The sign swayed in the breeze. Open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Fred trudged out to refuel the car at the full service pump.
The car window lowered. “Maybe you can help me. I’m trying to find a woman named Lily McFae.”
Fred nodded at the male stranger. “She parks her bookmobile in the square. You can rent books from her.”
“Does she have a relative living with her?”
“I wouldn’t know about that.”
“Does she meet there with other people in town?”
“Yeah, it’s some kind of radical book club.” Fred swabbed down the windshield, then circled the car to pinch the tire gauges and calibrate the pressures. He stopped at the open car window. “Uh, my wife belongs. Why are you interested in the lady?”
“I thought Ms. McFae was someone I knew from Groverly. By the way, if your wife is a member of that club, you may know the name of another young woman who belongs. Auburn hair, willowy, attractive.”
“Not sure, but if you’ve seen the group, my wife’s the drop-dead gorgeous blonde. I’m not exactly sure who else belongs.”
“Does she sell things at the bookmobile?”
“Books. She rents, sells or barters them.”
“Would you characterize the club as dangerous?”
“Knowing Piper, it’s hard to believe it’s radical about much of anything, but it must be interesting, because some of the guys at the bar said they might join. I plan to check out a meeting myself to find out what’s going on, the radical part and the other men.”
The man thanked Fred. “By the way, my name’s Hugh Jamison. I’m a police detective.” He flashed his badge.
“Uh oh.” Fred watched the car drive away.
The man in the baseball cap checked the gas station. The pumps were busy and a vehicle rode high on the car lift, ready to be serviced. He moved up the block and watched Piper close up the salon and join Aggie in the bookmobile. After she disappeared inside, he turned around and drove to the Valerian house.
With a few wriggles of his metal tool, the man entered Piper and Fred’s place. Following his usual method, he ripped everything apart. Scrambled the bedding. Emptied the closets. Yanked drawers out of chests. Threw magazines to the corners and left a shambles in his shadow. Though he sorted through objects in every room, he found no book with a red cover anywhere. He took the page torn from Lelia from his pocket and looked for a good place to toss it. It landed by the front door as he left.
Lily looked around the bookmobile, freshly tidied from front to back. It looked normal again. She opened up for customers and kept busy renting books to patrons. No one mentioned the break-in and she didn’t bring it up.
When it was almost time for book club, she closed up and waited for Piper and Aggie to arrive. After a cup of tea, Lily stood up. “I promised you a quote last night and this morning I found one from the enlightened author, Voltaire. ‘Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.’ The words seemed appropriate.”
“Absolutely.” Piper waved her newly painted lilac nails. “Although we could go dancing in the lavender fields to worry the farmers.”
Aggie rubbed her brow “After what happened to the bookmobile, let’s not cause a fuss.”
“Then, for now, let’s read,” Lily said. “As usual, I have books to show you. Mill on the Floss. Mrs. Dalloway. The Wide Sargasso Sea. Villette. Venus in India.”
“How about something really racy today,” Piper said.
Lily opened Venus in India and turned to a bookmarked passage. “Okay then, let’s go.
She saw the mighty engine, its ponderous, well-shaped sack, and the forest out of which they grew, and knew that they were now all hers ….
Shall I keep reading?”
Piper pulsated off the chair. “Oh, shoot, those words and the tea make me crave air and space. Anyone for a change of scene? Let’s move to my house. Freddie’s at the station. We’ll have the run of the place. We can read and dance there.”
They trooped outside and turned toward the Valerian house.
“Hey, wait a minute,” Piper shouted. “No one’s home and that guy’s coming out of our house and getting in his car.”
“Hop in the pickup,” Aggie said.
They climbed in and Aggie gunned the engine.
“His car’s turning down that side street.” Lily grabbed the seat belt and latched it.
Piper waved her arm and shouted out the window, “Stop!”
“You. Intruder. You,” Aggie yelled into the air, “You. Halt!”
“I couldn’t see his face, but he had on coveralls and a cap,” Piper said. “What do we do?”
