With Cruel Intent (6 page)

on nylon with each advancing step.

“Well I’ll be, lookie here, you

must be Ms. Delaney all the way from

Arizona,” she said, extending her warm

little hand, taking Blanche’s in a

wrestler’s grip and pumping it up and

down. “If you aren’t the prettiest little

thing I’ve seen in some time. Men back

home must be havin’ fits, losin’ one of the

good en’s.”

It didn’t take Blanche long to

recognize that the picture from the paper

must have been at least 15 years and 50

lbs ago but she couldn’t help but like

Beverly.

Ms. Beverly Davis, formerly Mrs.

Beverly Davis Newton Marshall, had

married her high school sweetheart, then

18, resulting in two children now grown

and on their own, both living in Atlanta or

“Hotlanta” as they liked to tell her. A few

years back, in an effort to reduce and

simplify her life, she had dropped the

Newton and Marshall from her name and

went back to her maiden name, Davis.

Beverly had never been much of the

motherly type, and really not much of the

‘loving wife type’ either. Thus her first

marriage ended in a mutual parting of the

way with no money, assets or property to

dispute. Both sides were quite sure they

didn’t want exclusive custody so joint

custody was easily negotiated and the next

13 years were spent bouncing the kids

back and forth a few weeks at a time.

Beverly had tried her hand at

marriage a second time a few years back.

Married a wealthy landowner from

Charleston, with a love of bacon and all

things deep-fried, that suffered a massive

heart attack two years into the marriage

resulting in his death. The past eight years

had been spent fighting his estranged son

over the estate, and just recently had

signed the final documents entitling her to

50% of the assets after the complete

liquidation of the estate. Her lawyer

estimated this would come to a cool 36

million once the legal firm got their cut.

She had started this journey an

attractive

businesswoman,

eager

to

advance her position and anxious to help

the buyers who trusted her expertise. Her

journey, now ten years after her second

marriage, much heavier, cynical and

untrusting of people in general but still

eager to please and she put on a good

show. It didn’t take long for Blanche to

learn all this and more about Ms. Davis as

they cruised the streets of Valdosta

looking over the neighborhoods and condo

complexes.

By the end of the two hours

Blanche was no closer to being a

homeowner than she was prior to their

meeting, but she had forged almost an

instant bond with a woman who was

funny, insightful and as her dad would

have said, “full of piss and vinegar.”

Beverly pulled her BMW coupe in front of

the library, dug through her purse for a

business card, extracted one and handed it

to her client.

“I’ll do some searching and let you

know what I find. I think I have a pretty

good idea of what you want and need. I

have to tell you though, I had the best time

today and I’m not just saying that. Didn’t

know the gals from the Wild West were so

fun.”

“I’ll take that as a complement,”

Blanche said, offering her hand in a warm

embrace while exiting the car.

“So should I just wait to hear from

you or what?”

“I think we should get together

again in the next few days, if not to look at

condo’s, I’d like to trash talk men again

for a few hours,” Beverly said, with a

laugh that made her jiggle all over.

“Sounds good Beverly, I’ll wait

for your call.”

Beverly didn’t pull away from the

curb until she saw Blanche enter the

building. “Now that woman has got a nice

can,” she said, as she thumbed through her

Day-Timer looking for what she might do

to fill the balance of her day. “Nothing for

a couple hours, Dunkin Donuts here we

come,” she thought, cranking up the tunes

and engaging the autopilot in her head that

knew exactly how to get to the closest

donut shop.

Working in a library requires a

certain skill set that only few possess and

even fewer excel at, Blanche was one of

the latter. There were hours of mind

numbing boredom followed by intermittent

periods of hustle requiring organizational

skills and the ability to compartmentalize

the tasks at hand. The trick was being able

to juggle the two components without

losing your mind. Keeping your mind

active and alert was the secret and

Blanche was a professional at this game.

She knew that when it got boring the

tendency was to become complacent, lazy

and unsatisfied with the work and the job.

She had a theory, ‘that’s why

librarians are supposed to be bitter, sour

faced old-maids with nothing better to do

than hush patrons and shelve books.’

Blanche on the other hand was determined

to break out of the stereotype and avoid

being cast in that lot. On days that were

busy she sorted the work that needed to be

done into various slots in her mind then in

baskets that she fashioned out of

shoeboxes she’d scrounged from the B&B.

It kind of worked like a triage

center in a hospital, at times even

picturing herself on the front lines of a

M*A*S*H unit whisking patients from the

choppers to the waiting area, surgical tent

or morgue as the circumstances dictated.

