by Kacey Gene
No, she’s gorgeous, Jennifer thinks.
Jennifer looks over at Jake, whose eyes have glossed over with a film of awe. He straightens his coat and clears his throat. Jennifer side-eyes him, and a mischievous smile comes to her lips.
“What?” Jake asks, a nervous quiver in his voice. “She’s a colleague. And my superior.” Jennifer isn’t buying that those two facts are the reason for Jake’s fidgeting.
“So this is what it takes to get you to call me, huh?” The woman says when she reaches them. She’s not smiling, and she looks like a superhero with the way she has her hands on her hips, her shoulders rolled back, and her legs hip-width apart. Jennifer feels an unexpected tension grow as this woman, Erin, stares right at Jake.
But then, Erin’s serious face breaks into a friendly smile with lit-up eyes and rosy cheeks. “You know I’m just playing with you,” she says, slugging Jake in the arm. “How are you, Jakey?” She and Jake embrace in a familiar and comforting hug.
“I’m good,” Jake says.
“And what about my favorite mom and dad?” she asks. “How are Carol and Jefferson?”
“My parents are good. The whole family is good.” Jake says.
Then, Erin turns her attention to Jennifer, who it seems Jake has forgotten is standing right next to him.
“Oh, this is my friend Jennifer,” Jake says. “She’s helping me out with the case.”
“Finally I get to meet her in the flesh,” the woman says, holding out her black-leather gloved hand to Jennifer. “I’m Erin, and I’ve heard so much about you.”
“Nice to meet you,” Jennifer says, shaking her hand and wishing she could say the same about this mystery girl that Jake has never told her about.
“So, did you get it?” Jake asks, eagerly looking at Erin’s purse.
“Do I ever disappoint?” she asks, and from her oversized black purse she pulls out the piece of paper that makes Jake throw his hands up in celebration. It’s a warrant to search the property of Pelznickel Used Books. “I also brought my friend along,” Erin says, pulling out a small plastic case.
She opens it up, and all Jennifer sees are slivers of thin metal -- different sizes with varying curves and angles. Erin moves past Jennifer and Jake and puts her bag down on the concrete. She squats and crouches down until she’s eye level with the locks on the front door of Pelznickels. With a confident smile, she looks over her shoulder at Jake and says, “You going to time me?”
“Obviously,” Jake says, looking at his watch.
And then Erin gets to work -- sticking this and that metal piece or curved rod into a lock until she can turn it with ease. She gets the two top bolts opened in no time, but the lower lock is giving her resistance. She jiggles the doorknob while turning the two metal sticks this and that way. “Come on,” she says, and just like that, the doorknob fully turns.
“Done,” she yells, throwing her hands up like it’s the end of a test.
“One minute and seventeen seconds,” Jake says.
Erin sighs. “I’m slowing down in my old age.” She pushes the door open, and they all step into the warmth of the bookstore.
The bell above the door jingles as they shut the door, and Jennifer half expects the orange tabby cat with the bowtie to jump up and greet them. But nothing in the store moves or stirs. Not able to find the overhead light switch, Erin clicks on the small lamp that’s sitting on the front counter, which is still covered in piles of books.
The light bulb illuminates a golden, warm glow, and when Jake clicks on a lamp that’s on one of the bookshelves, the store almost glimmers. Even though Jennifer knows she’s in the same store she was in just a couple of hours ago, something about it is different. Without the depressed Wendy, the glaring John, and the fluorescent overhead lights, this place resonates nothing but cozy charm.
Jennifer starts to get a sense of John’s father as she looks around at the thick volumes of books and the puffy chairs that ask someone to stop, curl up with a book, and disappear to a new place.
“What exactly are we looking for here?” Erin asks, taking off her coat and gloves. She has on a black v-neck sweater that hits right at the top of her jeans. Jennifer does the same, taking off her coat and letting her cream, long cashmere sweater drape over her black leggings.
“We’re looking for a set of books,” Jake says.
Erin angles her head. “You’re kidding me, right?” she asks.
