Chapter Eighteen
Callie
It was difficult at first to figure out where the noises had come from. Because of the openness of the reading room, all sounds on this level tended to reverberate throughout the building. But when Stella emitted a long and angry cry of warning, Callie was able to narrow it down.
By the time she reached the mezzanine, where the cage was located, there was no sign of an intruder. And though it took a minute, she finally found Stella crouched beneath a rolling library cart in the corner of the cage.
Callie was sitting on the floor, clutching the cat to her chest, when Trey found them several minutes later, out of breath and looking grim.
“Is she hurt?” he asked, glancing around, no doubt assessing whether the vandals had damaged anything else during their crime spree.
Shaking her head, Callie stroked the little cat’s spine, grateful to feel the rumble of Stella’s purr against her chest. The cat had always shown more bravery than was entirely wise.
There was the time when she’d attempted to fight a raccoon, and when she’d been camping with Callie’s brother and faced down a bear, living to tell the tale.
But it had never occurred to her when she and Stella set out from Ohio that their sojourn on Petite C?te Island would pose a danger to either of them.
Maybe in an abstract way she’d wondered about tropical weather, or maybe jellyfish.
But until she’d faced the noisy pranks and the cruel words and threats from whoever it was that had been “haunting” the library, she hadn’t truly been fearful in the library.
But she was afraid now. For herself, for Stella, and even, she had come to realize tonight, for Trey.
The step they’d taken tonight had been major.
And she now faced the magnitude of destruction their fake ghost had undertaken tonight, so soon after their intimacy made her recognize just how much she had to lose if the vandal, or vandals, decided to move on from hurting inanimate objects to pets or people.
Looking up to where Trey stood in the doorway of the cage, she was afraid her worry showed in her eyes. But she had no way of concealing her emotions from him now. “She’s okay,” she told him as she cuddled Stella on her chest.
At her reassurance, he seemed to let go of the breath he’d been holding. She was touched that he was concerned about her cat. Especially since their vandal had done some real damage in the library tonight.
“Was the window terribly expensive?” she asked, remembering the way Trey and Bobby had struggled to put it in place.
She recalled that he’d been sinking his own money into the refurbishment of the old building.
He hadn’t seemed to be worried about money, but she had inherited the money that he might have received from Khaki’s estate.
Nobody was so wealthy that they could afford to let a priceless stained-glass window be smashed into a zillion pieces.
Trey lowered himself to sit on the floor beside her and rubbed a hand over his chest, as if soothing an ache there.
“It was costly, but artists deserve to be compensated for their hard work. The stained-glass artist was an old friend of Khaki’s and had been thrilled at the idea of re-creating the St. Ignatius window to honor her friend. She’s going to be crushed.”
“Who is so determined to make us leave here? We know it’s not the kids using the plumber’s keys because they got caught. And how much do you want to bet that when Alex finds the stuff they’ve been stealing and using to pull pranks there won’t be any perfume diffusers?”
“I would not take that bet,” Trey said grimly.
“Because those kids might have been responsible for some break-ins but they sure as hell didn’t do this.
And remember, we said that they were probably too young to know what perfume Khaki wore.
Somebody who knew Khaki, and who genuinely wants us out of this place, has been doing this. ”
Callie agreed. “I know. I just wish there was something else we could do to find this jerk before someone gets hurt. That window could have done some real damage if a person on a moonlight walk was out there.”
Before Trey could respond, there was a loud banging on the main door below. He stood and stretched out his back. “I’m getting too old to sit on the floor like that.”
“Who’s at the door?” Callie asked, putting Stella on her feet and accepting the hand Trey offered. She pointedly ignored the way his strong grip and the warmth of his skin on hers made her senses tingle. This was neither the time, nor the place.
“Probably Alex,” he said, making his way toward the stairs. “I texted him a few minutes ago.”
They went downstairs together and opened the door to the waiting detective.
“I saw the window,” Alex said as Trey extended an arm, indicating he should come in. “What happened? Not the damn ghost again. I thought the kids pulling his strings were spending the night in jail.”
“Apparently, it was either more than those particular kids, or there’s someone older who was either paying them to set up the speakers or who decided to do the job himself tonight,” Trey said, his anger evident in his clipped tone.
