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I wish I had my sunglasses with me to hide behind. Or, like, a trenchcoat or something. Although, on second thoughts, knowing my luck, I’d look more like a flasher than a spy. And I’m notspyingexactly, anyway. I’m just…observing, is all. From a distance. So I don’t disturb them.
“Can I take this with me, Bella?” Jack is asking, holding up a large piece of paper which looks fragile and yellowed with age. “It’s just, I don’t have a lot of time right now, and I’d really like to take a closer look at it.”
“Och, I’m afraid not, lad,” says Bella, who’s in her eighties now, but who hasn’t lost any of the ‘headteacher’ attitude that saw her through several decades at Heather Bay Primary. “It’s the only copy we have, and it’s even older than I am, which is saying something. So I cannae let it out of the building.”
“Maybe you could photocopy it for us, then?” suggests Rose, who has absolutely no reason to be accompanying Jack to his “business meetings” as far as I know.
“I wish I could,” says Bella, looking at her over the rim of her glasses. “But the photocopier isnae working. McTavish said he’d take a look at it, but he hasnae managed to fit it in yet.”
“Are you sure I can’t just take it with me?” says Jack, turning on the charm. “Come on, Bella, you know you can trust me to look after it. This map is as important to me as it is to you, I promise.”
A map? Surely it can’t be the same one I’m here to see? I mean, surely to God not?
“Emerald?”
I jump guiltily as Frankie taps me on the shoulder.
“Hiya,” she says cheerfully. “I wasn’t expecting to see you here. How did your training session go? Did Brian tell you about the towel?”
“Shh!” I hiss, pulling her down beside me until we’re both in a crouching position behind the shelves. “What are you doing here, Frankie?”
“Er, getting some books?” Frankie says in astating-the-obvioustone, indicating the pile of paperbacks she’s clutching, and not bothering to lower her voice. “What else would I be doing in a library? What areyoudoing? And why are we hiding behind a bookshelf?”
“Shh!” I say again. I push some books to one side, creating a gap we can peer through together.
“Oh, look!” says Frankie, who obviously needs to get her hearing checked if this is her idea of being quiet. “There’s Jack! And Rose! Why aren’t you with them? Why are—”
I clamp my hand over her mouth, and her eyes widen in surprise.
“Sorry,” I whisper, letting her go. “I don’t want them to see me.”
“Dare I ask?” asks Frankie, looking at me suspiciously. “Please tell me this isn’t something to do with these messages, Emerald? You don’t actuallybelievethem, do you? Don’t tell me I’m going to have to call McTavish and stage an intervention?”
“No,” I say instantly. “Of course not. I just… Look, I don’t have time to get into this now. I’ll tell you all about it later, okay?”
“Fine,” says Frankie, in a huff. “I’ll leave you to your stalking, then; or whatever it is you’re doing. I think I’ll put some of these thrillers back, though. I’ve had enough drama for one morning.”
I frown after her.
That’s the second person to call me dramatic this week. Maybe I need to have a think about that for a second? Maybe I need to… well, stop hiding from my fiancé behind a pile of murder mysteries, for one thing?
I risk another quick look out from betweenThe Husband’s SecretandThe Wife Who Knew Too Much.Jack and Rose have moved over to another part of the library now, and I’m just replacing the books I’ve moved so I can follow them, when suddenly a wooly head appears beside me and snatches one of them from my hand.
“Edna?” I say, as the sheep trots off with the book in her mouth. “What the hell?”
I stare after her, confused, and a few seconds later, Old Jimmy, the sheep’s owner, appears, carrying the same book in his hand.
“Ach,” he says, putting it back on the shelf. “She’s already read this yin. I dinnae ken whit she was thinkin’.”
He shuffles off to find Edna, and I stand there blinking for a moment.
Iseveryonein Heather Bay in the library this morning, then?
I go back to my hiding spot and crouch down to look through the gap in the shelves again. Jack and Rose have disappeared now, but I spot Brian, still in his running gear, clutching a takeaway coffee from The Wildcat and flipping through a rack of magazines by the door, while Lexie’s mum, Samantha, browses the true crime section in a pair of dark glasses.
Yup, looks like it. Gotta love a small town.
I step warily out from behind the bookshelves, wondering if I should find Bella and ask about the map — thatiswhy I’m here, after all — or just cut my losses and head for home. Before I can decide, though, my phone pings loudly in my bag, and I dart back behind the shelf to look at it.
