No Cats Allowed

NINE

“Fired you?” Melba said from the doorway, having returned from putting on the coffee. “What’s going on here?”

At the same time, I asked, “Exactly when did he fire you?” I wondered when he’d had the time to do it today. “Was it when I saw you earlier coming out of his office, Cassandra?”

“No, the jerk didn’t have the courage to tell me to my face.” She snapped out the words.

I felt a tug on the leash and glanced down. Diesel was trying to get under Melba’s desk. The poor boy didn’t like the loud voice of my irate colleague. I got up from the chair and moved to stand behind the desk so the cat could seek refuge there.

“I don’t understand.” Melba looked as bewildered as I felt. “How could he fire you if he wasn’t present when it happened? Who actually fired you? HR?”

“No, we all got letters in the campus mail a little while ago.” Delbert Winston spoke in a much calmer tone than Cassandra had done. He pulled a letter-sized manila envelope out of his jacket pocket and waved it for a moment before replacing it. “I didn’t think such a thing was legal.”

“I doubt it is,” I said. “If Oscar intended to fire you, he’d have called you all together at one time, in the same room, with an HR officer present, and then you would have been escorted off campus immediately.” I shook my head. “This reeks to high heaven.”

“If this is Oscar’s idea of a practical joke,” Lisa said, “I don’t think it’s funny. It’s downright cruel.” She appeared ready to burst into tears.

Melba and I exchanged a glance. I felt sure she was thinking the same thing I was. This looked like another prank against Oscar, but Lisa, Delbert, and Cassandra got caught in the crossfire.

“I think we’d better call Penny Sisson,” I said. “HR needs to know about this.” After a brief thought, I added, “The campus police, too.”

“Why the police?” Cassandra demanded.

I explained my reasoning without going into unnecessary detail. “Oscar has been the victim of several pranks recently, and given the circumstances of this so-called firing, I suspect this is another one. Unfortunately, it involved the three of you in a nasty way.”

“I’ll call Penny,” Melba said. “Y’all have a seat.” She waved toward an old sofa near the window and a second chair kept for visitors. “I’ll get ahold of the campus police, too.”

Lisa and Cassandra chose the sofa, and Delbert pulled his chair close to them. They all kept their eyes trained on me, Cassandra with her usual glower, and Lisa and Delbert with more hopeful expressions.

I pulled my chair closer to the side of Melba’s desk, facing my three colleagues, so I could keep an eye on my cowering feline under the desk. Now that the atmosphere was calmer, he peeped out from his hiding spot, and I reached down to rub his head. “It’s all okay, boy,” I told him in soft tones. “You don’t need to worry.” He inched his way out into the open about half a foot, until his head could rub against my shoe.

“Guess we scared your cat with all the commotion.” Delbert cast a sideways glance at Cassandra, the true source of the “commotion.” “Sorry about that, but we were all really upset.”

“Understandably so,” I said. “Diesel’s okay now, as long as nobody starts ranting again.” I stared pointedly at Cassandra, but she appeared not to notice.

“Penny’s on her way over,” Melba said. “Chief Ford, too. I’ll go make some coffee. More coffee, that is.”

“None for me,” Cassandra said. “I do not imbibe caffeine.”

“I’ll take some, and thanks,” Delbert said.

“Me, too.” Lisa rose from the sofa. “I’ll come with you.”

“Sure thing, honey.” Melba smiled at the younger woman.

I itched to question Cassandra and Delbert about their encounters with our mutual boss, but I figured I should keep out of it for now. I wondered where Oscar was, and whether he was okay. Where could the two men have gone? I would tell Chief Ford about the meeting between the two men. He had the resources to investigate.

Lisa came back with mugs of coffee for herself and Delbert, and Melba, with cups for the two of us, arrived seconds before Penny Sisson hurried into the office. Chief Ford was almost on her heels.

Cassandra jumped up at once and launched into her grievances over her “callous mistreatment at the hands of that incompetent idiot,” and it took Chief Ford a few moments to get her to shut up. Finally, she subsided, albeit with a resentful glance at the campus cop, and resumed her seat.

“Thank you, Ms. Brownley,” Ford said, and much to his credit, I thought, he sounded polite, rather than irritated. “Now, let’s talk about this calmly. You three all received letters saying you were fired, right?”

