Lost Books and Old Bones

by Paige Shelton

  It wasn’t a question, but the three women looked at each other as if searching for the right answer.

  “Yes,” Sophie said.

  “Sort of,” Mallory said.

  “I’m not sure they’re unrealistic, but they are high. We should have high expectations, though. We’re going tae be doctors,” Rena said.

  I watched for Sophie’s reaction to Rena’s words, but didn’t see disagreement.

  My back was to the wall. Since I was sitting in the corner seat, I had the best view of the rest of the pub, and I saw Dr. Eban moving in our direction. His eyes caught mine for an instant, and I knew our table was his destination.

  “It looks as if he’s headed our direction,” I said without moving my lips or remaking eye contact with him.

  Despite the instantaneous terror that blanched my tablemates’ faces, there was no escape now.

  TWO

  “Ladies,” Dr. Eban said as he stepped just a bit too close to the table, causing Mallory and Rena to have to lean sideways. “How are we this evening?”

  “Hey, Dr. Eban,” Mallory said. “Fancy meeting you here.”

  “I’m a big fan of the lads’ music,” Dr. Eban said easily.

  “They’re very good,” Sophie said, working too hard to keep her words from slurring.

  “Aye,” Rena said.

  For a moment I was perplexed by the dynamics. No one was doing anything wrong. But I had no way of knowing what their outside-school lives meant to their in-school lives. I was about to jump in and introduce myself to get us all past the awkward silence that seemed to fall over the table, but Dr. Eban jumped in.

  “Will you all be attending the service this Tuesday?” he asked.

  Briefly, they seemed as perplexed by the question as I was, but Mallory caught on first.

  “Oh! For the corpses?” she asked.

  “Aye,” Dr. Eban said.

  “Definitely,” Rena said. “I think it’s important.”

  “Services for the corpses?” I asked.

  “Aye,” Rena said. “Every year there’s a service for the corpses that we are privileged tae … work with. We’re required tae attend during our first year, but most of us attend after that anyway. These are people who donated their bodies tae the medical school, and we honor them every year with a church service. Sometimes their families show up and we get tae thank them in person. Many medical schools have such an event.”

  “That’s really lovely,” I said.

  “Aye,” Mallory said. “The public is invited if you’re interested. It’s Tuesday at Greyfriars Kirk.”

  “I think I would enjoy that,” I said. I was curiously intrigued. The church was an architectural masterpiece, and I’d visited the neighboring graveyard a few times.

  “Please join us,” Rena said. It seemed she was about to introduce me to Dr. Eban, but he interjected another question before she could.

  “Are you all pleased with your exam?” he asked, a happy uptick to his tone. Pointedly, he looked at Mallory first.

  “I hope so,” Mallory said with a smile.

  “We’ll see,” Rena said. “But I feel good about everything.”

  Then everyone’s attention turned to Sophie. Prompted by Rena’s firm gaze in her direction, Sophie kept her back too straight as she said, “I hope so.” But then, as if someone had unplugged her, she slumped. “But I don’t hold out a lot of hope.”

  Rena closed her eyes and shook her head ever so slightly.

  “Aye?” Dr. Eban said.

  Without asking anyone, he reached around to an empty chair at an otherwise populated table and moved it into the small space between Rena and Mallory, causing all spaces to close up even more. We scooted and gave him room, but all of our knees were touching by the time he sat and leaned forward on his elbows, his concentration hard on Sophie.

  I wanted so much for this moment not to happen. If Dr. Eban hadn’t yet picked up on Sophie’s state, I hoped he wouldn’t hold anything she said against her.

  “What has you concerned?” Dr. Eban asked.

  “Everything,” Sophie said with an all-encompassing hand gesture. “Every-damn-thing. I wasn’t prepared for the test, Dr. Eban. Your exams are—”

  “Dr. Eban,” Rena interjected. “We’re just blowing off a wee bit of steam tonight. Forgive us if we’re emotional. You know how it is?”

  “I do,” Dr. Eban said. He turned back to Sophie. “You’re a good student, lass. I’m sure you did fine.”

