“Isn’t it funny we both have chocolatey eyes?” Bixby asked. “You sure have a type.”
“Drew, I was actually hoping to open the book before closing it for good. Do you think I could get a look at it?”
“Unfortunately, that’s impossible.”
“I figured. You can’t even let me have a little peek?”
He shook his head. “I wouldn’t if I could, considering the harm it did. But I can’t anyway. It’s gone.”
“Gone to forensics, you mean?”
“Gone from our possession. It was stolen from evidence lockup.” He tipped his head. “I actually wondered if you’d found a way in.”
Mr. Bixby laughed. “Janelle bumbling around the police station? That would have been awesome. Sunflowers for every officer.”
I doubled down on my mental humming to drown out the dog. “I definitely don’t have the skills for that. If someone does, it’s very bad news. The book Angus was holding should not be in mainstream distribution. There’s probably still ammo in that weapon.”
“Understood. I think. Not sure if I’m ready to understand more.”
I nodded. “It’s a lot, I know. I’m on a major learning curve myself.”
“I hope you have people you can talk to about things like this.”
Scuffing the carpet, I hit another exuberant sunflower with my foot and sighed. “My mom. Cousin Liberty. But the landscape seems to shift constantly and there’s no library at my disposal. I’m surprised there were books like that available for public consumption.”
He pressed his lips together, probably deciding what to divulge. “There weren’t, until just over two weeks ago. An anonymous donor slipped them into the returns bin. The camera caught someone in a black hoodie but it could have been anyone.”
“So then the librarian catalogued them and put them on the shelf without question?”
He nodded. “No one checked any of the new books out. In fact, every single patron bypassed that aisle. Until today, when the feed went dead.”
“Huh. Interesting.”
“Very.” He smiled. “Despite the lack of traffic, books fell off the shelves a few times.”
“Oh? Even more interesting.”
Now he scuffed, brown eyes widening as he hit a sunflower. “Once they were down, the pages fluttered, and then they hopped back on the shelf. Always in the right place.” His eyes locked on mine. “I couldn’t help but think someone invisible was flipping through them.”
“Day or night?” I asked.
“Both. It happened a lot and quite skillfully, because the librarian never seemed to notice.”
“Sounds like someone was looking for the same thing as Angus and never found it.”
Mr. Bixby forced his way out of lockdown. “Or it was modified specifically to target Angus. I assume you only got the downstream effects.”
This time I answered my dog, because another dog silently enlightened me. “It was Skye, Bixby. She was looking to pull the plug on the hex but didn’t have the strength yet.”
Bixby grunted. “Points for trying. She’s no slouch.”
Catching Drew’s eye, I asked, “What are you thinking about?”
His smile was slightly bewildered. “That it was nice to have a few dates before this happened. Things felt simpler then.”
“They’re complicated now, Red,” Bixby said. “But the course of true love never did run smooth. Who said that?”
“Shakespeare. Am I right?” The answer came from Skye, who was in the very next row now, black muzzle poking through the books. As usual, once we formed a connection, the ghost dog lost transparency and gained strength.
I loved that there was an “as usual.” Patterns were good. Predictability had been rare all my life and never more so than recently.
“It was nice,” I told Drew. “And it will be again after this issue is resolved.”
“Sure hope so.”
The doubt in his voice unnerved me and activated the urge to pace. I was confined in the aisle, however, by Drew on one side and a beefy beanstalk on the other. My own plant apparently wanted Drew and me to stay in close proximity. “Just one last question. Do you have any idea who might have wanted Angus dead?”
“Plenty of names to investigate and none that I’m sharing. For your safety, if nothing else.”
“Fine. Did he have a criminal record predating what happened in the mayor’s office?”
“That’s two last questions.” He grinned now. “But not with us. Not sure about special investigations.” After a long pause, he added, “Crossed my mind that the other unit removed Angus deliberately.”
“You mean, like a sniper hit?” The very idea made my head spin. If the magical authorities colored outside the lines like that, I really was in way over my head.
“Don’t hiccup,” Bixby said.
I hiccupped.
