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Ah, EB. Nan’s new kind of, sort of boyfriend’s pet rabbit. EB was short for Easter Bunny, and that nervous little rabbit had helped us solve our last case—two homicides and a kidnapping, all solved in record time.

Somehow, I didn’t think EB would like being restricted by a knit straightjacket, but at least it would keep Nan happy and busy.

“Okay. While you do that, I’ll keep searching the newspapers. Surely, there must be something helpful there.”

Nan powered down her computer and shuffled into the back of the library.

I closed my eyes, willing something to appear on my screen, something that could help. While I appreciated Nan’s theory, I couldn’t believe someone would commit to a pet for such a superficial reason as a few extra votes.

I thought back to our conversations with the mayor earlier that day.

Whatever his motivations before, Mark Dennison clearly loved Marco now and wanted nothing more than his safe return… Right?

I flipped through the digital archives for another hour or so. The most interesting thing I found was an old editorial discussing bachelors in politics and how they really weren’t suited to the job at hand.

Poor Mark. It seemed the whole world was against him. Part of me felt bad for questioning him about anything. Keeping the truth at least partially concealed came with the job; it was the politician’s way. Obviously, the public would use whatever it could take to rake him through the coals, burning or not.

When I’d finished my uneventful research, I found Nan sitting in the Young Adult section chatting with a redheaded girl in braided pigtails. All she needed was a sock monkey and she’d be the perfect likeness of Pippi Longstocking.

While Nan was arguably too old for the literature at hand, Pippi here wasn’t quite mature enough. She appeared to be nine years old at the absolute most. Her freckles covered her skin so completely it almost changed the color of her complexion.

“Are you ready to go home?” I asked, feeling like I was my grandmother’s mother in this situation.

“Not just yet,” Nan said with a higher pitched voice than usual. “Betsy and I here were just discussing the circumstances surrounding Lord Voldemort’s second rise to power. Now Betsy, you were saying that Nagini was more than just a snake. Care to extrapolate on that?”

I groaned and turned away. As much as I loved Harry Potter myself, I suspected having a deep discussion with Nan about the lore would take some of the fun out of it for me.

Then again, I did love to read, and I was at a library. Maybe I could have a quick nose around, pick something fun to read for once this case was put to bed.

Although I normally favored novels, I found myself wandering toward the section on unusual pets. I’d been lucky so far with the animals who had inadvertently joined our P.I. Practice, but what would I do if I found an armadillo or a chinchilla or even a ball python wanting to join in and help solve mysteries?

Yes, it was definitely best to be prepared for anything.

Nan came and found me a short while later.“There you are. I’ve been searching for at least a half an hour.”

Funny, because I had left her no more than ten minutes ago. I put the book I’d been thumbing through back on the shelf with its companions and zipped up my coat. “Let’s get home then.”

There wasn’t much to say on the drive back. Nan kept trying to bring things around to her scholarly discussion of Lord Voldemort from the Harry Potter series and even attempted to parallel his rule with that of Mayor Mark Dennison.

Strange, considering how she’d been quick to defend him from the protestors at his inauguration.

Back at home, we found Octo-Cat lying in his usual sunbeam with Paisley nestled up at his side licking the fur on his neck.

Octo-Cat purred loudly and slowly blinked his eyes in contentment. When he noticed us standing there watching them, he jumped up in horror with the same level of absolute shock and disgust he displayed whenever he accidentally found a cucumber laying near him.

What? Sometimes I just couldn’t resist.

“So, you and Paisley, huh?” I asked, making a kissy face and widening my eyes dramatically.

“It’s not what it looks like, Angela, and you know it. The little dog just needed… Oh why do I bother to explain things to you feeble humans? Get out of here, dog!”

Paisley whimpered and scampered away.

“Do you want to hear about our trip to the library?” I asked, tilting my head to the side.

He stretched his front paws and then stretched his back legs one at a time. Finally Octo-Cat turned to me.“If you must.”

I quickly caught him up on what little we’d discovered. I hadn’t expected his response to be laughter.