“You are so weird.” I put my bowl and spoon in the dishwasher and opened the carrier’s door. Eddie pranced in and flopped down on the pink blanket made by a nice lady who’d stayed at the boardinghouse in the days of my aunt’s ownership. It was getting tattered, but I knew Eddie would have a fit if I swapped it for new, so it stayed.

We drove up to the library’s back parking lot, where Julia was already waiting, leaning against the door of her car, ankles and arms crossed, fingers tapping against her upper arms. “Uh-oh,” I said to Eddie as we parked next to Julia. “Something’s going on.” And judging from the look on her face, it wasn’t a good something.

I unfastened our seat belts and started to open the car door when Julia grabbed the handle and flung it open.

“Did you hear?” she demanded.

Her hands were now on her hips and her face was set in stark lines, but this didn’t have the feel of Julia playing one of her theatrical roles. This had the feel of the real Julia, all the way down to the bone. And since the real Julia was one of the calmest and most centered people I’d ever met, seeing her upset was troubling. “What’s the matter?” I asked.

With her chin, she gestured toward the library. “Didn’t you see?”

I got out of the car and looked. Then frowned. “The library doesn’t open for almost two hours. What’s with all the cars?”

“Don’t you recognize them? No, wait, you barely know what you drive, let alone anyone else.” She pointed. “The Mercedes is Trent’s car. That SUV? Linda’s. And the old pickup is Otto’s.”

My frown deepened. “The library board is meeting this morning? I didn’t know anything was scheduled.”

“Special meeting,” she said. “To discuss a personnel matter. I saw the meeting notice online. It was just posted yesterday.”

My stomach went all tight and knotty. “They’re talking about Graydon.” I was sure of it. “They’ll end up having the meeting as a closed session.”

Julia nodded.

We looked at each other, then back at the library.

“Well,” I said, “there’s nothing we can do about it. And whatever they decide, we’ll find out sooner or later.”

The morning, as always on the bookmobile, went quickly, and soon after lunch we were back at the library, as Hunter was driving the last few hours of the day.

“Have fun,” I said, waving the three of them off, feeling like a mom saying good-bye to a child going off to kindergarten. I walked into the library, and the door had barely shut behind me when Holly and Josh pounced and dragged me into my office.

“Do you know what happened this morning?” Holly asked.