Who's sorry now?

island—dessert—they all stood and toasted the new boarder.
    ”This isn’t an every night sort of meal, is it?” Howard asked.
    He stood up, holding his glass, and toasted everyone else. ”The nicest people I know all at the same table. I’m the luckiest man alive.”
    Robert glanced at Lily, who was threatening to tear up again. In fact, Robert himself was close to doing so as well. Tt had been a wonderful evening.
     

CHAPTER FIVE
    Monday, April 24
     
    AS A NEW STARTED, nobody but Lily and Robert were at Grace and Favor. The Harbinger boys were supposed to cut out the diseased bushes, but had to beg off until later in the day because Miss Twibell at the nursing home nearby wanted the dumbwaiter rails regreased. They were catching near the basement. The dumbwaiter had been Robert’s idea and he was proud of it, and he didn’t even want to look at the nasty bushes anyway.
    Mr. Prinney was at his office in the village; Phoebe Twinkle was at her hat shop; Mrs. Prinney was supervising a two-day bake sale to raise money for a family in town who needed some help because the father of three children had run off to California. Chief Walker was working at his office at the jail. Mimi, who’d done an early morning blitz of cleaning, was visiting her dreadful aunts for the day.
    Even Lily was absent in a sense. Her dog Agatha had gone outside early in the day and rolled in a very dead animal and came back stinking to high heaven. Lily was bathing her.
    Robert went to the library with his lock picks and the somewhat blurry and badly spelled instructions. The library had a long sideboard on the left side of the room with locked bookshelves above. Nobody had ever been able to find a key to open them. So Robert started at the far left end. With a little practice, he managed to get one of the doors open. He took out a book titled The Biography of Leonard Spokes. It was the first one on the left of the bottom shelf.
    It looked hefty, but was surprisingly lightweight. He opened the book and stared with astonishment. It wasn’t a real book. It was a box filled with ten-dollar bills.
    ”Holy Toledo!” he said.
    He took out the next book, titled The Persian Wars. That one was filled with five-dollar bills.
    He put both books back and gently closed the door without relocking it, and galloped up the stairs to Lily’s room. He knocked on the bathroom door.
    Lily called out, ”Open the door, but you’ll be sorry. Agatha found a long-dead animal in the woods and rolled in it.”
    The room stank and Lily had the window wide open and a little fan sitting on the sill blowing out the smell.
    Agatha was wrapped in a towel, looking terribly pleased with herself for gaining all this interest.
    ”Lily, you must come down to the library to see what I discovered,” Robert said, nearly yelling.
    ”What?”
    ”You must see it for yourself.”
    ”Take Agatha down to the kitchen to dry off and let me take a shower first. I smell almost as bad as she did.”
    ”Believe me, this can’t wait. Someone might come home before you see what I found.”
    At least let me change my clothes and pin a scarf around my stinking hair.”
    With Agatha settled on a rug in front of the oven, he headed back to the library just as Lily descended the stairs. She followed him into the library. ”So?” she asked.
    With a flourish, Robert opened the library door that concealed the books.
    ”Good heavens! You found a key?”
    ”Not exactly,” Robert said. ”Take out that book”—he pointed at it and went on—”titled The Biography of Leonard Stokes and open it.”
    Lily did so and almost yelped. ”Money! Have you counted it?”
    ”Not yet. Now open The Persian Wars.”
    ” Five-dollar bills. Robert, do you suppose that all of these books are fake and full of cash?”
    ”One can only hope,” Robert said, grinning like a madman.
    ”We must tell Mr. Prinney about this. I wonder if he might have known all along. Maybe he has the key, come to think of it.” She paused and said, ”What did you mean when you said ‘not exactly’?”
    Robert confessed. ”I took a day off to go to New York—”
    ”I remember that.”
    ”I bought a set of lock picks from a bum in Central Park.”
    ”Lock picks! Aren’t they illegal?”
    ”I didn’t inquire,” Robert said.
    ”We must tell Mr. Prinney about this.”
    ”Why?”
    ”Oh, Robert. Don’t be silly. These fake books are part of Great-uncle Horatio’s estate. Mr. Prinney is the executor. He