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Hailey’s crazed eyes met mine. “Go now,” she hissed. “Save yourself.”
I didn’t need to be told twice. I tucked the book under my arm and the printout in my purse and hurried to the exit.
I waited until I was safely out of the library before I looked at Bruce’s library record. His most recent borrow was a year ago. John Grisham’sThe Firm. Most of his borrows were in the thriller genre. He and Ray had similar tastes in fiction. Too bad they hadn’t known that when they were alive. They could’ve started a book club.
I wasn’t sure what I had hoped to learn from the library records, but whatever it was, I didn’t see it. I thought about the driver who might have interacted with Bruce whenever he dropped off the books. I figured in a town as small as Fairhaven, it wouldn’t be difficult to track down Pete Alton.
Everybody in town seemed to know that Pete Alton was a big fan of soccer, which meant I was able to locate him at his grandson’s game. Caeden Alton was number 4, apparently. A fullback with dreams of playing center forward, if only number 19 would tear his meniscus or dislocate a kneecap. I had no idea high school soccer was so cutthroat.
“Sit down and watch,” Pete urged, once I’d introduced myself and gotten the rundown on the game.
“I don’t have much time…”
“You have time for this, trust me. These players are amazing for their ages. So skilled. Not like when I was a kid.” The deep grooves of his face and thinning white hair suggested he was pushing eighty. His eyes however, sparkled with youth.
“That’s okay. Group sports were never my thing.” In actual fact,groupswere never my thing. Too many sour memories of kids excluding me because I was “weird,” “different,” or a “freak.” Their instincts were right, of course. I was all of those things, but I wouldn’t have hurt them. Pops had taught me very early on to be careful of what I could do. I called it his Spider-Man speech. I didn’t even know the full extent of my abilities then, and it would’ve been difficult to lay waste to the elementary school population without that knowledge.
“What’s so important that you needed to hunt me down like a rabbit?” He popped open a can of nuts and proceeded to offer me a handful. I politely declined.
“I’m looking for information on Bruce Huang.”
“The recluse?”
“No, the hermit. The recluse is Otto Visconti.” Or was it the other way around?
Pete laughed. “I see you’re getting to know our residents.”
“Not Bruce. I’m afraid he’s dead.”
Pete’s expression crumpled. “I’m sorry to hear that. At my age, you’d think I’d be used to news like that, but it never gets easier.” He stuffed a handful of nuts into his mouth and chewed noisily. “How’d he go?”
“He fell,” I said, keeping the story as vague as possible.
“I used to deliver his books from the library and return them when he was done. Now that you mention him, it’s been a while since I was there.”
“I thought you might have interacted with him on occasion.”
Pete shook his head. “Not me. I’d leave the books on the doorstep and get a call to pick them up when he was done. Then I’d find them back on the doorstep.”
“Did you even see him?”
“Only once, when I looked in the window. I heard a loud noise.” He stopped to cheer for Caeden, who’d stolen the ball from the other team’s offense. “I was concerned, so I peeped inside.”
“What did you see?”
Pete tossed a few more nuts into his mouth and chewed thoughtfully. “To this day, I’m not quite sure. Moira, my late wife, she said it must’ve been the allergy medication I was taking. Made me delusional.”
Now I really wanted to know what Pete saw in the house that day. “You’ve piqued my curiosity.”
He cast me a sidelong glance. “You’re going to think I’m as nuts as what’s in this can.”
“I’d bet good money that I won’t.”
He cleared his throat. “I think he was keeping an alligator or some kind of exotic pet.”
Okay, not the answer I expected. “An alligator? Are you sure?”
“No. I only caught a glimpse of scales. Then they were gone as quick as a flash. It wasn’t like I could ask Bruce about it, since we never spoke. I figured it’s the reason he kept people away. He didn’t want them to take away his exotic pet.”
