Chapter Nine

Jeremy was a delightful child, but by the time Kate drove him to his grandparents’ house, she was almost too tired to respond to his questions and conversation.

Two days before, she had finished her vacation and come home. The previous day, she’d found out the library was closing and had been pinned down in a ditch while a tornado roared over her head. And today she’d climbed and descended the library stairs countless times during the morning, attended the town-council meeting and worked in the library again in the afternoon, and then helped Jeremy save his squirrel. And throughout the day, she’d been actively engaged in seeking out more information about why the library was closing. When she thought back over all she’d accomplished in just a few hours, she had to laugh at herself. It had been an insane schedule, albeit one of her own making.

When she turned onto Hamilton Road, Jeremy directed her to a home right across from Copper Mill Park. “That one right there, with the green shutters,” he said, pointing.

There was a car in the attached carport and a second one, a somewhat battered-looking, aging compact that Kate suspected belonged to Louisa, parked behind it. Kate pulled over along the curb behind a third car. Kate whistled as she braked. “What a car!”

It was a beautifully restored or maintained old Cadillac, probably from around the time she was born. The roof was white, and the body was a pretty robin’s-egg blue. The tires had spotless, wide whitewalls with shiny chrome hubcap covers. All in all, a marvelous classic car.

“It’s okay, I guess. It belongs to my mom’s friend.” Jeremy sounded distinctly unenthusiastic, particularly when Kate compared his tone to his vivacious chatter during the ride home. She could only surmise that Jeremy didn’t care much for whoever owned the Cadillac.

The front door opened, and Louisa stepped onto the porch. She turned and spoke to someone inside, shaking her head vigorously. When she turned back again, Kate thought she appeared upset or agitated. But when she spoke, both her tone and her words were calm and cordial.

“Hi, Kate,” she called, waving. “Thank you very much.”

Kate smiled and lifted her hand in return. “No problem.” To Jeremy, she said, “See you tomorrow. I’ll say a prayer that your little squirrel gets better.”

“Me too,” the boy said as he climbed out of the car. “Thank you.”

As she drove away, Kate decided that Louisa Pellman certainly was doing a great job as a solo parent. Jeremy was a terrific little boy.

FEELING TIRED TO THE BONE, Kate walked into her home after dropping off Jeremy. She found Paul in his office. When she paused in the doorway and said, “Hey,” he set down a sheaf of papers and came out to the living room.

“Would you like a glass of sweet tea?” he asked.

Kate nodded as she collapsed into one of the overstuffed chairs. “Yes. I made decaf earlier, so the caffeine won’t be a problem.”

“Sweet tea on the way.” Paul veered into the kitchen, then returned shortly with glasses for them both.

“I started dinner,” he went on. “I wasn’t feeling ambitious, but I preheated the oven so we can put in some fish sticks. And I cut up watermelon and got a mess of lima beans ready to steam.”

“Thank you,” she said with a sigh. “I’m so tired.”

Paul took his own seat, smiling. “What did you do this afternoon?”

Kate recounted her afternoon, detailing the council meeting, her work at the library, and helping Jeremy’s squirrel.

Paul chuckled. “That kid really is something. If he doesn’t grow up to be a vet or some kind of animal trainer, he’s missing his calling.”

“He does love animals,” Kate agreed. “I believe Louisa must understand him pretty well, since she lets him come along with her to the library.” She paused, struck by a new idea. “What would you say to inviting Louisa and her children to dinner one evening?”

Paul smiled. “I’d say it sounds like a great idea. Do you have a day in mind?”

Kate thought for a moment. “Tomorrow evening? There’s nothing on our calendar.”

“Works for me,” Paul said. “I wonder if she works tomorrow? That might be a complication. I don’t know who keeps the children while she’s working.”

“Her mother does. That’s where I dropped off Jeremy today.”

“Well it can’t hurt to ask,” Paul said. “Why don’t you give her a call?”

“I don’t have— Wait, yes, I do have her cell-phone number,” Kate said. “She gave it to me before Jeremy and I left for the wildlife center.”

Kate got the slip of paper from her handbag and padded into the kitchen to make the call. When Louisa answered, she said, “Hello, Louisa, this is Kate Hanlon.”

There was a long silence. “Kate? What...why are you calling?”