  I put my hand on Sophie’s knee and squeezed. We weren’t good enough friends for me to intervene in such a way, but I liked her enough as a person to jump in and at least try to keep her from continuing. Besides, her knee was practically fused to my own.

  She looked at me, sending me another heavy blink. But then she returned my knowing smile.

  “Thank you, Dr. Eban,” she said as she looked at him again. “I’m sure I’ll feel better about things tomorrow.”

  “Aye! Now, I know all the students at the medical school, and I’m sure you aren’t one,” Dr. Eban said to me. He extended a hand over the table. “Bryon Eban.”

  “Delaney Nichols,” I said. “No, I’m not a student.”

  “An American? Visiting Scotland?”

  “Yes. I’m living here and working at a bookshop in Grassmarket. I’ve been here almost a full year now.”

  “Delightful! Which bookshop?”

  “The Cracked Spine.”

  “Aye?” Dr. Eban sat back, and his eyes got big.

  Everything he did and said seemed oversized, but not in an off-putting way. Was this why he was considered odd?

  “You’ve been there?” I said. I spent most of my time working in the warehouse but I racked my brain wondering if I’d seen him before. He wasn’t one to blend into the background, but I was sure he wasn’t familiar.

  “A few times.” He looked around the pub. The musicians appeared to be readying their instruments for another set. Dr. Eban leaned farther over the table. “Tell me about Edwin MacAlister.”

  I smiled. I’d had this question a time or two. “He’s a great boss and an interesting man.”

  Dr. Eban nodded. “Right. Tell me about his secret room, the place where he keeps all his treasures.”

  “That’s just a myth,” I lied easily. I’d had that question before too.

  Dr. Eban inspected me. In fact, everyone did. Even Sophie’s wobbly attention was fixed on me.

  “Come on, lass, you can tell us,” Dr. Eban said. “You know, I’ve heard he has a scalpel from Dr. Robert Knox. He was the doctor who paid Williams Burke and Hare for the bodies they acquired by murder.”

  “I did know about Burke, Hare, and Knox, but no, there’s no secret room. No old scalpels,” I said, though I wondered if there were. Were there old scalpels in the warehouse, a place that most definitely did exist? I hadn’t seen any. Yet.

  “Really?” Dr. Eban said.

  “Really,” I said.

  He watched me a long moment, but I kept my expression firmly neutral, as I’d done with many people over the last year. The secret of the secret room hadn’t become a burden; it had become part of my own secrets, and it was one that I protected fiercely.

  “Interesting. I’d love tae meet Mr. MacAlister. Any chance you’d introduce us?”

  “It would be a pleasure,” I said. “Give me a call at the shop, and we’ll coordinate a time. I’m sure he’d love to meet you too.”

  “Aye?” Dr. Eban said.

  “I’m sure.”

  Mad Ferret strummed a few chords and then began their set with a tune lively enough that I began to tap my toes even as they were crowded together.

  “That would be wonderful. Ta,” Dr. Eban said over the music and crowd noise.

  I hadn’t heard much of an accent in his voice, but his informal Scottish “Thank you” suddenly, and admittedly strangely, made me like him. I smiled.

  “You’re welcome. I look forward to your visit,” I said.

  Dr. Eban s
cooted the chair back from the table, releasing all the knees underneath.

  “I’ll ring you next week. A good evening, ladies. And, Sophie: I’m sure your exam will be fine.”

  I looked at Sophie, thinking she would just smile and maybe say thank you, but I was surprised to see something else entirely.

  The smile, though still somewhat booze-infused, was not just a friendly smile. I swung my attention back to Dr. Eban. He had the same sort of look on his face, something that rang of that sort of affection that’s supposed to be a secret but isn’t. I zipped my eyes to Rena, who, with big eyes and a frown in my direction, seemed to confirm what I thought I’d seen.

  It appeared that maybe Sophie and Dr. Eban were much more than student and teacher.

  That couldn’t be good.

  THREE

  “I don’t know what went on between them, if anything really. She shares everything with me, except this,” Rena said as she and I stood outside the pub, the cold and humid March night air nipping at the tip of my nose.