“They’re a special set of books,” Jake says. He gestures to Jennifer’s bag, and she hands him the two copies of A Christmas Carol -- one from Matt Kiley’s place and the one Alexa just gave them.
As Jake tells the story behind the books to Erin, Jennifer pokes around the bookstore. She peeks into some of the old texts that are lying in stacks on the floor. There are books of poetry, a graphic novel from the early 1900s, and when she stumbles upon an old set of Winnie the Pooh books, she can’t help but pull one out.
Her dad used to read her these books every night when she was young -- the two of them laughing over Tigger and feeling sorry for sad, depressed Eeyore. Jennifer opens the book and runs her hand across the page. When she does, those memories of her and her dad flood over her. At first the memories are warm and comforting, but then she thinks about how her dad is no longer in her life. She thinks about the fact that he simply disappeared, so just as drastically, she snaps the book shut and tosses it back on the pile where she found it.
Feeling a shift in her, Jennifer focuses on the task at hand. She eyes every book she passes, looking for any leather-bound books with gold writing. There are many, but none of them say A Christmas Carol on them. Jake, Jennifer, and Erin all take different sections of the bookstore, but after almost thirty minutes, they come up with nothing.
Jennifer looks at her watch. They need to leave in ten minutes if they’re going to make it to her mother’s place by seven. Maybe they could come back tomorrow. Although, they’ve looked through almost every bookshelf.
The false walls, Jennifer thinks. “The walls,” she says. “We need to pull out the walls.”
“Is she okay?” Erin asks, looking at Jennifer like she’s let all her screws loose.
“Right,” Jake says, looking at Jennifer. He goes over to a bookcase and pulls on it. It doesn’t move. He pulls again. It still doesn’t move.
“Actually, are you alright?” Erin asks, skeptically eyeing Jake.
“Some of these open,” Jennifer explains, seeing that Erin thinks they’re both insane. Jennifer walks over to one of the bookcases, and when she pulls, it easily opens. Behind it is a bunch of brooms, buckets, cleaners, and a vacuum that looks as old as some of these very dusty books.
“We should only focus on the bookcases that have stacks of books in front of them,” Jake says, already getting to work removing the books. “The ones that look like no one wants them to be opened.”
And that’s exactly what they do, hauling and moving the books that stand guard in front of certain bookcases.
The first case they clear doesn’t budge. Erin is working on the second one as Jake and Jennifer join forces on the one across the room.
Erin gets her bookcase cleared, and when she pulls on the shelf, the whole case creaks open. There’s some resistance in the hinges, but she muscles it until the small light in the store can penetrate the darkness behind the shelves.
“Uh, guys,” Erin says to Jake and Jennifer, who are busily moving stacks of books here and there. “I think you should come look at this.”
Jake and Jennifer drop the books they’re holding, and they run over to Erin.
“Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” Erin asks, lighting up her phone and pointing it at the large object in front of her. “Or have I just lost my mind?”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
The Book Launch
Behind the bookcase is a safe. A dark, steel safe that easily stands four feet tall and three feet wide. More than that, it is covered in chains, and each of those chains has a thick lock on
the end of it. Although Erin is looking at this safe with her lock-picking brain on, all Jennifer can see is Earl.
When they found Earl dead in his apartment, he was covered in chains just like this safe is, and she can’t think that is a mere coincidence.
“Can you get through those locks?” Jake asks Erin.
“Give me some light,” Erin says.
Jake and Jennifer spotlight her with their phone flashlights, and Erin gets to work sticking this and that metal sliver into the locks until they unlatch. Although she busts open lock after lock in record time, Jennifer knows that it’s not fast enough. She has to get to her mother’s, and at this pace, she’s definitely going to be late. But then she stops herself. I’m on the brink of solving murders, and I’m worried about arriving on time so I can attend a party that I don’t even really want to go to.
And that settles it. Jennifer turns her phone around, and dials her mom’s number.
“I need that light,” Erin says.
“Sorry,” Jennifer says, “this will only take a second.” Jake covers for Jennifer by stepping closer to Erin in order to give her more direct lighting.
