WHO Malcolm Bright and Eloise Bridgerton
WHERE The library
WHEN April 5th
Malcolm and Eloise run into each other at the library.
WARNINGS Probably none.
One of the things that Malcolm misses from back home is his book collection. He had shelves and shelves of books that he had collected over the years on a variety of topics. Granted, most of them tended to be about criminology or psychology, but he had a lot of fiction books as well. His apartment in Vallo feels empty without his shelves (and his weapons, but that's an issue for another time).
Since he's not in a place to buy books yet, he does the next best thing, which is visiting the local library. There's nothing like walking down a quiet aisle among thousands of books, taking in the musty smell of old paper. Even as e-books get more and more popular where he comes from, nothing will ever replace a physical book for him.
Malcolm first picks up a collection of Sherlock Holmes stories, then visits the non-fiction section. There are a lot of books on the psychology of crime, some of them memoirs of crimes solved by famous criminalists. He breezes past everything by John Douglas, not wanting to go there. Never meet your heroes. Malcolm pauses at "In Cold Blood", though he isn't really looking for a case study.
He's still contemplating when someone enters the aisle next to him. Instinctively, he looks up and realizes that he recognizes the young woman.