Mayhem, Taco, and I didn’t dawdle on our way back to the store, but we didn’t exactly sprint either. The afternoon was sunny with a cool breeze, and I needed a few minutes of extra time to wrap my mind around what Lucy had said as well as to prepare for tonight.
I had to make a very concerted effort to slow down my brain, so I replayed the conversation with Lucy. No matter how I tried to keep her in mind as a suspect in Sidney’s murder, I just couldn’t do it. Her story rang so true for me, even if I’d never been manipulated into a relationship with an older man. I had been in all sorts of relationships with men who thought their primary job was to tend to me, rather than support me as a person, and I understood exactly what Lucy had experienced. Heck, I could have experienced it myself as a young woman but for the grace . . . I didn’t let my mind linger there too long. It was too painful.
The one thing I couldn’t figure out was whether Lucy thought this man was capable of killing Sidney. I had been so worried about her as she explained her situation that I hadn’t thought to ask that question, but now that I thought about it, I wondered. Had she been laying low because she was afraid she’d be next or just because she didn’t want to run into this man?
I realized as I walked that I had been picturing Reeves the whole time we were talking, and he was the most likely candidate, of course. He’d been at the library, he clearly was upset about the fact that Cagle had seen him, and he was, as evidenced by his behavior, a bully. I sighed. But I couldn’t go around accusing him of threatening and emotionally abusing Lucy – much less targeting him as the killer – without some proof.
And finding proof wasn’t my job, I reminded myself. I could leave that to Tuck and decided to focus on the event tonight and let our very capable sheriff do his job. I would, however, ask Mart what he had said as soon as I saw her.
Taco and Mayhem burst into the store and joined the calm but busy space with gusto by visiting all of our friends, who had assembled near the front to pack supplies and prep for tonight’s reading. Then the dogs went to sleep in the fiction section while the rest of us continued to work. We had a few more boxes of books to load into the back of Woody’s van. Elle was helping Rocky carry out coffee carafes and boxes of her mom’s famous cinnamon rolls. Marcus had already packed my laptop with the sales software loaded, and now he was making sure we had pens and paper, our phone-based credit card swipe, and of course Lippman’s book and pen.
I spent the next hour tidying up the store and prepping Laura’s signing space for the next morning. I expected we’d have a crowd waiting to see her when we opened for her event, and I didn’t want to keep people outside longer than necessary as I set up the table and such.
By five p.m., the store was ready to be closed up early, and I hung the “Find Us at The Library” sign that Marcus had made to let anyone who didn’t get the notice about our event that they could still buy books or order them over at our table. I wasn’t going to have any stock besides Lippman’s books, but I would have our inventory and could ring up purchases to be picked up at the store the next morning.
With everything loaded into Mom and Dad’s car and Woody’s van, I told everyone that I’d meet them there and wanted to give Taco and Mayhem one more walk before they got tied to a table for the evening. Mart decided to walk with me, and I appreciated the company almost as much as I loved the chance to ask her about what Tuck had said.
We kept our pace steady but slow as she filled me in on her conversation with the sheriff. He had, of course, been eager to hear about Lucy’s information and wanted to talk with her himself, something that Mart promised we would encourage her to do as soon as we saw her again. “I told him she was very scared and suggested that maybe she needed protective custody, and he agreed,” Mart said. “But of course, until he knows where she is, he can’t give her that.”
I sighed. “Right. What do you think the odds are that we’ll see her tonight?“
Mart shrugged. “She came to the store today and didn’t seem too anxious about being there. If she loves the library as much as I think she does, I expect there’s a good chance she’ll be around.”
I nodded, and part of me hoped so. Part of me, though, was optimistic that we might get through tonight without any more drama or surprises. I didn’t put much stock in that hope, though. It never did seem to work out that way.
As we walked up to the library, I forgot all about everything else, though, because the scene was wonderful. Most of the food trucks were already in place, and the smell was heavenly as they prepped for the crowd who would begin to arrive in a half-hour. The banners along the road looked marvelous and gave people not only a clear picture of where they were to go and park but also advertised the excitement in a fun way.
I waved to Stephen and Walter, who were preparing their small group of Boy Scouts with directions on parking the vehicles after they greeted folks and collected any donations they wanted to give. For a brief moment, I wondered if they’d brought Joe Cagle with them, but when I didn’t see him nearby, I assumed he had made the wise choice to stay out of sight lest Reeves come by.
My mind quickly flitted back away from the murder, though, when I saw the way Dad had decorated the stage at the end of the long parking lot where the food trucks were set up. He’d had a huge balloon arch brought in, and it coordinated with the sort of blueish tones on many of Lippman’s books. He’d also had poster-size reproductions of many of her book covers made, and they hung like bunting from the front of the stage. He’d put a lovely arm chair from their living room on the platform, and a small table (one I recognized from their guest room) sat beside it with a wine glass and a bottle of sparkling water. A lovely braided rug sat under the chair and table, and it looked like a living room set against the backdrop of the trees and the river behind it. It was gorgeous.
