“He has you playing mailman again, I see.”
Jack just grins, watching me with barely concealed excitement. I give him a funny look because he’s acting strange, then scan the parking lot again.
“Where is everyone?”
“Busy.” He stares pointedly at the letter in my hands. “Aren’t you going to read that?”
I glance down at the envelope, then back up at Jack. I want to read it, but not with an audience. Besides, I need to get the Wi-fi going, the book cart unloaded, and make sure everything else is in place for the first patron.
I wave my arm behind me. “I need to get Cletus set up first.”
Jack breezes past me, heading in a direct line to Cletus’s side door. “I’ll do it. You read the letter.”
I stare at Jack’s back before he disappears inside the van. Is it just me, or is he acting stranger than normal?
Another sweep of the parking lot tells me there still aren’t any people waiting for the bookmobile. Giving in to curiosity, I slip my finger under the envelope’s flap and peel it open. I love that Levi and I still exchange letters. I hope that we never stop.
There’s only a ripped piece of paper inside. No salutations or greeting of any kind. The few words there stare up at me, kicking my pulse into high gear. It’s a clue.
I bite my bottom lip, torn. I want to drop everything and follow this trail, figure out what game Levi is playing. But I’m also working and have to be responsible.
“Just so you know, no one is coming.” Jack steps out of the bookmobile and shuts the door behind him.
“Excuse me?”
“Turkey Grove is boycotting the bookmobile today. Not a soul is going to stop by, so you might as well get.” He crosses his arms over his chest and juts his chin in the direction of Levi’s, a smile gracing the lower portion of his face.
“The whole town is in on this?” I hold up the paper.
He shakes his head at me. “I’m not saying another word except to tell you again to get out of here.”
I grin at him, then bolt toward Levi’s house, the words on the paper burned into my mind.
“What woman has a lover more truly in love;whatqueen a servant more ardent.”
Which of course is a quote fromThe Three Musketeerswritten by Alexandre Dumas. Levi often refers to our feline triplets as the three musketeers despite their wizarding names, so I know the clue, while on the surface a romantic quote, is pointing me to our cats.
I haven’t bothered knocking on Levi’s front door for a while now, so it’s not weird when I barge inside. “Levi? You here?” I call, not expecting a response.
Sure enough, he doesn’t answer. Dumpurrdore does, however, with a meow and a brush against my leg. I bend down and pick him up, my gaze snagging on the piece of paper safety-pinned to his collar.
“Did your daddy make you an accomplice to his shenanigans?” I ask as I nuzzle his head and unpin the next clue.
“My dear Jerusha,”it reads.“Please be thinking about me. I’m quite lonely andI want to be thought about.”
I once told Levi I wanted to be wooed by a mysterious pen pal because of Jean Webster’sDaddy-Long-Legs.Jerusha was the name of the heroine, even though she preferred to go by the name Judy.
It takes me longer than I want to admit to figure out where I’m supposed to go from here, but it’s the name Jerusha that finally clues me in. The matron of the children’s home Judy was raised in selected the name from a tombstone.
I kiss Dumpurrdore on the head and set him down. Off to the church cemetery I go.
Once I’m there, I look around. At some point, I’m expecting to find Levi. I was the last one of us to lead the other on a little treasure hunting adventure like this. At the end of his clues, he found me and a candlelit dinner set up in the gazebo at the park beside the library. So while I don’t know exactly what these clues will lead me to, I’m pretty certain he’ll be there.
But he’s not in the cemetery. I meander through the tombstones looking for another clue. Levi is too big to be able to hide behind any of the marble slabs. Sure enough, a bouquet of paper flowers rests atop a particular marker, a note hidden within the petals.
I unfold the paper and read.
“If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you.”
