afternoon from our manager, thanks.”
Blanche had not seen Marcus all morning and wondered where he was keeping himself. Mrs. Anderson had cruised through the foyer multiple times, just checking up on things. She stopped by earlier and complimented Blanche on her attire and thanked her for keeping her ‘headlights’ under wraps. The young librarian had a difficult time focusing on her job, she’d not even looked in her organized boxes and she kept thinking back to the night on the hillside. The pleasant thoughts were always pushed aside by the vision of Jasper squirming about in his own blood, calling for help, then the sight of Seymour standing behind bars, dressed in orange and the tears in his eyes. She was so torn and confused, but her heart spoke to her, giving her hope and assurance that all would be well.
At 1:00 p.m. she sat at the main desk eating the banana she’d brought and finally saw Mr. Marcus waltz through the front doors. He carried a ladder and his tool belt slung low around his waist.
“What are you doing? I thought everything was fixed and ready for the inspection?” Blanche asked, looking to see if Ester was within earshot.
“I thought so too, but remember the emergency door upstairs?”
“Yeah, what about it?”
“The part still hasn’t come and Mrs. Anderson wants me to take another look at it, see if there's something I can do to get us by the inspection. I already told her if there was something I could have done I would have already, but she’s insisting, so here I am,” he said shrugging his shoulders under the weight of the aluminum ladder.
“I see. What should we do if they show up while you’re up there?”
“I hadn’t thought of that, you’ll just have to come give me a heads up and I’ll get out of here.”
“Sounds good, I’ll just come pull the ladder out from underneath you and you can dangle there as the alarm. That should get us past the inspection, don’t you think?” she joked.
“Very funny. How’s our boy doing? You doing okay?” he genuinely asked.
“I’m okay, didn’t sleep much, but I can’t imagine what kind of a night Seymour must have had. His mom is working to get the bail money today so he can go home.”
“Wish there was more we could do,” he said.
“Me too,” she said, waving as he made his way up the stairs, being careful not to mar the handrails.
Fifteen minutes later the doors opened again and a mother with three small children entered, followed by a man that she recognized but could not place. He strode directly toward her, smiling as if they knew one another. She desperately tried to draw a name from her memory but could not.
“Hello Blanche, how are you today?” he said, extending his hand and shaking hers with vigor.
“I’m good and you?”
“I’m good, thanks for asking. Sorry I’ve not been able to get back here since we talked last week,” Lester said a bit annoyed. Looking into the woman’s eyes he could tell she was drawing a blank.
“Oh, that’s okay, I’ve been busy with my library stuff,” Blanche said, trying to give herself the time she needed to remember his name.
“Yeah, me too, been real busy getting ready for a big event tomorrow night. Looks like I’ll be moving away from Valdosta. Thinking maybe of relocating to California, got to convince my girl between now and then to come with me,” he said, teasing the woman in his own way.
“I’m sure you’ll be able to, seems like you’re the convincing type,” she said, still searching.
“That’s for sure; I suspect she’ll come around to my way of thinking.”
He was having fun watching her try to remember his previous visit but the fact that she could not was also causing a seething storm to grow inside him. He looked around to see who else was working. She appeared to be alone.
“You working on your own today? Must be hard to keep up when you’re the only one running the place,” he said, fishing for information.
“No, everybody is here just off doing other things.” Why could she not remember his name? She vaguely remembered talking to him and if she didn’t have Seymour at the forefront of her mind she probably could recall who he was.
“Do you remember the books you helped me find last week?” he prompted.
“Ah, was it travel related?” she said, hoping he would throw her a bone.
“Mmmm nope, I’m surprised you don’t recall, you said you didn’t remember the last time someone asked for that topic.”
Suddenly her mind was clear. “Voodoo, right?” she said, knowing she was correct.
He was pleased to see that her memory had been jogged and she remembered the visit.
“So Rob, what brings you back to the library this afternoon?” she said, so pleased that she had finally remembered.
“You mean other than you?” he said.
She could tell that he was dead serious and it concerned her. “Don’t tease me, what would your girl say? Really, what can I do for you today?”
“Okay, you called me on it. I just wanted to do a bit more reading and I was interested in looking up some stuff on violent crimes. This recent crime wave has got me curious and I had a few minutes today, so here I am,” he said, smiling and trying to put her at ease.
“Well, I can certainly help you with that. Very popular lately, can’t seem to keep them on the shelf. They’re up and ….”
He cut her off. “I know where they are, but thanks, I’ll find them just fine.”
“Okay Rob, it was good seeing you again. Let us know how we can help you further. Good luck convincing that girlfriend to go with you.”
“I really don’t think she’ll have a choice when it comes right down to it,” he said, trying to hide the malevolent intent in his voice.
She watched him walk up the stairs to the second floor. She thought of his words and the strange conversation she’d just had.
“Why was it that the weirdo’s always seem to come her way, glad this one’s moving to California,” she thought, and in her next brief moment she realized how fortunate she was to have a man like Seymour in her life.
Lester’s anger peaked as he reached the second floor. How could she not have remembered who he was! He thought there was a spark, a connection that she had seen as well as he. It was the influence of Jasper and Seymour but that wouldn’t last for long. After tomorrow, they’d be past history and she’d learn to love him the way Virginia May had, when they first united their souls. They’d be one and he knew it was only a matter of time.
An older guy stood on a ladder near the emergency door. He was afraid of that. Good thing he decided to make this impromptu visit. He watched the worker for a moment before he approached him.
“Do you need some help?” Lester asked.
Marcus looked down from his perch on the ladder, a small electronic device in his hand, “No thanks, think I’ve got it.”
“What you working on there?” the curious patron asked.
“Oh, the stupid alarm on this door is broken and we’ve got to have it fixed by today or my butts in a sling.”
“How so?”
“We have an inspection this afternoon and this door is supposed to set off an alarm when opened. Somebody messed with it last week and it won’t work, so here I am. Got one on order but won’t be here ‘til Friday.”
Lester was relieved to hear it, “Think you can fix it?”
“Nope, just trying to appease the director. Known my butt was going to be in trouble for a couple days but nothing I can do about it.”
“That’s too bad, wish I could help but don’t know anything about electronics,” he lied.
The stranger turned and walked to the shelves housing the true crime, took down a book and sat at a table and read waiting for the custodian to finish his work. A quarter of an hour passed before Marcus gave up, collapsed the ladder and headed for the stairs. Lester got up leaving the book,
