From the Queen Read Free Page B

to Annie. I mean, I wasn’t going to tell anyone how much money. I didn’t tell any of them …”
    Hyla interrupted. “Let’s take it from the first. You told some visitors to the shop about the book. Their names?”
    Ellen clutched the edges of the shawl, pulled it tighter around her shoulders. “Nancy Benson came in about two-thirty. She was looking …”
    Again Hyla interrupted, though her voice was gentle. “Let me get the names first.”
    Ellen’s faded blue eyes stared at Hyla. “Nancy Benson. Professor Pickett. Walt Wisdom.”
    Annie knew all three, though not well. They were familiar island names: Nancy Benson, a new arrival on the island who worked at Morris Pharmacy, an enigmatic woman with an oval Mona Lisa face and a disconcerting stare when waiting on customers; debonair Walt Wisdom, a divorced, middleaged raconteur with a taste for young women; and Calvin Pickett, a retired history professor always eager to share his knowledge (the first and second drafts of the Declaration of Independence were written on hemp paper, John Adams was the first president to live in the White House, German U-boats sank 24 ships in Florida waters during WWII, etc.).
    â€œDid you mention the book to anyone else yesterday afternoon or evening?”
    Ellen shook her head.
    â€œIn regard to the three persons with whom you spoke …”
    Ellen’s eyelashes fluttered rapidly. She looked surprised, a little shocked, excited. “Do you think one of them came back last night and took my book?”
    Hyla was careful in her answer. “There are several possibilities. A random thief entered the shop and went to the counter, possibly looking for small change. It may be common knowledge that you do not use a cash register, which would be locked and difficult to open. Are you missing any money?”
    Ellen lifted up the cash box, opened it. Her lips moving, she rapidly counted a small number of bills. “Everything’s here.”
    Hyla nodded. “An intruder might assume anything below the counter to be of value and therefore might have looked at the book and decided to take it. Or it is possible that one of the persons who came to the shop yesterday afternoon realized its value and returned last night.”
    Ellen gazed at Hyla in awe. “Why, then, you can get the book back, can’t you? Oh, that’s wonderful. How long do you think it will take?”
    Hyla’s usually unreadable face revealed surprise, dismay, consternation, pity. She started to speak, stopped, took a breath. “I’m afraid it won’t be easy to prove what happened to the book.”
    Ellen looked eager, fluttered a hand. “But now that we know it has to be one of them— and I think you are so marvelous to have figured that out—why then, can’t you get a search warrant and look at their houses and everything? They’ll have put the book in a safe place so it won’t be damaged and you can tell them—whichever one it is—that you know one of them has it and so it would just be easiest and the nice thing to do to give it back to me.”
    â€œMa’am, the fact that three people came to the shop yesterday and are aware of the book doesn’t give us the grounds to seek a search warrant. In fact,” Hyla sounded dubious, “there’s no reasonable basis to interview those people, much less accuse them of grand theft. Moreover,” Hyla held up a hand with fingers curled to the palm. As she spoke, she raised one finger after another, “there’s no physical evidence of a burglary, only you and Mrs. Darling …”
    Annie would have smiled at Hyla’s formality but didn’t because her use of Annie’s married name was simply Officer Hyla Harrison’s observance of protocol.
    â€œâ€¦ can affirm the existence of the item, an empty quilted book cover is no proof that it contained a valuable volume,