Chapter 17 Phoebe #2
“Understood.” I waved the dog over who sat right in front of Edie’s circulation desk.
Edie came around. “Who am I kidding? As if I can resist such a sweet baby.” She knelt in front of the dog, striped tights showing from the slit in her heavy denim skirt.
“Hello there.” She put her nose right into Mouse’s fur and he reacted by leaning so hard on her that she nearly toppled over. “Such a big guy.”
“Careful, he thinks he’s a lap dog.”
Edie ruffled the thick fur around his neck. “What brings you in, Phoebe? And who’s your friend?”
I felt Dutch stiffen beside me. I brushed his pinkie with mine and he brushed the tips of my fingers before focusing on Edie. “My friends call me Dutch.”
Edie stood and Mouse instantly leaned on her, putting on his most adorable show of puppy dog eyes. He was incorrigible. “Just you hold on, I’ll get you a treat.”
Dutch hid a smile behind his fist as he cleared his throat. “I was doing some research on Providence Lake.”
Edie went back to the desk and rummaged for a moment before setting a glass jar on the desk. She tossed Mouse a Milk-Bone. He snatched it out of the air and sat down to demolish it. “You doing one of those podcasts?”
“No ma’am.”
I elbowed him. “She’s going to figure it out, just spit it out.”
Edie frowned and pulled her glasses down from on top of her head, narrowing her gaze.
“I’m an author.”
“Do you know how many authors I get in here? Near everyone with a laptop thinks they can write a book.”
I glanced around at the display case and found a hardcover version of The Red Suitcase and set it on the desk, backside facing up.
Edie’s eyes widened as she lifted the book to look at the spine, then looked at the jacket again. “Atticus Dutch. My goodness. Your book Adaptation kept me up for a week.”
He blushed. “I appreciate that.”
“He’s staying at the old Henderson house next door to me.”
“Oh, wow.”
“He’s researching for a new book and was interested when I told him about the missing kids on the lake.”
“That’s a terrible story. Though I suppose that kind of thing is your bread and butter.”
“I researched the news articles I could find on line, but when I looked at Haven library, it said there might be some microfiche or old newspapers available.”
Edie took one more treat out and tossed it to Mouse.
“Let me take you to the archive room. There were never a lot of details on the children. It happened over the course of five years—one child every year. The head of the police at the time—Chief O’Connor—didn’t put it together that there might be a serial situation until the third child died.
The federal task force came and checked out the lake, but didn’t believe the chief. ”
She led us over to a door beneath the stairs.
The upper floor was the children’s area.
She unlocked the door and flicked the lights on and pulled white cotton gloves out of a box.
Inside was a vast network of large drawers.
“We wanted to get all these newspapers scanned in, but small town libraries don’t have a budget to speak of.
” She ticked her fingers down the carefully labeled drawers.
I peered over her shoulder to see 1956, July then backed up and got out of the way as she slid it open. Inside were full-sized newspapers tucked into wooden dowels. She pulled on the gloves and flipped through the fragile pages.
“Here she is. Margaret Fairchild was the first child recorded missing. Supposedly they went back to make sure there weren’t any before her, but the summers were full of transient workers for the farms so we couldn’t be sure.”
Dutch moved forward, sliding me in front of him since he could see over my head. The solid wall of him behind me made my skin prickle. He absently stroked my hip as he quickly scanned the pages. “Can I scan these in?”
Edie frowned. “We don’t really pull them out.”
He held up his phone. “No flash, just a photo. The iPhone is a handheld scanner these days.”
“Oh, well sure. Just don’t touch anything.” Edie backed up and let him in.
He quickly took the photos. Over the next twenty minutes he got all the copies he needed as well as a few details Edie seemed to know that wasn’t part of the reports.
I wasn’t entirely sure they were fact or town gossip, but Dutch wasn’t on a fact finding mission. He was just filling in blanks. I could tell his brain was getting into that sweet spot where the creativity took over.
As I got to the door, he zeroed in on me with those intense eyes of his. “I’m just going to check on Mouse.”
