Read Online Checked Out by Elaine Viets - Free Book Online Page B

special protective cover, given a card pocket, a category and a spine label. And it’s even more complicated for big libraries. She was ticked because it took two weeks to get it in the library.”
    “What do you like to read?” Helen asked.
    “Biographies and history. I really do believe that GeorgeSantayana was right: ‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.’”
    Helen decided to test her. “I think we’re doomed to repeat the past no matter what,” she said. “It’s part of living. Most kids can’t afford to go to Harvard and be misinformed.”
    “You read Kurt Vonnegut, too,” Gladys said. “Good. I read and reread him, and Mark Twain and Edith Wharton and Maya Angelou and Charlotte Brontë and lots more. Plus I read the
Economist
. Their politics are usually wrong, but their features are clever. My pile of books to be read—Mount TBR—is threatening to take over my condo.”
    “Do you live in Flora Park?” Helen asked.
    “No, too white and uptight,” she said. “I have a condo in the Ocean Royale.”
    “Wow. Sweetest real estate in Lauderdale,” Helen said. “You can afford that?”
    “Barely,” Gladys said. “I got a good price on a foreclosed studio with an ocean view. That’s why I’m driving my mom’s old white Chevy Impala. Talk about a librarian stereotype. Between buying books and clothes and the condo, I’ve run up some bills, so I’m stuck with the mom mobile for a while, until I can pay off my debts. Then I want to be the first librarian in South Florida to drive a red Ferrari.”
    “That will smash some stereotypes,” Helen said. “Not to be rude, but who did you know in Flora Park to get this job?”
    “You have this place figured out,” Gladys said, and laughed. “My mom belonged to one of Flora Park’s so-called first families. We spent the holidays here. You knew someone to get your job, Helen. Elizabeth pulled some strings.”
    Helen looked startled, but Gladys said, “I accidently heard her talking with Alexa about hiring a private eye to recover that
Muddy Alligators
painting. Next thing I know, we have a new volunteer and Seraphina Ormond is pissed off.
    “She doesn’t know why you got the volunteer job she wanted, but she’ll find out. Watch out for Blair. She’s Seraphina’s best bud, as well as head Friend of the Library.”
    “Anyone else I should watch out for?”
    “Seraphina’s college-age son, Ozzie. He wants to be a herpetologist.”
    “Do you date him?” Helen asked.
    “Too young,” she said. “And too weird. He invited me to his place so I could watch him feed live mice to his snakes.”
    “Ew,” Helen said. “Disgusting. He keeps snakes?”
    “Yeah,” Gladys said. “Told me he likes the poisonous ones.”
    “I gather you didn’t go to his place?”
    “A date like him is really gonna make my heart beat faster,” Gladys said. “Ozzie usually slithers in once or twice a week and puts the moves on me. He hits on any chick he sees, and you’ll definitely be on his radar.
    “Oh, hell, he’s here,” she said.
    “Ozzie?” Helen asked.
    “That’s him. Short, stocky, bearded. The little sidewinder is making his way through the popular library. Brace yourself.” She started typing on her computer.
    Ozzie swaggered up to the desk with a white cardboard box and said, “Gladys, how’s my favorite fantasy librarian?”
    “Busy, Ozzie. As you can see,” she said.
    “Wanna go out?”
    “No, Ozzie. If I’d spent six months in a lighthouse, I wouldn’t go out with you.”
    He ignored the insult. “Who’s your hot friend?” He looked Helen up and down. “Are you a librarian, too?”
    “No,” Helen said, her voice clipped. Up close, she saw his well-trimmed dark beard gave him the illusion of a chin, and his lips were rubbery pink.
    “Wanna do lunch?” He rolled the word around as if savoring it.
    “No, thanks. I’m out of circulation,” Helen said. “I’m married.”
    “My favorite kind of