by Becki Willis
The librarian looked down with a giggle. “She calls them her dirty indulgence. She claims if the worst thing she ever does is have a paper boyfriend and a steamy romp between the pages, she can still go to Heaven with a clean conscience.” She held up a book entitled Mary Ann’s Italian Stud. “This one is actually pretty good. She’s reading it on my recommendation.”
Madison waited until the elderly woman was out of earshot before she burst into giggles.
Turning back to the computer, she saw her image search still wasn’t complete. Could there have been an error uploading the original?
She was debating the merits of starting over, versus giving it another five minutes, versus giving up altogether, when the lights above her flickered.
“What is that about?” she muttered.
It didn’t affect the computer, so she decided to give the search another five minutes. She had already invested this much time in the effort.
A minute or so later, the lights flickered again.
“The power better not go out on me now!” she wailed. “If it does, I’ll take it as a sign I should call it quits for the day.” She rolled her head around her shoulders, working the kinks out of her neck. “I’ll wait for Miss Sadie to return and then I’ll go. I may even treat myself to lunch with my best friend.”
With thoughts of having lunch at New Beginnings, she found herself almost hoping the power would go out.
She didn’t anticipate, however, how dark the library would be without lights. Or how large and empty it would seem. As the lights flickered a third time before shuttering completely, even the computers went dark.
“Ooo-kay,” she said aloud, trying to sound positive. It was as black as pitch in the massive space. “Well, I guess that’s decided. No more search. Definitely lunch.”
She used the light on her cell phone to gather her papers and push her chair back in place. She had intended to erase all history on the computer once she was done; she hoped a power failure served the same purpose.
Madison gingerly made her way toward the front, guided by the faithful light of her phone.
She also hadn’t anticipated how empty the place would feel. How her footsteps would echo. It almost sounded as if they came from another direction, but she knew it was simply a trick of sound. She was the only person inside the big, old, suddenly spooky-feeling library.
Wasn’t she?
Or was that a swish of material she heard somewhere off to the right?
Wasn’t that a noise? A soft bump against objects unknown?
“M—Miss Sadie? Is that you?”
There! That was definitely a noise!
Madison swung her flashlight to the right, but there was nothing to see. Nothing but a long, blackened hallway and another huge, empty room, filled with row after row of books.
All dark. All silent. Millions of words. Thousands of authors’ voices. All mute. All taunting her with their eerie emptiness.
Before Madison could work herself into a full-blown panic attack, another noise, this one loud and bumbling, drew her attention. The front door opened, and light tumbled inside, silhouetting the elderly librarian as she returned.
“Heavens! Why are the lights out?” she gasped.
Relief made Madison’s voice weak. “I—I have no idea.”
“I forgot how dark it is in here without power. And how stifling the air can get.”
“Does this happen often?”
The older woman worked to keep the door propped open and sunshine pouring in. “Occasionally, but usually it’s weather related. Hurricane, tornado, bad thunderstorm.” She waved toward the blue sky beyond. “But there’s not a cloud in the sky today!”
“Is there an emergency generator?”
“Yes, but it’s a tonic to get started. I told the board of directors we need to have it upgraded. It’s not like we can’t afford it.”
“Maybe the power will come back soon,” Madison offered.
As if conjured by her words, light suddenly filled the library again. Motors hummed, electronics beeped, and the space was no longer silent.
“Ah, there we go!” Sadie Bealls beamed. “I suppose there was a glitch in the system somewhere.”
“I guess,” Madison murmured. If so, it hadn’t affected the old mansion across the street. She received text message alerts whenever the power went off at the Big House, and her phone showed none.
“Thank you for library sitting. Arlene was delighted to get her books.”
“No problem. You’ll be okay here if I go? What if the lights go out again?”
“Don’t worry about me. I know the layout like I know my own face, with or without the lights. I’ll be fine, hon.”
Still feeling a bit rattled, Madison looked around to see if someone had come in without her knowing. She still couldn’t shake the feeling that someone had been there in the dark with her.
“You run on along, hon. I’ll be fine,” the librarian insisted.
Taking her at her word, Madison texted Genny once she was across the street. The power hadn’t blinked at the Big House, or on the Naomi side of the tracks. It seemed the glitch had only been at the library.
“Too bad I had to be inside when it happened,” she sighed aloud. “All the more reason to treat myself to lunch.”
“We may have to rethink our Snoop and Soup empire,” Genny informed her best friend, sliding into the back booth across from her. She had been busy when Madison arrived, but was able to join her for dessert.
Madison pretended dismay. “Ah, and it had such promise! One-stop shopping, right here in The Sisters. A bite of lunch, a bite out of crime. Win/Win.” She shook her head with exaggerated gloom. “What toppled our empire, before it was even built?”
“My nerves! Apparently, I’m not cut out for this cloak and dagger stuff. Lamont Andrews came in for lunch, and I swear, the man looked straight through me! I know he knows. He’s just biding his time, before he sics the law on us for trespassing, destruction of property, breaking and entering, and who knows what else.”
