Free August Moon by Jess Lourey

Ruth settled behind the front counter. “I didn’t even hear the front door open!”
    She smiled sadly, looking a little ashen. “All librarians are quiet. Who’ve you got in back?”
    “Just a guy in a cape. Pay him no mind.”
    “Whatever you say.” Her acceptance of the eccentricities this town swept across her path amazed me. She twisted her crucifix necklace around her finger, and her mood deepened. “Did you hear about poor Lucy? Shot and left for dead in a ditch in Clitherall this morning.”
    “She wasn’t shot in the ditch.”
    “What?”
    I didn’t realize I had said it out loud, or that I had even been conscious of that detail, until I heard my own voice. “She was lying in a ditch, sure enough, right in the Clitherall Carwash, but there was no blood splattered near her. I don’t know a lot about guns, but I do know you can’t shoot someone in the back without leaving a pretty gory mess. Whoever murdered her did it before they tossed her into that ditch.”
    Sarah Ruth hurried over and threw an arm around me. “Oh, you poor thing! You actually saw that horrible scene?”
    Weston reappeared. “Oh! I’m sorry.” He pushed his glasses up his nose with his pointer finger and looked from Sarah Ruth to me, obviously uncomfortable. “I didn’t mean to interrupt. I, it’s just that, is there any chance I can check this out?” He held up a red, white, and blue copy of After the Battl e.
    I stepped away from Sarah Ruth and sucked a deep breath, all business. “No, but the newspaper sells them. I think they’re twenty dollars a copy.”
    “The Battle Lake Recall , right? Where’s their office?”
    “Right next to the post office. Go left out of here on Lake Street and you can’t miss it—right across the street from the Village Apothecary.”
    “Would they also have information on any sort of community gatherings, sports events in the summer, that sort of thing?”
    “I suppose.”
    He flicked his cape at me and smiled shyly. “Thanks, Mira. I hope to see you again.”
    “Watch out for the flying lizards.”
    “You know it.”
    When he left, I didn’t know what to say to Sarah Ruth. Her hug had thrown me off, so I returned to familiar territory—righteous anger. The banned book display petition reasserted itself at the forefront of my mind. “Do you know about the new ministry over at the New Millennium Bible Camp in Clitherall?”
    She smiled distantly. “Yes. I went to services there last week. It’s right up the road from where I’m staying.”
    “Really?” I wanted her to be as upset as I was. I was pretty sure she hadn’t recently been stood up and ditched across state lines by a very hot landscaper, gotten skunk drunk with a zaftig woman in bike shorts, or seen a young and sweet, tragically murdered cheerleader, but I knew there was one knob I could twist to get her tweaked. “Did you know those crazies are sending a petition around town to shut us down?”
    “Shut down the library?”
    “Well, at least shut down our banned book display. Who are they to say which books people can and can’t read?”
    “Are you sure you have that right? The Meales seem like nice people, very supportive when I told them I was a librarian.”
    I grimaced. “Next time you’re at one of their services, would you mind letting it drop that we’re not the enemy here at the library?”
    “Of course.”
    I wish that I could have left it at that, but patience was not a virtue I possessed. It was time to crank up the Pat Benatar, dig out the glitter eye shadow, and come out swinging. I had just the plan to restore a little justice to the world, and tomorrow afternoon would be the perfect time to put it into play.

The next day at the library, a Wednesday, couldn’t pass fast enough. When I wasn’t able to stand it any longer, I gave Sarah Ruth the keys and asked if she would mind closing up for me. I had one final obligation to fulfill before I could slip undercover. I had promised Tina I’d