Michael Guillebeau - MAD Librarian - You Gotta Fight for Your Right to Library

Burroughs came grumbling back with both arms loaded with blueprints.

“Mr. Burroughs,” she said. “I think you’re right. We don’t need to review these again.”

She heard something about “women bosses” at her back as she jog-walked around the other side of the building and slipped back in the back door.

Cracking the interior door, she looked out past the checkout counter and through the windows, and saw Kendall outside, heading for Burroughs. The two men said something—probably about crazy women—and nodded their heads. Then Burroughs spread out his blueprints and reports on a worktable and he and Kendall bent over them.

This can’t be good.

Joy was slouched at the checkout counter, head down so clients might ignore her.

“Joy!”

Her head came up, her eyes opened and she yawned.

“When I come back in that door, I’ll have a man with me. I want you to flirt with him and take him off my hands.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Is he good looking?”

Serenity looked at Joy’s pale old skin and tattoos. “Good enough.”

She ran out the door and caught Kendall by the arm.

“Why, Mr. Kendall, I didn’t know where you’d got off to. I was afraid I’d lost you.”

He looked at her and a little smile flickered over his face.

“We have something for you,” she said.

She started to pull his arm but he stayed rooted. “I’ll be there in a minute. Mr. Burroughs has some interesting stuff here.”

She yanked him across her body toward the door.

“Not as interesting as what we have.”

She dragged him back into the library where Joy was waiting with a big smile.

“Hey, sailor,” she said.

Kendall’s face stayed blank but there was a small, unpleasant noise in his throat, like an unhappy animal was stuck there.

“Mr. Kendall, I’d like you to meet Ms. Quexnt, one of our librarians.”

Joy put her arm through Kendall’s other arm and said, “You want to see my tattoos?”

The small animal in Kendall’s throat escaped with a full croak.

“I have business to attend to.” He tried to pull his arm away but Joy wasn’t letting go. Serenity knew this wouldn’t last long. She checked her phone and looked around in desperation. Then she saw a friendly face coming in the door.

“Joe!” she screamed. She ran to the door and left Kendall to wrestle with Joy.

SERENITY THREW her arms around Joe’s neck. “Babe,” she said, “I’m so glad you’re here.”

She turned to Kendall with her arms still around Joe’s neck. Serenity looked at him and smiled. “Mr. Kendall, you’ll have to forgive me for just a few minutes. I need to spend time with my sweetie. I promise I’ll get right back to you with your document.” She locked her arm in Joe’s and dragged him to her office leaving Kendall and Joy.

She closed the door behind them, and Joe wrapped his arms around her and bent her back with a deep kiss. She melted and felt everything unimportant fading away.

“Now this is better,” he said.

Then she realized there were too many things that she didn’t need to let fade away.

“No.” She pushed away. “What are we doing?”

“Kissing. I thought I was kissing you. I thought it was what you wanted.”

“No, I mean, what are you doing here?”

Joe studied her. “I know I said I wouldn’t come after you, but I just thought I’d see how my wife’s doing. Doesn’t seem like that big a crime. To me.”

“You mean you thought you’d check up on me.”

“No,” he studied her foe a long time, his look fading from romance to cop look. “Why? Is there something here I need to check up on?”

“Why? You have a book overdue?”

He paused. “There’s sure as hell something overdue. Or just plain out of whack. Sweet—Serenity, all this just doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. What am I missing?”

She looked at her cell. “Nothing.” Then she looked at him and saw that wouldn’t fly. “Look, we’ll talk sometime. Just not right now.”

“Okay.” There was a pause while he studied her face. “I’ll head on out, and look forward to that talk.”

The phone was still silent. “No. Don’t go.”

He folded his arms. “We’re not going to talk, and we’re not going to kiss. What exactly are we going to do?”

“Just—stand here. Joe, I’m sorry. I know I’m not treating you right, and please, please know how much I want to. But I need you to take me on faith for a little bit. Just stand here for a time, with no reason.”

He studied the matter a minute, then smiled just a little. “Faith doesn’t come easy to a cop. But being with my Sweetblossom is reason enough. Take your time.”

She put her hand on his arm and he gave her a sleepy-eyed grin. “Joe, I love this courtly-cowboy side of you, I really do. But I need something real right now. I’m scared as hell and excited as hell and I don’t know when I can open up to you about it.”

He took off his hat and stood up straight. “What do you need?”

“Just be here with me. Just for a moment.”

There was that sleepy little-boy smile again.

They stood there for several minutes. Joe seemed to expand and fill the room with his Joe-ness. She felt her resolve—and more—fading, and needed to say something distracting.

“Joe, I need you to not worry so much about the things I can’t talk to you about.”

“The man out there is FBI. I’ve worked with him.”

“Former FBI.”

“Didn’t know that. So what’s he doing here now?”

“Research.”

He stared at her with his flat, unreadable cop expression.

“Joe, I—”

Her phone buzzed twice. She put her hand on his arm.

“Please, Joe. I’ve got to go.”

SOMEONE SCREAMED. Joe pushed Serenity aside and ran past her. She saw heads turned toward the other side of the library and followed Joe at a run.

Doom was standing in the doorway coming out of the computer server room, face red. Kendall stood in front of her like an expressionless statue. Joe stopped in front of them and Serenity plowed into him.

“He—he was just standing there,” said Doom. “I opened the door and this patron was just standing there. He startled me.”

Kendall turned at an angle so he could face Doom, Serenity and Joe at the same time. At that angle, his glasses shined like two impenetrable mirrors. He paused a long second before he said, “Checking the layout here. This was the only locked door. Just happened to be standing in front of it when you burst out in such a hurry.”

He pivoted his head forty-five degrees to focus on Joe and Serenity, and his bug-eyes reappeared. “Wondering why a library would feel the need for a locked door.”

Serenity said, “Lots of doors here have locks. Plenty of places that aren’t open to the public.”

“But today you’re so busy that every room is open, most of them full. The only one locked has a sign that says children’s reading room over it. Seems curious. Makes me wonder what the children are reading in there.”

She watched him to see if it was a joke. If it was, jokes didn’t come with smiles on this guy. Her mouth opened to explain, but her brain didn’t supply any words, and she stood there with her mouth open.

Joe rescued her. “Don’t I know you? Agent Kendall, FBI? We worked together a while back on that abduction that turned out not to be an abduction?”

Kendall took a step back and turned so the mirrors took in all three of them again. “Detective Hammer. Good to see you again.” He said it flat. Hard to tell if it was real or snark. A long pause, followed by, “And there was a credible ransom note.”