BooksBarbecue
Back The Library
Chapters (57)
  1. Cover
  2. THE LIBRARY
  3. Copyright
  4. Dedication
  5. Contents
  6. 1
  7. 2
  8. 3
  9. 4
  10. 5
  11. 6
  12. 7
  13. 8
  14. 9
  15. 10
  16. 11
  17. 12
  18. 13
  19. 14
  20. 15
  21. 16
  22. 17
  23. 18
  24. 19
  25. 20
  26. 21
  27. 22
  28. 23
  29. 24
  30. 25
  31. 26
  32. 27
  33. 28
  34. 29
  35. 30
  36. 31
  37. 32
  38. 33
  39. 34
  40. 35
  41. 36
  42. 37
  43. 38
  44. 39
  45. 40
  46. 41
  47. 42
  48. 43
  49. 44
  50. 45
  51. 46
  52. 47
  53. EPILOGUE
  54. Questions for your Book Club
  55. Acknowledgements
  56. About the Author
  57. Become an Aria Addict

‘From that building company…’ continued Tom.

‘Taylor’s Builders,’ said Maggie.

‘Yes.’ Tom pointed at Maggie, like she’d answered a question in a quiz show. ‘He had a form on the front seat of his van and I had to move it to the floor. It had this address on it.’ Tom was bobbing up and down in his seat.

‘Tom, this could be important. What else did it say?’ asked Maggie, leaning forward.

Tom closed his eyes for a moment. ‘There were some numbers…’

‘Excellent.’ Maggie clapped her hands together. This was progress. ‘It was probably a quote to do work. What else was on the form?’

Tom tipped his head up to the ceiling. ‘I can’t remember anything else.’

43

TOM

I felt like an idiot for not being able to remember anything else from the form I’d seen in the builder’s van but I’d only glimpsed it for a moment. The large number at the bottom had made me gawp at that bit rather than the address. Maggie seemed to think it was a breakthrough but I wasn’t so sure. It wasn’t exactly concrete evidence that something dodgy was going on.

We needed to raise more awareness, get in people’s faces. With Maggie directing everything we’d made some plans for a big Save The Library demonstration on Friday afternoon. Maggie thought if we caught the rush hour traffic – yeah, right, all four cars and a tractor – in Compton it would make more of an impact. She called it impact – pissing people off was what I’d call it but if it got us the attention we needed to save the library and Christine’s job then I was up for it. We’d made a list of people to contact in the hope of stirring up some support from the locals and enough interest for the press and council to make sure they were there to see it.

I still think Christine was out of order telling us the library had been burgled but I get why she did it. We all do crazy stuff when we feel threatened. She was right that we’ve been distracted with other things. All being back together fired us up again. There is a special vibe about the library or maybe it’s the people in it? We had a good discussion about what we needed to do and I think it got us refocused. We all had our instructions from Maggie – Christine was progressing from posters to placards, which was something. Farah was leading the leaflet drop. Maggie was contacting the press and the council and I was doing a social media blast. Basically we needed more signatures on our petition so I’d set us up a Twitter account and I planned to tweet loads of authors and ask for their support. I hoped it would work.