Everybody Knows (Sunnyside #1) by Jacie Floyd Read Free Book Online Page B

comment emerged from her
mouth unplanned. Sarcasm was a common fallback position for her. “They pretty
much suck at keeping vandals out, don’t they?”
    Even though Harper had tried to reel in her
expectations, she could never have prepared herself for what looked like a sick
joke. Like a Dante’s Inferno depiction of a librarian’s worst nightmare—the destruction of a public library.
    The stench made nausea roil through her empty
stomach. Spinning around, she headed back to the open door for a gulp of fresh
air.
    Graffiti artists had been busy in the columned
entryway. And if the town had a homeless population, the odor, along with piles
of rags and debris, indicated they’d been using the main reading room for
shelter.
    There appeared to be little left of the
furnishings. Most of what she could see was upended or broken into pieces. Even
the drawers of the outdated card catalog had been removed and the cards strewn
across a floor. Water spots puddled on the dramatic black and white tile.
    But it was the condition of the books that broke
her heart. Why would anyone be so thoughtless with shelf upon shelf of books?
Doubtful they could be reclaimed or reconditioned after such horrendous
treatment.
    “Oh, my.” Blinking through a sheen of tears, she
closed her eyes. Beside her, Zach vibrated with anger. “Did a tornado sweep
through Sunnyside recently?”
    “No.” His jaw muscles twitched.
    “How did it get like this? Who let it happen?”
Helplessly, she was drawn to a shelf of poetry books. Picking up a damp volume,
she paged through it. Just as she figured, the combination of sweltering heat
and water had resulted in a bumper crop of mold and mildew. She flipped through
a few more volumes in the same worthless condition.
    Zach’s flushed cheeks and tense jaw communicated
his displeasure, annoyance, and maybe even embarrassment over the appalling
condition of the building. With a couple of long strides, he arrived at her
side, removed the books from her hands, and tossed them on the floor. “It’s no
excuse, but after the funding dried up, there wasn’t any money to maintain it.”
    She probably would’ve slugged him if she thought
he had known and hadn’t warned her. “If Andrew Berkman had been notified, he
would have sent assistance—money, maintenance people, carpenters, anything —to keep it from getting this
bad.”
    “Obviously, no one was paying attention.
Everyone’s got a lot on their plates just keeping their own lives together.”
Zach pushed fingers through his hair and shook his head. “Or maybe no one
wanted him to know how bad it was so he wouldn’t change his mind.”
    “Building maintenance and police patrols would
have kept a lot of this from happening.” She circled in the middle of the room,
feeling helpless. “It doesn’t look like anyone’s checked on the building since
the doors closed last December.”
    “You’re right.” A muscle jumped again in his jaw.
It touched her to see him wrestling with the same sort of fury that threatened
to swamp her. “It doesn’t. None of this makes sense. I’m sorry you’re having
such a bad beginning in Sunnyside.”
    A little niggling twitch in the back of her mind
suggested he was at least partially responsible for this mess. She didn’t plan
to voice any of the concerns that nagged her, but an accusation spewed out of
her mouth. “The level of destruction looks intentional and feels almost
personal.”
    “No.” Shaking his head, he stepped closer to her.
“Why? And who would it be aimed at? You? You don’t know anybody here, do you?
Do you think someone could have a grudge against Andrew Berkman? If anyone in
Sunnyside knew him, they’d be trying to get on his good side, not sabotage his
pet project.”
    He slipped his arm around her shoulders, drawing
her in for a brief consoling hug, unexpected and more comforting than she would
have thought possible. He felt good and strong and oh, so competent. All
attributes that