“You forget. I’m married to the law, and I honestly don’t think he can make a single one of those charges stick, even if he tries. Which I sincerely doubt he does. He kept a poor, defenseless dog in captivity, you know. One that didn’t belong to him.”
“He could easily say he locked the barn, not knowing the dog was inside,” Genny reasoned. “Which could very well be true, I might add.”
“Whose side are you on, anyway?” Madison frowned.
“Definitely not his. But you didn’t see the way he glared at me!”
“Probably because he knows you’re my best friend and was afraid you might poison his food.”
“Then why did he risk his life by coming in for lunch?” Genny shot back.
Madison picked up a cookie from the plate Genny had delivered, her hazel eyes twinkling. “For a Gennydoodle cookie, obviously. You know they’re to die for.”
Not seeing the humor in her friend’s smart comeback, Genny wrinkled her pert nose before sipping her coffee.
“Is that still settling on your stomach?” Madison asked in a low voice, her subtle nod indicating the cup of caffeine.
“So far. Although this morning…” A grimace touched Genny’s face, gone as quickly as the bout of nausea had vanished.
“This is so exciting!” Madison said in a hushed whisper. “I can’t wait for the official confirmation!”
“Shh! No one can know.”
She made a show of locking her lips and throwing away the key, deliberating not uttering a word.
The problem came when she started to take a sip of her coffee. After the episode at the library, her nerves were still on edge, and she needed the caffeine.
With an apologetic shrug, she told her friend, “Sorry. I guess the lock wasn’t waterproof.”
Fifteen
“I hear good things about you, young lady,” the owner of the landscaping business told Madison when she arrived for work. “Shawn Bryant s
ays you’re a whiz with a filing cabinet.”
Madison felt she had to be honest with the man. “I’m afraid he may have exaggerated a bit. His former secretary had a very… unique filing system. I simply set it up the proper way.”
“That may be all it takes here, but I reckon I’m not sharp enough to do it. You’ll find the filing cabinets there on the left. I’ll be out of the office today on a job, so you can use the drafting table to make as big a mess as you need. The coffee is around the corner, next to the restroom. Can you think of anything else you’ll need?”
“Uhm, not at the moment.”
“If anyone calls, just take a message and write it down on that yellow tablet. I haven’t replaced Sandy yet. She had already cut back to part-time before she quit altogether a couple of months ago. I’m trying to hold the position open till summer, when my granddaughter Danni Jo wants to work. I thought if we got the files in order now, it would make things easier when she takes over. That’s our busiest time, and I don’t want to overwhelm the kid. This will be her first job.”
“I know Danni Jo,” Madison smiled. “She goes to school with my twins, Blake and Bethani.”
“And I know Blake! A very impressive young man. Not only is he a cracker jack ball player, he’s quite enterprising. He’s already been around, applying for a summer job.”
“He has?” Madison asked in total surprise. He hadn’t said a word to her. She wasn’t certain if she should be upset that he hadn’t talked to her about it or impressed that he had taken the task upon himself.
Marvin Combs nodded with a smile. “He even gave me a resume. Credited his athletic training as a reason he would be right for this job, carrying sod pallets and digging holes and exerting physical effort. Claimed he was strong as an ox.”
“He is strong,” Madison agreed. “But I feel I must warn you. All that strength requires fuel. He may need a snack break every hour or so. And by a snack, I mean a hamburger and fries, or anything you and I would consider a full meal.”
Marvin laughed. “I remember that stage! Raised two boys of my own, so I know it well. And just between you and me, I believe in keeping my workers hydrated and energized. I don’t supply anything as heavy as a hamburger, but I keep fresh fruit and energy bars in full supply.”
“And for that, if you should hire him, you will have my son’s undying loyalty,” Madison predicted.
“He doesn’t know it yet, but he has the job.”
“He’ll be thrilled.” Madison knew he had hopes of saving up to buy a truck, something she still had mixed feelings about. Even though he and his sister were sixteen, to her, they were still her babies!
“I’ll be in and out for the next little while, loading the truck to take to the job site. If you come across something you don’t understand, let me know. Otherwise, I’ll let you get to work.”
“Sounds good.” She smiled, liking the gentleman already. If Blake was serious about getting a job, she didn’t mind it being for this man.
Marvin left within the hour, but not before poking his head back inside the office and checking on her.
“Finding everything okay?” he asked.
Madison had to be honest. “I’m finding a mess! You’re right. These files are all over the place.”
Marvin hung his head. “I should have paid closer attention, but she was a good receptionist other than filing, so I let it slide.”
“So far, I haven’t been able to even see a pattern. I’ll literally have to start from scratch.” She nodded to the pile of files she had already pulled. “I hope you were serious about me making a big mess. I may have files lined up from here to Juliet.”
Something sparked in his memory, and he snapped his fingers. “I seem to remember her saying something about that. Juliet, I mean. I think she used that in her system. She was big on the rivalry thing between the towns.”
“Excuse me?”
