leaving Aunt Frances, Iâd gone back to the library and worked a little longer. By the time I was done, it was far too late to cookanythingâhow unexpected!âso Iâd picked up dinner at the local Chinese-Thai place and patted myself on the back for supporting the local economy.
I ran the water warm and started washing my minimalist dishes. âIt was a little creepy,â I said, âbeing in the library when everyone was gone.â Iâd jumped every time the ventilation system had kicked in. âI ended up locking my office door. I felt silly, but you wonât tell anyone, will you?â
âMrr,â Eddie said.
âAnd if Iâm jumpy about being in the library, I bet other people will be, too.â And that couldnât be allowed to happen. Libraries were safe places. Havens. Harbors. Refuges. Places to learn. Repositories of knowledge. Locations of possible wisdom. Knowing that the Chilson libraryâ
my
libraryâhad been violated was an affront to everything I believed in.
Right then and there, I vowed to do whatever I could to help the police find Andreaâs killer and to repair any and all damage to my libraryâs reputation.
âMrr.â
That time his voice sounded a little too close. I turned.
âHey!â I flicked soap suds at him. âGet off the counter! You know thatâs not allowed, at least not when Iâm home. What are you thinking?â
âMrr.â He chin-rubbed the corner of the knife blockâwhich had been a joke gift from Kristen, because sheâd put bookmarks into the slots instead of the utensils for which it had been designedâone more time and jumped off the countertop.
âCats,â I muttered, or tried to, because a yawn interrupted the single syllable, turning it into something that sounded more like, âCaaa.â
âMrr,â Eddie said from the top of the short flight of stairs that led to the bedroom.
âHold your little kitty horses,â I said. âHumans brush their teeth before going to bed.â Iâd heard of people brushing the teeth of their pets, but unless Eddie developed a health problem that threatened to shorten his life, I wasnât ready to try.
In short order, I was sliding between the sheets. âWhat do you think?â I asked. Eddie was walking around me, clearly trying to decide which of my body parts he wanted to cut off the circulation to the most. âJane Austen, Tess Gerritsen, or L. A. Meyer?â
He flopped down on the bed, rested his chin on my right hip, and started purring.
âYou know,â I said through another yawn, âyou could be right. It would probably fall on my face, smashing some pages in the process, and thatâs neverââ
Eddie reached out and put his front paw across my lips.
âEww.â I turned my head. âI know where that paw has been.â
âMrr,â he said firmly.
âFine.â I turned off the light and rolled onto my side. Eddie restarted his purr and, despite the morningâs event, I fell into a dreamless sleep.
Chapter 3
T he next morning was a bookmobile dayâor, more accurately, thanks to my current schedule, a bookmobile three-quarters of a dayâand I shut myself up in my office to steam through as much work as I could before hightailing it for Tonedagana Countyâs lake-strewn, rolling countryside. I even filled my favorite Association of Bookmobile and Outreach Services coffee mug with Kelsey Coffee rather than waiting for a fresh pot to brew.
âBrave woman,â Josh said, as I headed back to my computer. âAre you brave enough to send your director application to the board?â
âWorking on it,â I said over my shoulder.
Sort of.
Back at my desk, I had just set my hands to the keyboard when my phone rang. I was tempted to ignore it. There were few phone calls I got these days that lasted less than fifteen minutes, and time was