Library Notes
April 1, 2005
By Pansy Hundley, Librarian.
Everybody knows how much gas is costing now, with numbers having moved again every time we pass the service station.
With Suzanne driving her Suburban to school in Commerce three times a week, it seems that she is spending more time at the service stations than she spends in class, to say nothing of what she is spending on gas.
She loves the little foreign cars, has owned several and believes they will run forever. However, she still needs her larger vehicle when it’s time to go to Lowe’s and haul a piece of lumber or a new hot water heater or such like to the house.
Recently when she learned of an auto auction in Lewisville, she just politely took herself over there bright and early one morning.
She had been on her computer before hand, checking on several cars in the list she had. She checked to see if the cars she was interested in had been wrecked or had the mileage turned back, etc., etc.
Armed with her trusty list and all her information, she proceeded to check out the cars she was interested in before the auction began. There was one Honda she was particularly wanting to see. So, she kicked the tires, stuck her head in it to check out the interior, and did all the other things one does to see if "this is the one".
When the Honda car finally came up for bidding, she had one man bidding against her. She thought sure that he was going to fool around and get her car. She had set a limit of $500.00 to spend on that Honda. The man went as high as $450.00. Suzie raised him by $25.00 and got her Honda for $475.00.
Bear in mind that this was an auction. The cars were lined up, crowded in so that you couldn’t try driving one. You just had to bid, hold your breath and hope there wasn’t too much wrong with it. Suzie called this experience "Suzie’s Folly", buying one like that.
After she had done the deed and bought the car, she found the man who came to make keys for buyers and money for himself. Since these were impounded cars, or seized or whatever, there were no keys to them. But, for $15.00, she secured her set, hopped in and tried the starter of her recent purchase. Nothing happened and it was supposed by her and some of the guys around the place, buying their own bargains, that the car had set so long, the battery was no good. So, Suz took herself up to the store and bought a new battery. She installed that battery, using tools she had taken with her. With all the running around, checking this and checking that and trying to get her Honda running, one of the guys there asked her if she had a car lot.
She stepped on that starter again, that car cranked and sounded like a Sherman Tank! The previous owner, presumably a young man, had taken a drill and put about half a dozen big holes in the muffler. Presumably, again, he had wanted the car to sound like a Sherman Tank. And had succeeded remarkably well.
So, then Suz started to cast about in her mind for ways to get two cars home. That is an entire story in itself. And, yes, you will get to hear it next week. When we will relate more of the story of "Suzie’s Folly."
Right now, you are going to hear about "A spellbinding thriller pitting a U.S. federal marshal against the mob’s most resourceful killer – in a race to save the woman he loves."
This interesting prelude is about Ridley Pearson’s latest effort, which he has called "Cut and Run". So, let’s hear more about it, shall we?
"Six years ago, witness protection marshal Roland Larson did the unthinkable: He fell in love with a protected witness, Hope Stevens, whose testimony was to put away prominent members of the Romero crime family. When Hope’s plan to "cut and run" is interrupted by both the government and the mob, she disappears into a new identity, taking with her not only her testimony, but also a secret never shared with Larson.
Larson, who has been looking for her ever since, is put back on her trail when the Romeros intercept the master WITSEC list from the Justice Department and Hope is believed to be among the first protected witnesses targeted for execution.
In a series of terrifying encounters, Larson matches wits with a brutally ingenious killer whose sole target is Hope Stevens. For Larson, the stakes couldn’t be higher – he must find Hope in order to protect her and simultaneously prevent the mob from auctioning off the master witness protection list – an act that will put several thousand innocent, and not-so-innocent, lives in jeopardy."