“I didn’t grow up here, myself, so I don’t understand the big hoopla about which side of the tracks you live on,” Marvin admitted. “To me, the two towns run together and should be considered one. They share the same school, same police department, same water system, so I don’t know why they can’t make nice and share everything else. But Sandy didn’t see it that way.”
“That’s your former receptionist?” she guessed, vaguely remembering him mention the name before.
“That’s right. She’s a hometown girl, so she grew up with the thing between the sisters. The two old women, I mean. From what I understand, they never could get along.”
“Unfortunately, that’s true,” Madison agreed. “The only solution their father could think of was to give each daughter her own town.”
“And in my opinion, that was the problem. He gave them everything they ever wanted and didn’t make them work for what they had. Same problem many parents have these days.”
The more the man talked, the more Madison liked him. He would be a fine role model for her son.
He shook his head, continuing, “Tearing apart the family was bad enough. But tearing apart the towns and making folks choose sides was just flat-out wrong. I’m afraid Sandy was one of those people who still held a grudge. Crazy thing is, she wasn’t even born when the sisters had their falling out, so she shouldn’t have had a dog in that fight to begin with.”
The landscaper’s sigh was heavy. “But I remember, now, that Sandy separated the files according to which town people lived in. I told her from the very beginning, I would offer the same level of service and professionalism to people in Juliet as I did to those here in Naomi, and she knew I wouldn’t stand for favoritism. But I reckon filing was one thing she could control. I don’t know if that will help you any, but I suspect that’s what she did. She kept the towns divided once again.”
“For the record,” Madison told him, “you probably know I have deep roots in the community, even though I haven’t always lived here. But I agree with you. What happened back then is water under the bridge, and it flowed long ago. It’s too bad that some people can’t help but churn the waters and keep them muddy.”
“You and I are going to get along just fine,” Marvin Combs decided with a pleased smile. “Just fine.”
By the end of the day, Madison had made considerable progress. Marvin Gardens had a large clientele, which translated into many folders that required shuffling and refiling. By the time she found a good stopping point and left the office in respectable order, it was much later than Madison realized. She called Brash to tell him she was running late, and then headed out the door.
She promptly collided with another body.
“Are you following me?” a voice demanded.
“Ex—Excuse me?” Dismayed, Madison stared up into the angry face of Lamont Andrews. The Gold and Silver Exchange sat next door to her temporary employment.
“You heard me. Are you following me? This is the parking lot for employees only. You have no business being back here, unless you’re stalking me.”
“I am hardly stalking you!” she cried in outrage.
“Then what are you doing back here?”
“Judging from all the bags of fertilizer and mulch, it looks to me like my car is parked on Marvin Combs’ property. I hardly see how that concerns you.”
“I know you were at my house the other night, lady. I know you’ve been snooping around.” Lamont Andrews stepped closer, moving into her personal space. He loomed over her with a menacing glare. “I already told you. I don’t know where that mutt is, I don’t care where that mutt is. I would just as soon shoot it as I would look at it.” His face contorted with something frighteningly close to rage. “Stay. Away. From. Me.”
He swept past her, storming out to a dark vehicle. He paused before opening its door, jabbing his finger into the air. “Understand me? Stay away!”
Long after a cloud of exhaust swallowed the sight of it, Madison stood in the same position, her mouth agape. Anger made her body tremble. Thoughts made her mind swirl in splintered direct
ions.
If he knew the dog had been rescued, he wasn’t letting on. He still pretended he was innocent, even though she had found the dog behind his locked door.
She had been at his house during the daytime, not at night.
If he saw him again, she had no doubt he would kill that poor little dog.
She wasn’t following him. In fact, she made a point to avoid him by going to his house while he was at work.
Lamont Andrews was a volatile man.
Lamont Andrews was not a man to cross.
Sixteen
The moon ducked behind a cloud, hiding its face from the slumbering world below.
He made his move in the darkness. Sidling up to the barn, he inserted a key into the first lock. Twisted the dial and listened for the tumbling clicks on the back-up combination lock. Eased the thick, heavy chains down to the ground, careful not to make a racket.
As the moon revealed its face again, he slipped inside the barn and went to work.
The man was agitated tonight. He moved about the old barn with tense, jerked moves.
For once, the numbers didn’t bring him comfort.
Something wasn’t right. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but something was missing.
He had forgotten something.
He circled the barn, counting and recounting. Checking his lists. Taking his inventory.
It all added up, and yet it didn’t. Whatever was missing, it wasn’t on his list.
Perhaps if he started over.
Again.
Seventeen
The three-week deadline until Brash’s birthday was shorter by half, and Madison had made little progress on the chair. Other than removing the ancient red fabric and securing a pattern for the new charcoal tweed, she hadn’t done a thing. If nothing else, today she planned to replace the stuffing and the seat cushions.
As she inserted the padding the way Ralph had shown her and secured it in all the crucial places, Madison thought about the gold. It still made her nervous, having that kind of fortune in the house. Most of all, it bothered her that she kept it a secret from her husband. But she had promised Granny Bert, and a promise was a promise, particularly to one’s grandmother.