Heathcliff glared at me, and I realized what he was getting at.
The shop appearednormal.
Toonormal.
Mum hadn’t changed a thing. She hadn’t put up a display of financial planning guides or offered energy healing sessions or started a smoothie bar. I sniffed. There was a slightly fishy smell in the air, but we kept a bowl of wet food for Grimalkin behind the poetry shelves and it was probably that. I pulled one of the envelopes off the stack and noticed she’d carefully lettered a customer’s name and filled out the customs slip.
“These are books?” Heathcliff leafed through the stack. “Our books? You sold them all?”
“I certainly did! I sold them all online. You have a lot of engaged customers on the shop’s Facebook page, desperate for a little personal service. And look, I’ve kept track of all my sales in the ledger.” Mum shoved the page under my face.
“That’s… that’s amazing, Mum.” And I meant it. She’d sold more books in a few hours than Heathcliff usually did in aweek.
“And you both doubted me,” she sounded a little hurt. “You thought I wasn’t responsible enough to look after the shop.”
I scanned the titles in the ledger.The Pearl, John Steinbeck.Girl with a Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier.Pearl Harbor: the Hidden History, Pearl Jam: The Unauthorized Biography…
Hmmmm. I’m sensing a pattern.
My mother-senses tingling, I set down the book and sniffed the air. That fishy smell was quite pronounced near the desk, more so than I’d expect from Grimalkin’s food. “Does it smell faintly of fish in here?”
“That’s just my lunch.”
I whipped around. My grandmother sat on the couch, clothed (praise the goddesses), long legs tucked beneath her, that sensuous cat-ate-the-cream smile playing on her lips. “Helen and I had fish and chips. Divine. I declare fish and chips covered in vinegar to be the food of the gods.”
Shit.I glared at her.You were supposed to stay upstairs. Who does Mum think you are?
Mum beamed over at Grimalkin. “Mina, meet me new friend, Cat.”
“We’ve met.” I folded my arms.
“I’m often slinking in and out of the shop,” Grimalkin purred. “I love all the dark corners in here, just perfect for hiding secrets.”
I know. I’ve stood on one too many of your secrets in the middle of the night and ended up with mouse guts between my toes.
“Cat came in to find a book on spinning yarn, and we got to talking. She’s been helping me around the shop. We’ve had quite an eventful day. A mouse ran across the Children’s room and Cat chased it right outside.” Mum held her hand over her heart. “It gave me such a fright, I had to buy her lunch. Did you know that new bloke who owns the bakery is doing fish and chips now? They’redivine. Cat agrees they’re the best in Argleton, and the handsome man serving them is a definite bonus.”
“Me-ow.” Grimalkin raked her nails through the air like claws and shot me a look that clearly said now that Mum was supplying her with fish, she’d forgiven Helen Wilde for that whole seducing her son and causing him to be trapped in time thing.
“Right, well, if there’s nothing else, I’ll be going.” Mum leaned across and kissed my cheek. The fishy smell was quite strong around her, but I guessed she just hadn’t washed her hands after lunch.
As she swung herself toward the hallway, her bag bumped my side, and the corner of something large and sharp jabbed into my leg.
“What have you got in there, Mum?” I had a vision of her removing one of the occult books from the shop and unwittingly summoning the demon hordes of hell for tea.
Heathcliff must’ve had the same idea, because I’d never seen him move so fast. In a flash, he crossed the room, dug his giant hand into Mum’s tote bag, and pulled out a shiny rectangular object.
I leaned closer, my stomach clenching as I searched the object for occult symbols.By Isis, that’s not a book at all. It almost looks like…
A laptop?
My mother didn’t own a laptop. She could barely change the channels on the telly. She didn’t understand technology, and judging by the way our microwave cowered in fear every time she approached, technology wasn’t fond of her, either.
So why did she have a laptop? And quite a fancy one, by the looks of it.
Mum grabbed the laptop from Heathcliff’s hands. “That’s mine. I bought it from the proceeds I got from selling off my Flourish business to an aspiring young entrepreneur. I’m using it to set up a website for my tarot business. I want to do readings over the internet. And I play solitaire, okay? I’ll thank you not to dig around in a lady’s purse, young man. If this is the way I’m treated just for doing you a favor, I have half a mind not to offer my services in future.”
“We’re sorry. We didn’t mean anything by it.”We just thought you were trying to sneak off with a dangerous book.I hugged her again. “Thank you so much for your help today. We appreciate it; really, we do. We were actually going to ask if you’d be able to come in regularly over the next two weeks. I have to go back to Crookshollow for more guide dog training, and this weekend, Heathcliff, Allan and I have a… um, team building event to attend.”
