She hoped the obvious answer was no and that if it had bitten her, Mrs. Duncan would have gone straight to an emergency room, but sometimes patrons surprised her. A few months back, they’d had a woman in who was obviously in labor, but she refused to go to the hospital until she checked out several baby name books.

“No, I’m quicker than any old snake,” Mrs. Duncan said with a laugh. “I just want to know if it’s safe to release it at the garden center or if I should set it free out in the woods.”

“All right,” Lindsey said. “Let’s see what I have.”

Lindsey did a quick catalog search. “How does a pamphlet called Snakes in Connecticut sound?”

“Perfect,” Mrs. Duncan said.

The computer indicated that it was in the library’s vertical file, which was a large, steel file cabinet full of all sorts of publications just like this one, all filed alphabetically by subject.

“If you’ll stay with the snake, I’ll be right back.”

Lindsey stepped out from behind the desk and crossed over to the expanded reference shelves where they kept the vertical file. She pulled out the S drawer and worked her way to Snakes. Sure enough, this pamphlet and two others were nestled in the manila envelope.

She took it out of its file and thumbed through it as she wandered back to the desk. She scanned the introduction and said, “Well, there are only fourteen species of snake in Connecticut and only two are venomous, the timber rattlesnake and the copperhead, so your odds are looking good.” She handed the pamphlet to Mrs. Duncan. “The authors, Jenny Dickson and Julie Victoria, included pictures of each.”

Mrs. Duncan flipped through the pages. “Aha! That’s him.” She slapped the pamphlet open on the counter and pointed to a black snake. “What do you think?”

Lindsey read the caption. “Eastern rat snake.” She continued reading. “But it says here that it would have a white chin. Yours is solid black.”

“Oh.” Mrs. Duncan turned the pamphlet back around and scanned more pictures. “Aha! Now I have it.” She lifted up the jar and stared at the underbelly of the snake. “Yup, that’s it for sure.”

Lindsey looked at the picture. It was another black snake but this one was called an Eastern racer. “Bluish belly?”

“See for yourself,” Mrs. Duncan said and she held the jar over Lindsey’s head so she could see.

“Yes, I think you have it,” Lindsey said. “What are you going to do?”

“I think I’ll release it in the field behind my house. I don’t want it scaring customers out of the garden center.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Lindsey said. She jotted down on a piece of paper the number for the Connecticut wildlife office. “Here’s a number for you to call if you want more advice, and I’d recommend calling them before you release it just in case there is something else you need to know about this type of snake.”