Free Breach of Crust: A Charmed Pie Shoppe Mystery by Ellery Adams

supposed to keep an object safe, she usually sacrifices everything to do so. And when she is no longer able to fulfill her duty, she passes the job to her descendants.”
    Ella Mae flipped through the top book on the pile Suzy had given her. “Medea. Circe. Cassandra. Dido.” She lookedat her friend and smiled. “At least I won’t be bored reading about these women. They led colorful lives.”
    “You know what Mae West said.” Suzy poured Ella Mae a glass of milk. “‘Good girls go to heaven, bad girls go everywhere.’”
    “I hope these bad girls left me a clue.” Ella Mae raised her glass and knocked rims with Suzy. “Because even bad girls can keep a secret.”
    Suzy screwed up her lips. “Are you thinking of Loralyn?”
    Ella Mae nodded. “If Opal wasn’t sick, I wouldn’t go out of my way to locate her daughter. I’m pretty confident that Loralyn will return to Havenwood of her own volition—driven here by revenge. She hates me now more than ever.” Ella Mae studied an image of Medea casting a spell with her magical staff. “But she won’t just march into town and shoot me. She’ll want me to suffer as she’s suffered. Which means that she’s out there plotting and scheming. She probably married a millionaire on his deathbed and is using his funds to finance her own search for an object of power. And if she finds one, she won’t heal her mother with it. She’ll free her father from prison and watch him set Havenwood on fire. When every building is ablaze, she’ll come for me and the people I love.”
    Suzy passed her hands over her face. “Good Lord, Ella Mae! If that’s what you really believe, we need more help, and we need it now!”
    Chewy, who’d finished his treat, sat up on his haunches and whined, alarmed by the shrill note in Suzy’s voice. Ella Mae got down on the floor with him and caressed his fur. She continued to stroke him as she spoke to Suzy.
    “Who would want to devote hours upon hours to poring over musty tomes and ancient documents?” she asked. “Who’s willing to be shut up in a library for days at a time in orderto follow vague and improbable leads—tiny threads woven through the tapestry of human history? Who’d volunteer to work on such an insane task other than the two of us?”
    “Book Nerds,” Suzy said. She gave the computer an affectionate pat. “I’ve been trading information with a few special people for years. People like me. Bibliophiles whose hobby has been the study of material related to our kind. If I asked, these folks would leap at the chance to be involved in this quest. Put a roof over their heads and keep them fed and they’d see it as a vacation.” Suzy’s computer dinged, signaling the arrival of another e-mail. “We can’t do this alone, Ella Mae. New information is coming in all the time. We need the Book Nerds.”
    “Call them,” Ella Mae said. “We have plenty of room in Partridge Hill and I can certainly provide them with good food. But you have to warn them that there’s a risk in being here. People tend to get hurt when they’re around me.”
    Suzy shook her head dismissively. “That was before you lost your magic. They’re perfectly safe. The worst that can happen is that someone will sit on their reading glasses or spill coffee on their favorite bookmark.”
    “I’m sure you’re right,” Ella Mae said and turned away before Suzy could see the flicker of doubt in her eyes.



Chapter 5
    Suzy’s “Book Nerds” arrived during the third week of June. Lydia Park, a petite Korean woman in her early thirties who owned a bookstore in Northern California, showed up first. Madge Stutsman, a special collections librarian at Columbia University, came next. Madge had taken a leave of absence in order to spend the summer in Havenwood, and she assured Ella Mae that she’d been looking for an excuse to flee New York City for a spell when she got Suzy’s call.
    “I’ve been working in the same library for nearly thirty