Heathcliff walked ahead of us. I expected him to shrug or grunt some non-committal response. When he turned around to face me, a wide grin spread across his face. “It’ll be nice to have that wee fella around the shop.”
I widened my eyes. “Is that Heathcliff Earnshaw expressing desire for the company of an animal?”
Heathcliff shrugged. “I like dogs. Much better than customers.”
“You really are excited about this.” Quoth nuzzled his head onto my shoulder. “Six months ago you would’ve been freaking out right now.”
“I’m not the same person I was six months ago,” I said.
It was true. I returned to Argleton from New York City shrouded with shame. I thought my life was over. Famous last words. Rediscovering Nevermore Bookshop – and being with the guys – had rekindled something inside me I thought had been lost forever. Sure, there might have been a few more murders than I preferred, but I knew now that I was going to continue to have an amazing life.
I still had moments when I was afraid of losing my sight completely, where I mourned for the things I would lose, but I didn’t carry that fear around like a funeral shroud.My eyes don’t make me the person I am, and losing my sight is not the end – it’s just another beginning.
“Do you want us to come with you to training every day?” Heathcliff asked. I might’ve been imagining it, but he sounded hopeful.
“I think that depends on what Mum’s done to the shop.” I linked arms with Heathcliff. “But we’ve got a couple of hours before we have to worry about that. Come on, let’s go lie to a widower to save our friend.”
Chapter Nine
“Remind me how your crazy scheme is going to work?” Heathcliff muttered as we sat on a park bench opposite Dave Danvers’ pokey flat, in the worst area of Crookshollow. He definitely wasn’t living large with his insurance money.
“It’s not a crazy scheme.” I rummaged around in my bag and removed the costume I brought along. “It’s brilliant and foolproof. Kate’s social media accounts have all been deleted, and apart from a notice about the funeral, Dave hasn’t updated his for months. But a scroll through his old photographs revealed he and Kate were uber-geeks. They attended fan conventions up and down the country dressed in cosplay.”
“Cosplay?” Heathcliff wrinkled his nose. “Is that some kind of venereal disease?”
I laughed as I pushed my bra straps down and pulled it out through the sleeve of my Joy Division t-shirt. “No, although it can definitely ensure you’ll never have sex again. It’s short for ‘costume play’ and it’s where people dress up as their favorite characters from books, TV, movies, or comics. Here, hold this up.”
Heathcliff held up a towel while I tugged off my t-shirt and skinny jeans and pulled on the costume. I couldn’t believe I managed to find all the components of a halfway decent Princess Leia outfit in my wardrobe. Once I’d pulled on the dress, I slipped Heathcliff’s phone from his pocket and loaded up a video tutorial I found on Kate Danvers’ website on recreating her iconic side-buns. Quoth helped me shove pins in my hair as Heathcliff stared at us like we were both aliens.
“And you’re joining their ranks because… you never want to have sex again?”
“Hey, for some people, this outfit is a wet dream come to life. But no,I’mhere to talk to Dave about giving a workshop at the first annual Nevermore Bookshop Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention.” I winked at him. Heathcliff shuddered. “And while I’m at it, Quoth is going to search his house, while you wait out here in case either of us gets in trouble.”
Heathcliff sighed. “This is exactly the kind of harebrained scheme Moriarty would’ve come up with.”
I shrugged. “What can I say – the Napoleon of Crime has rubbed off on me.”
I smoothed down the front of my costume and walked across the street. Quoth soared ahead of me and disappeared into the overgrown front garden of the small townhouse. I stared at the silver number on the door, mulling over what I was about to do. Dave Danvers had just lost his wife for the second time, and I didn’t want to compound his pain by lying to him.
But I needed answers, and he had them.
And besides, a science fiction convention at Nevermore Bookshop could be fun. It’ll make Heathcliff blow smoke out his ears, which is almost worth all the hassle. I wonder if I can get him into a Han Solo costume…
By Isis, I really do sound like Morrie.
I knocked.
For the longest time, I heard nothing. Just as I raised my fist to knock again, footsteps shuffled across tile and the door swung back to reveal a short man in his thirties wearing a Spider-Man t-shirt. I recognized him instantly from the picture Sherlock had back at the cabin. He wiped a beefy hand across his face, sweeping a greasy lock of hair behind his ear and staring up at me with the biggest, kindest brown eyes I’d ever seen.
“Hi, are you Dave?”
“Mina?” Dave held his hand out, and I shook it. I expected it to be clammy because I was a terrible person with no respect for geeks, but it was warm and firm. Dave threw the door open and gestured for me to come inside. “Come on in. Love the costume. I’m sorry the place is a bit of a mess.”
Every surface in the short hallway was crowded with nerdy memorabilia. As I toed off my boots, I got a close look at a couple of the photographs on the wall, and saw they were of Dave and Kate in various costumes, standing on stages or engaged in mock battles. One of them was of the pair of them wearing Hogwarts robes and blazers fighting a Death Eater outside one of the Oxford colleges.They look like they had a lot of fun together.
Dave led me through to a living room piled with things. Plastic figurines of orcs and robots crowded the shelves on either side of the fireplace. More shelves behind the sofa overflowed with books, boxes of comics, and DVD boxsets. A tangle of video console cords waited under the TV to ensnare an unwary visitor. Dave cleared a stack of horror novels off the sofa so I could sit down.
“Would you like a cup of tea?”
