Hickory Dickory Doc.”
My limbs shake, and my breath gets trapped in my lungs.
“Freeze! Texas Rangers!” Two men in white dress shirts, slacks, and cowboy hats stand on both thresholds that lead into the children’s section. Their feet are planted and both men have a gun raised at Seth, but he doesn’t pay either of them any attention.
“I said, freeze!” the one on my right orders.
Seth pulls out another grenade, and each ranger acts fast. Seth stumbles backward with each bullet that pierces his body. When he is riddled with bullet holes, he falls backward onto the child-sized bean bag.
One ranger cautiously approaches the body, his gun still fixed on Seth, and the other rushes to my side. “Let’s get you out of here. Can you walk?”
But I can’t move. I can’t speak. All I can do is stare down at the bleeding body of the man who used to be a scared boy. A patient of Mystic River Psychiatric Hospital.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
GRIFFIN
“Ninety-two bottles of beer on the wall, ninety-two bottles of beer! Take one down, pass it around. Ninety-two bottles of beer on the?—”
“If you keep singing that fucking song, I’m going to throwthisbottle of beer at you,” Knox threatens.
“I’d like to see you try,” I goad.
We’re supposed to be discussing the current outstanding balances for the gamblers downstairs. And what do you know? Graham LeBlanc made the list.
Knox points to the list on the desk. “These two are supposed to pay up tonight, but this one,” he points to Graham, “may need a more…personal visit.”
“We can find him?—”
Camden bursts through the door, panting and sporting wild eyes. “You need to get to the library. Now!”
“What’s going on?” Knox’s lips purse.
“It’s Raven. Something’s happened at the library.”
That’s all he needs to say to get us to spring into action. Knox and I are up and running to my truck.
“Benny, you’re in charge,” Knox shouts as we pass the bar.
“Everything okay?” Benny calls to us. But we don’t have time to satisfy his curiosity.
Knox and I are in the cab and peeling out of the parking lot in under a minute. The good thing about living in a small town is that it doesn’t take more than fifteen minutes to get from one end of town to the other. It’s just our luck that the library is on the same side of town as The Wandering Raven.
“What do you think happened?” Knox asks.
“I think we’re about to find out,” I say as I nod to the parking lot full of police cars, firetrucks, first responders, and lookie loos.
A team of firefighters have a hose in their hands, aiming it at the library. Smoke billows out from the broken windows, and…is that a hole in the side of the building?
“What the hell happened here?” Knox questions in awe.
“I have no idea,” I respond.
“Do you think Florence is okay?”
“She may not have even been here. She has her monthly appointment with her cardiologist today, remember?”
Parking my truck in the elementary school parking lot, we hop out of the truck and jog into the fray. We shove our way through the crowd, ignoring the police tape barrier. It’s chaos all around. An EMT tends to a mother and her child who have little cuts and bruises sprinkled over their arms and faces. More people wait on the side to have their wounds treated. Firefighters in full gear are running into the burning building. Police officers fight to keep a perimeter around the mess.
