Verwandte Artikel zu Claws for Concern: Cat in the Stacks Mystery #9

Claws for Concern: Cat in the Stacks Mystery #9 - Softcover

Buch 9 von 17: Cat in the Stacks Mystery

James, Miranda

 
9780425277799: Claws for Concern: Cat in the Stacks Mystery #9
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0425277798 ISBN 13: 9780425277799
Verlag: Berkley, 2019

Inhaltsangabe

Charlie Harris and his Maine Coon cat, Diesel, are embroiled in a new mystery when a cold case suddenly heats up in the latest installment of the New York Times bestselling series.

Charlie Harris is busy enjoying his new grandson when a mysterious man with a connection to Charlie's family starts visiting the library, bringing with him troubling questions about an unsolved murder...

Charlie may be a proud new grandfather, but he and Diesel still have work to do at Athena College and the small Mississippi town's public library. He's too busy to deal with true-crime writer Jack Pemberton, who wants Charlie as the subject of his latest book--and who won't take no for an answer.  

A more appealing proposition for Charlie is spending time helping a kind, elderly man navigate the library's genealogical database. But he's shocked when he learns that the visitor's search is focused on a member of his own family: his late aunt's husband.

Charlie befriends the man and considers inviting him to stay in his home, but he's soon given reason to question that notion. Jack is certain that Charlie's new houseguest was involved in a shocking homicide that took place years ago in a small town near Athena. As this cold case heats up, Charlie and Diesel have to uncover a killer who may already be too close to home...

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Miranda James is the New York Times bestselling author of the Cat in the Stacks Mysteries, including Twelve Angry Librarians, No Cats Allowed, and Arsenic and Old Books, as well as the Southern Ladies Mysteries, including Fixing to Die, Digging Up the Dirt, and Dead with the Wind. James lives in Mississippi.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

One

I couldn't stop checking the clock on the wall nearby. "Come on, three o'clock," I muttered under my breath. "Get here already."

The wretched clock refused to cooperate. It read two forty-seven, and the second hand seemed to be taking way too long to sweep around the clock's face. Thirteen minutes until I could pack up and head home.

Diesel, my Maine Coon cat and near-constant companion, warbled anxiously from the area next to my feet under the reference desk. He always picked up on my emotions, and I forced myself to calm down. There was no point in getting a nearly forty-pound cat all wound up. Nor myself, actually.

"It's all okay, boy," I told him in a low voice before I reached under the desk to scratch his head. "We'll be home soon." I think the cat knew what-or really, who-was waiting for us at home, and he was as eager as I to be there.

Clock check. Only eleven minutes to go. I could leave now if I really wanted to. I volunteered at the Athena Public Library. I did not earn a paycheck from the place. I knew, though, how much the director, Teresa Farmer, and the other staff appreciated my help on Fridays, and I wasn't going to cut my time short. I settled back into my chair for the remaining minutes and glanced around me.

On this late July afternoon, the only people I saw in the library were adults, mostly my own age or older. Some, no doubt, sought relief from the punishing heat. The soaring temperatures taxed air conditioners, and there were many elderly people in Athena who couldn't afford to cool their houses. I knew most of those who came into the library to get relief, at least by name.

One man was a definite stranger, however. I first noticed him a week ago. Tall, a bit stooped, with a shambling gait, he looked to be about ten years older than me, so that put him in his midsixties, though he might have been older. I'd not had any interaction with him last week, and he had not come near the reference desk today. He had glanced my way a couple of times, his expression a puzzled frown.

I wondered whether he knew me or thought that he might. I had never seen him before that I could recall, though there was an elusive familiarity about his face. Maybe I had run across him thirty years ago, I mused, before I left Athena to move to Texas for graduate school in library science. I couldn't place him, but I hadn't spent much energy trying. I had learned over the years to let such things resolve themselves on their own schedule. The answer to this particular puzzle, if I knew it, would occur to me in due course.

