As she entered the relative cool and dark of the library, Vera felt a familiar aura of calm wash over her. She had been running around for the last two days in a frenzy of activity. It felt good to just breathe and relax in this welcoming sanctuary. There were several of Vera’s neighbors taking advantage of the library’s story time in the children’s department. Other creatures were checking out books at the circulation desk, and she nodded at them. She knew that she wanted to speak with the reference librarian, an efficient lady rat named Arabella Boatwright.
Vera approached the reference desk in the main part of the library where Ms. Boatwright presided. Much as Mr. Fallow looked as if he was born to be an attorney, so too did Ms. Boatwright appear exactly as one would expect a librarian to look. She wore a dark dress paired with a bright red cardigan, and her glasses hung on a gold chain around her neck.
The librarian looked up from her work as Vera approached the desk.
“Well, Miss Vixen,” the rat greeted her cordially, “what can I help you with today?”
“Hello, Ms. Boatwright,” she responded. “I have been tasked with writing the obituary for the late Adora Springfield, and I need some background on the family. Would you be able to help me with that?”
“Indeed, I can,” said the rat. She took a set of keys from her desk drawer and asked a colleague to watch the reference desk for her. “Please come with me, Miss Vixen,” she said, leading the way to a locked cabinet that stood against a wall. “The library has a special collection of local history that is kept locked. It cannot be checked out, however, it is available to look at here.”
Vera was thrilled that so much information was available to her. The Springfields were a very prominent family in the Shady Hollow area, so it made sense that their history was documented. Ms. Boatwright selected a thick binder, and then directed Vera over to an unoccupied study table.
“Please let me know when you are finished,” the librarian said, “and I will return the binder to the cabinet.”
Vera spent a good hour leafing through the various materials, jotting down many notes she wanted to include in her article. However, a part of her brain was also on the lookout for clues that would explain something about Dorothy’s outburst. She didn’t even know what exactly she was looking for, only that there was a missing piece.
She thought that she’d seen everything available when the reference librarian approached her study table. She had another binder clutched in her paw, and she looked about as excited as it was possible for a rat to be.
“Oh, Miss Vixen,” she whispered, not wanting to disturb the peace of the reading room, “I forgot about this part of the collection. It was in our bindery to be repaired.”
The binder was the same dark blue color indicating that it was part of the local history special collection. The label on the front of the binder caught Vera’s eye. Founding Families of Mirror Lake. The fox felt a rush of excitement mixed with wild curiosity. She barely stopped herself from grabbing at the binder and waited for Ms. Boatwright to set it on the table. Vera thanked the librarian, anxious to look at the new information.
Vera paged through the binder, noting the names of the families who had founded Mirror Lake. The Springfields were just one of many, including the Rickenbachs, the Mortimers, and the Buxtons. She turned to the chapter on the Springfields, and there it was—a family photograph taken when Edward Springfield was a child. Vera caught her breath as she gazed at the sepia color photograph. It was attached to a page in the binder and covered with clear protective film. There was a family of four rats in the photograph. According the caption underneath, this was a picture of Edgar and Adora Springfield, and their two sons—Thomas and Edward. Thomas? Vera was flabbergasted. Who was Thomas Springfield? Vera paused, thinking she must have made a mistake. Everyone spoke of Edward as the sole heir to the Springfield Silver Mining fortune. But if there was another son, shouldn’t he be involved as well?
As she was a fox, she could not tell which of the rats was the older brother. They both looked bright eyed and happy. So Vera went back to the reference desk with her find and showed the photo to Ms. Boatwright. “Excuse me, but I need to track down another member of the Springfield family. There’s only a few mentions of him here.”
“Oh, who?” the librarian asked, her eyes bright and interested at the idea of another research thread to pull.
“Thomas Springfield. Edward’s brother, I believe.”
The refined rat lost her composure a little. “Wow!” she burst out, generating a few surprised looks from various corners of the library. “I had no idea that there were two Springfield heirs! I wonder what happened to Thomas?”
Vera smiled as she realized that she was in the presence of a kindred spirit. Apparently, Ms. Boatwright had a bit of detective in her as well.
“I have no idea,” Vera replied, “but I’m going to do my best to find out.”
However, an hour later neither researcher was enlightened. Apart from a few mentions in clippings about the family, Thomas Springfield seemed to have vanished entirely after childhood.
“Could he have died?” Vera asked at last. “A fever or some illness could explain it.”
“Possibly,” Ms. Boatwright said. “Our materials come to us by happenstance, you know. It just depends what gets donated to us for preservation. So the archives are never complete. You could enquire at the church. Or just walk through the cemetery. All the Springfields will be buried in the family crypt.”
“That’s a good idea,” Vera said. The fox returned the binders to the librarian and thanked her for all of her help. What a coup it had been
