Page 46 of Tattered Edges

Why would anyone vandalize a bookstore?

I gasped when my phone began to ring from inside of my back pocket. Wishing to silence it, I extracted the device and saw it was Rory calling. I didn’t think twice about it before I slid my finger across the screen and brought the phone to my ear.

“Hello?” I whispered, my eyes scanning the shop.

There was a chance I wasn’t alone, my ringer a blaring announcement of my presence.

“Sawyer? Where are you? Why are you whispering?”

“Um—I’m at the bookstore,” I replied in another whisper, the tremble in my voice hinting at the fear I was trying to keep tamped down. “Someone broke in. I—”

“Broke in?”

Suddenly, I wasnotlooking into the store but through the open door, the tone of his voice making my heart race for different reasons.

“Uh, yeah, I—”

“Don’t move.”

He disconnected, and the next thing I knew I saw him jogging toward me through the rain. He paused for just a moment at the door, accessing its state, and I muttered, “It’s broken. It shouldn’t stand open like that. It’s how I knew.”

He didn’t respond but closed what distance remained between us, stopping beside me.

“Bloody hell,” he cursed as he glanced around.

“Yeah.”

Now that I was no longer alone, my thoughts seemed a little more coherent. I looked to the register, trying to remember how much cash we had in the till. It couldn’t have been much, definitely not worth the trouble of breaking and entering.

I was getting ready to head that way when Rory held out his arm, blocking me.

“Wait. Stay here. Let me have a look around first.”

Glancing up at him, I didn’t argue, but took a step back and nodded in reply. I then watched him as he journeyed into the bowels of the store. I knew he’d reached the back when the lights flickered on. I braced myself for the worst, thinking if the intruder was still around he would definitely know he wasn’t alone anymore—but other than Rory’s footsteps and the sound of rain against the window, I heard nothing.

As Rory came into view again, headed for the staircase, Oscar appeared.

He took a quick look around and breathed, “Fuck,” before he asked, “Should I phone the police?”

“Yes,” answered Rory as he bounded up the stairs to the second floor.

I listened to Oscar as he reported the break-in and waited for Rory to finish looking around. It was such an odd experience—like it was happening to someone else. I didn’t understand why it was happening tome.

I racked my brain, trying to think of who could have done this. I didn’t have any enemies, and I hadn’t been around long enough for someone with a grudge to exact revenge.

Archie crossed my mind, but I was quick to rule him out. Surely he knew ransacking the store wasn’t going to be enough to get me to leave.

Then I thought of the store’s social media accounts. We’d gained quite a few followers in the days since I started posting. We’d even had a few customers who came in simply because they saw photos of the store, found it beautiful, and wanted to see it for themselves. It seemed unlikely a few photos of well-loved books could have invokedthis.

“It’s all clear. No one’s here,” announced Rory as he finally descended the stairs.

At his word, I hurried across the room to the register to see if it had been tampered with. It hadn’t, but any scrap of paper that was stored behind the counter had been unearthed and tossed onto the floor. As far as I could tell, whoever came in hadn’t stolen or damaged anything, they just made a huge mess.

“The police have been notified. They should be here shortly. Probably best not to touch anything,” said Oscar.

He was right, but after he said it, the mess was so distracting, I was practically itching to clean it all up.

“I think I’ll call Victoria,” I murmured, more to myself than anyone else.

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