Borrowed Crime: A Bookmobile Cat Mystery Read Online Free PDF Page B

to support abookmobile program. All I had to do was find it. “I have contacts in library systems across the country, and with—”
    Stephen held out a hand. “I’ve stated my reservations. That said, the current budget amounts show approximately six months of funding for the bookmobile. I see no reason why operations can’t continue for that length of time.”
    “You . . . don’t?” I blinked. “Thanks, Stephen, I really think—”
    “I will also notify the board of my concerns. You can be sure that I won’t be the only one scrutinizing the monthly expenditures.”
    I clutched at that a little, but only for a moment. “Don’t worry.” I smiled, happy once again. “It’ll all turn out okay.”
    He looked at me straight on. “I certainly hope so.”
    A small piece of my ancient lizard brain reared up, shrieking with fear, but I told it to hush and went on smiling. “Six months from now, I’m sure something will have turned up.”
    “I certainly hope so.” Stephen folded up my e-mail into small squares and tucked it into his shirt pocket. “Because when the bookmobile budget runs out of gas, so does the bookmobile.” Chuckling to himself, he left my office and went up the stairs, heading to his office aerie.
    “Very funny,” I said to the wake of his laughter. Stephen occasionally smiled, but he rarely laughed, and the fact that he had laughed worried me, because what it usually meant was that someone was about to get in trouble.
    I leaned back in my chair to think, and, in doing so, I dislodged an Eddie hair that had been on my jacket sleeve. It wafted into the air, spun about a few timeslazily—
lazy? How appropriate!
—and eventually dropped in the direction of the floor.
    That’s when the penny, in the form of displaced Eddie fur, finally dropped.
    Stephen knew about Eddie. Someone had told, and he was chuckling to himself, enjoying the two weeks until the next board meeting, when he would, without a doubt, recommend that I be fired.
    “Stop worrying,” I said out loud. But I didn’t quite persuade myself that things would be okay. Stronger measures were in order, and I knew just how to get them.
    I pulled my computer keyboard close, typed a quick e-mail with the words
Stephen Strikes Again
in the subject line, added two names, and hit the SEND button. I grabbed my coffee mug and made a beeline for the break room.
    *   *   *
    My best library friends, Holly Terpening, a part-time clerk, and Josh Hadden, the IT department, were waiting for me. Josh was a little younger than I was and Holly a little older, but the three of us had been hired about the same time, and that fact alone had cemented our work relationship into solid friendship.
    Soon after our hire dates, we’d developed a pact. We would always support each other after a one-on-one with Stephen. For years I’d shored up Holly and/or Josh, but these days it was different.
    “Ever since the bookmobile, I’m his favorite target,” I muttered, leaning back against the countertop.
    “Works for me,” Josh said cheerfully. “He hasn’t complained about the network in months, so thanks, Minnie.”
    Holly skewered him with a Mom Look. Her twosmallish children had given her the skills to perfect that expression, and she used it both wisely and well. “Josh, we’re supposed to be helping, remember?” A strand of her brown hair had escaped her ponytail, and she pushed it back behind her ear.
    “Ah, Minnie knows I’m joking.” He pulled a can of soda out of his cargo pants and handed it to me.
    Popping the top, I thanked him and said, “I do know you’re joking. But it would help if we had a hand signal.”
    I’d developed a thick skin at a young age, thanks to my efficient stature and my name (though if I never heard another Mini Minnie joke again, I would be okay with that), and had never been hesitant about going to Stephen with issues other library employees would have quailed at. As a matter of fact, I’d become such