On Borrowed Time (15 page)

“O
h, man, I just thought of a thingy I have to do before a meeting with the mayor tomorrow,” Lindsey said.

She turned and tossed her purse back in her office and shrugged off her coat and tossed it into the small room as well. She hooked a hand through each of their elbows and half led, half dragged them to the door.

“You two are just the sweetest of the sweet,” she said. “But it looks like I'll have to work late. Tell you what, I'll call Nancy or Charlie for a ride so you don't have to come back here. Great. Awesome. K'bye.”

She all but shoved the two men out the sliding door and then spun on her heel and raced into the young adult reading section. Beth had been building a corner of the children's area into a sweet teen hangout space with video games, manga and loads of music, magazines and DVDs. Lindsey frequently wished she'd had a space like this when she was a teen. It was, in their words, epic.

She hurried over to the fiction shelves and searched for the book Jack had mentioned by the author's last name. Please do not let it be checked out, she thought. She dove into the
L
's and followed them to L'Engle. One copy of
A Wrinkle in Time
was on the shelf, and she grabbed it and hurried back to her office.

Jack had said, “Don't worry. It's not like I've been taken to Camazotz—” just before he'd been cut off by Antonia.

Camazotz was the dark planet mentioned in the novel, and when Lindsey and her brother were little, they used to play in their parents' walk-in closet, locking themselves in with the lights out and pretending it was Camazotz and “IT” was trying to control their minds. In their game, one of them was always controlled by “IT,” and the other had to perform a daring rescue to save them.

So why had he mentioned it? Was it a clue? Had he just been trying to put her at ease by referencing their favorite book? Or was he being held in a closet somewhere? Lindsey felt tears of frustration well up in her eyes.

Where are you, Jack? What's happening? What did you get mixed up in?
Around and around the questions pummeled her brain.

Lindsey rubbed a hand over her eyes. She had to get a grip and pull it together. She thumbed through the book. Had Jack scribbled a note in it somewhere? The librarian in her didn't even care about damage to materials if it meant she could find her brother.

There was nothing. No errant piece of paper wedged inside the pages. Nothing written in Jack's distinctive blocky scrawl. She paged to the part of the book that mentioned Camazotz. Again, nothing.

She turned the book over. She looked for anything odd on the cover. The labels were all in place. The paperback book was in perfect condition, despite a little wear on the binding.

She put it down on her desk and rested her hand on it. Maybe Jack's words had been just that, words. She drummed her fingers on the cover. Under her ring finger, she felt a ridge.

She ran her fingers over it. Sure enough, on the back cover there was a tiny little bump. It could be nothing, but she flipped open the book and checked. The square of adhesive that held the book's RFID—radio frequency identification—tag in place in the book was the only thing she saw.

The library had switched to the RFID method of checking out a few years before. It was a microchip radio frequency mash-up that replaced the barcode and combined the ability to check out and prevent theft all in one. Ms. Cole had been resistant to the new technology, but Lindsey had been insistent and she noted that Ms. Cole had ceased complaining once the new system was installed and operational. Lindsey suspected that the lemon really enjoyed the antitheft properties of the RFID.

Lindsey examined the tag. A corner was peeling as if it had been tampered with. Lindsey carefully pulled it back and gasped. Sure enough, tucked under the tag was a micro SD card the size of the fingernail on her pinky and as thin as a piece of poster board.

Her hands shook as she carefully took it out of its hiding spot. Jack
had
been leaving her a clue. This card had to be what the cartel members were seeking.

Lindsey reached for her phone. She had to tell Emma right away. Before she touched the receiver, her phone rang. The noise made her jump and she tightened her grip on the tiny little card.

“Briar Creek Public Library,” she answered, hoping to get rid of her caller as swiftly as possible. “This is Lindsey, how can I help you?”

“You're holding what I want,” a woman's voice said. It was thick with an exotic accent, and Lindsey knew she was talking to Antonia Murroz.

“Where's my brother?” she asked.

Lindsey's eyes scanned the windows. Where was Antonia? How could she see her? Dread trailed its cold clammy hand up her back to rest on the nape of her neck.

“He is unharmed—for now,” Antonia said. “If you want him back, you will exchange the micro card in your possession for him. We will be at the pier at ten o'clock. Don't be late and don't go to the police or I will have no choice but to kill your brother.”

The woman hung up and Lindsey realized she was shivering and sweating at the same time. She glanced at the clock. She desperately wanted to go to the police and make this their problem, but that wasn't an option. She had no doubt that the woman would kill Jack and not even chip her nail polish while doing it.

Lindsey closed her eyes. She needed to think. The most important thing to do was keep the micro card safe. She took her phone out and popped out her tiny memory card and put this one inside it. She then put her phone in her pocket for safekeeping.

She figured she might as well help close the library and then she could go to the Anchor and wait until the appointed meeting time with Antonia.

She rose from her desk and headed out front. Ms. Cole had most of the building shut down while Ann Marie was checking out the last borrower. When that person left, Ann Marie went to lock the door after them.

Lindsey swept the adult area, the meeting rooms and the bathrooms. She was just rounding the corner to go back to the front desk when a man stepped out from between the stacks.

He was built big and strong with a thick neck and a square jaw. The woolen cap on his head made him look like a dock worker who would be just as comfortable cracking skulls as he would be unloading barges. Then Lindsey noticed the gun he held. It was pointed at her. His hand didn't shake, letting her know he was perfectly capable of pulling the trigger with no hesitation.

She gulped. “I'm sorry, the library is closed.”

