Read "A Murder In Milburn", Book 3: Death In The Library for Free Online Page A

the house till my father caught her and scolded her. Afterwards, she told my mother, and mother bought her three new books. That’s how it was in my family. My father would try and protect me, my mother would try and bribe Selena.” Tears were trickling onto Sam’s cheeks, and he wiped them away unemotionally. His eyes were nearly closed, and his face was blank. “I tried my hardest to make her love me, but she was always aloof.”
    “Did she tell you much about her life lately?” Nora asked. “About… anyone or any project she was working on?”
    Sam frowned. “No. Not really. We mostly talked about my business, or about the books and movies we liked. She… she mentioned people in passing, and she never spoke about her projects. She was superstitious. Never talked about a novel in progress. Although…” He frowned. “A week ago, she came home really angry. Do you remember that, Tina? She refused to eat the dinner you made because she said she was on a diet. She was just being mean, really. I came down for a midnight snack later that night, and she was in the kitchen making herself a sandwich.”
    “I know. I found the crumbs under my table the next day,” Tina said.
    “Well, she and I talked. She told me that she was having a serious argument. She said something about planning a mutiny.”
    “A mutiny? ” Nora raised an eyebrow. “Was she speaking about a fictional novel?”
    Sam’s eyes were closed now, and he took a few seconds to reply. “Not fiction. Real life. She was talking about a real life mutiny.”
    “That doesn’t make sense, does it?” Tina asked. “Selena wasn’t much of an activist. Who was she rebelling against? It’s more likely to have been a book she was talking about.”
    “May...be....” Sam said. He began to snore gently.
    “Sam. Wake up and tell us.”
    He blinked, and sat up. “Sorry?”
    “You said Selena was planning a mutiny,” Nora prompted.
    “Selena?” He looked really confused. “Selena’s dead,” he said, and his face crumpled. Tears began streaming down his cheeks.
    “Leave him alone, Nora,” Tina said. “Sean will interrogate him soon enough. Let him have a few hours of peace before then.”
    There wasn’t much Nora could say. After all, it wasn’t really her business. Still, curiosity was consuming her. There was something in Sam’s words that struck her as ominous. A mutiny implied… implied an organized attack. Selena’s murder seemed very unpremeditated so far. Stabbed in the back. The method indicated an impulsive murderer.
    Yet…
    Yet there were clues here and there, little puzzle pieces that seemed to indicate the whole was greater than the sum of its parts.
    Who was Selena? That was the question that each person seemed to have a different answer to. Tina had thought of her as an ungrateful and unwanted guest. Sam thought of her as the sister he was bound to protect. Selena’s fans thought of her as a talented writer. To the audience at the library, she had been a charming presenter.
    And what had she been to Robert Foxworthy? Nora wondered. From the little she had seen of the two of them together, they’d clearly had a history. Robert had mentioned that he had known Selena in college and high school. Had the two of them dated? There were sparks between them, even a blind man could see that. So what had happened? Had Selena rejected Robert? Had he convinced her to meet him at the library, perhaps made one last attempt at reconciliation? Had she rejected him? Could it be that in a fit of anger, Robert had murdered her?
    Nora pondered this. Sean had dropped Robert at the edge of town earlier that day. Yet Robert had snuck back into town. Why? It had to be Selena he was interested in seeing. But how had they gotten into the library? After all, Nora and Tina had helped Grant lock it up for the day. She was sure that there had been nobody in it when they did.
    For that matter, why the library? Why would someone choose to meet at the library