Under C, for Caper

 

The library window was open just a bit.  The breeze was quiet as it came in.  Somehow it knew it should be.  There were a few students here and there sitting at tables, some reading, a couple doing homework and just one looking guilty.  She kept looking around, as if checking to see if she’d been noticed sitting there, and maybe she shouldn’t have been.  It seemed like it was one of those – hiding in plain sight situations.

The ceiling lights flashed off and on twice, signifying they were closing in 10 minutes.  Then came the announcement over the PA.  “The library closes in 5 minutes.”  When I looked back at the girl, she was no longer sitting there.  I hadn’t noticed her walk by me.  I wondered if she was hiding out someplace, to be inside once they close, but why?  Without the lights on, what could you do in a library?      Then I remembered the open window.  Never have I seen one of their windows open before.  It was more than a little odd.

Maybe she was going to smuggle books out to a friend.  Someone waiting on the other side of the window with a bag, ready to collect whatever books she was able to snag in the dark.  Then again, I doubt there is a great street value on library books.  It must be something else.

I got up and filed out like everyone else, but once outside, I made my way around to the side of the building with the open window.  I would watch the action from the shadows.  I was too curious now to let it go.   As I crouched down by a bush, I quickly began to wonder what it is I would say, should someone ask me what I was doing.  I had no idea what I’d say.  I’d probably just stand up and leave, saying something completely idiotic like, “You just missed it.”

No one ever came by me as I hid there, but eventually I did see a flashlight come on inside the library.  It never occurred to me the girl would have a flashlight.  Of course she would.  How clueless am I?  But what was she up to?  There wasn’t anyone outside of the open window, waiting to receive the stolen goods, aka library books.  So, I just kept waiting to see what happened next.

It was about 20 minutes later when two police cars rolled into the lot, but for whatever reason, they were very stealthy.  No lights or sirens.  They just quietly rolled in and one cop from each car got out and walked straight over to me.  With a flashlight shining in my face, I was asked what I was doing there.  I couldn’t believe it was me they were there to see.  I was the good guy.

I told them about the suspicious girl I had seen and that she hid inside someplace when the library closed. That’s why I was watching the open window.  One cop turned his light off and told me to follow him to his squad car.  Once inside the car he explained to me that  I was interrupting a sting operation.  The officer on the inside of the library was with their drug detail, and apparently the library was a hot spot of activity.  They let me go, although not until making a copy of my driver’s license.  That was enough adventure to cure me from being curious about anything.  I headed home.

 

Mystery solved.