Chapter 2

The library went very quiet.

Not the comfortable quiet of old houses settling, or the working quiet of a woman packing her dead mother's books. It was the sharp, sudden quiet of a room where something has gone fundamentally wrong, and everyone in it knows it except the person who caused it.

Roger bent down and picked up his flashlight. He didn't turn it on. He just held it, his eyes on the floorboards, like he was hoping the situation would resolve itself if he looked at it long enough.

Constance's glove came down from the shelf. She turned toward Hedda slowly, her silver set-wave catching the cold white light from the storm windows, and she smiled — the bright, practiced smile of a woman who had been in charge of every room she'd ever entered and intended to keep the streak alive.

"This page disagrees," she repeated, letting the words hang in the air like a dare. "What page is that, Hedda? A book you're packing? A scrap of paper you found in a library book?"

Hedda held up the book. The dark green hardback, no dust jacket, her mother's book. She held it flat, open to the letterpress page, and she kept it at chest height where the tablet could see it — where Ms. Dowd could see it.

"Read it," Hedda said. Her voice was low and unhurried, the voice of a woman who had spent thirty years explaining to people why their family Bibles were falling apart and what could be done about it. "Read it out loud."

Ms. Dowd stepped forward. Her fingers stopped moving on the tablet, but she didn't put it down. She held it in one hand, her eyes moving across the page in Hedda's hands, her lips barely moving as she read silently.

Constance's smile didn't waver. "Hedda, sweetheart, if you're trying to pull some—"

"Ma'am." Ms. Dowd's voice cut through the air, crisp and measured and professional. "I need to ask you to be quiet for a moment."

The smile finally flickered. Just for a second. Then Constance recovered, patting her silver set-wave with her gloved hand, and made a small noise of amusement. "Well. I suppose we're all entitled to a little drama before the closing."