  I hadn’t asked, but she must have read my expression. We’d put Sophie into Mallory’s car and sent them on their way. Rena had stayed behind with me.

  “None of my business,” I said. “They’re grown-ups and can make those sorts of decisions themselves. I’m sorry if I looked surprised; I was … well, I guess I was just surprised.” I smiled weakly. The few streetlights around us were dim and cast a yellow glow, creating shiny spots in the small puddles left by an earlier rain.

  “Aye, they’re grown-ups, but Sophie has gotten in over her head in some way. I’m helping her through it, at least as much as I can without knowing all the details. He’s an odd man, tae be sure.”

  There it was again. Odd. However, what I thought was also odd was Rena’s tone. She was holding back something, or forcing something, I wasn’t sure which. But I was certain she wasn’t giving me a complete story.

  “Is he married?” I asked.

  “Aye.”

  “That’s not good.”

  “No, and his wife is … fierce.”

  “How?”

  “Wicked smart. Beautiful. She’s a professor at the medical school too.”

  “So, fierce in a good way? Is she easier on the students?”

  Rena laughed, the sound seeming too loud in the humid night air. She cleared her throat and said, “A wee bit easier on the students, but not so easy on her husband.”

  I blinked. “Has she done something, said something to him publicly that would embarrass him?”

  Rena bit at her thumbnail and looked down the road Mallory’s car had taken. She finally said, “She mocks him with her eyes. It’s difficult tae explain.”

  “I think I get it,” I said, but there was still more; I could see her stress. “Are you nervous or scared for Sophie?”

  She looked at me and smiled, but didn’t answer.

  I was caught in that spot between none-of-my-business and the expected intrusion that comes with friendship. I cared for my new friends, but we didn’t have that bond that forms after many shared experiences and the passing of time. We’d known each other for three months and had met because of some books they had brought into the bookshop. We’d enjoyed a few coffees out, some lunches, and, before tonight, a smattering of sober evening get-togethers. They’d come into The Cracked Spine a couple of times as a break from their studies and perused the books on the shelves, but their lives were all about medical school. I had enjoyed getting to know them a little here and there, but we didn’t know each other well at all. I hoped we might remain friends for a long time, although we were still at the beginning of whatever our relationships would become. Rena didn’t owe me the whole truth just as much as I felt I didn’t owe them the whole truth about Edwin and his warehouse.

  I finally said, “Let me know if I can do anything to help. I’m sorry Sophie is in over her head, but I do think she’ll be fine.”

  “Because she’s not a child, or at least she’s old enough tae know better?”

  “Something like that, but I don’t want to be too harsh. It sounds like neither of us really knows the circumstances, but when two adults get involved with each other there are at least two stories there … Well, you know.” I tried to smile again, but a distinct sense of unease made me swallow hard. A married professor and his student having a sexual relationship was such a cliché, and never a good thing as far as I was concerned.

  Rena’s eyebrows came together as she looked toward the pub. Her profile moved into some of the yellow light, and it deepened the lines of concern around her eyes.

  “What?” I asked. “There’s more?”

  “This is going tae sound even more dramatic, and maybe ridiculous, but I do have a favor tae ask of you.”

  “Anything.”

  “If something should happen tae me, will you watch over Sophie? We’ve been comrades for sae long that she’d be lost without me, at least for a short while.”

  Any harsh judgment I had disappeared; any sense of treading lightly because we didn’t know each other well yet was gone. Real fear lined her words, and, catching me off guard, her Scottish accent seemed to become thicker. I hadn’t really paid attention to the crowd noise still bass-beating from inside the pub, but a knot of concern now thumped with the beat in my stomach.

  “What’s wrong, Rena? Really, what’s going on?”

  “Nothing that I’m certain of,” she said with a forced smile. “See, I went and made it way too dramatic. I’m sorry. I’m just worried about Sophie, I think.”

  I nodded. “Hey, let’s grab a cab and you come back to my place with me. You can get some rest.”

