Let's Play Dead

from one meeting to the next. Then we went over the one-page agenda I’d prepared, and Marty agreed with my priorities.

When we were wrapping up, I added, “We need a new registrar.”

“I know. I haven’t forgotten. You’re looking?”

“I’ve talked to Latoya and Melanie, our human resources coordinator, and Melanie says she’s posted the listing, but there’s a snag.”

“Money,” Marty said bluntly.

I nodded. “Yes. We were lucky with Alfred-we got away with underpaying him for years. We’re going to have to offer more if we want to attract qualified applicants. And that will probably throw the entire senior staff scale out of whack. You have any suggestions?”

Marty sat back in her chair. “Welcome to senior management. You know as well as anyone that salaries here are low, but we haven’t had the budget to meet even cost-of-living adjustments. That’s why the turnover’s been so high, particularly among the junior staff-they stay a year or two to get the experience, and then they move on to someplace that pays better. There are no easy solutions, you know, unless you find an angel.”

“You mean a major donor? This is the kind of funding we can’t make up through grants, even if anyone were making them these days.”

“Have you thought about recruiting new board members? A couple of our current ones are making noises about retiring, especially after the last few months. Not what they signed up for. They thought they were joining a sleepy historical institution, and instead they’ve gotten nasty headlines and drama.”

“Marty, I’ve only been in this job for two months. I haven’t had time. Of course I know what our budget problems are. I just haven’t come up with any brilliant ideas-yet.”

“I know, it’s early days. And I know you’re doing your best, Nell. I’ll see what I can do about Alfred’s position. I seem to recall promising you I’d guilt-trip the family into creating an endowment in his honor-maybe that could make up the difference? You should have reminded me.”

I grinned at her. “That’s what I just did-didn’t you notice?”

She nodded her approval. “Smooth. You’re learning fast.” She stood up. “Well, I’ve got something to follow up on in the stacks.”

I rose as well. “Let me walk you out-I want to talk to Felicity anyway.”

Marty and I chatted as I escorted her to the elevator. She went up; I took the stairs down, to seek out librarian Felicity Soames, who knew where everything in the collections was. I found her at her post at the high desk in the reading room.

“Hi, Felicity,” I whispered. “Do you have a moment?”

Felicity looked around the room: it was moderately busy for a weekday. She nodded to her assistant, who was circulating with a rolling cart, collecting documents for reshelving, and she parked it and headed for the desk. “Where do you want to go? Is this hush-hush?”

I suppressed a laugh. “No, I just wanted to ask a favor. Can we just step into the lobby?”

I could swear she looked disappointed. “All right.” She led the way to the lobby, and we found two chairs near the monumental grand staircase. “What’s this about?”

“I’ve been doing a little horse-trading. After what happened at Let’s Play, I wanted to make sure our wiring was in good shape, but I didn’t want to have to pay for a full review. So I found an electrician who was willing to look over the last report and tell us if things were up to par, but he had a price.”

“And how does that involve me?”

“He’s really into Phillies history, and he wants some help looking through our archives.” I stopped, since Felicity’s face had assumed a strange and wonderful expression. “What?”

“The Quakers?” she said.

“Yes, I think he mentioned those. Why, do you know about them?”

Felicity produced as close to a grin as I’d ever seen on her. “It’s my secret vice. I love sports history, but nobody else here seems to share that. I’d be happy to help him.”

“Great! I said I’d give him a complimentary membership, so he can come in when he has time. I’ll send him straight to you.”

“Thank you! Do you know if he’s done a lot of research?”

“He said he’s checked out some of the other local collections, but he’s looking for something more specific, and he thinks we might have it.”

“Wonderful.” Felicity sighed. “I love a challenge. Was that all?”

“For now. Thanks for helping out, Felicity.”

“My pleasure. Really. Well, back to work.”

She headed back to the reading room, and I went to the elevator. One more stop and I could settle my debt to Barney. I dropped in at Shelby’s office on the way to my own.

“Hey, lady,” Shelby greeted me. “What’s up?”

“If you recall, I promised Barney a free membership, so he could work on that Phillies stuff. Can you process that?”

“Sure will. Definitely a good trade.”

“I thought so. And I just talked to Felicity, who is apparently a secret sports fan, so she’ll be happy to help him out. I’ll write a cover letter for you, so you can send him his membership card.”

“Felicity’s the head librarian, right? I love it when a plan comes together. Don’t you? And that Felicity has hidden depths.”

“I do, and she does. Thanks for bringing Barney in.”

“My pleasure. And I’ll get right on that membership.”

I went back to my office with a feeling of accomplishment. As I walked toward my door, Eric waved a message slip at me.

“Agent Morrison, that FBI guy? He wants you to call him. You want me to place the call?”

I snagged the slip from him. “Thanks, Eric. I’ll do it myself.”

CHAPTER 17

Back at my desk, I looked at James’s message. It was his work number, rather than his cell phone, which surprised me-trouble? Or good news? I dialed, then waded through a couple of layers of receptionists until I reached him.

“Hello, Nell,” he said when he picked up, all business.

“James,” I replied in the same neutral tone. “You called?”

“Yes. Thanks for getting back to me. I need to talk to you about something.”

“Business?” I acknowledged a small feeling of disappointment, then squashed it.

“Yes. Can you meet me after work?”

If he could be businesslike, so could I. “Sorry, I can’t-committee meeting tonight. Lunch?”

He hesitated a moment before answering. “No time. Coffee?”

“Okay. Where?”

“How about the Doubletree again? Half an hour?”

Not his office, not my office, but the very public hotel down the street. Interesting. “Fine.”

“See you then.” He hung up before I could add anything more.

I sat back in my chair, mildly baffled. If this was about the Society, he could have met me here, but his tone suggested it was not about the two of us, whatever we were. Something about the missing collection items? But again, he wouldn’t be coy about that. Ergo, it had to be something about the Let’s Play problem. Had something changed since the last time we had met? At that point I ran out of deductions and resolved to wait until we got together to think about it further. I turned my attention back to the agenda for the Executive Committee meeting.

Collections: acquisitions were on indefinite hold, both because of a shortage of funds and because we didn’t