by Eryn Scott
“So,” I said, ducking out from under my over-the-shoulder schoolbag and unzipping my jacket. I slumped into my favorite green armchair in the small meeting area near the middle of the store. Hammy settled in a ball at my feet. “What do you think the police want with Andrea?” I asked.
Devin let out a long breath, while Janet seemed to stiffen. My peers settled onto the couch and other chair respectively, grabbing at their mugs of tea to warm themselves before either of them answered.
“She can be intense,” Janet said finally, after a few sips. “But this is murder we’re talking about. You two can’t think she’s that crazy.” Janet said the last sentence as a statement, but there was a question behind her eyes as she waited for our response.
“I mean…” I sucked in air through my teeth. “She did write about some pretty intense stuff in her essay. Love, obsession, death.”
“And she used to look at Cole like she wanted to slice off his face and keep it forever,” Devin added, much less tactfully. Realizing his mistake, he focused on his mug of tea for a second until the awkward air passed. He cleared his throat. “One of my buddies went on a date with her, earlier this year. And he said they weren’t even through their entrées before she was planning a vacation for the two of them over the summer.”
Janet’s face went slack with resignation.
“And when he told her it wasn’t working out as they were leaving the restaurant, she made a big scene, cried. She showed up at his apartment twice over the next week.” Devin swallowed. “He didn’t even tell her where he lived.”
“Yeah, but…” Janet chewed on her lip. “Being bad at dating isn’t a crime.”
“Well, something she did got Pepper’s boyfriend to pull her aside for questioning,” Devin pointed out.
I grimaced. “He’s right, Janet. I don’t want to believe Andrea could’ve done anything to Cole either, but the police seem to think differently.”
Janet took a sip of her tea. “The police will find she’s got nothing to do with what happened to Cole.”
“I hope you’re right.” I held her gaze, so she would know I was serious. “But we need to prepare for the possibility that you might not be.”
She dipped her chin in concession. “Okay. Just don’t go assuming she’s guilty because the two of you don't get along.”
Scoffing, I opened my mouth to protest, when it hit me—Janet was right. I mean, Alex showing up to question her had definitely sparked my speculation, but it had been fueled by the gasoline of my frustrated interactions with the woman over the past six months.
I pressed my lips together for a moment, then I responded. “You’re right. I will stick to the facts, keep my feelings about her out of it.”
Janet smiled. “The facts. Which are…?”
As she asked the question, the bookstore's door jangled a greeting to a newcomer. Alex kicked snow off his boots before stepping off the welcome mat. He rubbed his hands together.
My heart lightened as I took in his wind-pinkened cheeks.
“Hey.” I stood to greet him, but I was fairly bowled over by Hammy, who snorted awake from where she’d been sleeping at my feet and shouldered me out of the way.
And I thought I was intense about the guy, I reflected with an inward eye roll.
His expression relaxed into a smile. “Hamburguesa,” he said. The Spanish pronunciation tumbled off his tongue expertly. His dad had grown up in Mexico, after all.
Hamburger pranced around his feet, tongue lolling, eyes full of intense admiration.
I hated that there was a ring of doubt wrapped tightly around my feelings of happiness at seeing Alex. Janet’s comment about us being together had been innocent enough, but it played right into the worries I’d been having about our relationship moving forward.
“Okay, Hammy. That’s more than enough,” I said, walking around the dog to give him a kiss.
His smile only deepened as he said hi to me.
“Can I get you some tea?” I asked.
He shook his head. “No thanks. I can’t stay long.” Turning his attention to my classmates, sitting with their mugs of tea, he asked, “You guys doing schoolwork?” He took a step back as if he had intruded.
“Of sorts,” I said.
Devin and Janet shook their heads.
Interest piqued, Alex turned to me, folding his arms over his chest. “You wouldn’t happen to be talking about this case, would you?”
I laughed. “Psh. Of course…” I trailed off, unable to lie and add the not to the end of that statement. “Of course,” I repeated, my gaze dropping to my hands.
“Peps…” The sigh that followed was big enough I half expected the new-release books to tumble off the table and onto the floor when he exhaled.
“I should get going,” Devin said, his words rushed. He set his mug on the coffee table and scrambled to gather his things.
“Me too.” Janet followed suit, avoiding eye contact with Alex, but shooting me an apologetic cringe before scuttling around us. “We’ll see you in class,” she called as they pushed through the front door.
Now it was my turn to sigh. “Dude, you scared them away.”
My fake pouty lips turned up into a smirk. I stepped closer to him, not exactly hating that we were alone.
Alex ran a hand over the back of his neck. “Sorry. I didn’t mean for them to leave. It’s just—” He stopped and closed his eyes for a moment. “I need you to be careful, and this whole case is already too close to you for my comfort level,” he said, wrapping his arms around me and pulling me closer to him.
Curious as I was about the case, I would’ve agreed to anything he said in that moment, with his mint and laundry smell surrounding me almost as palpably as his strong arms. Honestly, though, the sincerity in his tone made me realize I needed to think twice before I got involved in this.
