Fire Engine Dead [by] Sheila Connolly
New York; Berkley Prime Crime [2012]
978-0-425-24670-2; $7.99
It’s a luncheon of the Greater Philadelphia Grantmaking Coalition, and Nell Pratt, President of the Pennsylvania Antiquarian Society, and an assistant have just sat down to eat with a tableful of colleagues, when a staffer from the Philadelphia Fireman’s Museum receives a phone call on her cell. The color drains from her face as she receives the news. From another place in the room, a rather colorless man is hurrying towards an exit. “He must be her boss,” thinks Nell, wondering what happened.
That afternoon she finds out: the warehouse where the collection from the Fireman’s Museum, currently being renovated, has been stored, has, ironically, burned. No one knows the extent of the damage yet – only that it is substantial. The Museum’s director, Peter Ingersoll, comes to the Society, hoping that its records will give some idea of the scope of the Museum’s loss. Nell puts her staff to work on it.
One of her Board members, Marty Terwilliger, is very anxious to know anything about the fire because it was her grandfather who willed to the Fireman’s Museum the crown of its collection, an 1825 horse-drawn fire engine, painted and gilded, in excellent condition. Then Marty’s cousin, FBI agent James Morrison invites her to become part of the investigation by picking her brain about museums and how they run, what she knows about the players involved, etc.
The staff does their thing, providing Nell with lots of documents about the Fireman’s Museum, including some photos – even one of the fire engine. When the newspaper reports on the fire, it describes the devastating extent of the loss, including the charred remains of the fire engine. Nell is the first to notice that the shape of the fire engine in the Philadelphia Inquirer is not the same as that of the Terwilliger fire engine in the Society’s picture. She is back on the phone to James, who agrees, as does Marty, who tears into Nell’s office soon after Nell’s discovery. Oddly, when Nell turns the materials over to Peter, he makes no comment about what seems to the others to be as obvious as the proverbial nose on the face! What is going on here?
But Nell has a Society to run, and gets caught up in hiring two new employees, who are slated to work on the Terwilliger Collection, which is moved out of the fireproof vault so that it can be worked on. Then James throws a spike into the plans – the FBI has held as evidence a large collection of papers, including documents from Nell’s Society, as well as other museums and institutions, and some materials with no provenance. The Bureau is now done with them, and 167 boxes are sent to the Society. Suddenly the trio which was working on the Terwilliger Collection is now trying to figure out what all of the 167 boxes contain, and where it belongs. It is possible that the Society may even get some of the unclaimed papers. The Bureau will also pay for the work, which is really a boon for a strapped nonprofit.
Meanwhile, James and the police are trying to find out what they can about the string of warehouse fires, which includes the one that took down the Fireman’s Museum collection, and about the people who work at that Museum. Nell keeps seeing Peter, who has grown more pale and sickly-looking. She is concerned about him, and when the young woman she’d sat with at the luncheon suggests that she talk with Peter, she jumps at the chance.
Peter comes over after hours, when it is just the two of them at the Society. He is so distraught by the events concerning his museum, he explains to Nell. Then they hear a crash, indicating a basement window breaking, and an armed and dangerous museum employee makes his presence known. His plan: to shoot Nell, to position the gun, as if fired by Peter, who will be overcome by his asthma in the fire that will be set in the Society’s Reference Room. The criminals will go free, and they will sell the fire engine for a pretty penny.
Feisty Nell turns the tables on him, testing the Society’s fire-suppression system for the first time ever. One criminal dies, the other is captured, and Nell and James, who have been doing a “we don’t really want to talk about how we’re attracted to each other, but isn’t it grand” waltz, actually do talk about it and it is wonderful. Life goes on, with a little more honesty and awareness, and a positive working togetherness. All is well in this great cozy. Highly recommended. ~ lss-r
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This is a Library book.
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