= "Death in the Reading Room"
  A Kay Yoshinobu mystery
  by John A. Broussard


Kay Yoshinobu was looking forward to a quiet day at the office. No court appearances, just a few routine motions to be filed. Maybe, with luck, she and her husband Sid Chu could take the afternoon off and get in a couple of sets before the tennis courts got crowded.

Yoshito Yamamoto dashed those hopes. He was sitting in the reception area, and the expression on his face told Kay that his son Tom was in trouble again. 

She wasn't wrong, but it was more than trouble this time. It was murder.

Settling down in her office chair with a legal pad in front of her, she listened to Yoshito's scanty explanation. "The police say he had drugs in his possession. They followed him into the library, and that's when they found Miller Bork stabbed to death in the reading room."

"Why do they suspect Tom?"

His face still creased with worry, Yoshito tried to explain, but it soon became evident that what he knew was too hazy to be very informative. The weapon was missing, but Tom had owned a knife that could have caused the fatal wound. No drugs were found on him when he was arrested in the library, but the police's drug-sniffing dog quickly located a stash, hidden behind books, within sight of the reading room and within Miller Bork's range of vision. The conclusion? Tom killed Miller in order to keep him from telling the police where the drugs he had brought into the library were hidden. 

To Kay, the evidence sounded flimsy. She checked her watch, knowing that a good share of the day would now have to be devoted to interviewing Tom, preparing for arraignment and somehow sorting out what had really happened.

* * *

Tom's appearance was startlingly different. Not his physical appearance--the double earring, scraggly beard, faded tank top, baggy shorts and beat-up jogging shoes hadn't changed appreciably from his last time in the interrogation room. But something more subtle had happened. Rather than the arrogant expression of the past, the babyish face held terror. For the first time since she'd known this offspring of a family friend, Kay saw something else--a glimmer of hope for Tom and perhaps less unhappiness for his parents. This sudden charge of murder, with all that it implied, could turn this worthless troublemaker into a son who would no longer be a heartache for his parents. Providing, of course, that he hadn't killed Miller Bork.

She gave him no smile. Offered no hand. She simply sat down across from him, opened her legal pad, placed the tape recorder on the table, pressed the record button and said, "Tell me what happened."

He was eager to talk, words stumbling over words. "I was supposed to meet Chili--I don't know his last name--that may not be his real name--on Front Street, outside the Anna Mall, behind Liberty House. I guess the cops were out on a drug bust--dogs and all. Chili saw them first and ran. They charged after him, and I took off into the mall and into the library. I was going to flush the dope down the toilet, but the door was locked, so I stashed it behind some books. I was about to duck out when the cops came in. By then, whoever it was in the can had left, so I went in there. Then...."

Kay interrupted the flow and was unable to keep the anger out of her voice. "Before you go any further, let's settle one thing first. I've defended you a half-dozen times, but that was small-time crime. This isn't. What I want to know is, did you kill Miller Bork?"

Tom threw up both hands, palms outward, as though trying to ward off a blow. "No! No! No! I didn't even know he was there. I walked by the reading room before hiding the dope, but I didn't see him. Didn't see anyone. Far as I could tell, the library was deserted except for the lady at the front desk."

The woman at the front desk! That would be the beginning point. Despite Tom's obvious terror, Kay knew him too well to simply take what he was telling her at face value.

* * *

As she left the police station, Kay realized yet again about how fortunate she was to be practicing law in a small community. As usual, the sergeant at the desk was most helpful: the tape closing off the library would be down at eight the following morning, and the homicide scene would then be returned to the public. Kay was welcome to go there the following day and inspect to her heart's content.

She arrived early and so did the librarian, Shirley Cheung, a grey-haired woman in her early fifties. Kay already had a nodding acquaintance with Shirley--another advantage of the small town--and the librarian was eager to talk about the events of the previous day. Since official library hours didn't begin until nine, the two women adjourned to the back room to talk over coffee.

Shirley kept shaking her head. "Why anyone would want to hurt Mr. Bork is beyond me. You know he was the inventor and developer of that early microchip?"

Kay nodded.

"He made a fortune and was giving it away almost as fast as he made it." Shirley waved a hand in the direction of the hammering coming from outside the south side of the building. "He paid for the whole addition. And he even covered the operating costs. Instead of a couple of high school kids to help reshelve, I'm going to have a full-time library assistant working here, thanks to Mr. Bork. And we'll have decent library hours for a change."

