Tales From the Black Chamber Read Online Free PDF

into it all when I was really young, like sixth grade or so. I had enough sense to conceal my continued interest while in high school. And this was before the web took off, so it was a mostly solitary pursuit. Easy to conceal. Not that I was Miss Popularity, but I got through high school pretty unscathed. Except for never asking out the guy I had a crush on. Wow, I’m talking a lot about myself. I’d better slow down on the wine. So tell me about the Coolidge Foundation. Mrs. Garrett never really talked about it much.”
    â€œWell, there’s not much to tell. We are a private foundation that acquires the occasional ‘rare’ or ‘intriguing’ book for a library that we run for the benefit of a small membership.”
    â€œWho’s the membership?”
    â€œCan’t say. Sorry. Rules.”
    â€œWhat’s in the library? I know Mrs. Garrett was mostly interested in esoterica, though she did buy a couple other books from us that were pretty far afield.”
    â€œI wish I could tell you. The Foundation was set up with very specific and, let me say, strange rules. Still, it’s a nice place to work.”
    â€œSo, going forward, will the Foundation still be in the market for books?”
    â€œOf the kind you deal in? Absolutely. And I’m sure we’ll be happy to work with Hathaway & Edgecombe.”
    Business portion of dinner, check! “That’s very nice to hear. We’ll be happy to help you or whoever replaces Mrs. Garrett however we can.”
    â€œThanks. Speaking of Mildred, here’s a question I have for you. I know she was excited about a book she was going to buy from you last week, but I hadn’t talked to her in a few days. Did she end up buying something?”
    â€œYes, but to be frank, it’s the first one of her purchases I don’t quite understand. It was an Aldine breviary once owned by a martyred English Jesuit.”
    â€œHmm. Doesn’t sound too exciting. Any interesting marginalia or inclusions?”
    â€œNo, there was some marginalia, but it was pretty much all just religious stuff, the odd practical shopping-list-type note—you know, ‘buy bread,’ ‘launder shirt,’ that sort of thing—and doodling.”
    â€œSo why do you think Mildred wanted it?”
    â€œI couldn’t tell you. I mean, it has the very sexy title of Brevarium dæmonologicum , but that’s not because it relates to witchcraft or demonology, just that it includes a few unusual prayers for exorcism, protection from demons, and the like. There are any number of copies floating around. It was sort of popular in the late sixteenth and early-to-middle seventeenth centuries. I think her purchase price was three thousand, which wasn’t out of line, as it was a very well-preserved copy with an interesting history, but it’s hardly the stuff of legend.”
    â€œSo, did they find the book at her house when she died?”
    â€œNo, I don’t think so. Why, is it not at the library? Or can’t you tell me that?” She smiled, lifting her wineglass to her lips.
    He laughed. “No, it never arrived at the library.”
    â€œIt wasn’t at the house unless there’s a hidden safe or something.”
    â€œI doubt it. Mildred almost never kept books at her house for more than a day or two before bringing them into the library. Sometimes she’d bring them straight in. So, do the police think she was killed for the book?”
    â€œNo idea. They didn’t tell me anything. I had an FBI guy interview me for some reason, though.”
    â€œReally? What did he want to know?”
    â€œWell, there was this creepy guy who showed up at my office after the auction, asking about the breviary, wanting to buy it directly from us, and asking about who won it. I stonewalled him, but it turns out he may have gotten the information off my computer when no one was looking.”
    â€œOh my God,