Page 31 of By the Book

A hand clutched my arm, and as I swallowed my heart again, I let Millie lead me around the corner and into the children’s section. Keme lurked behind her, clearly ready for someone—probably me—to try something—like complain about a ruptured eardrum.

“OH MY GOD,” Millie whispered—kind of. “ARE YOU OKAY? WHY ARE YOU SO RED?”

Keme’s smirk said he had a good idea why I might be, uh, glowing.

“I’m fine,” I said and yanked my arm free. “What’s going on here? Mrs. Shufflebottom got arrested?”

Keme shook his head.

After a vexed noise, Millie said, “YES! I SAW!”

I tried not to shush her. I really did. Then I gave up and did it anyway. I mean, we were in a library. I kept expecting Mrs. Shufflebottom to swoop down like a vampire bat and carry us all away. (Or something. Did I mention my inner nerd comes out when I’m overheated? It’s the body’s self-defense mechanism against exercise.)

Keme shook his head again—this time with a scowl for me.

“Tell me what happened,” I said. And again, because I couldn’t help myself, “Quietly.”

“I was working at Tidepool Toys across the street,” Millie said. That was news to me, but it didn’t surprise me that Millie might be picking up shifts at businesses around town—everyone in town knew each other, and while Millie might not have excelled at detail work, she was great with people. Especially people of, uh, a certain age. “And I was helping this lady take all the stuffing out of a teddy bear to see if it was biodegradable—”

No, I told myself. Donotask. Don’t even try to figure it out.

“—and then the sheriff came out of the library with Mrs. Shufflebottom, and they got in the sheriff’s car and drove away.”

“Was she in handcuffs?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Millie said. “But she looked SCARED! And then I texted Keme, and he said he was already in the library because he was studying—”

“I’m sorry,” I said. “What?”

Keme’s glare leveled up to a ten, and a hint of red came into his cheeks.

“—and Keme said he saw Mrs. Shufflebottom and Stewart get into abigfight before the sheriff arrested her.”

When I checked Keme, he shrugged.

“What were they fighting about?” I asked.

“They weren’t really fighting.”

And that was it. That was all he said.

“Then what happened?” I asked.

“Mrs. Shufflebottom asked him what he’d done. Had he checked in the books from last night. Had he reshelved the books. What time had he clocked in.”

And that was it. Keme stopped. Again.

“And?” I asked.

Keme stared blankly at me.

He does this to me on purpose, by the way.

“What happened?” My frustration made my whisper a little more tightly wound than usual.

“Stewart answered her questions.”

“That doesn’t sound like a fight,” I said.

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