Books, video tapes and CD’s were

certainly no match for blood and guts but

in her mind's eye to maintain her sanity

she played out these little comparisons

throughout the day. Items that required her

immediate attention were put into a basket

labeled ‘Now’, those that could wait until

later in the day were in ‘Night’, and those

that were saved for the mind-numbing

days were in ‘Never’.

Mrs. Anderson didn’t wholly

appreciate the system and did not sign on

to participate but she could see that it

worked for Blanche so she let her do her

own thing as long as the work was getting

done and the library ran efficiently. Ester

was impressed with the devotion that her

new helper brought to the job and enjoyed

the time she could now dedicate to the

regional museum.

Arriving at noon the library had

already been open for a few hours and

there were people scattered about the

library, some reading, some dozing and

others having quiet conversations over

tables or with chairs pulled close together

in out of the way places. Blanche

generally liked to take a look around to

see who was where and what was going

on before she set herself to completing the

desk related items that demanded her

attention. She could tell this was going to

be a ‘pull out the Never box’ kind of day

so she quickly took care of the few items

that were pressing and reached for the

‘Never’ box.

“Nope,” she thought, “don’t have

the stamina to even look at this stuff right

now.” Blanche pushed the box back into

its place, hopped down from her chair and

made one more swing through the library

looking for rule breakers, which weren't

unusual. After all, she’d worked in some

pretty big libraries in very large urban

centers and just when she thought she had

seen it all someone or something else

would surprise her. Finding ‘things’ in

books were commonplace and they ranged

anywhere from graffiti in the margins to

porn pictures put into children’s books, to

marijuana cigarettes crushed between the

pages of a literary masterpiece. Every

book that came into the library now had to

be thumbed through to find such nuisances.

It hadn’t always been this way but

she could see the respect for things she

held so dear being devalued and

diminished. In the bigger centers the

libraries had to install security cameras in

an attempt to discourage some of the

behavior that was becoming all too

common. With the advent and rise in the

use of the Internet, libraries had been

forced to install computers for research

purposes and as a service to the public.

Most used them with decency and respect

but there will always be some that want to

ruin a good thing for everyone. Keeping

pornography and viruses cleaned from the

systems was almost a full time job,

however, in Valdosta Blanche had not run

into such a problem, at least not yet.

In her last position on the campus

of a university known for its hard partying,

Blanche had been more than a little

shocked to see students engaged in sexual

acts right in the library or on the internet

with their webcams rolling. She was

happy to put such behavior behind her and

her experience in this Southern library had

proven to be a piece of cake in

comparison. That was not to say that she

was any less determined to remain

vigilant. The final thing, which she found

to be perhaps the most disgusting, was the

inability for some to make it to the

washrooms to relieve their bodily

functions. She wasn’t sure if it was lack of

control or just the odds that there are

opportunistic weirdoes out there that will

try at every turn to get their jollies in one

way or the other.

Satisfied that there was nothing

going on but a little handy-holdy

throughout the library she negotiated the

large, heavily laden shelves and arrived at

the bathrooms for a quick inspection.

Stepping into the ladies room she was

greeted with the appearance of a man in

coveralls kneeling on the floor looking

under one of the stall doors. He didn’t

appear to be doing anything other than

cranking his neck to get a better view.

“Hmmm,” pretending to clear her

throat, “Can I help you?”

“Yeah, could you? Would you

hand me a flashlight?” the little character

said, without moving from his position on

the floor.

“I most certainly will not!” she

said, with a rising tone in her voice.

“Why not, it’s right over there in

my box by the wall.”

“Excuse me, is there anyone in that

stall?” she inquired.

“Heavens no, I’m just here all by

my lonesome but I could sure use that

flashlight,” he indicated again pointing to

the box.

“Do you mind telling me just what

the hell it is you’re doing in here? This is

the ladies restroom after all.” She could

feel her cheeks turning redder by the

minute.

“You show me yours and I’ll show

you mine,” he snickered and paused

before saying, “Just joking you. I’m

Marcus the custodian round here, and you

are?”

“I’m Blanche, that is, Blanche

Delaney, I’m the new librarian.”

“Oh, I heard we was getting

someone new, pleased to meet you. Would

love to see you face to face and shake

your hand but I got to take care of this

before I get up.”

“Just what is it you’re doing in

here?” she questioned.

“Well, you see, there was a report

of an increase in water bugs and roaches

in this here bathroom and I think I found

the nest but I can’t quite be sure, too

dark.”

Blanche was already moving to the

toolbox in search of the flashlight as soon

as she heard the word ‘roaches’.

“Here it is," handing it over his

shoulder and placing it into his hand.

“Thanks, yup sure enough, there it

is, little buggers been going in and out

right there,” he exclaimed, clicking the

flashlight off and getting to his feet.

Mr. Marcus was a tiny little guy.

He must not have been much bigger than