"Could you tell me exactly what happened yesterday?"

"Not really. But I can tell you who was here and when. There weren't many patrons. Come out to the desk. I can tell you times and everything. It's all on the computer."

Shirley gave a running commentary as she punched the keys. "I got here about half-past nine. Yesterday, the library was scheduled to open at ten, so that gave me time to check the books in that had been dropped off overnight. The first persons here at ten were Mr. Bork and his sister, Arlene Francisco. See?" She pointed to the screen. "Mrs. Francisco dropped off two books. Then the two of them went back to the reading room. Mr. Bork had an armful of books, but he didn't drop them off. He liked to spend time in the reading room, and lately he was working on genealogies. He was really caught up in that, especially after he found out he was related to the Bork who used to be Attorney General and, you know, the one the Senate refused to confirm for the Supreme Court."

"Did Miller Bork seem any different than usual?"

Shirley looked thoughtful. "He did seem to be disturbed about something. In fact, he said he wanted to talk to me as soon as I had a spare minute. I was going to invite him for coffee in the back room, but...." She paused and looked unhappy. "I just didn't get around to it." Looking at the screen again, she added, "Mrs. Francisco left at ten-thirty-three. That's when she checked out a book."

"Who else came in?" 

Shirley inspected the screen. "Lyle Chen--the computer whiz." She broke into a smile. "He's only sixteen, but he really knows his computers--and his cars. I couldn't get mine started last month. He went out, looked under the hood, fiddled with it for a couple of minutes, and the car started immediately. Let's see. He dropped off a book at ten-fifteen and went off into the stacks. I'm not sure exactly when he left, but it was after Mrs. Francisco. Maybe around eleven. He didn't take anything out, so I can't be sure of the time." 

"That's all?"

"No one else took out any books. There were three separate drop-offs, but I remember them--regular patrons who didn't do anything but leave the books. Oh, yes. A couple of tourists looking for King Kamehameha's birthplace." She laughed. "They were sure surprised to find they were on the wrong island."

"So Mr. Bork, his sister and Lyle Chen were the only ones who passed this desk before Tom Yamamoto came in. Is that right?"

"There was someone else. I'm trying to think. Oh, of course. Karl Kamaka, the contractor working on the addition." She nodded toward the sound of the hammering. "He wanted to use the restroom. Came in just before the Yamamoto boy did. I remember him leaving just minutes before the police came in."

With her list of library patrons complete, Kay accompanied Shirley back to the reading room. Several computers lined the wall, and another was located at the end of a long desk where Bork had been found dead, evidently killed while using the computer. Kay turned the machine on, checked the history of its use and was rewarded with several web sites dealing with genealogies. She wrote the URLs on her legal pad, though she doubted they'd tell her anything. The titles of the half-dozen books on the table were even less informative. Two books on genealogy. A vanity published autobiography by a Gerald Bork. Two lavishly illustrated books on racing cars. And the county building regulations.

* * *

Kay was flipping through the pages of notes she'd accumulated when Sid dropped into her office. 

"Why the glum expression?" he asked. 

She moved her glasses up into her hair, looked at him without seeing him and said, "Poor Yoshito may have to resign himself to paying for a long trial."

"Tom did it?"

Kay shook her head. "I doubt it. But he's by far the most likely suspect. He owned a knife that matches the results of the preliminary pm. A very sharp, one-edged jackknife or switchblade. He had time to flush it down the library toilet. It's one of those commercial ones with a suction that could easily handle that."

Sid grinned and made a loud slurping noise. "I remember it."

"Worse yet, that's where the police found Tom hiding. And we're down to only four other unlikely suspects."

"Why only four?"

"Anyone coming in had to pass the front desk. Shirley Cheung says she was there all the time between nine-thirty and when the police came in, just after eleven. The back entrance has a panic bar. If it had been opened it would have sounded a horrendous alarm. Windows are all high, screened and virtually inaccessible."

"Well, four is better than none. Do any of them have a motive?"