  “No, that’s okay. I need tae get home, so I’m there when Sophie wakes up. She’ll need some support in the morning.” The accent went back to light again. “You need tae get home too. I’m sorry, Delaney. I’m … It’s late, it’s been a tough week.”

  I didn’t want to let her out of my sight, but we were going in opposite directions, and I sensed she didn’t want me to go with her. “All right, let’s get you a cab.”

  We flagged down two cabs, and I directed her into the first one. She opened the back door, but then turned to face me.

  “You’ll do it, though?” she asked.

  “Take care of Sophie?”

  “Just watch over her for a wee bit if…”

  “Of course,” I said. Then I added, “You need to tell me if something else is going on, Rena. I can help. If I can’t, I know people who can.”

  “Nothing’s going on. I just want tae make sure.” She bit her lip again. “We’re all each other truly has. Neither of us have a family who cares. It’s just us, and between you and me, I’m the stronger one.” She smiled sadly.

  “I’m there for anything either of you might need, Rena. Anything,” I said.

  “Thank you.” She got in the cab.

  I watched it for so long that my cabdriver honked at me.

  My cab smelled of men’s aftershave and peppermint. I was sure it was my addition of the smell of gin that made the cabbie roll down his window a small crack. If it wasn’t so late I would have called my landlord, Elias, so he could pick me up in his cab, but even though he’d happily have made the trip, he and his wife, Aggie, were early-to-bed and early-to-rise.

  “Where tae, lass?” the cabbie said in the mirror.

  Besides, I wasn’t quite ready to go home. I gave him The Cracked Spine’s address.

  *

  I’d spent a few late hours at The Cracked Spine. Sometimes I worked without any attention to the time; sometimes I went back into the warehouse when I woke up in the middle of the night and felt the need to get back to a project I was working on. I liked the quiet.

  Tonight, however, I had a different idea. I’d been spooked by Rena’s unsettling request, and I didn’t relish the idea of being in the old bookshop building in the middle of the night myself, but I knew someone who could join me.

  Tom, my boyfriend, though it had become a habit to call him “
my pub owner,” was available. He was the proprietor of Delaney’s Wee Pub, a place not far from the bookshop that hadn’t been named after me, but the moniker given to the business founded long ago felt like a perfect coincidence nonetheless. His employee Rodger was able to close up the pub on his own, so Tom met me outside the bookshop and gallantly paid the cabbie as I got out.

  We’d come to that spot in a relationship where we shared these sorts of things all the time. I didn’t usually think much about it, but I did notice it that night, and for a moment I marveled at the longevity—almost ten months—of my relationship with this man who allegedly didn’t like long-term relationships.

  “You’re wearing a kilt!” I said as the cab pulled away.

  “Aye. I’d say it was just for you, but we had a wedding party in the pub tonight. Rodger and I spiffied ourselves up a bit.”

  “I like you in a kilt.”

  “I might have heard that a time or two.”

  I couldn’t see the cobalt of his eyes, but they glimmered off the light from an old-fashioned streetlight on the corner.

  I cleared my throat. “Let’s go in.”

  “What are we going to do?” Tom asked as I unlocked the front door.

  “Look for some scalpels.”

  “Aye? Sounds like an interesting adventure.”

  I gave him a quick rundown of my night with Rena, Sophie, Mallory, and Dr. Eban as we walked through the darkened retail portion of the shop, the side I’d deemed “the light side.” I never tired of the book smells, and the constant sense of “messy” all around. Almost a year ago I thought I wanted to straighten everything up, no messes anywhere. Now I knew that the bookshop was just the way it was supposed to be. However, I’d organized most of the mess into a system that not only could I understand, but that my coworkers—Hamlet and Rosie—and even Edwin could as well. My other coworker, Hector the small terrier, even appreciated my efforts with extra smiles and attention when he sensed I was tired from the labors of moving books from one shelf to another, all the while keeping the shop true to its original incarnation.

  Tom and I climbed up the stairs, crossed over to the other side—the one I’d deemed “the dark side”—and I flipped the switch that lit a naked overhead bulb. Despite its dust and grime, the dark side was my favorite, because it was where the warehouse, my work space, was located.