A Quandary in Quarantine

Chapter Four

The rest of that day floated by us all in a blur of news site-checking, trying to reconcile conflicting information, and outright denial (or, worse than that - silence) from much of the leadership both on a local level as well as the country as a whole.

Around 2:30, I needed a break so badly, I found myself searching for some levity on the satire site, The Onion. Up until a few years ago, it was still published in print regularly, and copies were gone within hours of them being dropped off at the library. But, like so many casualties of the digital age, the long-standing publication was now only online.

I clicked into the site and navigated to the News in Brief tab, which was never actual news. But, the first article I saw was titled, WHO Warns Outbreaks In Victorian England Confirm Coronavirus Capable Of Spreading Through Time.

I scrolled through, and noted best quote I’d seen in a long time. Almost as good as when they just repeated the phrase “passers by were amazed at the unusually large amounts of blood,” regardless of the topic of the piece, I read on.

“At press time, WHO officials urged all future humans to quarantine themselves within their current timeline until a vaccine becomes available.”

Perfect. The Coronavirus had even infected The Onion. What next. 

I put my head down on my desk for a moment, this virus would be the end of me.

*****

Late Wednesday afternoon, as we prepared to close the library early for the Library Board meeting, I took some time to work on setting up the back end of AskElsewhere, the library’s new virtual reference platform.

Irene and I had gone over the proposal and Maggie’s suggestions again that morning, making the edits to the interface and I thought it was in a pretty good place. The plan was actually relatively simple. Using a simple live-chat box on the website, and the reference department email that Irene had already established, we would kick off the virtual reference service. We created a form on our intranet that could be linked from the library’s website that asked people for their basic contact info and had a free-text box for them to request more in-depth research. The idea was - the quick questions could be handled via the chat platform, and anything that required more digging on our end would be filtered into the email inbox, allowing us to take our time and respond fully to each question from our community. We even had devised a schedule to cover the shifts between the two of us, covering all the library’s open hours. If a patron tired to chat or submit a question when we were “offline” they would receive a simple “We will get back to you as soon as possible” message. That was one nice thing about a small community like ours, people understood if there was not always an instantaneous response. We were as ready as we could be to announce the changes and new services at the Library Board meeting.

The Library Board meeting was scheduled for 4:30 pm, so we closed the library at 4:00 pm. The Library Board knew to arrive at about 4:15 pm, so hopefully all the regular patrons would have left by then, and we could let them into the building and lock the door behind them. We held the Library Board meetings in the break room, too, that multipurpose space was like a veritable Room of Requirement in our small library.

4:15 pm rolled around and we let the last of the Library Board members in and locked the doors. Typically, senior library staff would not all attend the meeting, as it was really a way for the director to check in with the Library Board individually and for high level business to occur, but with the current world climate surrounding the pandemic, Maggie had asked us all to attend so we could present a united set of policies and get on the same page with the Library Board about how the library would operate at least for the short term. The state of Wisconsin was quickly shutting down, with many schools going virtual and businesses temporarily closing, and we wanted the library to be prepared.

As I approached the conference room, I heard raised voices which made me pause. Okay, maybe the raised voices themselves didn’t, it was not like noise was unheard of in the library - first of all, the whole “silence in the library” thing had gone out the window long before I became a librarian, but usually the in-fighting that occurred between members of the Library Board would not start until after the meeting had actually begun - so the grievances could be documented in the minutes. I paused to listen.

“She is trying to undermine the work I have already done! You know that’s the truth!” A female voice intoned, I thought I recognized the voice as Sally’s.

“But, why - that is the real crux of it, right? What has she got to gain by doing this now?” A second female’s voice countered. I did not think I recognized this voice straight away.

“I am sure I do not know - but I am sure it has to do with money. That’s all they every want here - is more money.” The first woman’s voice, again.

“Okay, okay - keep it down you two. You do not want to be shushed in the library do you?” A third voice added, clearly attempting to lighten the mood and avoid the brewing storm. I thought there might be a possibility that this voice belonged to Susan Taylor, but I could be wrong.

“Besides,” the voice continued, “You know this will not be an issue for much longer…”

What could they possibly be talking about? I did not have time to think about the implications of what I had heard though, as last few Library Board members arrived and the other staff people started to come up behind me, quickly filling the narrow hallway and making enough noise that the three board members who I’d overheard in the break room became quiet quite quickly. I sighed and entered the room. After finding a seat, I saw Lucy and waved her over. She had come over after helping the circulation staff close their desk, and we’d promised to save seats. As I waited for the meeting to start, I scanned the room - Irene had not yet joined us.

“Has anyone see Irene?” I asked.

“No, not since we before we closed,” said Luce.

“Okay,” I said. "I will go sweep the library, and try to find her. I’m sure she just got tied up doing some project, and did not realize what time it was.”

