Irregardless of Murder (Miss Prentice Cozy Mysteries) Read Online Free PDF

straightened out. Now can we go over a few things?”
    I folded my hands in my lap and squared my shoulders. “Of course.”
    “Do you remember falling over Marguerite Lebow?”
    “Not clearly. I just walked in and fell. It was pretty dark in the copy room. It always is.”
    Dennis tilted his head. “What do you mean, always?”
    “The library’s an old building. The refrigerator and the copier tax the wires too much to put anything else on them. At least, that’s what Laura told me. Besides, there’s plenty of light from the stacks when the door’s open.”
    We went over the people I had seen. “Anybody else you remember?” Dennis asked. “Somebody with Marguerite, maybe?”
    “Well, she was talking to Derek Standish when I arrived. I didn’t think anything about it because it’s—it was—Marguerite’s job to help people find things.”
    “Anybody else?”
    “I’m not sure. I was quite immersed in my work. I found the word irregardless in three papers.”
    Dennis chuckled. “Still harping on that one, are you?”
    “It’s still incorrect, Dennis. Irregardless is a double negative and not even a real word. I always take ten points off for it.”
    He grinned and shook his head. “Miss Prentice, still torturing those poor kids.” Then he sternly adjusted his expression. “Okay, back to the subject. Marguerite was—”
    “Oh! I do remember somebody. There was a man I didn’t know. Short, dark-haired—oh, my goodness!—he said something to Marguerite, then walked away. Could that mean something?”
    Dennis shook his head as he scribbled in his notebook. “Couldn’t say for sure. But any detail helps. Go on.”
    “Well, I saw Gil Dickensen talking to Laura Ingersoll at the front desk. He’d brought a stack of newspapers, I remember. And Lily Burns was there too.”
    “Okay. I have another question about the copy room. It says library staff only on the door.”
    “Yes, but Laura lets me make copies there and pay at the desk when I’m finished. She showed me how to use the machine. I make so many it was less trouble for her this way.”
    “So you weren’t there to meet Marguerite?”
    I was surprised. “Oh, no. I didn’t even know she was in there.”
    “I see.”
    He frowned and tapped his chin with the end of the ballpoint. I had seen him do that during tests. It meant he was stumped. He forged ahead anyway.
    “So you went in. Where did you see Marguerite?”
    “I didn’t see her. I just, well, stepped on her.” I shuddered.
    “That’s how you fell. And you hit your head—how?” He indicated my bandage with his pen.
    “I think I must have fallen against the copy machine. It’s all I can remember.”
    He was nodding as I spoke. Looking at his notes, he said, “It ties in with what we found.” He looked up. “What was it you were going to copy?”
    “A picture of the Globe Theatre. For a class on Shakespeare. But I never got to do it, as you know.”
    “And that was all you were going to do in there?”
    “No, Dennis, I was going to whip up a batch of fudge! We’ve been over all this before!”
    “I know, but bear with me. How long have you known Marguerite LeBow?”
    Another surprising question. “Well, about as long as anybody in this town. Since she was born, really.”
    “And you taught her in school?”
    “You know that.” This was getting tiring.
    “What kind of student was she?”
    I couldn’t see how this had anything to do with the tragedy, but I assumed Dennis knew his business. “A pretty good one. She worked hard. Mostly B’s and C’s.”
    “But?” Dennis was good at this. He had heard the hesitation in my voice.
    “Well, I guess you might say she was a little flighty. No, that’s not fair. She was reliable and loyal. Just a little too imaginative, perhaps. Fanciful. Maybe even a little eccentric.”
    “A troublemaker? A liar?”
    “Oh, no. I wouldn’t say that.”
    He leaned forward. “You sure? She wasn’t in the habit of making up