Page 41 of The Vanishing Bookstore
‘I’ll give you her parents’ address, as far as I know she’s in between boyfriends at the minute. There was one guy though, he kept coming to the shop and was a bit strange. Katie liked him and went out for supper with him a few days ago.’
‘If we can’t locate Ms Ryan, we might need to speak to you in person and get a statement, you probably want to take a look at your shop too.’
‘Of course, I’ll get a flight home as soon as I can.’
‘That’s probably wise under the circumstances, could you please give me the name of the guy, where they went for dinner, Katie’s parents’ address and any other information you think is relevant.’
Dora began to list everything the policeman needed, her stomach churning the whole time. This was her fault, all her fault. If George Corwin was actually a witch hunter he waslooking for Dora and she’d thrown Katie to him and ran away, leaving her friend as bait. The policeman on the other end thanked her, gave her his direct number and hung up.
‘Hey, are you okay?’
She looked up to see Ambrose walking towards her, holding two take-out lattes in his hands, concern etched across his face. Dora wanted to cry. This was too much; she didn’t know what to do.
‘Not really.’
‘Sorry, I shouldn’t have been so forward with you. It’s just…’ He looked down at the floor, his cheeks redder than last night’s sunset. ‘I’ve missed you, like you wouldn’t believe.’
Dora stood up. He was so handsome, and she knew deep down he was the kindest man she had probably ever known, but right now she didn’t know him or remember him and her friend was her priority.
‘I’m sorry, Ambrose, I wish I could remember you, but I can’t, and now something has happened to my friend back home and I need to get back as soon as possible.’
‘What’s happened to her?’
‘I don’t know, the police are looking for her. My shop is full of blood and there’s no sign of Katie. I feel terrible, this is all my fault.’
She walked away, she needed to get back to Sephy’s house and book a flight or at least get her passport and head for the airport. She heard Ambrose’s voice call after her.
‘You can’t go back, it’s too dangerous especially when you can’t remember who you are or what you need in order to save yourself.’
She didn’t turn around, instead she kept walking, forcing one foot in front of the other. She felt as if she was going insane and despite how much she’d fallen in love with Salem, her Aunt Sephy and now meeting her mum who was dying, she knew thatshe had to leave it all behind. Katie had gone missing because of her and she had to figure out how to get her back.
24
Dora ran down Chestnut Street as fast as she could, but she wasn’t a runner and as far as she knew never had been. She felt a black shadow in the sky above her and looked up to see Hades flying overhead. As she pushed the gate open and ran down the path, he swooped down to land on her shoulder, rubbing his beak against her ear.
She paused and pressed her head against him, then whispered, ‘What am I supposed to do, Hades?’ For once he didn’t answer.
When she opened the front door and walked inside, the house was silent. The radio had been playing when she’d left, she was sure of it. She walked down the hallway to the kitchen where both Sephy and Lenny were sitting at the battered old pine table, jars of freshly ground black salt in front of them and solemn expressions on their faces.
‘I can’t do this. All of this.’ Dora waved her hand around, pointing at the jars on the dresser stocked with teas and potions. ‘You know that, right? I must go home, something has happened to Katie, there’s blood in my shop and the police are with Mabel.’
Dora spoke quietly but there was no mistaking the fury in her voice, it was also tinged with fear.
Lenny stood up. ‘What do you mean, there is blood in your shop? Where is Katie?’
‘I don’t know, if I knew that I wouldn’t be panicking, would I.’
Sephy walked to Dora and wrapped her arm around her.
‘Come sit down and we can talk this through, dear. I’m sorry for sending you on a wild goose chase but you needed to meet Ambrose and I couldn’t think of a better way, sometimes we all need a little push in the right direction. Did you find him?’
Dora let her aunt guide her to a chair. Hades hopped down onto the table and Lenny shooed him away. ‘Bird, you know the table is out of bounds, scat.’
Hades hopped across it and then glided to the windowsill. Sephy smiled at him. ‘Thank you, Hades. Now Dora, explain how you know all of this please.’
As she talked Lenny looked horrified. ‘You didn’t take your phone, did you, please tell me you haven’t used it, Dora?’
‘No, I went and got an ancient one from some guy in the mall called Arnie.’
