Nowhere To Run Read Online Free PDF

around the library as he nodded thoughtfully and held his pen at attention. The few tables and surrounding chairs sat empty and the lone computer’s curser flashed in unreciprocated anticipation.
    “I’ve only met a few of them in my time, but I’ve not been wrong yet, sad as I am to say it.” Mrs. McKinnon’s vest covered bosom shook with yet another sigh as she continued. “Clare Everett was another. I guess you would have been too young to remember her.”
    “Tom Logan’s first wife,” she informed him when Alex looked at her blankly. “That’s many years ago now, I’m not sure why she came to mind for the life of me.”
    A brief silence fell over the room, and dust motes stirred in the air as if released by the stilling of voices.
    The front of the library opened and Mrs. McKinnon brightened considerably. “Good morning dear, what are we looking for today?” she approached the teenage girl with gusto, as though ready to singlehandedly unearth whatever book she might need from the packed shelves, computer be damned.
    Alex gave a wave of thanks and stepped outside, squinting into the early afternoon sun. Rubbing the bridge of his nose he stopped mid step as a thought came to him, and turned to reopen the library door.
    The librarian looked at him curiously as he approached her. “Forget something, did you laddie?” she asked. There it is, Alex smiled. “I did, as a matter of fact,” he said to her in a casual voice. “Did Sarah often sign books out herself?”
    “Of course she did,” Mrs. McKinnon replied easily. “She was a good reader.”
    “Would you by chance have records of the books she signed out?” Alex enquired.
    The librarian looked at him strangely. “Well, I guess I would,” she said slowly. “We are all computerized here, have been for the last five years or so.” She ran a finger over the keyboard on the counter in front of her. “Not that I was so pleased when we first made the change, I can tell you. Nothing wrong with the card system if you ask me, but I guess the world isn’t asking,” she laughed. “Progress, isn’t that what they call it?”
    “I guess so,” Alex smiled at her. “Now, would it be too much trouble if I asked you to print me a list of the books Sarah borrowed in the last year or so?”
    “Well, I don’t see why not,” Mrs. McKinnon hesitated. “You are the police after all. And what’s privacy to us anymore when we’ve passed on to the next world,” she gestured vaguely towards the library ceiling.
    “Righty ho, just bear with me a moment then.” Pushing her glasses higher on her nose she squinted at the computer. A few tentative taps later the library’s printer coughed out a number of pages. Giving them a quick glance Alex folded the papers securely into his pocket and backed out of the library thanking Mrs. McKinnon for a second time.
    Interesting, Alex mused as he headed towards his car. Looked like the girl hadn’t been into light reading.
    *
    Elizabeth stared out the window of the town pharmacy at the nearly deserted street. Too far from noon for lunch seekers, too far from five o’clock for the trickle of people to begin finding their way home.
    Her boss had told her she shouldn’t come to work, but what was she supposed to do, stay in that house with her mother and father? One more person hiding in their room, trying to avoid looking at each other. Anyhow, she needed her co-op hours for college, life didn’t stop because Sarah was gone.
    Her mind flashed suddenly to a memory she didn’t know she had stored there, the sharpness of the colours and scent so intense she had to grip the windowsill for stability. She and her sister were maybe six and eight years old, in the backyard of the cottage their family used to rent the last weeks of each summer. Elizabeth was lying on her back under the blue sky, the reeds that grew up through the sand tickling her bare calves. Her sister lay beside her facing the opposite direction, Sarah’s