Page 67 of The Librarians
“ThenIshould have heard from Conrad,” says Astrid slowly, her nail scraping at the stubborn salsa stain on her hoodie. “He would want to know what Perry was doing with me and what I might be able to tell him.”
“An extremely reasonable supposition,” deems Hazel. “And it didn’t happen.”
“But Conrad was out of town last night, wasn’t he?” asks Jonathan, still unwilling to go down this path all the way. “That was why Ryan invited us over, to take advantage of his absence. If he was out of town then he couldn’t have been the intruder in Astrid’s condo.”
“Ryan is Conrad’s roommate, not his mom. If Conrad says he’s going out of town, Ryan isn’t going to get a flight manifest for verification.”
Jonathan rubs his knuckles along the grain of his beard. “So you think that Conrad, who was supposed to be out of town, stayed in Austin and broke into Astrid’s condo?”
This isn’t even Sophie’s problem, yet her nails are digging into the palms of her hands—she can barely conceive Hazel’s distress. By Hazel’s own admission, she hoped for years that she and Conrad would find each other again. And listening between the lines, she said only thathewasn’t interested in rekindling anything, which meant that she was. Less than twenty-four hours ago, she wanted them to be together.
“It’s a possibility,” says Hazel.
“I don’t believe it!” Astrid cries. Then, as if embarrassed by her small outburst, she reduces the volume of her voice. “Okay, we have no evidence one way or the other as to the identity of the intruder. But I don’t think it’s that weird that Conrad was hanging out near the library yesterday. Or onGame Night. He could have been in the area in the hope of meeting you, Hazel.”
Under different circumstances Sophie would have been the first to pooh-pooh the idea. But now she almost wishes that Hazel would at least consider it.
Hazel does not refute it outright. She even smiles briefly—or perhaps it’s only an upward flick of the corners of her lips, meant to imitate a smile. “Sure, that’s also a possibility, which is why I have no idea what to do next. ButIdon’t need to do anything right now.You, on the other hand, Astrid, you must decide whether you’re going to call the police about the break-in.”
Astrid grimaces. “I already looked at the online submission form for residential incidents and I don’t know that it’ll be any use at all.”
“I think Hazel means,” says Sophie, “if you plan to tell Detective Shariati about the break-in.”
“Oh, God, I haven’t even thought about that.” The expression on Astrid’s face is outright horror at the notion of dealing with homicide investigators again. “Do I have to? I really don’t want to.”
She looks at everyone in turn, seeking permission from one of them—or perhaps all of them—for her to turn her back on the police.
Sophie, at best an awkward hugger, badly wants to hold Astrid and tell her that she understands exactly how she feels.
“If you hold off getting in touch with Detective Shariati, I’ll be grateful. Because if you do, you’ll probably have to tell them what you now know about Conrad. And—” Hazel exhales. “And I’d like a little time to find out more about his involvement in all this before we sic the police on him. After all, there is a chance he is not involved.”
And now it’s Hazel whom Sophie wants to hug, Hazel who feels that she must game out all the worst possibilities so that she will not be ambushed by them. Sophie understands that too—all too well.
Astrid sets her hand on Hazel’s sleeve again. “Even if I do go to the police, I don’t need to say anything about Conrad.”
Hazel presses two fingers between her brows. “But if you don’t say anything and I don’t say anything, even if the police eventually figure out thatValerian de Villiers lives in Austin, there will be nothing to tie him to not just one but possibly two suspicious deaths.”
Sophie notes how Hazel is careful not to say the word “murder.” The next second she feels as if someone has run her through with a lightsaber.Twosuspicious deaths—Hazel is putting Jeannette Obermann’s death on her never-quite-lover too? “But I thought Jonathan already asked Detective Shariati and the police are treating the cases as separate.”
“Separate until they learn otherwise,” Jonathan adds hesitantly. “That was the impression I got.”
“I didn’t consider the cases connected—frankly I didn’t ponder the cases at all except for their impact on everyone here—until I found out that Conrad is Valerian de Villiers and that he was here that night.”
Hazel does not say this, but Sophie knows what she means: At that time, Jeannette Obermann was also in the library’s parking lot.
Hazel turns to Astrid. “Remember the night when we stayed behind at the library? I asked you to show me where you live on Google Maps.”
“Yes?”
“I drove past Twin Courtyards this morning, after I picked up breakfast tacos, and your gated community was right across the street. If Perry was waiting for you to come home on Game Night, he could have parked either right outside Twin Courtyards Apartments or somewhere on the grounds, since it’s not gated.”
“Ryan did mention that Perry was found in an apartment complex in Northwest Austin,” says Jonathan. “He didn’t say which one though.”
Was that the possible connection between the two cases, that both Perry Bathurst and Jeannette Obermann might have been at Twin Courtyards that night?
Hazel glances at Sophie but doesn’t say anything.
Sophie’s heart thumps. Her head is a cacophony of half-formed ideas. She is desperate for Detective Hagerty to latch onto someone else. But what if this Conrad guy was no different from her, just another hapless individual who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time?
