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Several cars came driving up, and I recognized the man driving the first car as Abe Cornwall. We’d recently spent a not-so-pleasant time in his facility. There were a lot of dead bodies there, which probably was to be expected from the county morgue.

“Great,” said Odelia. “Let’s get out of here.”

“I’m going back to the library,” said Marge. “And hope Johnny and Jerry haven’t stolen all of my books and my computers.”

“And I’m going to try to find Gran and talk some sense into her.”

“Good luck with that,” said Marge.

We all filed into Odelia’s car, and soon were on our way back to Hampton Cove.

“Um, Max?” asked Dooley.

“Yes, Dooley?”

“Why did we come all the way out here, only to go back again?”

Odelia glanced over her shoulder.“Oh, dammit, you’re absolutely right!” And she immediately stomped on the brakes, then opened the door. “Your mission, Max and Dooley, should you choose to accept it, is to talk to any pet you meet, and try to find out what happened to Grace and Fabio. Think you’re up to the task?”

“Yes, Odelia, we are!” I said with a measure of excitement.

“Finally a mission that doesn’t involve dog dung!” said Dooley, equally excited.

And so we got out and watched Odelia and her mother drive off. And then we began the short hike back to the Farnsworth place.

We were on a mission to find a missing person or persons, and this time it was a mission I knew I could wholeheartedly embrace—no ethical qualms whatsoever.

Chapter 16

When Marge walked into the library, she was holding her breath. She half expected the entire library to have been plundered, her precious collection of books having been carted off and the internet computers that were so popular with her older clientele having been looted.

Instead, she found Johnny seated behind her desk, staring into the void with a half-smile on his face. Kids were playing in the pirate ship that stood in the kid’s section, pensioners were gabbing and checking their email, and people were browsing the shelves, looking for the latest John Grisham, Nora Roberts or James Patterson.

All in all, the atmosphere was delightful.

She breathed a sigh of relief.

“Johnny, how did it go?”

Johnny started, as if emerging from some roseate dream or reverie.

“Mrs. P! Am I glad to see you! This library business is a lot tougher than I thought. When you did it, it looked so easy.”

“Yeah, well, it is pretty easy,” she said.

“I think I managed,” said Johnny. “I checked out a lot of books today, Mrs. P. For a while there Jerry took over from me, but he couldn’t cope, so I had to step in again.”

“Oh? And what was the problem?”

“Well, Jerry is what you might call an excitable person, Mrs. P, and when people kept shoving their cards and their books in his face, he got annoyed and started calling them names.”

“That’s not good.”

“No, it’s not. He came into the basement looking all upset, and I had to calm him down, and so I took over again, and then all was fine. There’s only one thing I’ve been wondering about, Mrs. P.”

“Marge, please, Johnny.”

“Yes, Marge,” he said dutifully.

“So what have you been wondering about, Johnny?”

“These people, they all take three books, four books, five books. Do you think they read all of them?”

“Yes, Johnny, they do,” she said with a smile. “Why, aren’t you a big reader?”

“I’ve never read a book in my life, Marge,” the big guy confessed.

“Well, maybe it’s time you started, don’t you think?”

“Yeah, it’s just… I’m not big on reading, Marge. I’m just not.”

“Didn’t you read when you were a little boy?”

“No, Marge. My pa wasn’t into reading, and neither was my ma.”

“Isn’t there a kind of story you enjoy? Westerns, maybe, or detective stories?”

“I don’t know, Marge,” he confessed.

“What kind of movies do you like? Or TV shows?”

His face lit up.“I like cartoons. Like thatRoad Runner? OrTom& Jerry. I like how Jerry always hits Tom over the head. I laugh very hard.”

Marge smiled. Johnny was almost like a child, she thought. And now she wondered if maybe he might enjoy children’s books. “I’ll see if I can’t find a nice book for you to read, Johnny,” she said. “Something to start you off with. So how are things downstairs? Have you had any luck finding that leak?”

“Leak? Oh, the leak. No luck so far, Marge. Though Jerry thinks we might be making a breakthrough very soon now. He thinks we’re very close.”

“That’s great, Johnny,” she said. The big guy didn’t seem anxious to resume his activities in the basement, and she didn’t mind a helping hand. “So you like the job?”

“Oh, yes, I do, Marge, very much,” he said with a flicker of excitement in his mellow cow eyes. “I think I may have chosen the wrong profession when I embarked on a life of crime. I should have been a librarian instead.”

“Well, it’s not too late, Johnny. You can still be a librarian if you want.”

“Do you really think so, Marge? Oh, I would really like that.” Then his face sagged. “I’m not sure if Jerry would like it, though. We’re partners, you see.”