Think Outside the Fox : A Cozy Mystery for Animal Lovers (Bought-the-Farm Mystery Book 16) by Ellen Riggs

Author:Ellen Riggs [Riggs , Ellen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781990613302
Published: 2023-09-14T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Libraries were near the top of my list of happy places, although they’d drifted below barn, pasture and manure pile. In childhood, I spent many happy days hidden in the stacks of the Clover Grove library and now I was growing fond of our librarian, Dottie Bridges. I’d managed to shelve my resentment over her aiding and abetting a murderer who set her sights on me. Crime-solving truly benefited from forgiveness. You never knew when someone who’d done you wrong would steer you right.

Thelma Tilrow and I got off to a better start. Sure, she’d put me through my paces, but she knew about me from her best friend Dottie and had ultimately come to my aid. More than that, she had put her life on the line for my beloved Keats. To me, that was more important than saving my own hide. Without him, well… I wouldn’t go there. Despite being here, where it nearly happened. Specifically, we were heading up the ramp to the red schoolhouse that held the Thistledown library. I shivered as I walked in the door but the smell of old books went a long way to counter the trauma. Too bad they couldn’t bottle that smell because a whiff would come in very handy in precarious situations.

Thelma was at command central, her check-out desk, and didn’t lift her crown of stiff gray roller-set sausage curls. “Good evening, ladies. I expected you. That’s the only reason the door is unlocked after five. I tend to be more cautious these days.”

One could hardly blame her, after a killer staged an invasion with my dog and held her captive. She had offered herself in exchange for Keats, but the man needed to surrender a specific hostage to his crime lord and that was my dog.

Keats presented his ears to quell my nerves, but the fanning white tuft on his tail suggested those memories hadn’t sunk their teeth into him as they had me. For the most part, old news was exactly that for him and facing a bath was more emotional than reentering a crime scene.

He moved away from me with an indignant grumble, perhaps sensing my traitorous thoughts.

“Well, hello handsome,” Thelma said, her normally severe tone light. “It’s good to see you in fine fettle.”

“You don’t hear the word fettle often these days,” Edna said. “Shows your age, Thelma. If the roller set hadn’t already done it.”

“It’s no worse than your perm, Edna,” Thelma said. “If you’re not worried about what those chemicals are doing to your faculties, keep taking the easy route. I value my acuity enough to heat up my rollers twice a week.”

So many of my senior friends enjoyed trash-talking each other that I wondered if it was their way of connecting without getting sentimental. It was good for their acuity, too.

Jilly went over and hugged Thelma. We’d only seen her once since Christmas but expected to be down here more soon. Keats’ breeder, Maud Gentry, lived close by, and his littermate, Frost, was expecting puppies any day.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.