A chat with the librarian

You turn your steps towards the main building. You're early for the fourth and final meeting, but you want to get a few minutes with Alice Wilder before it starts. You find her behind her desk, looking as mousy as ever as she stares at a computer monitor.

"Oh! Mr. Carter!" she squeaks as you lean on her desk.

"Ms. Wilder," you reply with a smile. "I'm wondering if you'd had a chance to find that book I was looking for this morning."

"Oh yes. I mean no. I mean I did look but I couldn't find it. I didn't search the entire library of course, but it wasn't on any shelf nearby. And..."

"And what?"

"And I did an inter-library request. We share resources with several other schools and three of them have copies of the book. Or they did."

You look at her, trying to keep the irritation out of your voice. "They did?"

"Yes. Well they do. But they can't find their copies either. They've been misfiled too. Or stolen I suppose. Although why anyone would want to steal it I don't understand. And they wouldn't steal four copies would they. That wouldn't make any sense."

"No. You're right. It wouldn't," you say thoughtfully, staring over the young librarian's head as your mind works. "It must be a coincidence."

Behind you, the library doors open as students and teachers start to arrive for the fourth and final meeting of the day.