Free No Cats Allowed: A Cat in the Stacks Mystery by Miranda James

to inspect the letter. After a moment she said, “That does look like his signature, though.” She straightened. “But it’s not the letterhead stationery he usually uses.” She pointed to the top-left-hand corner of the sheet of paper. “The library’s logo should be there, along with the phrase
Office of the Director
. This is just plain Athena College stationery.”
    “I never noticed that.” Lisa Krause turned to Delbert. “Did you?” He shook his head. She glanced at Cassandra, who appeared not to have heard the question.
    “This is all really strange,” Penny said. “What was Mr. Reilly thinking, to do something like this? It makes no sense whatsoever.”
    “We don’t know that Mr. Reilly is responsible,” Chief Ford said. “Even though it looks like his signature, according to Ms. Gilley. I need to talk to Mr. Reilly and find out whether he knows anything about this.” He turned to Melba. “Where is he?”
    “I don’t know,” she answered, then looked at me.
    “If I could speak to you in private for a moment, Chief,” I said. “I need to talk to you about that.”
    Ford responded with a curt nod and headed for the entryway. I handed Diesel’s leash to Melba and then followed the officer.
    “What is it, Mr. Harris? Do you know where Mr. Reilly is?” Ford looked and sounded impatient.
    “No, I don’t, and in fact, Melba and I are worried about him.” I quickly explained the situation.
    Ford didn’t interrupt with questions. When I finished, he got on his radio and instructed his officers to start a search for Oscar’s car. Then he called the Athena police department and had a briefconversation with them, ending with a request for their patrol cars to look for the car as well.
    Ford restored his cell phone to its holder. “You said Ms. Gilley noticed this stranger sitting in a car on the street outside this building for three days in a row?”
    “Yes,” I said. “Four days, if you count today.”
    “Why didn’t one of you report this to us?” Ford shook his head.
    “Sorry,” I said, “but frankly I didn’t think it was that serious. I figured the man was simply waiting to pick up a student or a faculty member to drive them home. Something innocuous like that.”
    Ford stared at me for a moment before he turned and walked back into Melba’s office. I felt foolish and resentful at the same time as I followed him.
    Ford didn’t share with the others what I told him. Instead he said, “Ms. Krause, Ms. Brownley, do you have your letters with you?”
    Lisa nodded and delved into the small handbag she had brought with her. Cassandra shook her head. “No, it’s on my desk in my office. You’ll have to send someone for it.”
    I could tell the chief didn’t care for her patronizing tone any more than I did. His shoulders stiffened, but he regarded her with a bland expression. “Thank you, Ms. Brownley.” He asked Lisa to lay her letter, still in its envelope, on top of Delbert’s.
    “Thank you all,” he said. “You can go back to work now.” He turned to Penny. “That should be okay, right?”
    “Yes, of course,” Penny said. “You all are still employed by the college. Those letters are not legitimate. I would like to have copies of them, if you please, Mr. Ford.”
    “I’ll arrange that,” he replied.
    My three fellow librarians and Penny all began to move towardthe door and out into the hallway while Melba, Diesel, the chief, and I remained in the office.
    I heard the front door open, and I moved to a vantage point from which I could see who had come in.
    Oscar Reilly stood just inside the door frame, glaring at Penny and my coworkers. He looked fine and completely unfazed by whatever had gone on between him and Porter Stanley since I had last seen them together in Oscar’s office.

TEN
    “Why are you all here?” Oscar demanded in a harsh tone. “Shouldn’t you be actually
working
?”
    All three of the librarians began speaking at once, and Chief Ford