"Well," Lennie said, "we do want to be right up to the minute."
It was decided that Lennie would drop her off at the town library and Carol would pick her up two hours later. Norma was quite sure that she could accomplish her purposes in that time. Too, she had other errands that she wanted to take care of. She thought that she should stop off at the place where she had been working and let them know that she would not be back.
It was a Monday morning and everything in town would be open and she could get all of her errands done. When she explained all of that to Lennie he told her to take her time and do whatever she had to do. They would drop her off at the library and she could be on her own from then on.
Lennie and the twins loaded all of the books and the other items that she had evaluated into the panel truck and then they drove out of the big estate and into the town. Lennie told her that he and the twins would be gone for most of the day but Carol would pick her up in two hours.
She used a public telephone to place a call to her previous employer and it made her feel good to realize that the people who had employed her wanted her to stay with them. They were very cordial and when she finally persuaded her boss that she was quitting because she had a much better job, she gave them the new address and they promised to send her final check there.
The library was not a very large one. It was run by a little old lady with white hair piled high on her head and ancient, probably valuable rings on her skinny fingers. She talked with the woman about the books that she wanted to borrow and she got the feeling that she knew more about books than the librarian. After all, hadn't she spent some time in the extensive library at home?
She located the books that she sought, then she used her best powers of persuasion and her school library card as a means of getting the books out of the building. She managed it, finally, and when she started walking toward a drug store a few blocks away, she noticed that a very nice-looking young man with dark curly hair and big brown eyes seemed to be very much interested in her. He had been hanging around her when she was in the library and when she left with her books, he followed her.
There was a bench at the bus stop and she decided that she would sit down and pretend to be waiting for a bus. That should get rid of him. The bench sat back from the sidewalk and she sank down onto it a bit gratefully. It was a glorious morning and she could sit and watch traffic and enjoy the warmth of the sunshine and the beauty of the day.
The young man sat down beside her. He pulled out a wallet and flashed a gold badge under her nose, unnerving her.
"You are under arrest, Miss," he said, quietly. "Come along with me, please."
He stood up and she twisted so that she could look up at him. She was just too astonished to move. He was waiting for her impatiently.
"I don't understand," she said. "I haven't done anything to be arrested for. I know that I haven't."
He looked to be cold and unyielding and she was very close to tears. She had no idea why she was being arrested but there was not very much that she could do but obey him.
She stood up and he led the way to a nice looking car. He opened the door and she got in and then he drove the car away from there and it didn't dawn on her for some time that they were heading out of town. He was not taking her to police headquarters and when she realized that, she asked him where he was taking her.
He looked at her and then he smiled and she liked him very much. He was nice and kind and very good-looking and she wished that he was not arresting her.
"I'm not a regular cop," he said. "I am an insurance company investigator. I have been following you ever since you and the others left the Todd house. You just don't look like a crook to me. Why have you gotten mixed up in that kind of thing?"
She stared at him with such an astonished gaze that he began to look a lot less sure of himself. He stopped the car and then he turned so that he could face her.
"You knew that Lennie Burke is looting that big house, didn't you?" he asked. "You are one of them, aren't you?"
She was stunned, and when she tried to speak, to explain that she had nothing to do with what Lennie was doing, the lie stuck in her throat. She was telling him just what pieces to steal and dispose of first.
He lit a cigarette and she took it from him. She puffed on the cigarette and then she was much improved.
"I didn't know," she said, helplessly. "I had no idea."
"I am so glad," he said. "You don't look like a thief."
He was looking at her much too carefully, and she could see that he liked her and thought her pretty. And she was glad.
"Lennie told me that his uncle died and left everything to him and he hired me and my sister to catalogue and evaluate his inheritance. I didn't know that I was doing anything wrong."