April by Nina Jon

Author:Nina Jon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: eBookPartnership.com

Chapter Twenty One The Bow Bells

I

Jane and her late husband Hugh loved to tell how they first met. “I caught Hugh spying on a visitor to the library from between two volumes of the Encyclopaedia Britannica,” she’d explained, “which was against library policy at the time.”

“Her parents brought us a subscription to the Encyclopaedia Britannica as a wedding gift.” Hugh liked to point out.

How long ago was that now, Jane mused as she gazed out of the library window onto the car park at the back of the Bow Bells. She used an Encyclopaedia Britannica app nowadays, but she still had all the original volumes her parents had bought them. She stored them in the attic.

The Bow Bells opened to customers at eleven a.m., and Jane (disguised by a shoulder length blonde wig, make up heavier than she normally wore, and dark glasses) had been sat in the library since ten fifteen that morning. She wondered how long she could remain there, scanning the car park below, without drawing too much suspicion to herself. Many, many years ago in a library far, far away, a gentleman doing almost the same thing, had caused Hugh to commence a surveillance operation from between two volumes of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Jane had been the librarian on duty, and had treated it all quite light-heartedly. Once they’d worked out why the library visitor spent days staring out the window through binoculars, taking notes (and he wasn’t collecting number plates), Hugh had asked her out, and she’d accepted.

She didn’t believe today’s librarian would be so tolerant of her reasons for being there, if they suspected it wasn’t for official library business. She glanced over to the reception desk. There was only one librarian on duty, as far as she could tell, and she seemed engrossed in her computer terminal. Jane turned to look back out of the window again. The pub car park was almost empty, which was only to be expected. Jane pretended to turn over a page in the book she was pretending to read, hoping she wouldn’t have to spend more than half a day there.

II

At 12. 45, Jane watched Debs Carruthers lock her car and cross the car park of the Bow Bells. Jane wondered if the 1 M – 2M meant – 1 PM: 2moro (Tomorrow) only the P in PM hadn’t come out. Jane quietly left the library and made her way to the pub.

From the doorway, Jane saw Debs carry a cup of coffee over to the table in an alcove by the window. Jane bought herself a glass of juice and positioned herself at a nearby table, keeping her back turned on Debs the whole time, least she saw through the disguise. Whilst Debs looked out of the window, Jane took out her lipstick compact and pretended to touch up her lipstick, while discreetly training the compact’s mirror on her subject. She looked uneasy, as though fearing some confrontation or unpleasantness. Jane put her compact away and took out her Smartphone.

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