The high school choir director had also been kind enough to loan us his sound system, so I could see Pickle and Bear getting that all arranged for tonight. A microphone on a boom bent low over the chair so Laura could sit and read, but they’d also set up a small music stand off to the side if she wanted to stand and also for us to use for our announcements. Everything for Laura’s part of the evening seemed to be in good shape.
I turned my attention to our bookstore table and was thrilled to see that Marcus had already begun his magic with the books. A navy blue table cloth draped to the ground with the banner I’d had made at a local printers hanging from the front. Everyone would know we were All Booked Up as they wandered from truck to truck. Two chairs sat behind the table, and the laptop was open and ready to go. Someone had even managed to secure us one of the coveted extension cord plugs in case we needed to charge the computer.
I began scouting around for the ideal place to leash the dogs so that they wouldn’t bark for being too far away but also wouldn’t trip everyone walking by. I thought maybe the grass median just beside the table would work and was just heading inside to find something to secure them when Woody came over with a leash spike and held it up. “Your dad gave me this for the dogs. Where do you want it?”
I sighed. My parents had thought of everything, and I smiled as I pointed to the middle of the median and watched Woody screw the spike into the ground. “Good to go,” he said before heading over to help Dad secure the wheelchair ramp to the stage just in case any of our guests in wheelchairs or with mobility issues needed to get up there.
With the dogs secured and a few minutes to go before six, I looked for Lu and was pleased to see her truck in a prime spot near the stage. She deserved to have an incredible sales night what with all this work she’d put in. “You all ready?” I asked as I looked up into the window on the side of her truck.
“Ready as I’ll ever be. I made triple what I usually do for a day, and I hope it lasts.” She wiped the back of her hand across her forehead.
“How did you have time to do that when you were at the store all day?” I asked.
“Well, sleep is a luxury this weekend, but I also had my secret weapon.” She reached over into one end of the truck and dragged a small, older woman with silver and black hair out to see me. “This is Tia Juanita, the woman who taught me everything I know about food.”
I grinned. “It’s nice to meet you Tia Juanita. Your niece is a good student.”
Juanita smiled and said, “Gracias. Now, let me hide.” She ducked back into the end of the truck where the stove was, and I heard the sizzle of something delicious frying up.
Lu smiled. “She’s been cooking all day, and she’s a force.” My friend looked down. “I couldn’t have done this without her.”
“I imagine not. Thank you, Tia Juanita,” I said to the once-again-hidden woman and waved to Lu as I headed on around to make my plan for what I was going to eat that night.
I stopped at each truck and thanked everyone for being there, and at the “Sweet Thai” truck, I got my first dish of the evening, spring rolls. When I sat down at our bookstore table, I offered one to Marcus, who gladly accepted. We savored our delicious, fresh snack and then helped Rocky and Elle get the last of their free coffee and fifty-cent cinnamon roll plans in place. Rocky didn’t want to compete with the gourmet coffee truck, so she’d kept it very simple – free black coffee with cream and sugar. And all the proceeds from the sale of the rolls was going to the Literacy Program.
While Marcus and I helped Elle arrange the last of the sugar packets, Rocky headed over to the “Charging Station” food truck and introduced herself to the fellow baristas. She wanted to be sure they knew she was sending people their way for anything that required froth or steam, and, as she said when she came back, “They make a cinnamon latte that is amazing.” She held up her cup and let me smell.
I made a quick note to be sure to end the night with a decaf one of those. It smelled heavenly.
For the last five minutes before the crowds arrived, I rushed around with Elle and helped her put out flowers, first on the stage and then around the library and finally on the picnic tables Mom had recruited from the local park. She dropped off the final bouquet at my table before announcing she needed a burger from “Ground Heaven” and wandering into the growing crowd.
The next time I looked up, the entire parking lot was full, and people were milling around the various tables that had been set around in the close-cut lawn. Two children were playing with Taco and Mayhem, who were delighted to have the attention and give up their bellies for pats.
We’d have a steady stream of customers who wanted to buy Lippman’s books plus a few other special orders. People were eager to get their number for the signing event in the morning. The number system was something Marcus suggested just as the gates opened, and I’m glad he had presumed I’d agree because it was clear that if we didn’t have some sort of system, the store was going to be a truly wild place in the morning.
A half-hour into the event, we’d already given out seventy-five numbers from the roll Marcus had convinced the deli counter at the local grocery store to give him as their token of support for the event. I had a feeling we would be well into the five hundreds before the night was over, and I was very glad we’d set up the special order system because we were going to run out of books long before the customers thinned.
