Read Online Read It and Weep (A Library Lover's Mystery) by Jenn McKinlay - Free Book Online Page B

table. The sun was warm and the breeze was cool, making it a glorious autumn day.
    She flipped through the paper, pausing when a picture of the front of the theater appeared in the upper-right-hand corner of page three. The headline yelled in bold letters: Briar Creek Community Theater Doomed! Lindsey frowned and then gasped when she saw that the byline was credited to none other than Harvey Wargus.
    Diva Violet La Rue has no business directing a puppet show, never mind a community theater production of Shakespeare’s
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
 . . .
    Lindsey continued reading, but the article just got worse. Wargus called both Violet and Robbie has-beens whose best days were long past, which was fairly ridiculous given that Robbie was barely pushing forty. He then went on to criticize the town, the theater, and the rest of the cast and crew for their shoddy showmanship and severe lack of skill and talent. The only good thing Wargus could say about the production at all was that it would, as all plays do, end.
    The back door of the bakery opened and shut, but Lindsey was too busy rereading Wargus’s vitriol to look up. She sat, engrossed, when the sound of a raised voice grabbed her attention.
    “I’d like to beat him with a rolled-up newspaper,” a voice said.
    Heathcliff growled from below the table, and Lindsey immediately reached down to scratch his ears and soothe him.
    Lindsey glanced over her shoulder to see Milton Duffy and Ms. Cole taking a table across the patio from hers. He was carrying a tray loaded with coffees and muffins, and she had a rolled-up copy of the
Briar Creek Gazette
in her hands.
    Lindsey felt her jaw drop. Milton and Ms. Cole? At least that explained Heathcliff’s reaction. He and the lemon were not fans of one another.
    “Now, Eugenia,” Milton said. “You can’t let him get to you. He’s a critic. You know what Kurt Vonnegut said about critics?”
    “Yes.” Ms. Cole sighed. “I believe it was something to the effect that ‘Any reviewer who expresses . . . loathing for a novel is preposterous. He . . . is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae.’ But Vonnegut was talking about novels, not plays.”
    “Yes, but can’t you just see that little butterball Wargus dressed in armor going after a sundae with his pen?” Milton asked and grinned at her.
    To Lindsey’s shock and amazement, Ms. Cole actually chortled. “I can!” she cried. “You’re so right. We should just ignore him, but if he comes into the library again . . .”
    Her voice trailed off, and Milton patted her hand and said, “You’ll be the consummate professional that you always are and not let him get to you. Besides, the best revenge will be to put on the show of a lifetime.”
    Ms. Cole heaved a put-upon sigh and nodded her head. “You’re right. Shall we run our lines?”
    “I’d love to,” Milton said.
    Lindsey wondered if she should go over to their table and say hello. Normally, she wouldn’t have given it much thought, but the relationship between her and Ms. Cole was a delicate one, and she didn’t want to do anything to make it more awkward than it already was.
    Still, she didn’t want to be rude to Milton, either. Then again, if they hadn’t seen her, and it was pretty clear that they hadn’t, was it being rude to leave them to their rehearsal? She thought not. As a few more people came out onto the patio, Lindsey took the opportunity to slip away unnoticed.
    As she strolled back to her house to change and get ready for work, she thought about last night’s rehearsal. Who had smashed her donkey head? Probably Kitty. Was Robbie all right? And what was the deal with Lola? She seemed to think she and Robbie were still together while he was pretty clear that he had cut her loose. And why did Lindsey care, since she had no interest in dating anyone right now? Right?
    She thought about Sully and sighed. Why was it so complicated with him? She knew that