Battle day dawned bright and early. The auditor arrived to the island last night, with a promise to meet Harper at the library at eight o’clock to begin. That was before the usual operating hours of the library, but it would take them the rest of the week to complete the audit.
“You poor thing. I’ve got coffee and pastries all ready for you and your friendly auditor,” Libby said when Harper stumbled into Bouncing Beans before meeting the auditor.
“Thanks. I’m sure I’ll be back later,” Harper mumbled.
“For you, I’ll even stay open all night.”
Harper paid for the coffee and then gave Libby a little salute before she grabbed the drinks and breakfast.
The auditor, Michael Andre, waited for her outside the library. Buying him coffee and a pastry may look like a bribe but Harper wasn’t above a little sweet-talking if it made this whole catastrophe go a bit more smoothly.
“Good morning, Michael. I got us some coffee from the café next door,” she said, smiling as she approached him.
“Thanks. I think we’ll need a few cups to get through this,” he said, extending his hand to hold the coffee while she opened the door to the library.
“More than a few, I’m guessing. We have a coffee maker in the library but the café next door makes better coffee. If we’re going to do this, we should at least have decent coffee, right?”
“I agree,” he said, following her inside and setting the coffee down on the counter before he paused. “Is that a cat?”
“His name is Pippin. He lives here,” she explained, scratching under Pippin’s chin when he jumped on the counter for attention.
“Most libraries don’t have cats anymore. I remember the one in my hometown used to but that was years ago.”
“He showed up one day and just never left. Pippin greets everyone who comes in.”
Michael gave Pippin some attention and then turned his focus back to her.
“I know this isn’t something you want to do, but let’s get started,” he said, transforming from friendly visitor to cold-hearted auditor in the blink of an eye.
“I’m here to help you. Tell me what you need,” Harper said, knowing she had to give her full cooperation or he would take note of it and that would just raise more suspicions.
For the next two hours, Michael checked items off his checklist and they began going through the books. Reb, Martin, and the other librarians filtered in and helped speed things along. By mid-morning, everyone was ready for a coffee break and Harper volunteered to go next door just to get outside for a breather.
“Round two,” Harper said as she entered the café.
“Coming right up. Is everyone over there?” Libby asked.
“Yeah.”
“How’s it going?”
“It’s rough. You don’t realize how many books are in the library until you have to pull each and every one off the shelf and go through them page by page,” Harper said.
“Do you think you’ll finish this week?”
“I hope so. With all of us helping we should be done by Friday. Saturday at the latest.”
“Are you sure you want to host the book club this week? We can skip if it’s to much for you,” Libby offered.
Harper straightened up and stared at her in shock.
“We can’t cancel the book club. That’s sacrilegious.”
Libby held up her hands. “Peace. We’re just worried that it will be too much for you on top of all of this.”
Harper shook her head. “It’s fine. I promise. Besides, I have something to talk to all of you about.”
“Is it…you know, what we talked about yesterday?” Libby asked, eyes lighting up with mischief.
“It is. Be ready.”
“I will. Here’s your coffee and I made some muffins just for all of you,” Libby said, smiling and handing over a bag of fresh blueberry muffins before waving to one of her employees. “I’ll have Jake help you carry all the coffee over.”
“No need. I can help,” said a deep voice from behind Harper.
Whirling around, she saw Marc standing there, towering over her in all his Viking glory.
“That’s okay. I can manage,” Harper said, not wanting to talk to him today.
“I insist.”
“Okaaaay then,” Libby said, smirking at Harper before she handed the coffee over to Marc. “See you later, Harper.”
Harper glared at her, hoping her eyes said you’ll pay for this later. But Libby just smiled and shrugged.
“After you,” Marc said, nodding his head at the door.
She wanted to argue, to run away and hide in the library, but he had the coffee and she couldn’t go back empty handed.
“Interesting article yesterday in the newspaper,” he said as they left the café and headed back to the library.
“Are you making small talk? Most people would bring up the weather,” she said.
“It’s curious, isn’t it? That an article damaging the library’s reputation would come out right after a dead body is found there.”
“What are you implying?” she asked, coming to a stop outside the front door of the library.
“Just that it’s curious, that’s all.”
“Is this why you’re holding the coffee hostage? You want to imply things? Or perhaps you want to interrogate me?” she asked, glaring at him.
“I’m not—”
“For future reference, if you want to talk to someone you can simply say so.”
He blinked and stared at her as she took the coffee from his hands, juggling the muffins to hold the two carrier boxes of the drinks.
“I suppose I do have a few questions,” he finally said.
“Then come back later. I’m a bit busy at the moment with the audit and all.”
“That must be difficult to deal with.”
“You’re right. It is, but I also don’t want to let whoever fabricated the story get away with it,” Harper said.
“I commend you for your loyalty to the library, but what if the article is true?”
“It’s not.”
“You sound certain.”
“I know my library.”
“Would you say that article made you angry?” Marc asked.
“Wouldn’t it make you angry if someone made that claim about your department?” she shot back.
“It would.”
Harper nodded and took a step away before she looked back at him and said, “Do you know why librarians are so defensive of our libraries?”
“No. Why?”
“Because we’re the last safe space.”
He laughed slightly and she frowned.
“You don’t believe me? Tell me, then. Where do people who can’t afford books go? Where do people who can’t afford computers go? Do you know how many kids came to the library to get off the streets and out of gangs when I worked in LA? We fight to keep our doors open so that everyone has access to books, even books that politicians are trying so hard to ban. So go on and laugh, but to a lot of people libraries are safe spaces and any librarian worth her salt will fight to keep her library open.”
Marc was silent for a minute, simply watching her and weighing her words.
“Will they kill to keep it open?”
Harper glared at him. “I may do many things, Detective, but I draw the line at murder.”
“Good to know, Ms. Lansbury.”
“If you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to work,” Harper said stiffly, walking away from him without saying goodbye and barely managing to get the library door open with her hands full.
She knew her library. She also knew the story was a complete lie.
Harper agreed to comply with the audit. She never said she wouldn’t find out the truth on her own.
Whoever decided to ruin the library’s reputation and threaten to take it away from her would find out that it was a huge mistake. Librarians wouldn’t go down without a fight and whoever did this would find out just how terrifying librarians could be.