“We heard spooky sounds, which is why we came upstairs, and while we were up here looking for the speaker, he somehow got over to the window and managed to shove it out. The caulk hadn’t set on it yet so it was probably pretty easy to do. ”
Alex’s eyes widened. “You were up there when the window fell?”
Trey nodded. “Not that it did much good. He still managed to get away before we could catch him.”
The detective frowned. “You keep saying ‘he.’ What makes you think it’s a man?”
Callie glanced over at Trey. She was also curious why he thought that. She’d watched enough true crime shows to know that women could be just as ruthless as men when it came to criminal behavior. Though a woman, she thought, would be more likely to notice what perfume Khaki wore.
“I dunno. I guess because it seems like most of the time vandalism and that kind of thing are done by teenage boys.” Trey ran a hand over the back of his neck and looked a little sheepish. “And I know this because I used to be a teenage boy.”
Alex grinned. Clearly, these two had been partners in crime back in the day. Then, just as quickly as it spread, his smile disappeared. “We never threatened anybody though. And we sure as hell didn’t destroy anything as valuable as that window.”
Turning to Callie, he added, “In case you’re thinking we were a couple of master criminals, the worst we ever did was take my daddy’s speedboat for a joy ride.”
“And got our asses chewed for it,” Trey muttered with a shudder. “I don’t think anybody ever yelled at me louder before or since.”
“He learned it when he was working for Saban at LSU,” Alex said with a shrug. “Nobody can tear a strip off you faster than a football coach.”
“I’d like to unload some choice words on whoever is doing all of this.” Callie put her hands on her hips and scowled. “Maybe you can question the teenagers you caught earlier and see if someone’s been directing them.”
“Oh, that’s my first step after I leave here. Those little punks have some explaining to do.” Alex looked as ticked off as they were about this latest development.
“You wanna take a look upstairs?” Trey asked, ready to get this over with so he could go back to bed. With Callie.
“Yeah, let’s get up there,” Alex nodded. “And I’ll have the techs come out in the morning to see if they can get some prints.”
Callie went up first, and still feeling unsettled by everything that had happened, she was grateful not to be on her own.
As they reached the upper level, Callie heard Stella yowling in that way she had when she was particularly wanting attention.
“Damn, were they playing those cat sounds again?” Alex asked, his brows furrowed.
Callie shook her head. “That’s Stella. I’ll go get her. She won’t stop until I see what she wants.”
“Not alone, you’re not,” Trey said with a scowl. “Until we figure out who’s doing this you don’t go anywhere in here by yourself.”
She wanted to argue but decided now was not the time. Instead, she gave him a shrug and followed the sound of Stella’s cries, knowing the two men would follow her.
When she reached the far corner of the third floor of the stacks, she saw her cat standing facing the wall.
Though she was a cat and it was entirely possible she was agitated by an insect on the other side of the wall, there was something a little eerie about the way she seemed to be staring at something no one else could see.
“Hey there, little girl,” Callie said in her best cat whisperer voice, hoping it soothed Stella enough to make her stop her cries. “What’s the matter?”
But whereas her kitty would usually stop as soon as Callie showed up to give her some attention, this time Stella didn’t budge from her position before the wall. In fact, she began to paw at it like she could get at whatever troubled her by digging straight through the solid surface.
“What the hell, Stella?” Trey asked with a look of exasperation. “Can this wait? We’re kinda busy right now.”
As if she understood what he’d just said, Stella extended the line of her body and began to scratch harder.
Callie was about to just pick her up and take her away from the source of her annoyance when she caught sight of what looked like a bit of paper stuck to the wall above Stella’s head.
Reaching out to pull it off, as soon as she touched it, she realized it wasn’t paper but cloth.
And it wasn’t just stuck to the wall but was coming out of it. “What the—?”
Confused by what she saw, she moved closer and realized that there was a seam running down the wall from ceiling to floor. Almost like—“Oh my God,” she whispered.
Trey must have realized something was up because he quickly crossed to stand beside her. Curious, Alex followed and moved to stand on Callie’s other side.
“What’s up?” Trey asked, looking to where Callie was staring.
“This looks like a seam.” She indicated to where the line ran down the wall. “Trey, I think there might be a secret passage behind here.”