Earlier today I had thought about approaching him and simply asking him who he was, but I hesitated to follow through on that. He appeared reserved and perhaps shy, and I didn't want to intrude if he truly had no desire to talk to people. I glanced his way again, and he looked up for a moment. Then he dipped his head down, focused once more on the book in his lap, and I read that as a clear signal that he did not want to be interrupted.

Diesel chirped and laid a large paw on my knee, as if he were asking me the time, and I checked the clock. Two minutes to three. Bronwyn Forster, one of the full-time librarians, should be here to relieve me any moment now. Sure enough, when I looked toward the area where the offices were, I saw her emerge from the doorway and head toward us.

After we greeted her, and she and I exchanged places, Diesel stayed with Bronwyn while I went to gather my things. He had to be sure to get his full quota of rubs on the head and under the chin before we left. Bronwyn, like the other staff and many of the patrons, never hesitated to oblige him. No wonder he loved coming to work with me.

Back at the desk again, I spoke to Bronwyn. "Would you mind keeping him with you for a minute? It's so hot outside, I want to get the car started and cooling off before I put him in it."

Bronwyn gave me her habitual sweet smile. "Of course, Charlie. Diesel won't mind getting loved on for a couple more minutes."

I heard a happy warble from behind the desk and knew Diesel would be content until I was ready to take him out. "Back in a minute, then." I headed for the door.

The second I stepped outside the heat swarmed around me like a cloud of gnats. I could feel the sweat starting to form as I made my way through the parking lot to the far side where the staff usually parked. This morning I had found a spot beneath the largest tree that cast shade over the lot. That meant the inside of my car was a few degrees cooler than it might have been otherwise.

I backed the car out and drove it around the lot to the closest spot to the front door. I left the engine running and went into the building to retrieve my cat. The moment I called, he came running around the desk toward me.

I scooped him up in both arms and backed out the door, with one last farewell to Bronwyn. The temperature was too high today-hovering around the century mark-to let Diesel walk over the hot asphalt and concrete. In weather like this I carried Diesel to and from buildings where the sidewalks and parking areas were in the direct sunlight. I didn't want him blistering the pads of his feet.

The drive home took less than ten minutes, and once I had the car parked in my garage, I let Diesel out of the backseat. He preceded me into the kitchen where I knew we would find the object of our intense interest.

When I stepped into the room I saw my daughter, Laura, sitting at the table, feeding my grandson, and chatting with Azalea Berry, my housekeeper. Diesel approached Laura slowly. When he reached her side, he looked up at her and chirped twice.

"Hello, handsome boy," Laura said. "We're almost through here, and then I'll let you see him. How about that?"

Diesel warbled in happiness. He loved the baby and could sit near him and watch him for long periods of time. Until both he and the baby fell asleep, that is.

I greeted both women and put my things on the small table by the door. I moved closer to Laura and my grandson and watched for a moment. Then my vision blurred, and I had to slip my handkerchief out of my pocket to wipe my eyes.

"How is young Master Charles Franklin Salisbury?" I asked, my voice husky.

Laura laughed as she looked up at me. "Like his grandfather, always ready for a meal."

Azalea chuckled at that. "That baby sure is a chip off this old block." She slid a sly glance in my direction. "How about something for you, Mr. Granddaddy?"

I grinned at the silly nickname Azalea gave me not long after baby Charlie was born. We were all giddy with happiness over the arrival of this child. I hated that his grandmother and his great-great aunt weren't alive to see him, but I knew they were watching over him. I sometimes felt their presence here in the kitchen. Like now, when a whisper of air passed my right ear.

"I wouldn't mind a cold glass of water," I replied. "This horrible heat wave makes me thirsty."

"I'm glad to hear you ask for water instead of a diet soda." Laura smiled at me. "You were drinking way too much of it. It's good that you've cut back."

After a satisfying couple of sips from the glass Azalea handed me, I raised an eyebrow at Laura and sniffed. "You wouldn't say that if you hadn't had to give up the exact same beverage while you were...

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Verlag
Berkley
Erscheinungsdatum
2019
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0425277798
ISBN 13 
9780425277799
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
304
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
gpsr@phaidon.com
gpsr@phaidon.com

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