“I know. I’m sorry. We got freaked that someone we see every week could’ve had something to do with Cole.” I shook my head. “Did she?” I asked, then cleared my throat. “Uh, for purely self-preservation reasons, of course. I need to know whether or not I should be worried about going to class on Wednesday.”
Alex’s frown slowly morphed into a reluctant smile. “You’re incorrigible. You know that?”
I laughed, nodding.
He stepped away from me, sinking into the armchair nearest to him. “She sent Cole some pretty intense emails and admitted to some light stalking.”
“Light stalking?” I snorted, returning to my green chair, so I sat facing him. “What’s that?”
Shrugging, he said, “Making sure they ran into each other, memorizing his schedule, that kind of stuff.”
I pondered what Devin had said about his friend, about Andrea showing up at the friend’s apartment even though he hadn’t told her where he lived. I remembered hearing about her last serious boyfriend getting a restraining order against her.
“Are you sure that’s all?”
He rubbed at his tired eyes. “No, but I’m looking into it.” He stressed the I in I’m as if I might be hard of hearing.
I put up my hands as if that emphasized word was a weapon being lobbed at me. “Got it.” I focused on a spot on my shoe, about to lean over and clean it off when Alex spoke again.
“I can’t risk you getting hurt.” His voice was a whisper, not because it was a secret, but because it sounded like he was battling with some monster at the same time, and that was all the strength he had left.
Meeting his gaze, I recognized a deep darkness in his eyes I’d only been privy to a few times before. It was the same expression he’d worn when he first told me about his mom getting shot in the line of duty. It was also the way he’d stared at me when he’d pulled me out of a lake last spring after some bloodthirsty thespians had tried to drown me. It was a worried, soul-crushing, barely holding it together look that made my stomach ache.
I nodded. “I know.”
He mimicked my nod. “Okay.” Brow furrowing, he pulled his buzzi
ng phone out of his pocket. “Valdez,” he answered as he brought it up to his ear. “Really? That’s interesting. No, I’ll be right there.” Shaking his head, he hung up. “I’ve got to get back to the station. I’ll call you later. Love you.”
I bit my lip, wanting so much to ask what the call had been about. But our recent conversation had helped me realize that Alex was terrified he was going to lose someone else. I gulped in a breath as I realized how hard I made it on him.
“Love you too.” And boy, did I, enough to keep myself safe, so he would never have to look at me with so much worry again.
Before I could say anything more, he was gone.
7
The moments of quiet contemplation as I finished my tea were short lived. Minutes after Alex left, the evening rush hurtled into the store like an avalanche.
Seriously, it was the busiest the bookstore had been since right before Christmas. It wasn’t until an hour before closing that Nate waltzed in wearing a sly grin almost as disconcerting as the full-length cape tied around his thin neck. Hands clasped behind his back, he sidled up to my register and bowed.
“What are you doing here?” I asked before realizing I shouldn’t chastise people for coming into my store. “Did you already finish the books you bought the other day?”
Pursing his lips, he looked around. “Rather busy in here,” he said with his odd hint of a British accent, ignoring my questions.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Nate, what did you do?” I asked flatly.
The man contained more schemes than an episode of Scooby-Doo.
He chuckled. “Only something I should’ve done way before now.”
“Which is…?” I asked after enduring too long of a pause on his end.
Nate pulled out a folded piece of paper from his pocket. In order to access said pocket, first he flipped his cape out of the way in a theatrical flourish.
As he unfolded the page, I saw it was a printed poster, slightly bigger than a regular sheet of paper. It was a pretty teal color and had three Bs along the top. Peering closer, I read that the Bs stood for Brooks’ Books and Bittersweet.
It was a promotional flyer, telling customers that they would get one free bakery item for every five books they purchased from Brooks’ Books, as long as they brought in their receipts. Small print at the bottom explained that if they put their name, email, and phone number on each set of receipts, they could enter a drawing for free coffee for a month.
My mouth dropped open. “Nate! This is wonderful.” I pored over the rest of the small print, waiting for a catch. I glanced up at him. “There’s nothing that helps you here, though. You have to give away free bakery items, and I get all the business. Why would you do this?”
Nate let his head fall back in a dramatic laugh. His Adam’s apple stuck out and bobbed in a way that made me feel the need to look away.
“Oh, Pepper, don’t you worry. I’m getting more out of it than you realize.”
He let the ominous statement sit in between us for a moment before striding away.
Leave it to Nate to turn a perfectly normal interaction into something creepy, I thought with a shudder. I didn’t have time to worry anymore because a couple approached the register. Nate wandered away, pinning the flyer to my community board near the coffee and tea station.
The rush subsided about half an hour before closing. Dead tired, I looked past the shelves that needed tending and the boxes I had to break down after my most recent order. I didn’t have the strength or energy.
My gaze drifted over to the front door, and I wondered if I should flip the sign and close up a little early. But at that moment it swung open, and Emerson Williams walked inside.
He was almost a foot taller than me and had the same dark floppy hair as his brother. Unlike his polished sibling, Emerson wore a T-shirt and sweatpants so worn they made my favorite hangout yoga pants look designer.
“Hi,” I said tentatively. My normal Welcome to Brooks’ Books addition seemed out of place, too chipper.