A bit taken aback by the lack of welcome, Kate cleared her throat. “Paul and I wanted to invite you and the children to dinner tomorrow evening if you’re free.”

“Oh. Oh!” Louisa’s voice warmed considerably. “That’s very thoughtful.”

“We were discussing you, and we thought it would be nice to have a chance to get better acquainted.”

“You were...discussing me?” The younger woman’s voice sounded hesitant again.

Suddenly Kate thought she understood. She’d forgotten that Louisa had lived with an abusive husband. It made perfect sense for her to be cautious.

“We’d like to get to know you and your family better,” Kate told her. “Paul got a kick out of my story about Jeremy and the squirrel.”

“I just bet.” Louisa’s voice sounded more confident again.

Kate waited, uncertain about what to say next. But then Louisa chuckled and seemed friendly.

“Are you sure you want three lively children barging into your home?”

Kate laughed. “We have three lively grandchildren. They won’t do anything that hasn’t been done before.”

Still Louisa hesitated. “Um, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt. All right, yes. We can come to dinner. Thank you.”

In the background, Kate could hear Jeremy’s high voice. “Is that Mrs. Hanlon? She invited us to her house? Hurray!”

“All right, then,” Kate said. “Why don’t we say six o’clock?”

“Six would be fine,” Louisa said. “Thank you again. I’ll see you then.”

Kate returned to the living room and shared the plan with Paul. “I hope I make more progress tomorrow than I did today getting information on the library closing,” she said, collapsing again into her chair. “I felt like I did a lot of wheel spinning today.”

He frowned. “So you didn’t make a lot of progress in your quest to find out what’s going on?”

Kate shook her head. “Not nearly as much as I need to.” Then she smiled. “But I did have a wonderful experience a little while ago at the wildlife center. I met this amazing lady named Elspeth, who devotes herself to healing wild animals. She has a ministry saving the lives of God’s creatures.”

“All God’s critters got a place in the choir,” Paul quoted with a grin. The words were a line from a catchy children’s folk song. Kate recognized it immediately because her own children had sung it in the children’s choir at their old church when they were small.

Kate groaned. “Now I’ll have that song stuck in my head for days.” Already, the chorus was tripping through her mind.

“I love that song,” Paul said. “I’m sure I saw a copy of that music somewhere in the filing cabinets. I’m going to sug-gest to Sam that we get a children’s choir together to sing it.”

Copy...A light snapped on in Kate’s head, and she sat up straight. “That’s it!”

“What’s it?” Paul looked startled by her sudden burst of energy.

“You mentioned a copy. This afternoon at the meeting, Eva handed around copies of the last meeting’s minutes. I’m sure there must be files of all town-council matters.”

“I would assume so,” Paul said. “I know the town council doesn’t have an office at Town Hall like the mayor does, but I’m sure any official documents would be kept there.”

“Official documents like meeting minutes,” she said. “I saw Eva taking minutes at the meeting this afternoon. I wonder if there are copies of minutes of all the town-council meetings available to the public.”

“There should be,” Paul said.

“Although,” Kate said, “I presume the minutes from closed meetings aren’t available to the public, and the meeting last Thursday was a private session. Those are the minutes I believe I’d find most useful.”

“Do you think you might find something helpful in any of the other minutes?”

“I don’t know,” Kate said, “but it surely can’t hurt to read them.” She made a mental note to stop by Town Hall in the morning before heading to the library to help Livvy. Then the rest of the discussion at the meeting came back to her. “Paul,” she said slowly, “I forgot something. I think it’s important. Carey Carver didn’t appear to know that the library was officially moving out next Monday. Why wouldn’t a member of the council who made the decision know the dates?”

“Maybe there was a subcommittee responsible for the details,” Paul suggested.

Kate shook her head. “Over something as important as closing a building that offers such a great service to the community? I can’t imagine that.”

“I can’t either,” he confessed. “I was just throwing it out there.”

“The meeting deteriorated right before they asked me to leave so they could go into closed session. But while the meeting was melting down, Eva asked a question that led me to believe there is someone else involved in the library closing. She mentioned a lawyer who might sue them for talking about it. How is that possible? And who could he be representing?”

Paul ran his fingers through his hair. “You’ve got me. The only way that makes sense is if someone else owns the library and doesn’t want folks to know. But how could someone else own a public library that’s been administered by the town for so many years?”

