Smoke in Mirrors

distracted.
    “Hello?”
    “It’s me, Grandma. How was bridge last night?”
    “I came in first.”
    “Of course you did. Someday you’ll have to decide how you’re going to invest all those quarters you’ve won during the past couple of years. You could probably afford to open up your own personal casino by now.”
    “I had good cards,” Gloria said, brimming with false modesty. “It’s about time you called. I’ve been worryingabout you. Are you all right? What’s going on up there in Washington?”
    “I’m fine.” Leonora glanced out the door of the tiny office. She checked the aisles between the floor-to-ceiling bookstacks to make sure she was alone. “Nothing to report yet but, as we in the detective business like to say, progress is being made.”
    “Forget the progress, get to the good stuff. How are you and your Mr. Walker getting along?”
    “I keep telling you, he’s not my Mr. Walker. For the record, Gloria, Thomas and I have both concluded that we don’t have anything in common other than a mutual interest in finding out what happened to Meredith and his brother’s wife, Bethany.”
    “Hmm.”
    “But if it makes you feel better, Thomas’s dog likes me.”
    “Well, I suppose that’s a start. Has Mr. Walker taken you to dinner?”
    “Well, yes. Last night, as a matter of fact. But it was solely for the purpose of discussing our mutual problem.”
    “Did you go back to his place or your place?”
    Leonora took the phone away from her ear, stared at it for a second and then put it back to her ear. “His place. But only for a few minutes. It was on the way. Sort of.”
    “Did he make a pass?”
    “No.” Leonora took her feet down off the desk and sat forward. “He tightened the screw in my glasses.”
    “Ah.”
    “It was amazing. He had one of those little tiny screwdrivers. You know, the kind that optometrists use.”
    “Imagine that. I do like a man who is handy with his tools. Such a useful talent.”
    It was impossible to argue in the face of suchdetermined optimism. Leonora gave up, told Gloria to say hello to Herb and ended the call.
    She sat back, steepled her fingers and brooded for a while.
    It was a strange experience. She rarely brooded. She tried to get into it. It wasn’t like she didn’t have stuff to brood about. It just wasn’t easy. Her thoughts kept going back to Thomas and his little jewel of a house.
    A low, sighing groan snapped her out of the odd mood. The sound emanated from the other side of the wall behind the card catalog.
    Startled, she swung around in the chair and stared at the old wooden catalog. A second groan and a squeak followed hard on the heels of the first. She could have sworn she also heard a muffled giggle.
    The easy explanation was that the sounds were coming from people in the room next to the library. But she was certain that there was no one in that chamber. The door was closed and locked.
    She left the office and hurried through the stacks to the door of the library. She was about to step out into the hall to see if anyone was about when she caught the dim flicker of movement in the old convex mirror that hung on the opposite wall directly across from where she stood.
    The bulging curve of the heavily framed looking glass reflected the corridor for a distance of several feet on either side. The shifting of light in the dark glass was a reflection of the hall to her right. As she watched, a section of the corridor wall swung open.
    Two figures slipped out into the hall. One of them paused to make certain that the hidden door swung shut. Then they both turned and disappeared in the direction of the main staircase at the far end of the passage. There was more muffled laughter and soft conversation.

    Julie Bromley and her boyfriend, Travis Todd. Julie had introduced him to Leonora that morning.
    She waited until the two students had vanished downstairs and then walked to where she had seen them emerge from the wall. A narrow seam in the paneling was the only evidence of a door.
    She pushed gently. Nothing happened. She pushed a little harder. The invisible door swung inward with a creak of rusty hinges.
    There was just enough light coming from the hall behind her to reveal a narrow flight of steps that curved around itself. It led to the closed floor above.
    An old-fashioned set of servants’ stairs, she thought. Julie and Travis were no doubt using a room on the third floor for a trysting spot.
    Personally, she couldn’t see