The man had a motive to murder his brother, so I wasn’t sure how I would feel seeing him. But as I took in his bloodshot eyes and hunched body, it was clear Emerson was hurting.
His dark eyes scanned the place, settling on me. If he recognized me from when we were younger, he didn’t show it. Hammy came over and sat by my foot protectively.
“Can I help you find something?” I asked.
Emerson ignored my question and stalked off to the far corner. I contemplated following him, but before I even edged a toe around the counter, he stormed toward me with an armful of books. It looked like he’d cleared half a shelf.
“Oh, all these?” I stumbled back and held my scanner at the ready.
He nodded, then waited for me to ring up his haul. The titles all had to do with paranormal activity, ghosts, and haunted houses. Did he think Cole’s ghost was haunting him up at Woodcrest?
Without so much as looking up, he paid and left.
“So that was weird,” I told Hammy. After eyeing the door in his wake, I decided to close a few minutes early. She sneezed and followed me as I turned off the lights.
The wind howled around the building as I opened the back door to take Ham out to do her business. I shivered and slipped on my jacket, then let the dog sniff the small patch of grass behind the store. She snorted, but kept pulling me farther away, toward the park that butted up against our store.
Teeth chattering, I chastised the dog. “Hamburger, you seriously have the worst timing. Why do you choose the most treacherous weather for your longest bathroom breaks?” I ran my hands up and down my arms. “It’s freezing out here.”
I gave her leash an encouraging tug and sent a longing look back at the warm building, dreaming of pulling on my pjs and covering myself with a fluffy blanket.
Finally, Ham did her business and we trudged back inside. I double-checked all the locks and then reached in my pocket for my apartment key. Squinting in the dark of the attic stairway, I reminded myself to install a light or two. The skylights above made it easy to see during the day, but nighttime was a bit treacherous.
The skeleton key slid easily into the lock and I entered, my spirits automatically lifted by the cozy apartment. Even with the boxes still stacked in one corner, the place was already homey.
As I hung up my coat, something white caught my eye on the dark wood floor. It sat right by the door, as if someone had slipped it through the small opening underneath. My boot, wet with snow, had left a mark on the paper when I’d stepped on it coming inside.
It was enclosed in an off-white envelope, but there wasn’t anything written on the outside. Intrigued, I flipped it over and slid out the piece of card stock inside.
Nothing was written on the front, but when I turned it over, a message was typewritten in the middle, black ink on cream card stock.
Proud people breed sad sorrows for themselves. Alex should watch his back.
It was as if the chill from outside followed me up the stairs, slipping under the door and creeping up my limbs. My vision blurred around the edges.
Alex should watch his back.
I imagined Cole lying in the snow, a knife stabbed into his back. Through the fog of fear and surprise, a few things became clear. First, this was definitely a threat, but not against me—against Alex? Second, the first line sounded like a quote, but I couldn’t place it.
With shaking fingers, I grabbed my phone from my back pocket and typed in the sentence.
Heat rose up my neck, acting as a terrible contrast to the icy chills I’d experienced only moments before. The line was from Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë.
With that, the third thing about this terrible note became clear: the person who wrote this knew I was dating Alex.
I made my way over to my bed in a fugue state. Plopping down, I reread the note six or seven times. Hammy vaulted herself up onto the bed and panted next to me, tipping her head as she tried to figure out what was wrong.
This
note hadn’t been here this morning, so it had to have been slipped under the door at some point throughout the day. I mentally kicked myself for not coming upstairs after class when I took over for Jess. That would’ve told me if it had been delivered while I was here in the store or before. It had been busy enough that anyone could’ve easily slipped up the back stairway.
Another icy blast froze my heart for a second as I remembered leaving the back door unlocked when I took Hammy out for her last walk. Maybe this hadn't happened during business hours. Could the note-leaver still be downstairs?
Running over to the door, I clicked the lock in place and then pressed my ear to the wood. The store was silent, as far as I could tell, but an eerie sense of unease burrowed into my chest. Emerson had just been in the store. But he had only been here for a few minutes, and I doubted he even remembered who I was.
Back at my bed, I pulled Hammy into my lap and hugged her tight. I dialed Alex’s number.
“Hey.” He sounded so tired. There was a muffled scratching sound, and I pictured him running his hand over his face and down his stubbly chin. “What’s up? You close the store okay?”
My heartbeat pounded in my ears, the fear now mixing with relief. But it was a terrible kind of relief because even though Alex was currently okay, the note in my hand told me that might change at any moment.
“Uh—yeah. Everything’s good with the store. It was super busy.”
“That’s great,” he said before I had a chance to add the part about the note.
“Yeah. Nate created some promotion where every five books people buy from me, he’ll give them a free single item from the bakery at Bittersweet.” I shook my head at the memory.
“Whoa, that’s nice of him. Seems like a way better deal on your end, though. Did he ask for anything in return?”
“No, and when I told him the same thing, he cackled and told me he was getting more out of it than I realized.” I rubbed my hand over the back of my neck.
Alex laughed. “That sounds more like him.”
The sound of Alex’s deep chuckle made my shoulders relax. My lips pulled into a reluctant smile.