His Undercover Lover

Chapter Six

Chapter Six

The rest of their day was filled with various bogus errands, as they went to the places most visited by the victims. They visited a herbal store, two different post offices, a pharmacy, a deli (who made delicious humus, incidentally), a pet shop (three of the victims had animals) and when that was said and done, Garcia had to join the book group that the second victim had belonged to.

The book they had to read for that week was The Kitchen House, which actually sounded very interesting but since she hadn't had time to read it, Penelope memorised the books Wikipedia entry, then read as many reviews as she could find online (for once, not avoiding spoilers).

After visiting a few more stores that afternoon, she and Derek made their way to the library, where the book club met in a side room. It was part of the City's attempt to get more people reading and they had all different genres of clubs, from romance to historical; adult to teen fiction. They laid on a few refreshments, and there was time both before and after for the members of each group to mingle and chat.

Penelope was welcomed warmly by the librarian, Bill, who was leading this group (the historical fiction group) and quickly introduced to a few other members. When everyone had arrived, there were twelve people, plus the librarian. As everyone took their seats, he offered apologies for two other members, who had emailed to say that they couldn't come that evening.

To her surprise, as well as Bill, there were another three men in this group; Ted, Andrew and Stephen. She had expected a book group, and especially a historical fiction club, to be primarily women.

They seemed like a nice bunch of people and they all had interesting insights into the book. Penelope tried not to venture an opinion too much but when asked directly (Bill seemed keen to include her) she fudged as best she could from what she had read. She also had Reid in her ear, who offered an opinion sometimes. Thankfully, no one stood up, pointed at her and called her a fraud.

At the end of the meeting, JJ asked her if she could speak with each of the men for a few minutes and Penelope did her best, although Ted left before she could talk to him.

Bill came to check up on her as she was talking to Andy and two women, Jenny and Kate, then Andy and Bill broke off and began their own discussion.

"No one told me Librarians were hot," Penelope said to the two women once Bill was out of hearing range. "If I had known that librarians were hot, I might have sent more lime in the library and less in the computer lab. I might have had a whole different career path."

She was just being her usual, over the top self, which most people found endearing. Kate rolled her eyes at such obviously flawed thinking, although Jenny seemed to share the sentiment.

"You should ask him out," Jenny urged Penelope. "I would, if I had the courage."

"Trust me, if my Hot Stuff wasn't waiting for me downstairs, I'd be on it like white on rice."

Kate's look asked if Penelope was insane, but Penelope was used to bitchy women and ignored her.

"So what's your man like?" Jenny asked.

"Well, he's tall and dark, and oh so sexy. Kinda like that, actually." She pointed and smiled as she noticed Derek approaching. He had been waiting in the main library for her.

He leaned down to kiss her and his left arm went around her shoulders.

"Did you have a good time?" he asked.

"Yeah, I did actually." Just when she thought that she might lose herself in his dark eyes, she remembered her manners. "Derek, this is Jenny and Kate."