Colton was sitting in his office, viewing his monitors, when he saw suspicious activity in the Children's section. There was a kid up there acting shifty. He left his office and headed that way.
When he got to the stairs, he saw the kid at the top of the stairs. It looked like he had something hidden in his shirt. He seemed to be headed down until he saw Colton. The kid briefly froze before changing direction and heading up the stairs.
Colton headed up the stairs and caught up to the boy. "I don't know why you're avoiding me, but I'm sure it has something to do with what's under your shirt. Out with it."
The boy tried to run, but Colton grabbed his arm. This sudden stoppage caused something to fall out from under the boy's shirt. Still holding onto his arm, Colton examined the item. It was an art book with a naked woman sitting with her back turned on the cover. "How To Draw Nude Figures," he read.
The boy looked away, his face red.
Colton knew immediately knew what this was. Judging by the boy's age, his embarrassed body language, and the nude woman posing on the cover, it could only be, "Puberty's a beast, huh?"
The boy kept up his futile struggle to escape from his grasp.
"You're not gonna get in trouble," Colton reassured him. "All you have to do is get your parents to sign you up for a library card if they haven't already. Then, you can check out items like this to...improve your art skills. Oh, and make sure ask your father about...your art skills." He release the boy. "Now run along and stay out of trouble."
The boy ran without saying a word.
Colton picked up the book. It belonged in the adult Nonfiction section. Perhaps a page shelved it in the wrong section. Maybe the kid snuck it upstairs to flip through it before deciding to steal it. Either way, he'd return it to the Reference Desk downstairs up let them deal with it.
Once that was done, he went outside to do a perimeter sweep. In the middle of his sweep, he saw the boy coming his way with an angry woman in tow. He assumed the woman was his mother.
"Hey, asshole!" the woman said. "Did you put your hands on my son?"
Assumption confirmed. "He was stealing library property. I retrieved the item, informed him about library cards, and let him off with a warning."
"I don't care what he tried to steal, you don't hit my son!"
"Hit him?" Colton didn't remember doing that. Looking at the boy again, though, he his face was red, it appeared as if he had been hit. "It wasn't me, lady."
"Then, who was it? It clearly looks like a grown man hit him and he said you did it."
"I'm telling you, that's crap," Colton said. "We can go to my office and view the camera footage if you don't believe me."
The boy gasped.
The mother looked at her son. "What's wrong?"
The boy looked at the ground. "It wasn't him."
"What?" she said.
"A man...he dragged me into the bathroom. He hit me...and told me to blame the security guard."
Looks like the boy didn't know there were cameras.
"I'm so sorry," the woman apologized.
"No, I'm the one who's sorry," Colton said. "I'm a library security guard. It's my job to keep the library, its property, and its inhabitants secure. Yet your boy was hit by someone on my watch. I guarantee I'll make up for this." He knelt down to meet the boy's eyes. "What did he look like?"
"I don't know...he was wearing a black mask."
A black mask? "Where did it happen?"
"The bathroom...on the second floor."
Colton would have to figure this out himself. He stood. "You two have a nice day."
From there, Colton went to his office to sift through footage. The library manager was standing there with an envelope in his hand. "Hey, boss."
The manager handed him the envelope. "It's for you. I found it in the bathroom on the second floor."
Colton opened it. The handwriting was the same as the letter he received earlier in the week. He read, "You stole my dream. I'll steal your pride. How does it feel to fail, maggot?"
"What does that mean?" the manager asked.
"I don't know," he said. "I'm going to look over the camera footage to see what I can find."
They both entered his office and looked at a monitor that had a view of the bathroom entrances on the second floor. They saw the boy run into the men's bathroom at the 5:30 pm. They continued watching.
Then, at 5:35 pm, a figure dressed in all black slivered into the men's bathroom. Colton and the manager looked at each other, then went back to viewing the monitor. At 5:38 pm, the man slivered out of the bathroom, looking at the camera as he did.
"Check the other cameras," the manager said.
Colton did so, but the playbacks were all static between 5:30 pm and 5:45 pm. The second floor bathroom camera still worked. "None of 'em picked up anything. So, we have no idea where he came from or where he went. I'm pretty sure he didn't come into the library or leave looking like that."
"I'm not sure how he knocked out the cameras," the manager said. "But why would he leave the camera trained on the second floor bathrooms working."
"Isn't it obvious?" Colton asked. "The note, the way he looked at the camera, trying to set me up to take the fall for hitting the boy. He's sending me a message."
"Based on what the letter said, this guy knows you," the manager said. "Any idea who it could be?"
Colton shrugged. "None at all."
