Josephine West & the Bookish Corpse : The Carmel-By-the-Sea Mysteries by Beth Byers & Ann Warren

Author:Beth Byers & Ann Warren [Byers, Beth & Warren, Ann]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-02-04T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

“Do you think that he will be here again?” Josephine asked Chessie as they walked into the library.

“He has been here almost every day for the past few weeks,” Chessie said. “I don’t see why he would stop now.”

Josephine went with Chessie to the library that morning in hopes of seeing the nervous boy who had been in the library the day that Josephine had threatened Standish. Josephine thought that she might as well start by interviewing him to see if he had overheard what Josephine had said and if he knew anything about Standish.

No one came in during the first hour the library was open. While Chessie was cataloging the new books the library received this week, Josephine used the spare time to sketch in her sketchbook.

Josephine started by sketching the layout of the library. Carmel’s library was one main room that had been divided with the placement of the tall bookshelves and square tables. She supposed that it would be rather easy to overhear conversations. Especially if someone didn’t realize that there was another person just around the other bookshelf.

“Chessie?” Josephine called out. “Could you help me something?”

“What do you need?” Chessie asked, looking up from her stack of books.

“I want to test something,” Josephine said, rising from her seat.

“Could you sit there?” Josephine asked, gesturing to the seat that the nervous boy had been sitting in the other day. “I want to see if you can hear me if I am talking in the doorway of the storage closet.”

Chessie took her seat and Josephine walked over to the closet, opened the door, and stood in the doorframe, just as she had been when she threatened to run Standish over with her car.

Without giving Chessie any warning, Josephine started singing out the words to the Star Bangled Banner at the volume level that she thought she had been talking at the other day.

After Josephine sang a few lines, she stopped and walked back toward Chessie.

“So?” Josephine asked as came around a bookshelf.

Chessie leaned back in her chair and wiped tears from her eyes.

Josephine was concerned until she realized that Chessie was laughing.

“Was my rendition of our national anthem that horrendous?” Josephine asked.

“I refuse to answer that question,” Chessie said after she collected herself. “But I could certainly hear you.”

“Well, now we know that if the boy says he didn’t hear us, he is lying,” Josephine said.

Chessie laughed again, nearly losing her composure again.

“I would throw a book at you if I didn’t like you so much,” Josephine warned.

“I will be sure to include our friendship in the things I am grateful for in my prayer tonight,” Chessie said.

“You don’t include that every time?” Josephine asked, dramatically placing a hand over her chest.

“It’s not that I don’t include that every time I pray but that I don’t pray every night,” Chessie said.

“Francesca Abrams, I am disappointed in you.” Josephine shook her head as a disapproving mother would.

Chessie laughed and stuck her tongue out at Josephine.

Just as Chessie and Josephine returned to their previous spots, the boy that Josephine had been hoping to see walked in.

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