“Thanks, Libby,” Maggie said, shooting a nervous smile around the table where the other board members sat, clearly increasingly upset that the meeting was delayed.

I got up from my chair and left the room, briefly squeezing Maggie’s arm as I passed. We were not a hugely demonstrative group, but I could tell she was worried, and sometimes it was hard being the director when all eyes were on you. I was happy to show her I was in her corner, and that I believed in her leadership.

I quickly walked back up the hallway and crossed the main area of the library. The library was built like a lowercase letter “t,” with a central atrium that opened up to a majestic two-story height. In the center of the atrium, there was a welcoming circulation desk. The staff that worked that desk also acted a bit like traffic cops, directing patrons to other places in the library for more specific services. One side of the “t” housed the Children’s and Teen areas, where Luce ruled the world, and the other side was my beloved Reference Department.

I rounded the corner to reenter the reference department and immediately stopped dead in my tracks. The corner of the desk was exposed and I saw, with sickening clarity, that I had also found Irene. Her posture, slumped as she was in my chair at the public service desk, indicated she had perhaps been using the computer, and then just fallen forward - her head resting on the keyboard and facing away from me. 


“Irene?” I said, my voice barely above a whisper.

Cautiously, I edged ever closer to her, not wanting to startle her if she had somehow fallen asleep or - I don’t know - was just resting her eyes. But why would she be doing that now? She knew there was a board meeting, and she knew that a united front form the library staff on what we wanted to propose in response to the pandemic was very important to Maggie. She herself had clearly stated her concerns regarding how the town would respond, so I knew this meeting was important to her on a personal level, too. She and I had worked hard updating the proposal in preparation for this meeting, and we both knew that these measures were the right ones to take, to keep our patrons and ourselves safe.

The closer I got to her the more apparent it became to me that Irene was not simply resting. There was something very wrong here. Her skin had taken on a waxy pallor, and her head was hanging at a very odd, uncomfortable-looking angle. I reached out and touched her arm warily, and immediately I saw her body slump further forward. She was not conscious, that much was clear. Remembering the first aide training we had taken late last year, I put two fingers on the pulse point on Irene’s neck, and was shocked when I did not quickly find the reassurance of the thump-thump of her heartbeat as I had expected. I screamed, and jumped back from the lifeless body - because now it was clear. That’s all it was- a body. Irene was no more.

I turned and ran back towards the conference room and the waiting assembly of other library staff and the Library Board. 


“Irene. Is. DEAD!” I panted. Running was not a thing I did very often if I could avoid it. “I found her sitting at the reference desk, in my chair. I tried to wake her, I just touched her arm briefly, and then I felt for a pulse, but there wasn’t one!”

“Libby, what do you mean? Slow down - what happened?” Maggie rose from her chair and came to my side. We stood, like we were about to address the group - formal but for my disheveled appearance from running across the library.

“I went to find Irene, like I said I would. And, when I entered the reference department, I saw her slumped in my chair. I think… I think she’s dead!”

“I’ll call 911 and the police immediately,” said Maggie. She pulled out her phone and began to dial.

“Perfect, what else can go wrong,” one of the longtime board members, Sally, said under her breath. I quickly jerked my head in her direction. She had definitely been the first voice I had heard arguing earlier. I recalled that her’s was the voice I’d heard complaining about money. At the time I’d assumed it was a budget debate, but now I wasn’t so sure. The voice I had overheard last, stating that “she” would not be a problem for much longer, was still a mystery. Had Sally or one of the other women I’d heard earlier done something to hurt Irene?

“Excuse me?” Luce finally found her voice. “It appears one of our senior library staff people has DIED and you are worried about the timeline of your evening? Can you be any more callous and uncaring?”

“Luce, hey, let’s just try to stay calm,” I said, recovering from my realization quickly. “The police will be here soon enough and take care of… Irene. This has been a rough day for all of us. Let’s give ourselves some grace.” This last bit I said as I turned back towards Sally, who rolled her eyes and pulled out her phone.

“Okay,” said Maggie, as she came back through the door to the conference room. “I spoke to Deputy Andrew James at the police station and he and a few of his officers are on their way. He dispatched the ambulance too, which I am going to meet out front. I think it would be best if you all just waited in here, so as not to get in their way. Lucy can you please stay here with the Library Board? Libby, please come with me to meet the officers.” 


Marching orders in hand, Maggie and I left the conference room together and walked towards the front door. We had locked it when the Library Board members had all arrived, and sent home the part time staff that had been in the building. With the newly reduced hours Maggie had instituted to help people in our community stay home as much as possible to reduce the local spread of the virus, the library was dark earlier than usual, and also seemed more spooky than usual. Though, that could be the fact that I knew there was a dead body sitting at my desk, too, I supposed. I shuddered at the thought.

