Cat Trick

“I’ll be over to talk to you about the planters. Maybe after lunch.”

“I’ll be there all day.” I nodded at Marcus and cut across the grass to the sidewalk.

Once I was far enough down the street that Marcus couldn’t see me, I jaywalked across Main Street, heading for the library as the crow flies instead of how the streets were laid. Abigail and Mia were waiting on the steps and Susan was hurrying along the sidewalk.

“I’m sorry I’m late,” I said as I unlocked the doors and deactivated the alarm. “I had to take Maggie my truck.” I didn’t say anything about the latest find at the tent. There was enough speculation around town as it was about what had happened to Mike Glazer. I didn’t want to add to it.

“You’re not late,” Abigail said. “It’s only five to.”

Susan pushed through the door behind us; her topknot, secured precariously with two bendy straws, waved at us like the top of a bobblehead doll. “I thought I was late,” she wheezed, half out of breath.

“You’re fine,” I said, flipping on the lights. Mia headed for the book drop without even being asked. She was turning out to be the most conscientious student intern I’d ever worked with. Abigail crossed her arms and squinted at the bag Susan was carrying.

“What’s in the bag?” she asked, wiggling her eyebrows and grinning.

Susan swung it from side to side with a grin of her own. “Eric’s experimenting again. Cheese and bacon muffins.”

Abigail’s smile got wider. “You do know that I love your husband, don’t you?” She put one hand over her heart. “I seriously love him.”

Susan started for the stairs, shifting the bag up onto her shoulder. “He snores,” she said dryly.

Abigail followed her. “Music to my ears,” she said.

“He leaves his dirty socks all over the house.”

“I would be honored to pick them up and wash them,” Abigail countered.

“He has belly button lint. Lots of it.” They were headed up the steps then and I didn’t hear Abigail’s response, but I pretty much knew what it was going to be. They’d done this routine before.

It was a busy morning. I did a presentation to a group of seniors about the library’s e-lending program and got my notes ready for an upcoming meeting with the library board, fortified by one of Eric’s muffins that, incredibly, tasted even better than it smelled.

Unlike a lot of small-town libraries, we were doing well, but that was only because Everett Henderson had funded the building’s renovation as a gift to the town. Now that the building looked so good, I was determined to keep it running well.

Maggie brought the truck back right after lunch. “Thank you,” she said, giving me a quick hug. “I have a meeting, but I’ll see you tonight at class.”

Oren showed up about midafternoon, and Abigail and I walked around the library grounds with him, looking for the best place to put a raised planter box. Abigail had had the idea to start a small garden with the story time kids in the spring. Oren was going to build the box now so planting could start as soon as the snow was gone and the ground had thawed.

Abigail explained her idea and Oren listened and nodded, asking a few questions and making a couple of suggestions. Once we settled on the best place for the planter, Abigail went back inside. I held the end of Oren’s metal tape while he measured and made notations on the tiny sketch he’d drawn in the small black-covered notebook he kept in his shirt pocket.

“I should have a drawing for you in a couple of days,” he said. “And some idea of what it’s going to cost.”

“Thanks,” I said.

“I’m sorry about this morning.” He pulled off his cap and raked his fingers back through his sun-bleached hair.

“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “I was here in time. Did Marcus keep you very long?”

Oren shook his head. “No. I got the feeling he doesn’t think that knife really means anything.”

I brushed some dried grass off of my pants. “Why do you say that?”

He shrugged and fingered the brim of his cap. “He asked me twice how sure I was it wasn’t there when we were setting up the tent.”

“It wasn’t,” I said.

His gaze narrowed. “You found . . . the body, didn’t you?”

I nodded. “I did. And something else that turned out not to be important. There wasn’t any knife stuck in the ground there. I’m certain of it.”

“It was probably just kids or someone goofing around in there.”

“Probably,” I agreed.

Oren left with a promise that he’d get back to me in the next few days, and I went inside again.