He grinned, and it made my stomach flip. “Maybe I’ll show you someday. In the meantime…” He opened my back door and helped me through. “You go to bed now. I’ll check in with you later.”
“’Kay.” I walked away but then heard a throat clearing.
“Orla, honey? I need you to come back and lock this door before you go upstairs, okay?”
Nodding, I shuffled back, pushed him through the door, locked it, and headed back through the bookcases before climbing the stairs.
When I woke late in the afternoon, it was with a vague, uncomfortable feeling that I was supposed to do something. Was a book order arriving today? No. Did I need to contact a customer about a special order? No. Was there something happening in my book that had me on edge? I considered a moment. No. I’d finished my book before I’d shifted and took flight early this morning.
When I was washing my face and brushing my teeth, I remembered Nick’s visit and that I’d be closing tonight to investigate the disappearance of a deer. My shoulders relaxed. At least now I knew why I was feeling off. Mystery solved. Hmm, maybe I’d read a mystery next.
After I ate, I went downstairs to browse the mystery section, to see what spoke to me. I heard a knock on the front door and checked my watch. It was only a little after six. I didn’t open for two more hours. I wanted to get a new book started before I had to deal with people.
Glancing around a bookcase, I saw Harold, one of my regulars, standing on my porch. What was he doing here so early? I went to the door and opened it.
“Oh, good,” he said, looking winded from climbing the steep hill to my bookstore. He was an old man, but he made it up my road at least once a week to look for a new book.
“Do you want to come in?” I asked.
He shook his head. “It’s my Maisie. I was wondering if you’d seen her.” Maisie was his little West Highland terrier. He’d only brought her to the bookstore a handful of times over the years, hoping each time that she’d decide I was okay. She never did.
His Westie wasn’t dumb. She could smell predator on me, and she didn’t like her person being near me.
I shook my head. “I haven’t seen her since you brought her with you last fall.”
He rubbed his arm and wandered over to the bench on my wraparound covered porch. Sitting, he seemed to deflate. “I don’t know where else to look. She’s never run away before.” He stared out over the neighborhood. “I have a doggie door for her, so she goes out to the backyard whenever she feels like it. I fell asleep last night, watching baseball.
“When I finally got up today, I took a shower and made a late lunch. I realized Maisie wasn’t underfoot, trying to get treats, so I went looking. The white lump I’d seen earlier on the couch wasn’t Maisie. It was a stuffed animal my granddaughter left when she visited yesterday.” He scratched his head. “I panicked. The doggie door was unlatched, but that was probably me. I couldn’t remember closing it last night.” He shook his head. “When the grand kids visit, it wipes me out.”
He glanced over, his eyes desperate. “I don’t even know when she disappeared. I searched the backyard for her—it’s just a patch of grass with some flowers and bushes. I can see all of it from my back steps.”
He paused, seemingly shrinking into himself even more. “There was a board along the side fence that was rotten at the bottom. It was behind a bush, but I was looking everywhere.” He shook his head. “The neighbors have one of those big, guard-type dogs. He doesn’t like Maisie. I was worried she went exploring and he attacked her.”
“Did you talk to your neighbor?”
He nodded. “They said Sarge was only out for a short time this morning and that they were watching him because he’s on a lot of meds. He just had surgery.” He shrugged. “I could see the dog sleeping in the corner wearing a cone. I’m sure they were telling the truth. That dog was normally up and barking out the window if you walked by his house, let alone stood on his porch.”
“I’m so sorry. I’ll keep an eye out for her.” My thoughts jumped to the deer disappearing at the bridge and I grew more uneasy.
He pushed himself up and started down the stairs. “I need to keep looking. My poor girl is probably tired and hungry.”
“Can I give you a ride home?” He looked so dejected, I felt horrible letting him go off on his own.
He waved a hand at the suggestion. “I need to look for her, call her name. Thank you, though.” He turned to look up at me from the bottom of the stairs. “If you see her, you’ll let me know, right?”
I nodded. “I will.” I watched him slowly make his way down the hill, calling out to Maisie. I went in and locked the door. At the check-out desk, I took a bag, folded it into a smaller square, and then wrote, I’m closed tonight. After taping it onto the glass on the front door, I went upstairs to shift.
THREE
Hiding in Plain Sight
Remembering Nick, I stopped to text him before I began my search.
Me: I’m going now. I need to look for my neighbor’s pet and then I’ll meet you at the bridge. I know this is earlier than you wanted, but I need to look now.
I hit send and then undressed. Fire raced through me, and I was soaring out my bedroom window and through the trees of my forest. Scanning the ground, I’d start the search for Maisie here. She didn’t like me, so I doubted she would enter woods that smelled of me, but I wanted to be thorough.
When I was done, I flew over the neighborhood, checking out yards and public places. I went past Harold, still going up and down the streets, calling her name. A few streets over I saw a Lost Cat poster taped to a fence.
