Page 18 - Labelle Gramercy, On the Case

Polished Off

“Me?” Her voice went up an octave. “Why? Was that woman at
the cash register listening? What did she say she heard?”
Now I was on the defensive. I glanced at Labelle, who kept on
scribbling her notes. She would have stopped me if she had thought I
was getting out of line, so I went on. “You mean Iris Call? I don’t
think I am at liberty to discuss the statements of another witness. It is
best not to withhold anything—unless you would prefer the advice of
counsel before answering.”
She ignored the hint. Probably just as well: conflict of interest was
the last thing I needed at this point. Bibliopoly and its people were
my real concern, not her. To my surprise, she suddenly sighed deeply
and slumped into a less than upright posture.
“Well, Mr. Keane, I guess all our dirty laundry is going to be put
on display now. You will find this out, anyway, once Mariana’s death
is made public. You must be aware that her business and mine are
both dying on the vine. We can’t make enough to justify bank loans
to fix up our properties, and the same is true for the rest of the shops
on this block. Our only hope is to be bought out by a chain store
looking for relatively cheap real estate before we go under and the
city puts us on the auction block. And there is such an offer on the
table: Megashelf, the largest franchise bookstore in the country, is
interested in demolishing the whole row and putting up one of their
giant discount warehouse outlets. We are all ready and willing to sell
but Mariana. She was holding out. That is what we were talking
about, and why I became angry and left rather rapidly this morning.”
“Why? Was she doing it just to spite you?” The nastier side of
Ms. Trench’s personality was much in evidence today.
“No, and she wasn’t concerned about her employees, or the future
of small independent book shops. She thought we had Megashelf
over a barrel, and could get a better price. I didn’t. There are plenty
of other distressed streets in this district, and I felt this was our last
chance to avoid bankruptcy and a forced sale. That woman could be
very stubborn. I don’t know where she got the idea we had any kind
of leverage.”
I pondered this revelation long enough for Labelle to return to her
own line of questioning.
“Who else has access to this cabinet?”

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