“This could be considered special treatment,” Arnie said.
Stella smirked. “I’m going to take that as a yes.”
“I would never agree to let Vicki, Dan, or Melanie sleep here overnight.”
“They’re all part-timers,” Stella said. “Plus, they wouldn’t want to spend the night in a big, dark library alone.Andnone of them bring your favorite cookies.” Stella pointed toward the circulation desk. A local bakery box waited for him.
Arnie’s gaze followed her finger. “Bribery? Is there no end to your corruption?”
Stella held open her hands, palms facing up. “I do what needs to be done. Half a dozen white chocolate macadamia nut should do the trick.”
“Sure, kiddo,” he said. “Stay as long as you like. I would suggest sleeping in the fairy-tale section. There’s a better view of the stars coming through the windows. I’m going to be doing late-night research in the archives tonight, but I’ll keep it down.”
Stella’s interest roused. They still hadn’t discussed the night she hit her head. “Doing research... alone?”
Arnie’s eyes narrowed. “Of course. Nothing that would interest you... yet.”
“Yet?” she asked.
Arnie straightened the spectacles on his nose. “I’ll let you know when things get good.”
His words sent a zing of electricity up her spine. He moved away from the balcony, but glistening words the color of ripe grapes slipped out from beneath his shoes and tumbled from the second-floor ledge toward Stella.Mystery. Concealed. Encounter.They landed at her feet, circled her three times, and then faded into the tiles. What was Arnie researching in the archives? Why was he being so secretive? Stella still wasn’t convinced she’d dreamed the vision of the people the other night, but without proof, there was nothing to reveal otherwise. If he said he was alone, then she had to believe him, but something felt off.
Although she was off the clock, she helped Arnie go through the closing routines, and once everyone was gone for the evening, Arnie wished her good night and headed into the archives, saying he’d set the alarm once he was finished but wouldn’t bother her again in case she was already sleeping. She didn’t press him for more details, but perhaps she’d sneak down to the archives in a bit, just to check up on him. Until then, Stella grabbed a copy ofThe Wonderful Wizard of Ozand her stuff from home and found a spot in the fairy-tale section near the windows.
She stretched out on her sleeping bag to read and assumed she’d be awake for a while, giving Arnie enough time to settle in before she dropped in on him. She nestled into her sleeping bag and opened the book to her favorite chapter.
Stella’s eyes popped open, and her heart jumped like someone had shocked her with a defibrillator. Moonlight streamedthrough the glass and cast silver stripes across her chest and legs. Something—a noise, a nearby movement—had woken her. She pushed herself up on her elbows, reached for her cell phone, and checked the time:1:15 a.m.The sound of stifled laughter caused the hair on the back of her neck to stand. She stayed perfectly still until she heard the shuffling of multiple sets of feet down an aisle near her.
She scrambled out of the sleeping bag as though she’d discovered snakes at the bottom of it. Then she crouched and tried to scan through openings on the shelves while her heart thundered. Stella crept barefoot down the aisle, but the intruders’ movements stopped. Her pulse throbbed hard against her temples, and she held her breath. At the end of the aisle, two shadows stepped into the moonlight. Their silhouettes shimmered, and their white teeth were visible against their darkened faces. One appeared to be wearing clothes a few sizes too big for him.Two teenage boys.
Stella inhaled a deep breath so she could either release a scream or demand that they get out immediately, but one of the boys burst out laughing. Then he shoved the boy beside him, and they both ran off down the adjacent aisle.
She wasn’t thinking properly when she snatched a book—a spontaneous weapon—from the closest shelf and chased after them. A door slammed somewhere, echoing through the cavernous foyer, but by the time she entered the main foyer, the library was silent except for her own labored breathing. Her body stayed rigid for another minute, her senses heightened and searching. But no one was moving anywhere near her.
Stella stood in the middle of the empty foyer for a few more minutes, listening, waiting, training her ears for anything. Soon her heartbeat slowed, and she wondered if she’d imagined the boys. Had she been dreaming? Still she walked through the library checkingall the doors and windows. On her last pass through the foyer, she tugged on the vault door leading to the archives. It was closed and secure. Arnie had obviously finished his research and gone home.
She shuffled back to her sleeping bag, taking the aisle where the boys had been hiding when she’d first heard them. She was looking for out-of-place books or vandalism. Then she noticed something in front of her that shimmered in the moonlight. Her eyes couldn’t focus on what it was, but it reminded her of peering through a waterfall. She hurried straight ahead and slammed into something.
Her brain immediately computed thesomethingas a giant spiderweb. Stella’s scream was muffled by plastic sticking to her face. The book she’d planned to use as a makeshift weapon bounced out of her hand and slid across the floor behind her. She lurched backward and ran her hands over her face as if to check for damage or spiders.
Then she stepped forward with caution and reached out both hands. Her fingertips grazed bands of plastic that had been stretched horizontally from one bookshelf to the other. Plastic wrap. Stella snatched the plastic from the shelves and crushed it together until she had a hard, plastic ball in her palm.
She stomped around the library again calling out, “I know you’re in here!” “Come out, come out, wherever you are,” “Show your faces,” and “Real funny trick,” but she saw no one, and no one came out of hiding to admit to the prank. Where were they hiding? How had they gotten into a locked library? Should she call Arnie or the police? Getting kids into serious trouble didn’t seem like a fair punishment for pulling a prank in the library. But knowing all the windows and doors were locked also made the likelihood of kids being able to break in extremely slim. Would the police assume she was making up a wild story?
But was she? She’dseensomething, and she’d definitely run into the plastic-wrap wall. Stella performed another search of the library,but after half an hour, she gave up and returned to her sleeping bag. She called Arnie, but his phone went straight to voicemail. Nothing could be done until tomorrow anyway.
“Here’s to hoping they don’t burn the place down.”
She dropped the plastic-wrap ball beside her and grabbedThe Wonderful Wizard of Oz. She thought it would take a while before she could fall back asleep, but when she laid her head on her pillow and closed her eyes for a moment, exhaustion crept in. The book slipped from her relaxed fingers. As she dozed off, she thought she heard voices and someone whispering the name Huck.
Chapter 7
“Rise and shine, buttercup.”
Arnie’s voice drifted into Stella’s mind, and she blinked in the pale yellow morning sunlight. She experienced that moment ofwhere am I?followed by the memory of moonlight, laughter, and an impact with a wall of plastic wrap. Arnie stood at her feet, dressed in black slacks and a charcoal-gray button-down. He held a cup of coffee that released spirals of steam toward the high ceiling.
She stretched and yawned before sitting up and rubbing her lower back. The sleeping bag bunched around her waist. “What day is it?”
