Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
They found Vivian in the function room again, this time standing alone near the far window. The vendor tables were mostly set up now, red tablecloths draped, signs in place. But Vivian wasn’t looking at her work. She was staring out at the snowy town square, her arms wrapped around herself.
She turned when she heard them approach, and her face went carefully blank.
“Ladies,” she said, her voice tight. “If you’re here to—“
“We need to talk to you about this morning,” Nans said, not unkindly.
Vivian’s jaw tightened. “I already told you. I came in around six.”
“Vivian,” Ruth said, pulling out her iPad. “Did you go to the storage room this morning before six?”
“No.” The answer came too fast. “I told you, I was at home.”
Nans folded her hands. “We have security camera footage from the Florio’s restaurant. It shows someone in a red coat with a fur-trimmed hood entering the back of town hall at five-eighteen this morning.”
Vivian’s face went pale. Her arms dropped to her sides.
“I...” She looked from Nans to Ruth to Helen to Ida, her eyes wide and panicked. “I didn’t... I wasn’t...”
“Vivian,” Helen said gently. “We’re not accusing you. We just need to know what happened.”
Vivian’s shoulders sagged. She walked over to one of the vendor tables and gripped the edge like it was the only thing keeping her upright.
“Okay,” she whispered. “Okay. I did go there. I was supposed to meet Stanley and I remembered I left my bag in the storage room—the one I thought someone stole? I felt terrible because I’d been accusing people of taking it, and I realized it was my own fault for leaving it behind.”
“So you went to get it,” Ruth said.
“Yes.” Vivian nodded quickly. “Stanley wanted to meet early. I thought—I thought if I got there first, I could grab my bag before he saw it and made some comment about how careless I was.”
Ida leaned forward. “And what did you find?”
Vivian’s eyes filled with tears. “Stanley. He was... he was lying under the shelf. The whole thing had collapsed. And there was a lockbox—the one he was always so secretive about—it had hit him in the head. There was blood.”
Helen’s hand went to her throat. “Oh, dear.”
“Was he moving?” Nans asked, her voice calm and steady.
Vivian shook her head, tears spilling down her cheeks. “No. He wasn’t moving. I checked—I got close enough to see, but I didn’t touch him. He was just... lying there. Not breathing.”
“What did you do?” Ruth asked quietly.
“I panicked!” Vivian’s voice rose. “I panicked and I ran. I thought— I thought everyone would think I did it. We’d been fighting about the booth fees, I had a key, I was there...” She pressed her hands to her face. “So I ran.”
“Did you get your bag?” Ida asked.
Vivian looked up, surprised by the question. “What? No. No, I just ran. I didn’t take anything. I didn’t even think about the bag. I just ran.”
Nans and Ruth exchanged glances.
Ruth turned to Nans. “When you peeked into the storage room, did you see a glittery bag?”
Nans shook her head slowly. “No. I saw papers scattered everywhere, but no craft tote and no lockbox.”
“Someone else took it,” Helen said quietly.
“But who?” Ida asked. “And why?”
Nans nodded slowly. “If Stanley was already dead when Vivian got there, that means he was dead when Eddie got there. So why was he so nervous when we talked to him.”
Helen’s face tightened. “Because he found Stanley after Vivian ran, and he did something he shouldn’t have.”
“Like what?”
Nans stood. “We need to talk to Eddie again.”