Dennis Larsen - With Cruel Intent

Back at the desk with her ‘now’, ‘night’ and ‘never’ boxes in front of her, she laid out her plans for the workday. With a few weeks behind her and her responsibilities well under control, the young librarian found that her work days just sort of glided by, very few hiccups from day to day except for the occasional drunk that would stumble in looking for a bathroom or the kids that often got too rambunctious. Just before noon, and her date with Marcus, the phone rang.

“Good morning, Valdosta Public Library, how may I help you?” she said, very professionally into the phone.

“Hey Ms. Delaney, this is Seymour. My mom said you tried to get a hold of me last night. Sorry I missed your call, why didn’t you try my cell?” he said, his Adam's Apple in the back of his throat.

“Oh, I didn’t want to bother you if you were out with friends and it wasn’t that important anyway. We just were thinking of adding some more nights to the schedule with school starting soon and wondered if you’d be interested in some more shifts,” she scrambled to think of a plausible reason for her call the night before. It was not totally untrue, they had discussed the possibility of the extra nights, as long as they could get proper staffing.

“I see,” he said, somewhat disappointed, then after a moment of consideration continued, “Who would I be working with, are you taking the extra late shifts as well?”

“I’m sure I’ll have to do my fair share, why?” she inquired, already knowing the answer.

“Okay, I could use the extra cash and if it means more shifts working with you then I’m up for that. Just let me know so I can make sure it doesn’t conflict with my upcoming class schedule. While I’ve got you, did you see all the police activity yesterday?” he said, all the more excited about the prospect of working with, and hanging out more, with his new found crush.

“Yeah, yesterday morning right? I never did hear anything about it though. Why, what’s up?” Blanche spoke in hushed tones as to not bother those reading at the tables nearby.

“The Sheriff’s Department is running the investigation so I guess there was another break in like the Riddle woman a couple weeks ago. Remember, the one with the guy in the underwear?”

“I remember. Did anybody get hurt and where was it?” she strained to hear the somewhat poor connection.

“There was a press conference this morning but they didn’t release any details, but it sounds like a real crime wave has hit Valdosta. Do you think we could have a serial ‘something’ living here?” Seymour did his best to contain his enthusiasm.

“You almost sound glad that this is happening. That scares me a little bit. What if somebody gets hurt?” Blanche said, a concerned inflection to her hushed voice.

“I’m not glad but with the stuff we’ve been talking about lately in class, it’s weird that we’d have a deviant starting to do some of the same things here, that we’ve studied, that’s all. I hope nobody gets hurt too. Worries me when I’m at school and my mom is home alone. Anyway, I’m anxious to hand in my project today, you know, the one you helped me with the other night? It’s due this afternoon and I think we did pretty well on it. Maybe when I’m done today, I’ll swing by the library and update you on what’s going on, that is if you’re interested,” he coyly asked.

“That would be fine. I’ll be here all day, but I’ve got something tonight so I have to be sure to leave on time.”

He was dying to ask what it was she had that evening but didn’t want to pry or sound possessive, so he let it drop. If she wanted to tell him, it would come out, especially if she’d started dating someone.

“K, well have a good day and I’ll maybe see you later,” he said, snapping his phone shut.

The balance of the day passed quickly. Her lunch with Marcus was fun as usual, she loved the back and forth jabs and the lighthearted conversations that helped to pass the time when he was around. By 3:00 p.m. she had cleared her boxes of the items contained therein and was looking for things to do, when a man, approximately her own age, came to the front desk and asked her where he might find some information on ‘Voodoo’ and the ‘Occult’. She couldn’t remember the last time that she’d had to find such material and it took her a few minutes to wrap her librarian brain around the request, before sending him in the desired direction.

“Well, that's a tough one. Can’t say I’ve done much reading myself on those subjects so give me a minute and let me look through the electronic catalog,” she said, keeping a very courteous and professional lilt to her voice.

“No problem. I’m in no rush take your time. I’ll just hang out here while you look.” He was attractive, in a unique sort of way; Blanche had thought when she’d first seen him from her desk. It looked like he’d just gotten a haircut, his dark hair trimmed above his ears with slight bangs and no sideburns. He was clean-shaven, wore no spectacles, was thin faced and she could tell, under his form fitting shirt and shorts that he was in remarkable shape. There was a moment when she had first looked into his eyes, a sense of acknowledgement, almost recognition, which she dismissed quickly. She hadn’t met that many people yet and she was sure she would have remembered this good-looking guy. He politely waited patiently at the desk, not taking his eyes off of Blanche, as she looked for the requested information. He made light of the weather and tried to keep some type of conversation going.

“You’re not from around here. No accent, where you from?” he asked.

“Yeah, you’re right. I’m from out west, Arizona to be exact. Not much of an accent out there but some have told me I have a bit of a drawl. What do you think?” she said, being a bit flirtatious.

“I don’t know if I’d call it a drawl or not but your voice is certainly sexy. Not what I’d expect for a librarian, if you don’t mind me saying,” he said, taking her cue.

“Oh, I don’t mind, but don’t tell that to Mrs. Anderson, the director, she’s already worried about the clothing I wear.” They both laughed in that, ‘I’m in a library’, kind of hush. “Here we go, I think I’ve found what you are looking for, section H next to the shelves on travel. Do you need any help finding that?”

“That would be very helpful. I’ve never been in this library before and could use a hand. Do you do everything around here, manage the front desk, and assist clients, the whole nine yards?”

"Some days. Mrs. Anderson helps out a lot and we have a college student that works nights."

"Oh really, where does he go? I went to school here in Valdosta," he said, through lying lips.

"Is that right? He goes to The University. How 'bout you?”

He had to think quickly or get caught in his lie. “I, ah, just went to the tech college, hands on stuff,” he said, following Blanche through the library.

They walked together to the section in question on the main floor and Blanche showed him where he could find the type of material he had mentioned. He thanked her, shaking her hand and introducing himself as Rob, no last name, but she returned the favor and walked back to her desk. A short time later she noted that he had selected a book and had sat in a chair that gave him a direct line of sight to the front desk. He seemed engaged in what he was reading but on more than one occasion she had looked up to catch him eyeing her, and had quickly averted his eyes back to the pages of the book when she’d caught him staring. She thought it odd but it wasn’t the first time that men had been caught staring at her both here and elsewhere. After all, he kind of intrigued her a bit, nothing wrong with him checking her out, he was pleasant enough and she hadn’t seen any rings. The notion that she’d seen him before continued to eat at her until he approached the front desk again, thanked her for being so helpful, placed a $5 bill in the donation container and left, but not before promising that he’d be back and was sure he’d need her services again.