Overdue - Chapter 10

I woke up to the phone. It was Lachlan.
"Hey sorry to wake you up." He appologised. I searched for the clock.
"Shit its 9:05. I gotta go to work Lachlan..."
"I'm already there. The detectives want to check the Library. We've closed it for the day. Come in at 11, ok." and with that he hung up. I went back to sleep.

It was 11:15 when I got to the library. It was busy, full of cops. Lachlan met me at the door.
"Look like you got enough sleep. Great." He was incredibly chirpy.
"How much sleep did you get?" I asked
"Didn't go to sleep. Night shift I get off at noon" he smiled.

I went to the office. By now Karl would know all about it and I'd either be chewed out or fired, hopefully I'd be fired. When I walked in Karl was at his desk going through a list with a woman who I deduced was the plain clothes detective.
"Craig!" Karl was smiling. "Look you should have told me first, but going to the Police as soon as you found the drugs was a good decision." I was gobsmacked. I couldn't believe it.

What had happened?

I joined the police searching the library for other 'Mule Books'. Mindy had printed out lists of the books not taken out for more than six months. This widened the search a lot and it gave me time to think. Someone had told Karl a fib and I knew who did it. I found him at the door about to leave.

"Lach why did you tell Karl I found the drugs yesterday?" I was as serious as I could be.
"It was Mindy's idea. She didn't want you to lose you job. I gotta go sleep." He waved goodbye. Was it possible he really was a nice guy.

"Mr Harper?" asked a voice from behind. It was the plain clothes detective.
"Craig will do, Detective?" I enquired.
"Coughlan." She replied. "We need to talk about Rat." She ushered me into the reference room. "I hear you gave Proust an earfull last night." She chuckled. It was nice to hear laughter.
"I was tired and I'd had enough of asking questions. I've been under a lot of pressure latley." It was easy to talk to Coughlan. The fact she was rather good looking didn't hurt either.
"We need to know where Rat is. The others think if she was going to call someone she'd call you." her tone was polite yet demanding.
"Is that all Proust wanted last night. Crap I feel like an idiot." I slapped myself in the forehead.
"Yes we thought it was better to ask you after you'd had a sleep. So do you know?" she smiled. I realised she was playing with me, but it didn't matter the answer was the same. I told her I didn't know. I also told her to check Rats parents but Coughlan said she already did. I went back to the book search.

Each book was searched it didn't matter wether it was thin or thick, old or new. It was good to have some help but some of the cops didn't understand the dewey decimal system. I've always found it hard to believe that some people cannot put a book in its right place. So most of the day I was shelf reading and making sure the books were put back in the right order. At the end of a very tiring search the books were all in perfect order. It was a librarians dream.
"Now do we let anyone in tomorrow?" I asked to noone.
"It does look better than ever." added Mindy. "We should have a drugs search every month."
We both laughed.
"Look Mindy. Thanks for getting Lachlan to tell the fib." I smiled.
"It was nothing."she smiled. "You did the right thing, in the end."

As I walked home I thought about a few things. Where Rat went too, Lachlan being a nice guy, and what did Mindy know. "You did the right thing, in the end." Could she.. Nah! Lachlan told her thats how she knew. But where was Rat? And who rang her before she left?

It was those thoughts that kept spining around in my head. I wasn't really thinking about where I was going and I ended up at Mephisto's place. He wasn't home. I went into Rats room and sat down on the paint cans again. Where was she. The cops wanted to know, they asked about Ms. Lola too. I wished I could find out why they were intrested in her. Then again why was I intrested in Rat. Cause she was a freind, cause I couldn't find her, cause I thought she was in danger. It was probably all of the above and maybe one more, but I couldn't think about that. Anyway who did I think I was, I wasn't a cop, or a detective. Kil said it I was a librarian.

So I went home. Kate wasn't home. The place was empty, which was really strange cause Kate didn't leave the house till after dinner. As I was trying to piece it all together the phone rang.
"Mr Harper." It was Coughlan. "We need you down at the station, we think we've found Rat."