I glanced over toward Mom’s table, where she was busily telling people about the literacy program and signing up folks to volunteer and, it looked like, for tutoring too. When two fathers walked by with their young son, I heard one of the men say, “This feels like a real gift just when we needed one, doesn’t it?” His partner looked at him and smiled. “The same day his teacher said he needed help with reading.” I smiled as they glanced at me, clear I had overheard and seemingly glad I had.
“If your son ever wants to come by the store, we have some great books that will tie in with the tutoring program, gifts for those learning to love to read,” I said as they came closer. I handed them a card with the information about our new monthly book giveaway and story time and told them I looked forward to seeing them soon. The little boy smiled at me as he ran his fingers over the covers of the books. He was already a book-lover, I could see it, and I was so glad we had a way to help him be a reading lover, too.
I had been reading since before I went to school, thanks to my parents’ love of books and their willingness to read me anything and everything, but I had friends of all ages who struggled with reading. Sometimes it was simply that they’d never found the books they loved, and sometimes it was something more challenging than a good recommendations like ADD or ADHD or dyslexia. The program Mom had set up in my honor was going to train the tutors in all those things, from finding books the readers adored to helping them with accommodations that they could use their whole reading lives. Seeing that little boy and hearing how he was going to get some help to do what I most loved gave me a real thrill.
I didn’t have much time to settle into that excitement though because our sales were fast and steady, and Marcus and I kept busy unpacking more boxes of books, ordering additional titles by Lippman and others, and giving out numbers for the signing. Before I knew it, almost an hour had passed and Laura was waving as she headed toward the stage. I was glad she’d wisely avoided the crowd around the table because I wanted her to save her energy for the reading, and I didn’t want any overenthusiastic fans to bombard her with autograph requests right then.
Earlier as we’d walked to my house, we’d agreed that she would bring a change of clothes and a baseball cap with her so that she could scoot inside, change, and then browse with a little anonymity. Henri and Bear were going to continue to be her guides for the evening, and I had a feeling that they would make a big enough show of Lippman leaving that no one would suspect her as she wandered the food trucks that she had said she absolutely didn’t want to miss.
Now, Mom greeted her and helped her settle into a chair by the side of the stage before waving me over. I had agreed to do the welcome, and nothing more, but I was going to be first up for the mic. I stood and told Marcus I’d see him in a minute before taking deep breaths as I walked up to the stage, said a quick hello to Laura, and gave Mom a quick hug. Then, it was seven and time to get started.
“Thank you all for coming,” I began as I went on to thank everyone for attending, tell them that they’d learn more about the Literacy Program they were supporting tonight, and remind them that we had just a few copies of Lippman’s books that would be for sale after her reading. “I don’t want any of you missing a word she says,” I said to a small chuckle through the crowd. “Now, let me introduce my one and only Mama, the woman who made this all happen.”
Mom leapt onto the stage with the enthusiasm of a young girl and headed toward the mic. I listened to her describe the program to everyone gathered, cajole them to sign up as volunteers or to get tutoring, and thank Laura for coming.
I was just settling back into my seat at the table and about to take a bite of the amazing grilled cheese sandwich from “Cheesing It Up” that I’d asked Marcus to grab for me when my mom’s voice grew softer in tone. “Now, I want to just tell you a little bit about the amazing woman this program is named after. You just met her, in fact, my daughter, Harvey Beckett.” She waved an arm in my direction, and I set my sandwich back down.
“My daughter is a fierce woman, not in an angry or violent sense, but in the sense that she fights for what she believes is right. She had to fight hard to open her bookstore, All Booked Up, here in this gorgeous town, and she’s chosen to fight for people and justice her whole life. She loves words more than any other – inanimate!” she raised a finger to emphasize that point, “thing on the earth, so we could not name this program after a better person. Join me in thanking Harvey.”
The crowd cheered and clapped, and I saw Laura give me a big thumbs up even as she climbed the stage to join Mom, who gave her a stupendous and well-deserved introduction.
For the next forty minutes, the crowd grew reasonably quiet as Laura read her well-marked copy of her latest book and then talked a bit about what reading and writing had meant in her life and throwing her enthusiastic support behind the literacy program. She finished her time on the stage by taking questions, which Pickle helped facilitate with a wireless mic that he circulated amongst the crowd. Laura’s answers were honest and often funny, and people seemed to be really enjoying her time.
Before she left the stage, she did us one last kindness and announced that there was also a small memorial area dedicated to long-time library director, Sidney Scott, inside. She encouraged people to go see the art made in his honor and to visit the tutoring room that was now named for him. She also gave a good plug for the book sale, which was a lovely gift since it encouraged even the out-of-town folks to take a stroll through the building.
