Starlight Web (Moonshadow Bay #1) - Yasmine Galenorn Page 0,38

chasing mice into your yard.”

The light dancing in his eyes hit me again. I licked my lips, then glanced at the clock on the car. “I suppose I’d better get to my meeting. So, um, you’re still going to the carnival, aren’t you, even though I dragged you out here to the haunted hospital from hell?”

“Count on it,” he said, walking me back to my car. He waited until I was safely inside and halfway down the drive before he followed me to the main road. As I turned back toward town, he gave me one last wave and headed in the other direction.

The Garrison Library was downtown, in the same building as the police station, the courthouse, the main fire station, the jail, town hall, and the public works department. City Central, as it was called, took up an entire block, but it made life easy if you had business to attend to with the town. It was across from Bayside Park, which was next to the town square. The park also bordered the marina, so you could walk around the edge of the park to get to the docks.

Downtown Moonshadow Bay was absolutely beautiful. The massive spruce was covered in snow, and while during the day the decorations didn’t show that well, it was still amazing and festive. With the skiff of snow covering everything, the downtown area put even the prettiest winter wonderland picture to shame.

A large parking lot in back of City Central offered plenty of parking, including handicap parking and easy-access ramps. I eased into an open spot close to the building—the weather was ramping up for a good blow—and, grabbing my purse, headed up the back steps.

I still hurt from being body-slammed by whatever ghost had attacked me, but the attack notwithstanding, I was happy. For the first time in months, I was doing something interesting, something that felt important, and I wasn’t being scrutinized by Ellison.

The Garrison Library had been named after Nell Garrison, one of the founding mothers of the city, who—along with my great-grandparents—had held a vision for what they wanted Moonshadow Bay to become. Born to another family of witches, Nell had been a huge proponent of education and while she had died without having children, she had willed all her goods and money to the city for use in the schools and to expand the library.

City Central was built of red brick, and when the town had annexed the entire block back in the 1950s, they had the foresight to build the complex solidly. Of course, since then it had been retrofitted for earthquakes, but overall, it was still in as good a condition as it had been the day it first opened.

Inside, the walls were a warm gray, and the floors had been fitted with a sound-muting laminate, which meant that besides never getting scuffed up, it muffled footsteps and kept the building pleasantly quiet. The ceilings were high—almost cathedral like—and the lighting was LED but not obnoxiously bright. It was actually like a mini-mall, only the businesses weren’t selling so much as providing professional services. The jail was on the opposite end of the library, along with the firehouse.

I pushed open the double doors to the library and took a deep breath. I read on an e-reader, mostly, but I still loved the smell of ink and dust, and that hallowed silence that all libraries seemed to have.

As I entered the main floor—the library was the only building within City Central that was two-storied—I decided the best place to go was the customer service desk. As I waited my turn in line, I glanced at the shelves and shelves of books. The tables were beginning to fill up with kids as they got out of school and came in to study. When I was young, I would occasionally cut classes to hang out in the library. My mother knew I did it, but my grades were never a worry so she never said anything, just now and then reminded me that I didn’t want to get expelled or suspended for being a no-show.

Moving to the head of the line, I asked the librarian, “I’m looking for Charles Crichton. His office is supposed to be in the library, so can you point me in his direction?”

“Oh, Charles? He’s on the second floor, in back of the travel section. You just take the stairs or elevator, and follow the green arrows on the wall toward the back. His name