The Ghost and the Dead Man's Library by Alice Kimberly

Author:Alice Kimberly
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Ghost, Private investigators, Ghost stories, Mystery & Detective, Horror, Novelists, Women booksellers, Fiction, Mystery fiction, Ghosts, General, Booksellers and bookselling, Rhode Island
ISBN: 9780425212653
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2006-09-05T20:10:57.059403+00:00

TUESDAY AFTERNOON WAS Sadie’s time to help out at the church with event planning. Since school for Spencer didn’t end until 3:15 and Garfield wasn’t on the schedule until tomorrow, I was momentarily stuck behind the counter, unable to raise Brainert by phone or leave the store to track him down.

We’d only seen a few customers all morning, which gave me far too much time to worry about Rene Montour, the Phelps editions, Brainert apparent solving of the Poe Code, and my appointment with another Chesley.

“Could the new principal really be a relative of Peter’s?” I’d been muttering to myself for hours. “Maybe it’s just a coincidence.”

I was dying to ask my aunt what she thought, but she’d been so worked up about the second Poe sale that I thought it was best to just send her off to her church work and find another time to discuss the sudden appearance of another Chesley.

When 1:00 P.M. rolled around, I decided to close for a quiet lunch. I hung the BACK IN ONE HOUR sign and threw the bolt, then, lunch in hand, I moved to a favorite spot I’d set up in the back corner of the selling floor.

There, in an easy chair, I could eat in peace and not be visible, like some zoological specimen, to people passing on the sidewalk. Otherwise, on a slow day like this, I could almost imagine the plaque outside the window—“Female of the species Bookstorus Independicus, nearly extinct.”

I’d just sunk into the chair when I heard a sound, like furniture bumping together. It seemed to be coming from the Community Events space.

I peeked around the archway. The room was empty and silent. Then I noticed the door to the storeroom was wide open, and strong hands seized me from behind, pinning my arms.

“Where are those books?” a male voice hissed in my ear.

“What books? This store is full of them, you know!”

The man spun me around and slammed me against the wall, bouncing my head off the Dennis Lehane co-op poster.

“The books!”

The intruder’s voice was raspy, like he was trying to disguise it. I felt my blood pumping, my vision fade to red.

Calm down, doll.

Jack was here. I wasn’t alone. I clung to that thought like a dinghy to an anchor in a category Four.

Trust me, sweetheart. I’ll walk you through this.

“How?” I mentally demanded.

Take inventory. What’s in front of you?

I blew out a held breath, tried to memorize details. The intruder was taller than me by at least a head and had broad shoulders. He wore a black denim jacket and a black woolly cap pulled down over his face like a hood.

It wasn’t a tailored ski mask, I realized. This was a do-it-yourself job with just two eye slits ragged and askew. I couldn’t see any other part of his face, so I tried to make out his eye color, but the man was wearing tinted glasses beneath his mask. The effect was impressively scary. He wore gloves and his grip was painfully tight.

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