“But you could reconsider.” Tabitha actually clasped her hands. “She did such a good turn for me, I’d like to be able to return the favor. Now that you know how helpful she was, surely there’s nothing to keep you from hiring her back?”

And that was the whole point of the conversation. To gather more details about Ariella. Had she been terminated because of budget cuts? Had she threatened Brown? Our short conversation with her and her former coworkers indicated “yes” answers to both questions, but the question we most wanted answered was whether or not she was the type who might lash out in angry vengeance for actions either real or perceived. And who better to get that type of information from than her former boss?

Drew gave a faint smile. “To tell you the truth, there are a lot of reasons.”

“But maybe not very good ones?” Tabitha asked. “Time has passed, and now you’re reconsidering?”

He was shaking his head. “Like I said, I can’t give any specifics, but maybe I’ll ask you a question. Let’s say your neighbor came over to your house and yelled at you for having a nice lawn and threatened to rip your lawn up with his lawn mower. What would you do?”

Tabitha pursed her lips. “I’d try to be kind to the poor soul, because he obviously needs more love in his life. Everyone deserves a second chance.”

“How about a third chance?” Drew held up the requisite number of fingers. “Or a fourth. Even a fifth? And what happens when that neighbor disappoints you every time? Incident by incident, the situation escalates until you become certain that someone is going to get hurt. Is that when you call the police?” He paused. “Or do you decide it’s easier to just move?”

I wasn’t sure about the aptness of his analogy, but I was certain of one thing. He was drawing a very close connection between Ariella and violence.

Chapter 9

The next morning, Julia tapped her toes on Eddie’s carrier. “So Holly and the bookmobile didn’t get along?”

“More like Holly didn’t get along with the bookmobile than the bookmobile didn’t along with Holly.” An image of Holly’s pasty skin color and contorted face came and, thankfully, went. “Let’s just say it isn’t going to work out.”

“I wish I could help more.”

“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “This isn’t your problem; it’s mine.” And if I couldn’t figure out a way to staff the expanded outreach schedule Graydon wanted, I’d have to tell him it couldn’t be done. But since disappointing my boss was something I truly didn’t want to do, I was going to work extremely hard to find something that worked.

“Don’t worry about it,” I said again, which earned me a surprised look from Julia.

“About what?” she asked.