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The kindness of this man outweighed any extra nonsense Mia would be put through because of his attendance.  She didn’t think that she was lonely until she saw his face.
    He took a step back and surveyed her.  “First you need a meal, then a shower.”
    “I’m supposed to be somewhere.”
    “When?”
    “The thing is, I don’t really know.”
    “Did they give you an itinerary?”
    “Um,” Mia said, stalling.  “I signed for an envelope. Maybe it’s in there.”  She walked over to the, now crowded, closet and found her bag stuffed behind some shoe boxes.  She would deal with this baggage after she found the itinerary Ralph insisted she should have.
    She carried the gym bag into the bedroom and dropped it on the bed.  She ignored Ralph’s distressed look as she opened the bag and pulled out her wrinkled clothes to find the sealed envelope.  Once she had the envelope in hand, she walked over to the table where Ralph had already poured her a cup of coffee.  She cracked the seal with a butter knife.
    “It’s kind of heavy for just having paperwork,” Mia said, opening the top.  She looked in, and her jaw dropped.  She stepped away from the table and poured the contents out on the bed.  Stacks of money and a few jewel cases sunk into the overstuffed duvet covering the bed.  “I think Gerald has lost his mind.”
    Ralph was quick to retrieve a parchment-colored envelope from the mass of tumbling wealth and was reading the enclosed letter.  “It’s not from Gerald.  It’s from someone with the audacity to use the title of Grand Duke.”
    Mia turned her head towards Gerald and away from the dragon hoard of currency on the bed.  “Grand Duke who?”
    “Alexei Romanov.”
    “There aren’t any Romanovs left are there?” she asked.
    “Not alive,” Ralph replied.
     

     
     

    Chapter Two
     
    The old oak floor groaned under the weight of the procession.  Burt followed Mike, Audrey and the head librarian, Katherine Hodges, through the old stacks of books while Miss Hodges recounted the series of paranormal events that had been taking place at the Little Goodwin Village Library.  Little Goodwin was actually a very large town.  The library had been serving the growing community for over seventy years.
    “Since I’ve been librarian, we’ve had the odd book found out of place, not misfiled, but on the floor, the desks, or in the light fixtures,” said the sixty-some woman dressed in a cream cashmere twinset, pearls and brown tweed trousers.
    Audrey looked up at the large multi-bulb chandeliers and thought they looked like a dandy place to toss a book.  She suspected corporeal, human tween boys trying to outdo one another had been responsible for the traveling books but kept her thoughts to herself.
    The librarian continued, “The rolling rack is always kept at the front desk, but lately it’s been found across the library in the children’s reading area.”
    Burt zoomed in on the rolling rack.
    “Calculating how bouncy the floor is and the library being so close to the busy truck route outside, it would take five hours to travel the expanse,” Ted whispered in Burt’s ear.
    “All these things we can put up with and have come to expect, but the events over the holidays had us reaching out to your community of ghost hunters for help,” explained the no-nonsense woman with stylish, short, salt and pepper hair.
    Mike angled his head, interested in what the woman had to say.  Audrey drew out her notebook and clicked her pen.
    “Every anthropology magazine in the place was lying open to show women and men’s partially nude bodies!” Miss Hodges explained.  Her brown eyes widened as if to put a double exclamation point on the seriousness of the matter.
    Mike tried to hide the grin that wanted to be set free.  He stooped down to tie his shoes.  It would’ve been a nice trick, but he was wearing loafers.
    Audrey didn’t miss a beat and asked, “Anthropology magazines?”
    “Dear me, I