"They sure do. Each one has a motive to want Miller to stay alive--he was more than generous to each of them. Shirley, the librarian, gets that beautiful library extension, plus adequate help and an increase in salary because of his generosity. Lyle Chen, the computer genius, was getting a scholarship from the educational trust fund that Bork set up--four years at Cal Tech plus grad school if he did well as an undergraduate--room, board, tuition and pocket money. Can't ask for much better than that. Bork didn't have any children of his own, so I guess he kind of looked on Lyle as a son--a talented one at that.

"The contractor really owes Miller. He did some work for Miller out at his home and Miller liked him. Considered him a good, honest worker. When he found out that Karl was just scratching along in his new contractor business, he made it a condition of his donation to the State that Karl do the construction. That's a real windfall."

"There's still the sister."

Kay gave a weak smile. "I know. Check out the relatives first. Well, she was devoted to her brother. Had already received a generous gift of stock from him."

"Sure, but what about insurance? What about inheritance?"

"Nope. Not a cent. Everything goes into his education and library trusts."

"So that leaves Tom."

"Right. First time he ever set foot in the library, by the way. Tom was never a bookworm."

"What about the time of death? Does that help any?

"Not a bit. Prelim shows Miller probably died shortly before the police arrived, but he could have been stabbed just about any time after ten. The knife grazed his heart, and he had a heart condition that further complicates things. A lot of internal bleeding, but no way of determining how long it was between the stabbing and his actual death."

"What's next?"

"Back to the library in the morning, just to make sure Shirley hasn't remembered anything new, and then off to talk to each of the suspects. Big day ahead. Want to come along?"

Sid grinned. "I'd like to, because it's always exciting to see you in action, but I've got a court appearance early. Could make it to those interviews, though."

"With luck, Shirley might remember something that proves Tom's innocent, and we won't need to interview anyone."

* * *

Shirley Cheung seemed as eager to help today as she had the previous day. "The more I think about what happened to Mr. Bork, the sadder I feel. He so much liked the library. And he really loved books. He used to come here every time the Friends of the Library had a book sale. He donated a lot of books, himself, and helped us process our discards for the sale. You should have seen the way he would shake his head over the damaged books we had to get rid of. 

"And, my goodness, he was almost apoplectic over one book he found that was all marked up. He said he would really give a piece of his mind to whoever would treat a book like that. He was so angry, I was afraid he was going to have a heart attack. You know he did have a bad heart."

Kay asked Shirley if she could take another look at the books that Miller Bork had been using at the time of the murder. 

Shirley hesitated for a moment, and Kay smiled as she said, "Relax, Shirley, this isn't an FBI investigation."

"I guess...." Shirley replied with a shrug. "I guess it's all right. Librarians always cringe at the thought of people checking on what other people read." With a wan smile, she added, "I guess Mr. Bork won't mind." It took her only a few minutes to locate the books and bring them to the desk where Kay was checking over her legal pad. 

Shirley was the first to notice it. She interrupted Kay as the latter was turning the pages of one of the automotive books. "Someone has cut some photos out," she exclaimed.

Kay immediately picked up on the statement. "It's very carefully done. A razor, or maybe a sharp knife. Who checked it out last?"

The computer brought up Lyle Chen's name. 

* * *

"It was easy after that," Kay said to Sid after she had called the police and returned to her office. "Miller either found out who had checked out that book or he was bound to do so. Anyhow, he was pretty angry about it when he arrived at the library that morning. He must have spoken to Lyle when Lyle arrived. Maybe the fact that it was a book on automobiles tipped Miller off. In any event, that meant no scholarship...unless Miller died before he could talk to his trust about the book. Lyle clearly had a motive for the killing."

The phone rang. Kay answered, listened a few moments, then thanked the caller and hung up. Turning to Sid, she said, "He confessed. His room was plastered with cutouts from books and magazines--all of them racing cars."


JOHN A. BROUSSARD was born in Cambridge, Mass in 1924 and graduated from Harvard and the University of Washington. He taught on the college level for twenty years and wrote non-fiction and reviews before turning to fiction; he's sold about ninety short stories recently. John's first novel, a fantasy called MANA, was published in November by Pulsar Books, and DEATH OF THE TIN MAN'S WIFE, his first novel featuring series characters Kay Yoshinobu and Sid Chu, is now available in e-book or traditional format from Shyflower Press. You can find more information at www.fictionwritings.com.

Copyright (c) 2001 John A. Broussard