“There’s a lot about this that doesn’t make sense.” Kate took another sip of her tea, and they both fell silent, contemplating the situation.

Remembering where Paul had been when she arrived, Kate made a vague gesture toward the office. “What’s with all the paperwork?”

Paul shifted in his chair. “It’s all the project paperwork.”

“I thought someone else was handling that.”

“Ephraim Dresser was, but he has to go out of town next week.”

“So you’re doing it?” Kate smiled. Her compassionate husband was unable to resist when someone asked for his help.

“So I’m doing it,” he agreed.

Kate relaxed again, smothering a yawn. “I’m sorry,” she said.

“You look like you’re ready for bed right this minute, and I have a meeting in an hour,” Paul observed. He glanced at his watch. “We’d better eat.”

“I just packed too many things into too short a window of time,” Kate said ruefully.

“Maybe you’ll feel more like yourself tomorrow,” Paul said.

“I sure hope so,” she replied as she got slowly to her feet. “Until I figure out how to stop the library from closing for good, I need every hour I can get.”

THE ROOFING VOLUNTEERS met at St. Lucy’s Episcopal Church at seven that evening. Despite her exhaustion, Kate had offered to clean up the supper dishes while Paul hurried off to his meeting. He suspected she would be sound asleep by the time he got home.

St. Lucy’s was a graceful white structure located just a block down from the Presbyterian church on Smoky Mountain Road. The building sat on a slight bank, with a pair of matching staircases curving up from either side of the front driveway to meet at the porticoed front porch.

Tall, single, and sandy-haired, Father Lucas Gregory, the parish priest, was a fit man in his midthirties with a tanned face and twinkling blue eyes. Although he wasn’t on the committee of volunteers working on the roof, he attended the meeting to support the men from his congregation.

“Hey, Lucas,” Paul said, extending his hand as he strode up the steps. “Good to see you.”

“Back at you, my friend,” Lucas said as they shook. “I understand you had a close call with that tornado the other night.”

Paul nodded. “Close enough.”

“I bet.” Lucas’ expression sobered. He raised his free hand and clapped it over Paul’s hand, which he was still holding. “I thanked God for keeping an eye on you. I can’t imagine our pastoral community without you.”

Paul was touched. “Thank you,” he said to his friend. “I appreciate both the prayer and the compliment.” He released her hand and went on down the carpeted hall to the choir room, where the meeting was being held.

He found a good many men already seated. Most of them had heard about his near escape from serious harm the previous evening. They were full of questions, which he fielded until Pete MacKenzie and Lucas entered the room.

Just as they prepared to open the meeting, another man walked into the room. He was average height, and he looked to be about fifty. He had dark hair shot with silver and worn in a severe fifties-style flattop. He smiled confidently at Pete and took a seat.

Pete called the meeting to order. He turned to the newcomer. “This is Jerry Cox,” he said. “Jerry’s coming onto the project to replace Ephraim, who can’t stay with us.”

Then Pete turned matters over to Drew Mears, who explained the damage to the roof and told everyone about the extended time line. Paul noticed a number of concerned faces, but when Pete asked for a show of hands of men who were willing to stick with the project for two more weeks, provided they adjusted to suit people’s schedules, every hand in the room went up, except for Ephraim Dresser.

Ephraim took the floor then to explain about his business trip and tell the group that Paul would be taking over the paperwork.

Paul rose. “I know nothing about roofing or construction,” he said, “but I have the time to coordinate the project, and I’m willing to give it a shot if you guys are willing to be patient with me. I’m sure Louisa Pellman is anxious to get back into her house.”

After a few more minutes, the meeting concluded. The mood as the group dispersed was optimistic. Paul walked over to Jerry Cox and extended his hand. “Thank you for volunteering. Do you have experience with roofing?”

Jerry shook his head. “No, but I’m smart. I’ll figure it out as we go.”

The answer troubled Paul a bit. “Drew knows what he’s doing,” Paul told Jerry. “He’s the one to talk to about what we’ll be doing.”

“Thanks.” Jerry smiled. “I can handle it.” He was willing to work, no question, but his attitude seemed a little cavalier. Paul could only hope that Jerry would prove to be a team player who could follow directions when they were twenty feet off the ground.

Ephraim joined them then and extended his hand to Paul. “I really appreciate you stepping up. I’ll give you my cell-phone number in case you have any questions after I leave town.”