Laws of Nature -2 by Christopher Golden (i can read books txt) 📕

started for the door. Behind him, he could hear her begin to play guitar again, picking out the first notes of an old song by the Eagles, "Hotel California." On his way out, he caught Molly's eye.

Something sparked in his mind, and he stopped.

"By the way," he told her, "you were right. We had a third murder just last night. A local guy. Ken Oberst. He was old, but people were fond of him."

"That's awful," Molly replied quickly. "I'm sorry to hear it."

"Still no idea who's behind it, huh?" Jack asked.

Tina played as if none of them were even there.

Alan sniffed. "We're getting there," he lied. "Only a matter of time."

A few minutes after Deputy Vance left, Molly and Jack stepped out of the inn. On the sidewalk, they hesitated.

"I feel like we've hit a dead end," Molly confessed.

"Today at least," Jack agreed. "We'll have to find that place just based on the map we've got. We're going to have to start our expedition early tomorrow. It may take a while."

Molly nodded, deep in thought.

"What?" Jack asked.

She gazed at him. "If there's nowhere else to buy or borrow books in this town, and that diner was ransacked last night for the reasons we think, it seems to me it's only a matter of time before they hit the library."

"Might even be tonight," Jack suggested.

"If there's nowhere else for them to look, and they didn't find what they wanted, it stands to reason. Alan said they think the place was vandalized sometime after midnight."

Jack let out a long breath. "I think we're going to be up late tonight."

The Buckton Public Library wasn't much to speak of. Once upon a time it had served as the headquarters for the Town Council and the Historical Society, but sometime in the late 1950s that had changed. In truth, despite attempts to modernize as much as possible, many of the books in the library - a round building of stone and glass - were leftovers from that era.

Still, on the nights her father had to work late, Janelle Meredith found plenty to entertain herself. It was funny, really. She did not like school at all - tests, teachers, whole boring classes filled with stuff she had no interest in - and yet she loved to learn. The library was like a treasure trove, filled with fantasy stories as well as those that were true. Though Janelle liked novels, she liked history and geography the best, learning about the world and the past.

Her teachers were always after her to study harder. The problem, as they saw it, was that Janelle did not apply herself to the things she was being taught. As Janelle saw it, however, the problem was simply that they were not always teaching her the things she wanted to learn. On the other hand, Mr. Giordano, who was her history teacher, grew frustrated with her because she always wanted to know more about a topic than he was willing to teach.

Secretly, she suspected it was because he did not know any more than he had prepared to lecture about.

It was summer now, which was a wonderful relief. All she had to do was make it through her senior year in high school, and then she could leave Buckton behind and find a college where they had real teachers.

That Saturday night, when most kids in town were either at a party or the movies, or at the Pizza Bubble, Janelle had opted to hang around at the library. Not only did it mean she could spend a couple of hours roving through the stacks, but she got to spend some time just hanging around with her father.

Ned Meredith was the athletic director at Buckton Regional High. He had started out years before - Janelle wasn't sure how many, but she knew it was a lot -

as an assistant football coach. Back then he had picked up the second job of cleaning and maintenance man for the small library. These days he probably could have gotten by without the extra money, but it was his responsibility. And he knew how much Janelle enjoyed the time they spent together with the stacks of books all to themselves.

During the school year, he coached football games on Saturday morning, spent the afternoon with his family, and saved his duties at the library for the night, and Janelle often accompanied him. When summer came, Ned didn't have to coach, but he kept his schedule the same, regardless.

They didn't really talk much while they were there. Ned had his work to do, and Janelle was lost in a world of discovery. From time to time she would call out to him, insist that he come have a look at some book or other that she had unearthed.

That night, she lay sprawled on the carpeted area in the ancient history section, entranced by a book about the three hundred Spartans at Thermopylae. There was something so tragic, yet so romantically heroic about that bit of history that when she was finished, she poked her finger into the book to hold the page and then rose to go find her father.

I wonder if he knows this story, she thought.

Almost on cue, she heard the sudden whine of the enormous machine he used to clean the tile floor out by the front desk.

With an excited smile, Janelle walked a bit faster. She went out of the stacks toward the center of the library, where a pair of ten-year-old computers, which represented the entirety of Buckton's involvement in the cyber age, sat. There were enormous old wooden cabinets that still contained a card catalog, though the library had also finally created a catalog on computer.

Janelle brushed past them, book in hand. The whine of the buffing machine grew louder as she approached, and it reminded her very unpleasantly of a dentist's drill. When the carpet ended and the tile began, it was cold beneath her bare feet, and she wished she