Remote Storage

by Susan Hammerman

About the Author: Susan Hammerman’s most recent publications are “Hepcat Christmas” published in the January 2020 issue of The Dark City Crime & Mystery Magazine and “Dominant Hand” published in September 2020 by Mondays Are Murder. She is a recipient of the Mystery Writers of America Midwest Hugh Holton Award.

Excerpt

People who turned up at the library were lost in the county court building, there to get a divorce, file a lawsuit, or at the express invitation of the police. The library was closed, had been for hours, and the door was locked. Someone banged on it a second time. John Connelly slapped his hand on his desk at the interruption. Whoever it was didn’t want the library anyway.

Two more bangs were followed by a series of vigorous kicks that rattled the doorknob. It was a full-blown temper tantrum.

It didn’t help to lean back in his desk chair. John couldn’t see the four-foot-long glass panel in the door, not until he stood up, walked over, and got just about on top of it. And when he did, he saw two men. He knew one of them, but what he paid attention to was the baseball bat in the guy’s hand. John dropped back and pressed himself against the wall next to the door, out of sight he hoped. A bat could smash the thin sheet of glass in the door with no problem. He wished he’d been wrong and amended that to he wished he’d stayed out of it.

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