augustina was always an active voice around Seattle, participating in all sorts of neighborhood watches and outreach programs. Is there anyone that may have wanted to silence her?”
“As in, kill her?”
“Yes.”
“I’ve seen her get into some arguments during my time here. She was never in the wrong. However, most people she argued with never came back to this branch.”
Noah scribbled onto his note pad. “And Augustina was allergic to... well, just about everything, right?”
Noah chuckled, and Sarah took that as permission to laugh, and her awkward guffaw bounced off the walls of the room.
“I have here that she was allergic to bees, peanut butter, cats and gluten. Does that sound right?”
“You’re forgetting magnesium. It was the strangest allergy I’d ever heard of,” Sarah grinned, “Poor thing, couldn’t catch a break one way or another.”
Micah gently set his badge down on the table and pulled a pair of handcuffs out of Noah’s computer bag.
“Do you know why I took these out?”
Sarah was silent and the horror set in her eyes.
“I find it awfully suspicious that out of everyone we talked to in this building, you’re the only one that knows that Augustina was allergic to magnesium. There was an insane amount of magnesium in her bloodstream when the medical examiners performed their screening.”
“It would make your life a little bit easier if you cooperate,” Noah said. “We can do this with you kicking and screaming and looking like a fool, or we can do this with you being painted as an illustrious murderess, whose crimes rocked all of Northern Seattle. If you’re so narcissistic that you would murder an old woman because you didn’t get promoted, I think that byline will fly fine with you.”
Micah chuckled as Sarah turned bright red and sputtered in disbelief.
“Do I really need to add anything? I think Micah summed it up just fine.”
“I-I didn’t mean to kill her. I was angry and I just wanted to get back at her. I did everything I could to please her. I kissed her ass for years and at the end Augustina thought that Courtney fucking Hanks had a better idea of what it took to run a children’s section.”
“Well, I’m sure willing to murder someone would pretty much disqualify you from finger painting on Tuesdays. Maybe she saw that in you. Are you going to let us cuff you?”
She nodded and stuck out her trembling, bony arms. Noah slapped the cuffs on her, and Micah opened the door that lead back into the children’s section. There were a number of accusing stares and poorly contained gasps as they ushered Sarah though the lobby and out of the building. She burst into tears the moment they began walking down the steps.
“Save it for the judge, Sarah,” Micah mumbled as he stuffed her in the back of the cruiser, and they took off toward the precinct.
Noah practically shook with excitement in the passenger seat. “Oh my God, I’ve solved my first case in less than a month,” he whispered. He looked up at the rear view mirror, and Sara’s red, blubbering face came into view.
“By the way, how did you do it? How did you get her to ingest all of that magnesium?” Noah asked.
She awkwardly lifted her cuffed hands to her face and tried to wipe it clean of tears. “I slipped it into her tea. It was her favorite lemongrass and spearmint tea, and she kept refilling her cup. She said she’d need the energy to get through the night. I just wanted to make her uncomfortable, maybe have her on the toilet for a day or two.”
“Hope it was worth five to ten years in prison,” Micah retorted.
They whipped the cruiser around the corner, sending Sarah bouncing around the back of it. She watched the people walking around and the buildings flew out of her sight. It occurred to her that her ride to the 19th precinct would be the last ride she’d have as a civilian and not Sarah Klein, the murderous librarian.
***
Micah held the door open as Noah walked in with a huge bottle of champagne. He closed it and set their takeout food on Noah’s small dining table.
“I never thought that I’d be so happy about putting a woman in jail! Did you see how small she was? She’s going to rot in there!” Noah exclaimed as he popped the cork off of the wine bottle.
Micah eased himself into a seat at the table and grinned. “I’m excited for you. Your first big case!”
Noah began putting their meals on plates. Noodles spilled over the edge of the plate, and he went into the kitchen for a pair of clean wine glasses. He walked back and sat across from Micah.
“Honestly, Micah, I couldn’t do it without you. You kept me sane when it looked like this case was going nowhere. You were so patient with me.”
Noah reached across the table and squeezed Micah’s hand. Micah squeezed it back as he scooped a fork full of noodles off of his plate. They ate in a companionable silence for a few minutes, and Noah separated his hand from Micah’s so that he could pour the wine.
As a fountain of red gushed into the glasses, Noah said, “Micah, I really do appreciate how supportive you’ve been and how much fun we’ve had these last few weeks. If sex with me is kind of a onetime thing or an experimental phase, that’s fine. We can just work together as partners.”
Micah laughed. “Do you honestly think that we can just go back to being just partners? I’ve seen all kinds of parts of you. I don’t think that I can go back.”
Noah sipped wine, and nervously drank the rest for a bit of liquid courage. “So, if you can’t go back, we can only go forward?”
“Say what you want to say to me, Noah.”
“Well, what do you want to be? Do you want to just be partners who fuck like animals? That’s just not sustainable. What if you meet a woman, what if the hottest man in Seattle decides to show up on my door step?”
Micah set his wine glass down and frowned. “First, I am the hottest man in Seattle. Second, I don’t think my meeting a woman is a concern.”
“Really?”
“Once you go gay, you don’t stray. I’ve been thinking. Maybe this is why my marriage didn’t work out. Granted, I fucked up a lot with her, but all my life it had never occurred to me whether or not I actually like women, or if I found things to like about them because I felt like that was what I was supposed to do.”
“You’re gay now?” Noah asked, as he refilled their glasses.
“Maybe I always have been. There’s no point in wasting time on the why and the how. I just know that I’d like to try this,” he gestured between them, “and I’d like to take it kind of slow. Unless you don’t want to?”
Noah pushed his plate away and grinned. “I want to.”
He grabbed Micah’s hand again and planted a kiss on the rough skin there. “One of us is going to have to find somewhere else to work.” He planted two more kisses on Micah’s hands and up his arm. “This is completely unprofessional.”
“Completely.”