The Courier by CW Browning

Author:CW Browning [Browning, CW]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Historical
Published: 2020-02-22T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

Evelyn walked past the circulation desk where two librarians were busy sorting and stamping stacks of books. Glancing at them, she caught the eye of one, nodding to him cheerfully. The man nodded in greeting before returning his attention to his task.

After leaving the café, she had stopped into a tobacconist on a narrow side street, ostensibly to purchase some cigarettes. While chatting with the clerk, she could see through the two storefront windows easily and watched as people hurried down the narrow sidewalk. As the clerk was ringing up her purchase, a man in a black overcoat had drawn her attention as he passed the window. He hadn’t looked inside, but she nevertheless had felt a leap in her pulse. She paid for her purchase, asked the clerk for directions to the library, and left the small shop. When she had climbed onto the tram that would carry her within a block of the library, the same man had also boarded.

Now, crossing the wide tiled entryway towards the reading area, Evelyn glanced behind her. If there had been any doubt that she was being followed, it had been dispelled when he got off the tram at her stop. While there was no sign of him now, she had no doubt that he would reappear.

The library was an old, sprawling structure with tiled floor and heavy, ornate woodwork. Her heels echoed in the muted quiet of the vast building as she entered the main reading room. The area consisted of a collection of tables, some long enough for several people, and others intended for one person. A smattering of fellow patrons were already settled in at various tables with books and notebooks before them. One woman dressed in a smart gray suit had a variety of books spread out on a table, her head bent as she perused the pages of a thick tome, alternating between scribbling in a notebook and examining the text before her.

The smell of books and wood polish permeated the air, and Evelyn inhaled deeply, shifting her gaze to the wide, circular staircase that led to the second level. A wall of card catalogs separated the reading area from the circulation and periodicals side of the building and she eyed it briefly. The urge to go straight to the wooden drawers and find the card for A Treatise on Lepidoptera, Volume Three was almost overwhelming. All she wanted was to get the envelope and get out of the library without incident.

Swallowing, she turned to walk over to one of the tables towards the back of the immense room. Positioned towards the back corner, Evelyn would have a clear view of everyone who entered the area, as well as anyone who went up the wide circular stairs to the upper levels. Taking a deep breath, she moved towards the empty table. She had just seated herself when the man in the black overcoat moved across the wide lobby to the circulation desk.

Despite the fact that she’d known he would show up, her heart still thumped in her chest and she let out a soft gasp.

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