Lisa and Delbert nodded. Cassandra just glared. The chief turned to Penny Sisson. “Was HR aware of this?”

Penny shook her head. “No, we were not. We haven’t had any kind of communication from Mr. Reilly that he intended to lay off any of the library staff. I’d like to look at one of your letters, if I may.”

Delbert rose and again pulled his letter from his jacket pocket and handed it to Penny. Before she could grasp it, however, the chief said, “If you would, Mr. Winston, please open the letter and place it flat on the desk here. I’d rather no one else touch it for now.”

Delbert complied with the chief’s command and then stood back. Penny and Ford moved closer to examine it. After a moment, Penny turned to face the three fired librarians. “This is absolutely not the way this college handles the laying off of employees. I don’t know what Mr. Reilly was thinking, but this violates our procedures completely.”

All three of them looked relieved, even Cassandra, who forgot to glower for at least three seconds.

“Ms. Gilley,” Chief Ford said, “you’re the administrative assistant. Is it normally your job to type the director’s letters and mail them?”

“Normally, yes,” Melba said, “but Oscar certainly didn’t give me any letters like this to process. I don’t know anything about them.” She approached the desk in order to inspect the letter. After a moment she said, “That does look like his signature, though.” She straightened. “But it’s not the letterhead stationery he usually uses.” She pointed to the top-left-hand corner of the sheet of paper. “The library’s logo should be there, along with the phrase Office of the Director. This is just plain Athena College stationery.”

“I never noticed that.” Lisa Krause turned to Delbert. “Did you?” He shook his head. She glanced at Cassandra, who appeared not to have heard the question.

“This is all really strange,” Penny said. “What was Mr. Reilly thinking, to do something like this? It makes no sense whatsoever.”

“We don’t know that Mr. Reilly is responsible,” Chief Ford said. “Even though it looks like his signature, according to Ms. Gilley. I need to talk to Mr. Reilly and find out whether he knows anything about this.” He turned to Melba. “Where is he?”

“I don’t know,” she answered, then looked at me.

“If I could speak to you in private for a moment, Chief,” I said. “I need to talk to you about that.”

Ford responded with a curt nod and headed for the entryway. I handed Diesel’s leash to Melba and then followed the officer.

“What is it, Mr. Harris? Do you know where Mr. Reilly is?” Ford looked and sounded impatient.

“No, I don’t, and in fact, Melba and I are worried about him.” I quickly explained the situation.

Ford didn’t interrupt with questions. When I finished, he got on his radio and instructed his officers to start a search for Oscar’s car. Then he called the Athena police department and had a brief conversation with them, ending with a request for their patrol cars to look for the car as well.

Ford restored his cell phone to its holder. “You said Ms. Gilley noticed this stranger sitting in a car on the street outside this building for three days in a row?”

“Yes,” I said. “Four days, if you count today.”

“Why didn’t one of you report this to us?” Ford shook his head.

“Sorry,” I said, “but frankly I didn’t think it was that serious. I figured the man was simply waiting to pick up a student or a faculty member to drive them home. Something innocuous like that.”

Ford stared at me for a moment before he turned and walked back into Melba’s office. I felt foolish and resentful at the same time as I followed him.

Ford didn’t share with the others what I told him. Instead he said, “Ms. Krause, Ms. Brownley, do you have your letters with you?”

Lisa nodded and delved into the small handbag she had brought with her. Cassandra shook her head. “No, it’s on my desk in my office. You’ll have to send someone for it.”

I could tell the chief didn’t care for her patronizing tone any more than I did. His shoulders stiffened, but he regarded her with a bland expression. “Thank you, Ms. Brownley.” He asked Lisa to lay her letter, still in its envelope, on top of Delbert’s.

“Thank you all,” he said. “You can go back to work now.” He turned to Penny. “That should be okay, right?”

“Yes, of course,” Penny said. “You all are still employed by the college. Those letters are not legitimate. I would like to have copies of them, if you please, Mr. Ford.”

“I’ll arrange that,” he replied.

My three fellow librarians and Penny all began to move toward the door and out into the hallway while Melba, Diesel, the chief, and I remained in the office.

I heard the front door open, and I moved to a vantage point from which I could see who had come in.

Oscar Reilly stood just inside the door frame, glaring at Penny and my coworkers. He looked fine and completely unfazed by whatever had gone on between him and Porter Stanley since I had last seen them together in Oscar’s office.