Page 49 of Christmas at the Little Bookshop by the Sea

Her thoughts briefly hovered on his response, his choice of words setting a niggle away. Why wouldn’t it make thembothfeel better? Why did he single her out? And why didn’t he just say he thought it would be a good thing to do anyway?You’re overthinking again, Florrie, give it a rest. Isn’t there enough going on without you heading down that route?

‘It would.’ She nodded decisively, clearing the doubts from her mind. ‘Thanks, Dad, we’d love it if you could rig up a new alarm system.’

He beamed at her, unmistakable relief in his expression. ‘Good stuff, your mother’ll be glad to hear it. Right then,’ he said, rubbing his gloved hands together, ‘now that’s sorted, I’d best be off.’ He turned to leave. ‘Oh, and good luck with the bobbies. And don’t forget to leave things as they are in the kitchen and around the back door – no wiping around in case you remove any potential fingerprints.’

‘Yeah, we’ve been mindful of that,’ said Ed.

‘Thanks for offering to upgrade the burglar alarm, Dad.’ Florrie hurried over to him and gave him a quick hug, dropping a kiss onto his rosy cheek.

‘No worries, sweetheart, happy to help.’

It was after he’d left that Florrie remembered this Sunday was the trip to Danskelfe Castle and the sleigh rides. It had slipped her mind what with the excitement about Jenna Johnstone’s reading and the disruption that had followed. She hoped nothing would happen to spoil her surprise for Ed. After all, they were meant to be creating happy Christmas memories, and the events of the previous evening were anything but.

TWENTY-SEVEN

Leah was shocked when Florrie and Ed shared what had happened. ‘Oh my God! No way! I had no idea! I was that engrossed in Jenna’s awesome reading, I was totally oblivious to anything that was going on in the shop,’ she said. Hearing this had gone some way to reassuring Florrie that it had more than likely been the same for the rest of the audience.

‘But now you come to mention it, I do recall hearing a bit of a kerfuffle from the direction of the shop beforehand, when people were first coming into the reading room, but I was adding more of Jenna’s books to the table at the back and didn’t really think any more about it.’ A troubled expression clouded her young face. ‘And there was that bit of noise when Jenna was doing her reading, too.’

‘Well, try not to worry about it. We think it was just some daft lad playing a prank and showing off to his friends, but obviously we’re going to do all we can to make sure it doesn’t happen again,’ Florrie told her. She and Ed had agreed to play down the sinister side of what had happened, not wanting to frighten their young assistant. They were also keen not to broadcast that Dodgy Dick might be behind it, worrying it could be bad for business if word got out, something that would no doubt affordthe slippery businessman a degree of satisfaction, which neither Ed nor Florrie were keen to do.

Florrie and Ed had been talking to PC Nixon for the last half hour while the scenes of crime officer was busy dusting for fingerprints around the back door and kitchen. They’d called round from the local station in response to Charlie reporting last night’s disturbance. The couple had also filled the police officer in on the incident with the Christmas tree and the envelope filled with pieces of smashed snow globe. Florrie was reluctant to mention Dodgy Dick’s visit to the bookshop with Wendy for fear of antagonising him and making the situation worse. The slippery character seemed to revel in his growing reputation amongst the locals as someone to keep on the right side of, and she didn’t think he’d take kindly to having his collar felt by the local police force. Florrie was relieved when Ed had agreed with her, albeit reluctantly.

PC Nixon was draining his mug of tea, Gerty’s eyes glued to the plate of biscuits before him on the table, when there was a knock at the door of the reading room. The three of them turned to see Leah walk in, her cheeks flushed.

‘Jean’s just popped in, said she’d look after things for a minute.’

‘Oh, right,’ said Florrie, curious as to what could be responsible for the agitated expression on their young assistant’s face.

Leah tapped on the screen of her mobile phone and held it out to Florrie. ‘I was checking the bookshop’s social media pages when I spotted we’d been tagged in this.’

With Ed leaning into her, Florrie watched the video footage of people queueing outside the shop the previous night. Though it had been dark, the streetlights and those above the shop’ssignage had been bright enough for the phone camera to pick out people’s faces.

‘Thought the woman who was causing all the drama and the lad that was with her might be on there. There’s more, too, loads actually.’

‘There!’ said Ed. ‘Pause the video!’

Florrie acted as quickly as she could. ‘Where am I looking?’

‘That woman with the massive hair. Her. There!’

Florrie squinted at where Ed’s finger was pointing, enlarging the image. Sure enough, there was a woman who fitted her dad’s description. And standing beside her was a lanky youth, his face clear for all to see as his hoodie had momentarily slipped backwards, revealing his face.

Florrie pressed her hand to her mouth. ‘Leah, you’re a star! I reckon that’s them.’

‘It just crossed my mind that there might be a chance they’d be captured in someone’s photos, knowing how people are keen to share stuff like this, especially with it being something as popular as a Jenna Johnstone event.’

‘Good thinking, young lady,’ said PC Nixon. ‘Maybe you should consider a change of career and come and join us.’ He chuckled and Leah smiled shyly.

‘Don’t suppose they’re familiar to you, PC Nixon?’ Ed asked, as Florrie handed the police officer the phone.

PC Nixon’s eyebrows twitched as he looked at the screen. ‘Oh, they’re familiar all right, too familiar for my liking, actually.’ He glanced over at Leah. ‘Do you mind if I take a look at some more?’

‘Not at all. There’s this, too.’ Leah took her phone and tapped on the screen, handing it back to him.

He regarded further similar footage of the youth and the bouffant-haired woman, shaking his head. ‘I’ll need you to sendme the link to these.’ He fished around his pocket, pulling out a small card. ‘Here’s my number.’

‘’Course.’ Leah nodded.

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