Maggie reached to unlock the door, and pulled the sliding glass doors to the side. Part of closing procedure was turning the automatic part of the automatic doors off, but if you knew how to do it you could still get them open.

“Hello, Deputy,” Maggie said, her voice calm and confident. I was impressed, I felt like I was falling apart on the inside. I was not sure how Maggie was able to stay so levelheaded with this threat of a global pandemic going on right outside our front door, and now this. Clearly, I missed the class in library school about staying calm when one of your coworkers is found dead at your desk.

“Libby was the one to find Irene, I’ll let her lead the way.”


I stole a quick glance at Deputy Andrew James. He, too, struck me as very calm and collected in the face of a tragedy. Though, that did make a lot of sense for his line of work.

The deputy was a handsome man in his mid-thirties. He was of medium build, clearly strong under his police-issued winter overcoat, with dark hair and dark eyes that watched everything and revealed little. I had not had too much interaction with the police force since moving to Elsewhere. Which, I supposed wasn't a bad thing, really. However, I had asked Deputy Drew to come give a presentation on home safety last fall, so we knew each other just a little bit. His dark eyes rested on mine.

“Libby, I’m sorry you have to go through this. If you can, please walk me know what happened, and how you found Irene?”


“Of course, Deputy James.”

As we walked through the main part of the library, towards my beloved reference department, I recounted again for the Deputy and the two paramedics how, when Irene had not shown up at the start of the Library Board meeting, I volunteered to go find her. And, that when I did find her, I first thought she had possibly just fallen asleep, and so I had gently shook her arm and then checked for a pulse when she was unresponsive. I purposely left out the conversation I had heard before entering the conference room. I knew it was definitely related, but I needed some time to figure out exactly how it was related before I shared it with the police.


“Thank you,” Deputy James said. “I would like to take some time with Irene and the scene of the, err, well, I want to take some time in the reference department alone, now. Please both of you go back to the conference room and wait for me there. You two and each of the Library Board members will need to make official statements before you’ll be able to leave tonight.”

“Thank you, and of course, we understand. If you want, I can pull her employee file for you so you have her contacts and next of kin’s information.” Maggie kept copies of each of our Human Resources files in her office, just in case. I’ll bet she did not expect to need to access them tonight.

Maggie and I left him and the paramedics to their grisly task. On the way back to the conference room, I glanced at Maggie. She was still acting so cool, this struck me as a bit odd now that it was just the two of us. I understood needing keep up a calm facade for the Deputy and in front of the Library Board, but I thought she would for sure start to show at least some emotion. Maybe she was in shock, and should get checked out by one of the paramedics.

“Maggie, I'll be right back to the conference room - I just want to grab my sweater.”

She nodded, and I turned around and headed back toward the reference desk, bracing myself for what I knew I’d have to see again.

As I approached the desk, I glanced at the computer screen. Since the computer was set up to conserve energy after a few minutes of inactivity, it had since gone dark. Hopefully, whatever Irene had been accessing was still active behind the screen saver. I made a mental note to explore that as soon as I could get time with the computer alone.

I saw Deputy James had donned a pair of gloves, and now stood over my desk with an evidence collection bag. He carefully picked up various items, examine them, and some he placed into the bag. I could not see exactly what it was from my vantage point, but it looked like a small glass tube of some kind. Just as he dropped it in the bag, I noticed a tiny droplet of liquid was left in the bottom. What in the world could that be? I knew I didn’t keep anything that looked like that at my desk…

“Wait a minute, why are you collecting things from my desk, Deputy James?” I asked, all thoughts of the paramedics out of my head for the moment.

“Well, I am not typically in the habit of running a play-by-play when I process a scene, Libby, but I am collecting evidence because it looks like there might be some reason to suspect foul play.”


“Foul play? Do you mean someone hurt Irene on purpose?” I said, ignoring the little jab at my nosiness.

“We suspect that may be the case, yes.” Deputy James’ eyes locked on mine for a moment, then he pointedly turned back to his work.

Taking that as my queue to leave, I turned to go. Remembering I’d wanted someone to check Maggie out for shock, I pulled one of the paramedics aside and the young woman said she would follow me back to the conference room. I walked her back over there in a haze. I was incredulous. Why would anyone want to hurt a small town reference librarian? You heard about crime in big cities, sure, but here in Elsewhere?

Then suddenly my mind flashed to the heated conversation I overheard before I entered the conference room for the Library Board meeting. Could those three people have been talking about Irene? There was also the mystery of the old letter I had found. I thought maybe it might have something to do with the research Irene had been doing, which means it might also be connected in some way to her death. Could Irene have had enemies in the library? And, were some of them Sally and Susan?