Then, before I knew it, she was done, and I saw Henri meet her at the edge of the stage and direct her to their car, which pulled out of the library parking lot and headed South. They would double around to the back door, where Mindy was going to meet them and let them in so Laura could change. And given the way that people had watched her go and then moved back into the space to get more food and visit us, I felt sure that no one suspected she would return.
Still, when I saw Henri come back with a woman in an Orioles cap, my heart sped up just a bit. But no one else paid them any mind, and I put my attention back on selling books and then taking orders with the promise that Laura would return later in the year to sign them since we had already given out our cache of numbers for the next morning’s signing.
An hour and a half later, the crowd had almost entirely dispersed, Laura had eaten two of Lu’s tacos as well as at least one of Lucas’s cupcakes, which had been very popular. They’d had so many customers that Cate had stayed with him all night to help sell instead of circulating herself as planned. Now, Mart was escorting Laura home as Stephen, Walter, Woody, and the rest of us cleaned up.
I felt a little disappointed that I hadn’t been able to make it around to more of the vendors, especially the “Fry Guys” truck that specialized in Belgian frites, but the night had been more of a success than we could have imagined with well over fifteen-hundred people in attendance. Marcus and I had sold out of books by eight-thirty, and our special orders stack was a half-inch think . We’d capped the signing numbers at five hundred, and I knew we’d be pushing it to be able to fit all those people in the store at once. We would do it though, somehow. We always did.
Once everything was packed up and the crowd gone, Mom ushered me to the single table left in the middle of the parking lot, and soon the vendors were bringing over their remaining dishes for all of us workers to eat. Rocky even talked to her fellow baristas and had them bring me a decaf cinnamon latte.
We all stood around eating and talking, celebrating together, and I was delighted to see vendors sharing business cards and to hear about the events they were recommending to each other. I knew that tonight had likely been a financial success of some sort for all of them, even with their donations to the literacy program, but as a small business owner myself, I really wanted this to be a springboard to future success, too.
Thankfully, Galen had spent the night capturing photos of each vendor and tagging them on his Instagram feed with notes about where the trucks would be the following day, and the Halal gyro vendor laughed with delight when Laura tagged him in her FB post with the line – “Best Gyro Ever!”
Just as the trucks began to close up for the night, Mindy joined us, and I was glad Lucas had thought to save her a cupcake because she looked beat. “How did the dedication of Sidney’s room and the art in his honor go?” I asked. I hadn’t been able to break away to go in, but I was hoping it had been well attended.
“We had a good crowd, thanks to all of you telling people about it, and the book sale was a huge success too.” She smiled. “We sold over seven hundred dollars’ worth of books and pretty much cleared out our surplus of titles.”
Mom grinned. “That’s great. I’m so glad.”
“And,” a woman’s voice said from behind me, “We got about fifty people library cards, so that’s a win, too.” I turned to see Lucy smiling.
Tuck walked across the lot from the library and shook Lucy’s hand. “That is good news,” he said. “And we had no security incidents tonight, so that is a relief.”
I smiled and was glad to see that, clearly, Lucy had talked to Tuck. The air wouldn’t be this free of tension if she hadn’t. Tuck was professional, but he would have asked to talk to Lucy immediately if he hadn’t already done so.
There were too many people around to talk about their discussion just then, though, so I didn’t ask. Instead, I gathered Lucy in a hug and whispered, “You okay?”
She nodded. “I am,” she whispered. “I’m staying with Tuck and Lu for a few nights.”
I sighed. “Good. I was worried,” I said. “And your mom?”
“On her annual cruise to the Caribbean,” Lucy said. “It’s nice for her and a chance for me to get to know new friends.”
“She’s in good hands, Harvey,” Lu said as she joined us. “Ready to ride? Tia Juanita is eager to see you drive this thing.” She pointed over her head toward the food truck.
Lucy laughed. “Bring it on,” she said.
Marcus and Dad had already taken our cardboard boxes back to the recycling dumpster, and Mindy had arranged for the library’s trash service to do an extra run for all the trash from the night. With the food trucks caravanning out and my friends waving and heading home, all that was left was to get the dogs and hitch a cozy ride home with Taco and Mayhem in the back seat of Mom and Dad’s car.
We all loaded up, and as soon as everyone was in a car and those cars were started, the line of vehicles began to move out. Dad, as always, waited to be sure everyone was on their way before pulling out himself. It was a small kindness I’d always admired him for.
I sank back into my seat and gazed at the almost empty parking lot and field that had been so full just hours before. That’s when I saw it, the flutter of movement at the edge of the trees behind the stage. Someone was there, and they were watching us.