“Oh, Chopped Liver,” Sable as he and the woman approached Holden. “I did your job for you.”


    Holden scowled while contouring to flip through old articles, searching for any leads.


    The woman cleared her throat to get Holden’s attention. “Excuse me, sir. I have a book for you that might help you with your problem.”


    “So, you have a book on treatments for cat psychosis?” Holden quipped in a serious tone that made it hard to tell if he was joking.


    “I’m sorry. Cat psychosis?”


    Sable growled. “Ignore him. He’s grumpy like this almost all the time.”


    Holden laughed. “Did you happen to tell your new friend that we’re investigating a haunting?” He then turned to face the elf woman. “This cat keeps seeing ghosts in our apartment; one that has no idea how she ended up as a ghost. We suspect she probably died in there several years ago.”


    “Oh well that would certainly explain a lot,” the woman smiled. “So, the kitty cat believes in ghosts? That’s kind of cute.”


    Sable wanted to snap at the woman for continuously calling him kitty cat, but he kept his mouth shut. She had helped him without even asking what he needed help with, and divulged what seemed to be a pretty big secret about the Grand Library while doing so. Sable had no idea why this woman would do that for him, though. Nonetheless, out of gratitude, he’d let her get away with treating him like some ordinary house cat for now.


    Holden saw the complicated expression on Sable’s face, who was trying to hold back a frown. “Wow, Cat. I never knew you were capable of such restraint.” Holden then held his hand out to take the book from the woman. “Thank you for helping him out.” A mischievous grin then appeared on Holden’s face. “He really is a good kitty cat, isn’t he?”


    “I know. Isn’t he?” The woman said with a radiant smile while handing the book to Holden. “Oh, just so you know, that book has an enchantment on it that prevents it from leaving the library. So, you two will have to read it here, alright?”


    “Thank you, Miss. we will.”


    Holden and Sable left the woman’s company to find an area in the library where they could read comfortably. After every twenty rows of bookshelves there was a sitting area for guests with chairs, tables, and even desks. The seating area went the entire width of the library, which was further than the naked eye could see. The Grand Library was like a labyrinth. How anyone found anything in this place was beyond Holden’s comprehension. It was said that you could walk for hours on end before reaching the other side of the library.


    “This place is so impractical,” Holden said, squinting in an attempt to see the end of the library. “Yet somehow every time I come here, the section I’m looking for is always toward the front of the shelves. I wonder if the bookcases move in response to the guests’ desires. That would certainly explain a lot.”


    Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    Sable hid a knowing smirk. Given what he had learned about the Grand Library from the helpful woman, Sable would bet that Holden’s theory was correct. Not that Sable intended to admit that to Holde, though. “I guess we’ll just never know. It’s why the Grand Library is one of Thanador’s seven wonders.”


    Holden could tell that Sable was hiding something from him, but decided to ignore it. He started looking through the book the woman had given them.


    The first article he read was about a pre-teen girl who had committed suicide in the apartment about ten years after Chrimoria’s founding. It included a rough sketch of the girl, but Sable said that the girl in the article didn’t look like the ghost girl.


    Aahhh! The ghost girl suddenly walked right behind Holden, causing Sable to yelp. “Please don’t scare me like that.”


    The ghost girl gave Sable an innocent smile. “I thought about calling out to you from afar. But I realized that would probably freak you out, too.”


    Holden just ignored Sable’s cries of terror and chatter, treating it like the literal ravings of someone who had lost their mind. He read through the second article, which was about Chrimoria’s first serial killer, who had murdered a girl in her late teens. The woman was described as having a youthful appearance that made her look younger than she actually was. The sketch made her look rather short. Although she was eighteen years old, the girl could’ve easily been mistaken for thirteen or fourteen.


    “What about this girl?” Holden asked, showing Sable the picture of the sketch in the book. “Does she look anything like your imaginary friend?”


    Sable huffed. “Would you stop mocking me? And no by the way. The girl we’re looking for looks more like she’s in her mid-teens. And she’s actually slightly taller than average.”


    “Am I?” The ghost girl asked, looking down at her feet., trying to get a sense of her height.


    “Yes. Maybe only an inch or two, though,” Sable replied.


    “Imaginary friend,” Holden said, mockingly.


    “Oh, shut it.”


    Holden continued reading through articles. There were about a dozen of them, so it only took him about an hour. Unfortunately, none of them fit the description of the ghost girl Sable was seeing before him.


    “Well, that’s a bust.” Holden yawned from sleepiness. His watch said that it was three in the morning. Holden had only gotten two hours of sleep, and was struggling to stay away. “So, where to next, Cat?”


    “Why ask me? You’re the detective here,” Sable said.


    “That’s funny coming from the cat that goes around acting like a detective every time we talk to someone.” Holden then yawned once again while lying his head on the table. “Besides this is your case isn’t it?”


    Sable started flicking his tail back and forth while debating with himself regarding what to do next. “Let’s see. Maybe we could try asking around the neighborhood? Someone might know something. No. That’s not very reliable. I suppose we could try hiring a diviner. Divination magic could easily help us discover who this girl is. Then against the mage would have to be able to see the girl in order to use divination on her.”


    It seemed like Sable would be thinking for a while, so Holden decided to make a suggestion. “Why don’t we go to an artist?”


    “An artist? How is an artist going to help us with this predicament?”


    “The main hurdle we’re running into is that you’re the only one who can actually see and talk to this girl. It would be easier if I had a picture of her, in case I have to search through reports again. Knowing what she actually looks like would be useful.”


    “Couldn’t we have a mind mage project my memories of her into your mind?”


    “Do you know where we can find a mind mage capable of that at this hour?”


    “Do you know where we can find an artist at this hour? Especially one that won’t charge us an outrageous sum for their work?”


    “Actually, I do,” Holden proclaimed. “Follow me, Cat. Let me introduce you to an old acquaintance of mine.”