your point is?" he asked amiably.
"I apologize, that was rude of me. It's been a long day. I was just calling about those blueprints of Fair Haven. Did you by any chance come by to take them back?"
"Why would I take them back?" he asked, sounding more alert this time. "I gave them to you. Why do you ask? Did something happen to them?"
"No, no . . . no." Ingrid shook her head vigorously even if Killian could not see her. It would not do to panic anyone else. "I think the staff moved them to the other closet. Sorry to bother you."
"No worries," Killian said.
She hung up the phone, her heart beating wildly. The scans. She had scanned all the prints, she thought, executing a search on her computer. She had scanned all the sheets that contained the strange tags and elaborate symbols. But just as she suspected, every single file connected to the blueprints was gone.
Ingrid tried not to panic. Who would steal the blueprints? And erase all the records on her computer? And why? Then Hudson burst into the room. His tie had come unknotted and he looked uncharacteristically frazzled. "I think you better come out to the front - it looks as if Corky Hutchinson has lost her mind."
Ingrid followed hudson to the main area to find the news anchor standing by the returns desk, looking hysterical and crazed in a pajama top and baggy sweatpants. When she saw Ingrid she pointed a red-manicured finger in her direction. "It's all her fault!" she screamed.
"Excuse me?" Ingrid asked. The library was full of mothers with toddlers, teenagers at the computers, and the regular patrons at the magazine racks. Matt Noble was returning a few paperbacks and rushed to her side.
"What's going on?" he asked, looking from Corky to Ingrid.
"She was the one! She did it!" Corky screeched. "She made me give Todd this . . . this knot under his pillow! He couldn't sleep . . . he's been acting so strangely - she did something to him!"
"Corky, calm down, what are you talking about?" Matt came around to restrain Corky by the shoulders since it looked as if she might take a swipe at Ingrid.
"She's a witch! She did it! She made this happen! With her black magic and those stupid knots!" Corky screamed.
"I'm so sorry . . . but it doesn't work that way," Ingrid said, backing away and shaking her head. Every part of her body was shaking as well, but she tried to project a sense of calm.
Matt looked questioningly at Ingrid. "Hold on . . . what do you mean? What's all this about magic?"
"He hung himself! With a knot! It looks just like this one!" the woman hissed, holding up the little brown knot that Ingrid had given her a month ago.
"What's going on?" Ingrid looked to Hudson for help. People were beginning to stare and congregate, looking at Ingrid with curiosity and fear. Ingrid had a flash back to her past, when the crowd had first gathered around her at the square that fine morning. They had circled her, just as the patrons of the library were doing now.
"As if you didn't know! They found his body this morning! Todd hung himself! At some skeezy motel on Route 27!" Corky cried.
Ingrid gasped. "Is that true?" she asked Matt.
The detective nodded. "We answered a 911 call from the motel this morning. The police are still there. Corky, calm down. Let's get you to the station." He gave Ingrid a long, searching look and led the newswoman out the door.
"Christ . . . what a crazy bitch!" Hudson said, walking out of the office. Ingrid noticed that everyone in the library was looking at her skeptically, some with outright hostility. "Are you okay?"
Ingrid nodded even though she wasn't. First the blueprints went missing, and she had stopped receiving texts or instant messages from her source, and now she was being accused of what . . . she wasn't even sure . . . but she couldn't shake off Corky's hateful words and accusations.
Tabitha gave Ingrid a pat on the back. "Don't worry, no one will listen to her. You had nothing to do with this," she said stoutly. "She's lost her husband and she doesn't know what she's talking about."
There were only a handful of women waiting to consult with her that day, which made Ingrid feel even worse. She tried not to think too much of it, but she couldn't help