The man frowned at her. He held out one beefy hand and gestured to her impatiently. His voice was thick with an accent much like Antonia's when he said, “Give it to me.”

“I'm sorry,” Lindsey said. Her mouth was dry and her tongue was sticking to the roof of her mouth. “Did you need something?”

Yes, she was going with the tried-and-true play stupid method of stalling for time. She knew she couldn't give him the micro card. If she did, Jack was a dead man. On the other hand, if the guy killed her and took it, they would both be dead. She wondered if she could grab a book and smack the gun out of his hand. It seemed unlikely. She glanced at his arms and wondered if they were the same arms that had choked the life out of Juan Veracruz. It seemed probable.

“Give it now!” the man demanded, and he snapped his fingers in her face.

“Listen—” she began but was interrupted by the sudden arrival of Robbie.

“Lindsey, the sea serpent and I were talking—” Robbie began but was cut off when the man turned and fired at him through the stacks.

“Bloody hell!” Robbie cried as the bullet whizzed past his ear and lodged itself into a section of Nicholas Sparks's books.

Lindsey knew she had one chance to get away. She raced around the shelving unit and started shoving the books through the shelves with all her strength. Robbie ran to her side and started to do the same. The man was hammered by an avalanche of books.

“What the hell is happening?” Sully shouted as he appeared at the end of the row. “You were supposed to convince her to let one of us give her a ride home.”

“Yeah, well, winning the coin toss to talk to Lindsey was not great!” Robbie answered.

“Man with a gun!” Lindsey shouted.

Sully was in action before her words even registered. He went down low and started firing books through the shelves like rockets. He must have gotten in a particularly good shot, because Lindsey heard the man grunt and saw him double over.

She heard the gun clatter to the floor and Robbie grabbed her hand and shouted, “Run!”

They raced out of the stacks with Sully bringing up the rear. Ms. Cole and Ann Marie stared at them until Lindsey waved for them to run, too.

“Go! Go! Go!” she cried.

Ms. Cole and Ann Marie dashed through the workroom to the back door. They pushed through it, not slowing down until they reached the parking lot.

“Go to the police station!” Lindsey ordered. “Hurry!”

In a tight pack, with Robbie and Sully on the outside trying to cover the ladies, they hustled down the sidewalk toward the station. Robbie jerked the door open and pushed each of the women into the main room.

“Get away from the window,” Sully ordered. He ushered them all to the back of the room.

“What is going on out here?” Emma Plewicki entered the room from the offices in back.

“There's a man with a gun in the library,” Lindsey said.

“Was the building clear?” Emma asked.

“Yes, we were the only people left in it,” Ms. Cole said. She gestured to the five of them.

Emma went right to her radio and began calling all of her officers in. Detective Trimble came out and Emma briefed him on what was happening.

“We have to secure the building,” she said. She and Trimble headed out with Tom Jarvis right on their heels.

“I work security,” he said. “I can help.”

“Are you licensed to carry?” Emma asked.

“Of course,” he said.

The three of them left and the room grew quiet.

“What do we do now?” Ann Marie asked. She looked scared and nervous and Lindsey felt bad for her.

“You go home,” she said. “Call your husband and have him come get you. If Emma needs to speak with you, she'll call you in.”

Just then the front doors banged open and Milton Duffy strode in. He crossed right to Ms. Cole and wrapped her in a hug.

“My dear, I was at a historical society meeting when Bill Sint popped in to say he'd been listening to the police scanner and heard there was a shooting at the library,” Milton said. He glanced at them all and then back at Ms. Cole. “Are you all right?”

Ms. Cole patted his arm. “I'm fine, dearest, just fine.”

In a world that had gone utterly mad, Lindsey couldn't help but feel an “
aw
” bubble up inside her. Milton had been a widower for several years, and Ms. Cole was the town spinster, but after performing in a play together a few months before, they seemed to have found something special together.

“Are you needed here, or can I escort you home?” Milton asked. “I imagine a nice spot of tea would calm your nerves.”

“That would be lovely, among other things,” Ms. Cole said.

Lindsey saw Ann Marie's jaw drop, and it was all she could do to keep hers firmly in place. Had Ms. Cole just made an innuendo-laden proposition to Milton? Judging by how red the tips of his ears got, Lindsey was pretty sure she had.

“G'night,” Milton said to them in a hasty and distracted manner as he hustled Ms. Cole out of the station.

“Damned octogenarian is making better time than either of us,” Robbie muttered to Sully.

“Please, my ego is battered enough,” Sully said.

“Excuse me,” Lindsey said. If Antonia had been watching her in the library, she had to assume that Antonia was still watching her. Then again, if the man with the gun had been watching Lindsey for Antonia, maybe she was in the clear.

That didn't make sense, however, because why would Antonia have set up an exchange with her if she was sending a thug into the library to muscle the micro card away from Lindsey? Because just like she had lied about being married to keep Lindsey from reporting Jack's kidnapping, she had arranged a meeting with Lindsey to exchange the card for Jack, knowing full well that her thug would take it from Lindsey before the arranged time and place.

Unless, of course, Antonia was on the up and up and the thug had been sent by one of the other cartel members like Carrego. Either way, Lindsey had a feeling she was not supposed to come out of tonight's meeting alive and neither was Jack.

Lindsey felt as if her brain was contracting. She was tired of letting the bad guys call the shots. She needed a new plan.

Lindsey searched the contacts in her phone. Nancy picked up on the second ring.

“Can you come and get me at the police station?” Lindsey asked.

“I'll be right there,” Nancy agreed and hung up.