“We catch him.” Aggie raced the engine and honked the horn, ignoring stop signs, chasing after the dust cloud in the distance. Ahead, the sedan’s tires squealed as the car headed toward the main highway.
“Are you used to driving this fast?” Lily said.
“Only this one time.” Aggie honked the horn again.
Piper clutched the armrest. “Now I’m the one wondering who hates me enough to break in.”
Aggie’s pickup paused to find an entry spot among the steadily moving traffic on the multi-laned highway. Then, she plunged ahead and the pickup joined the tightly packed flow of vehicles. Truck horns blared at them.
Lily cried out. “There’s his car, jammed in between two semis.”
“No, he slipped through to the inside fast lane.” Piper scowled.
The pickup squeaked into the next lane, while trucks and SUVs and busses barreled alongside, passing on either side.
“I’m trying to keep up.” Aggie groaned. “I’m trying.”
The pickup coughed.
“We’re losing him.” Piper held on for dear life. “Floor it.”
“That’s all it’ll do,” Aggie said. “We’re outclassed.”
“And falling farther and farther behind.” Lily squinted, trying to spot the vehicle they were chasing.
Piper shrugged. “I don’t think we’ll catch him.”
“You’re right.” At the next exit, Aggie turned back toward town.
“See if the sheriff’s in his office, Piper,” Lily said. “He could radio ahead and the highway patrol might catch him if we gave a description.”
“Too late. He could turn off anywhere. I’ll call the sheriff from home. Let’s see how much damage he did. Too bad Jaxon was in the backyard, but then, he’s not much of a watchdog.”
They entered together, prepared for destruction, and found it. Piper surveyed the upturned furniture, the strewn clothing and discarded objects. Tears flooded down her cheeks when she reported the damage to the sheriff.
Aggie and Lily set about restoring order, while Piper catalogued personal possessions.
“Everything’s accounted for.” She picked up the torn page. “Except I don’t know where this came from.”
Lily studied it. “It’s a page from the same book I found. From Lelia. See the heading on top.”
Aggie snatched the paper. “There was one of these in the farmhouse when it was trashed.” Piper pulled her bookmobile reading from under the guest room mattress. “Guess he didn’t want my erotica, unless he didn’t recognize it when he saw it.”
“Not everyone does,” Lily said. “And some see it where it’s not.”
Piper picked up the phone. “Guess I should call Freddie at the garage.”
“That sounds private.” Lily turned to leave.
Piper waved her lilac nails at them. “I’ll see you guys later. You can hold my hand then.”
Aggie and Lily slipped out the front door.
Piper poked in the gas station numbers. “So, Freddie, you’ll probably hear about this soon enough, but I wanted to tell you myself. Someone broke into our house.”
“Jeez, Piper. You okay? I’ll close up and be right over.”
“No. I’m all right. I wasn’t here. The sheriff’s on his way and afterward, he plans to stop by the gas station and give you a full report. He thinks it was a small time thief looking for easy cash. Or kids.”
“What could anyone have wanted from our place?”
“Nothing, far as I can tell. Whoever did it, now knows we have nothing to steal.”
“Maybe I should train Jaxon to bark, instead of training him not to. Hell, Piper, I’m coming home.”
“You don’t need to. It’s unnecessary. The sheriff will give you all the details, and I have an appointment at the salon. I wanted to let you know before you heard about the break-in from someone else.”
“Yeah, I get it. We’ll talk about this sometime next year.”
“I meant we could talk tonight.”
“Yeah, sure. If you feel like it. Or if I do.”
She tightened her lips. The phone line clicked.
Griffo tried. He really tried. When he brought the sword out from the corner of the vardo, held it to his lips, and smelled the rusty metal, his neck opening tightened into the size of a pinhole. Then, he’d stumble over to gag in the sink, afraid of slitting his own throat.
After each break-in, the man grabbed his pencil and crossed a name off his list. As he dwelled on the possibilities of who might possess the stolen book, another suspicion surfaced. Someone he hadn’t considered before. Someone who might recognize the value of the book much more than any others on the list.