Deadly Notions - By Elizabeth Lynn Casey Page 0,38
It truly is. For no matter how offensive and mean-spirited that woman was, no one—no one I know—wished her true harm.”
“Someone did.”
Yanking the door open she swept her hand into the hall in an indication their meeting was over. “You’re right. I’m just not that someone. Neither are any of my friends.”
“Time will tell, Victoria, time will tell.”
“It always does.” She watched as his uniform-clad back disappeared down the hallway and out the back door, his squad car visible in the background. Stepping out into the hall, she turned in the opposite direction, her feet being led forward by the promise of some sanity.
Nina looked up as she entered the main room. “Are you okay, Miss Sinclair?”
She joined her assistant behind the information desk and grabbed hold of a pile of books that were waiting to be sorted. “It’s fine. Just a lot going on, you know?”
“Is there anything I can do?”
Slowly she moved the books from the original stacks into smaller ones depending on where they were shelved around the library. “We can talk about something other than Ashley Lawson and Beth Samuelson.”
“Beth Samuelson? Who’s that?”
“Nobody.” She moved the top book onto the history pile, the second onto the mystery pile. “You know what? I want to talk about that donation we got from Curtis in the fall. You know, the two thousand dollars we tucked aside until we got through the holiday season.”
Nina’s face glowed with excitement. “I’ve been giving it some thought ever since we got it, tossing around ideas for all sorts of things. I’ve even kept Duwayne up a night or two bouncing ideas off him.”
Tori laughed, the sound and the feeling doing wonders against the tension that had started with memories of Beth Samuelson and re-ignited with Chief Dallas’s unexpected second visit. “And?”
“Well, I had some good ones, I really did, but it was Duwayne’s idea that I’ve not been able to forget.”
Pushing the various piles to the side, she leaned against the counter. “Tell me.”
“Duwayne said that he thinks what you did with the children’s room is fantastic. He said it’s the kind of thing he would have loved when he was a little boy growin’ up in Mississippi. But he also said that it’s when you get a little older—like in your teenage years—that books tend to lose their pull.”
She nodded. Nina was right. It was a fact of life for the teenage set who were suddenly gaga over anything that didn’t include sitting in a room alone. “Go on,” she encouraged.
“He started talking ’bout the things teenagers like. Things like getting together with friends, acting more grown-up, feeling as if they’ve got something to say in life that makes a difference or needs to be heard.”
Pulling the computer stool closer, she sat down, her attention riveted on her assistant’s words.
“Duwayne thinks that acknowledging those things in the area of books might make them seem less babyish or inconsequential.”
“Okay.”
“He suggested having a night, maybe once a month, where the library stays open just for teenagers.”
“We don’t want to be a hangout spot, Nina.”
“If it involves books and reading, we do.”
She nodded. “Okay, keep going.”
“On that night, we host a book club that is just for them. The books they’re interested in, the books they want to discuss. We pull up the chairs and sofa, we pop some popcorn or bring in a batch of cookies, and we let them talk about the book they’ve read. What they liked, what they didn’t, what could have been better.”
“I like it.”
“Book clubs are a grown-up kind of thing. They’ll be drawn to that alone if we can focus it to where they are in life.”
Her assistant was right. “And the donation? What’s that for?”
Nina’s eyes rounded with excitement. “To buy the books they select and, maybe, bring in an occasional guest speaker to increase the excitement.”
“Depending on the speaker they can be quite costly,” Tori reminded.
“Then we tell the kids that. Let them weigh who’s most important. It’ll be an unexpected lesson in budgeting.”
For a moment she said nothing, her mind rewinding its way through their conversation, stopping to pause on the highlights. And just like that, the answer was clear. “I love it, Nina. I absolutely love it.”
“I’d volunteer my time to lead the discussion,” Nina offered. “And, believe it or not, so will Duwayne. He thinks a male presence might encourage some of the teen boys to give it a shot.”
She nodded, a smile stretching her face wide. “I suspect he’s right. Now