He nodded, then went back to listening to Edie.
I found a young woman with two children in front of the circulation desk. “Do you work here?” she asked.
“Sorry, no. Edie’s in the archives.”
“Oh. I was having trouble finding a book for my boys.”
“Maybe I can help. I spent a lot of time in the kids section last summer.”
“Do you have kids?”
“No, but I did the Shel Silverstein mural. I had to help them move the books back and forth while I took over the space.”
“Really? Gosh, that mural’s amazing. I can’t tell you how many times I took photos of my Caleb in front of it for his grandmother. The Giving Tree is her favorite book.”
“Mine is Where the Sidewalk Ends. But the tree worked a little easier for displays. Were you looking for something specific.”
“Just something for their ages.” She smoothed down the boy’s hair. “Caleb likes dragons and magic and Max, my youngest, thinks Lego rules the world.”
“He’s not wrong.” I grinned and crouched down to their height. “Want to go take a look at some books?”
The youngest one craned his neck longingly at Mouse.
“Mouse can come with us.”
They both giggled. “Mouse is a weird name.”
“He’s a weird dog.” I called him and he slowly got up and moseyed over to us.
The mother’s eyes got big.
“He loves kids and is very gentle. Go on up, guys. Mouse will follow you.”
I chitchatted with the mother while we walked to the eight-to-ten-year old area. I sat down in the bean bag chair near the graphic novels. “Maybe try this for Caleb.” I pulled out the first in the Wings of Fire series. “Might be on the high end of his age group.”
“That’s okay. He’s reading above his age group.”
Caleb walked with his arm over Mouse’s neck. “Can we bring him home, Mom?”
“No, honey. He belongs to the lady.” She held out the graphic novel and the kid’s eyes lit up. “Cool!”
He took it and walked away with Mouse to find another bean bag chair.
“Guess that was a win.”
“And there’s a bunch in the series. You saved my life. Winter break is coming up.”
I laughed. “Glad I could help.” I wandered over to where the youngest sat with a huge bin of Legos. “Can I play?”
Max looked to his mom, who gave him the nod. He pushed over some black and brown bricks. “I guess so.”
That’s where Dutch found us half an hour later.
Mouse was happily snoozing as Caleb leaned against him, engrossed in his comic, and Max and I were creating a chaotic playground with Marvel, DC, and Star Wars heroes.
He came over and straddled the low bench, his knees were tucked into his chest. “What are we making?”
“Epic battle for the swings.” I set Batman in front of him.
Max took it back. “He has to help Mando and Grogu.”
“Sorry.”
Max handed me Spiderman. “He can have him.”
I snapped Spiderman into the board. “I can’t figure out if that’s an upgrade or downgrade. You’re grumpy like Batman.”
“Quiet, you.” He pitched his voice super low and I couldn’t stop smiling.
Dutch ended up with Spiderman, Doc Oc, and the Hulk by the end of our playtime. The mom thanked us for playing with the boys so she could chill out with her book in one of the bean bag chairs as well.
When the kids cleared out and we were walking out to the truck, I asked about the articles.
“I have a ton of stuff to go through. Edie even found a few follow-up articles that filled in some holes months after the incidents.”
“So, what’s the verdict?”
“I need to cross-reference. There were a lot more articles than I was expecting.”
“It was big news around here for a few years. I imagine lots of gossip and hearsay in there too.”
“Yeah, but that works for me. I wanted a feel for the town at the time. Gave me some insights.”
“You look like you want to get into it.”
“Yeah.” He tucked his hands into his jacket pockets. “I need some time with my chalkboards.”
“It’s fine by me. I have a bunch of orders that I need to work on.”
He was quiet as we got into the truck. “I want to see you tonight.”
That felt like a good sign. “Handily, I’d love to be seen. Might need to make a pit stop.”
He frowned at me, then his brow cleared. “Right.”
I laughed and hugged Mouse to me. I kissed his nose. “Did Caleb tucker you out? All that cuddling is exhausting.”
Mouse yawned hugely and settled his head in my lap.
Definitely a good day.