I smiled as the three of them walked off, leaving me standing on the sidewalk with Bing.

Bing cocked a bushy eyebrow at me. “So, you don’t remember much about what happened at the Bates mansion?”

I shook my head. “Not really, but there is one thing I remember. That old book … were you looking for it too?”

“I looked all over town for it.” Bing shifted uncomfortably then leaned closer to me. “We have to make sure it doesn’t get into the wrong hands.”

“You looked all over town?” I narrowed my eyes remembering how I’d passed him on the road on my way to Barry’s. “So that was you at Barry’s house the other day!”

“Yes,” Bing said, then held up his hands at my look of alarm. “I wasn’t the one that hurt him, though. I was there in time to save him. It was Carson that knocked him out. He was there looking for the book.”

I remembered how Barry had said the books were out of order in the box. And Carson lived further out than Barry so I wouldn’t have passed him on the road.

“What’s so important about this book, and why do you want to keep it from Carson?” I asked Bing. “I thought the Bates’ had it to begin with and Felicity sold it off by mistake.”

Bing pressed his lips together. “Apparently, Felicity didn’t realize the value of what she’d sold. She always was kind of ditzy and old Idris doesn’t keep her well-informed. Anyway, as you know, the book wasn’t at Barry’s. He should suffer no ill effects from his fall.”

“That’s right. The book was in the box Maggie had left on my porch. The one with the Bates’ family scrapbook.”

“We searched all local book acquisitions and even your home earlier, but that must have been before Maggie dropped the box off.”

My brows rose. “You searched my house?”

Bing looked at me apologetically. “Now, don’t get all upset, we were just trying to nip things in the bud before everything blew up … no pun intended. You never even knew we were there, and of course we would never do anything to hurt you.”

“But when did you do that?” The memory of the night of deep sleep after eating Elspeth’s pie surfaced. Was Elspeth in on this? She certainly did have some unique qualities, like conjuring up butterflies, and she did seem to have an odd way of understanding animals. “I don’t understand … who is this we you keep talking about and what is this really all about?”

Bing took a deep breath. “You’ll understand all that in time, Willa. For now, you know what you need to and Mystic Notch will go on as it has.”