Page 71 of Winter Nights at the Bay Bookshop
As I approached Castle Street on Wednesday morning, my stomach lurched at the sight of a police car parked on the cobbles outside Bay Books and I broke into a sprint. The door was wide open and there was a female police officer talking into the radio on her shoulder. She stopped me as I approached.
‘The shop’s not open yet.’
‘I work here. I’m the owner’s boyfriend.’
‘You’re Lars?’ she asked. ‘You’re fine to go in but mind where you walk.’
Assuming there’d been a break-in, I looked down, expecting to see glass, but all I could see was… I scrunched up my nose as the smell hit me. That surely wasn’t…
‘Itiswhat you think it is.’
Lily appeared from the children’s section carrying a cleaning caddy in one hand and a bucket of soapy water in the other, looking and sounding thoroughly fed up.
‘It was posted through the letterbox but they must have taken their time to fling it or it’d have landed on the mat instead of being everywhere.’ She placed the bucket on the floor and the caddy on the counter. ‘As you can see, I stood in some before I’d put the lights on.’
‘Who posts dog poo through a shop letterbox?’ I asked, giving her a hug.
‘Someone who hates me.’
I released her and looked into her eyes. ‘You think it was specifically you being targeted?’
‘The sign was a bit of a giveaway. Didn’t you see it?’
She took my hand, led me outside to behind the police car and told me to look up. The shop had two signs – a pub-style one hanging above the door with the shop name and logo on it and one with just the name across the top of the window. On the latter, somebody had painted over all but the letter ‘b’ on the word ‘books’ and added four replacement letters so that the sign now read: BAY BITCH.
‘That’s horrible.’
‘Isn’t it? I’m upset, obviously, but I’m mostly angry. Angry that somebody would think to do that in the first place and angry that I’ve got to clean it up now.’
‘I’ll help. We’ll get it sorted.’
A man called Lily’s name and she looked across the street to where a police officer was waving at her from the doorway of Forget-me-not Cards opposite the bookshop.
‘That’s Sergeant Haines,’ she said. ‘He must have found something on Anne-Marie’s CCTV. Whoever did it covered over mine.’
Lily checked the female officer was okay to mind the shop, after which I followed her over the road and into the card and gift shop. Lily did the introductions and Anne-Marie offered her sympathy for the damage.
‘Anne-Marie’s camera has captured the perpetrator really clearly,’ Sergeant Haines said. ‘It’s not who we thought it was, although she could have got someone to do it for her.’
‘She?’ I asked.
‘The only person I could think of who might have a grudge against me personally was that woman whose kids trashed the books,’ Lily said. ‘She called me a bitch when she left and Sergeant Haines had a word with her yesterday so the timing works for a retaliation.’
Anne-Marie had twisted her laptop round so we could see the screen and she set the footage playing. Recorded at 3.48a.m. it showed a figure wearing a dark hoodie approaching the bookshop, carrying a small stepladder and a bucket.
‘It’s a man!’ Lily exclaimed.
‘Do you recognise him?’ Sergeant Haines asked.
I felt Lily stiffen beside me and I knew why. I’d recognised him so there was no way she hadn’t.
‘I don’t think so,’ she said eventually, her voice sounding a little higher than usual. ‘Am I okay to go back and clean up?’
‘Yes, no problem. If you think of anything else or you want another look at the footage, just say.’
With a parting whispered thank you, Lily ran across the cobbles.
‘I think the shock’s just kicked in,’ I said to the sergeant and Anne-Marie. ‘Thanks for your help.’