Jennifer’s mom doesn’t answer the phone -- she’s most likely getting ready for the party -- but her assistant Patrick does.
“Just tell my mom that we’re running late, but we’ll be there as soon as possible,” Jennifer says.
Patrick doesn’t argue, but Jennifer can hear the warning in his voice when he says, “Alright, I’ll tell her.”
Feeling slightly relieved, Jennifer hangs up and shines her phone light back on Erin’s work.
Click.
The last lock opens, and the chains fall off the safe like a dress that’s four sizes too big. Erin grips the safe’s handle, pulls it down, and the door creaks open.
“Jackpot,” Erin says when she opens the door and reveals the stack of books.
“No way,” Jennifer says, feeling like this is a trick.
“Are there twelve books?” Jake asks, quickly eyeballing the different colored books that are perfectly stacked on top of each other.
Erin, who is still crouched down by the safe counts them. “Twelve copies of A Christmas Carol,” Erin says, looking up at Jake. “I told you I never disappoint.”
“I’ll grab our two books,” Jennifer says. “Then we can decipher the message.” She quickly pops up and runs over to the front counter where she left them.
“I can’t believe we found them,” Jake says, watching as Erin stacks all of them in her arms. “Now all we need to do is decode--”
Thwack.
A thick hardback book hits the wall closest to Jake and then lands on the floor with a thud.
Jennifer spins around when she hears the sound, and in the shadows of the light she sees John, the jolly bookstore owner from earlier. But the hateful hunch in his back and his vengeful eyes, which seem to glow fire as he moves closer to Jake and Erin, are anything but jolly. John has a stack of books in his arms -- heavy, hardback books -- that Jennifer can see he plans to use as weapons.
Behind John, Jennifer also sees an open bookcase, but it’s not one they opened. It has a staircase behind it, which is obviously how John is standing in front of them, ready to battle them with books.
“What in the--” Jake doesn’t get another word out. As soon as he turns around to assess what just happened, he’s greeted with a hardback book, and this one hits him square in the face. “Ow,” Jake yells, bending over and cradling his face in his hands.
“Jake,” Jennifer yells, dropping the books she retrieved and running to his side.
“Thieves! You’re thieves!” John yells. “Those books are mine!”
“Sir, I’m Chicago PD, and you need to drop the books you’re holding and put your hands up,” Erin says to John, but his wily eyes show that he’s not listening to a word she’s saying.
Erin stands up -- still cradling the set of A Christmas Carol books she took from the safe -- and steps out of the small area tucked behind the bookcase. “Sir, I’m going to go get my badge that’s in my bag,” she says, “you need to stay still.”
But before she can finish her first step, John launches a book straight at her head. She drops the editions of A Christmas Carol she’s holding and blocks the book-turned-weapon with her arms just in time.
“You think you can take away my business?” John yells. “You think you can steal what is now rightfully mine?” John’s eyes are wild, he’s breathing out of his nose like a bull, and his face is blistering red. “Those are my books! You’re the thieves!” He’s yelling these words, and they screech across his throat.
John whips another book at Erin, like it’s a frisbee, and it hits her square in the stomach. Erin hunches over, but then she snaps back up, and when she does, it’s like she turns into a wild animal. She charges straight for John, who tries to throw another book at her, but Erin leaps on John before he gets the chance.
Jake, ignoring the pain caused by the book-straight-to-the-face situation, sees Erin tackle John down to the ground. They’re wrestling back and forth. Jake jumps into the action, sprinting over to them and pinning his knee right in the middle of John’s back. Then, he grabs John’s arms and anchors them to his lower back.
“I don’t have my cuffs,” Jake says, looking at Erin, whose hair is like a bird’s nest after wrestling with John. She jumps up, seeing that Jake can easily hold John himself, and she runs over to her bag. She returns to Jake within seconds and says, “Like I said, I never disappoint.” She displays a bundle of zip ties like they’re a winning hand in cards.
With John’s wrists and ankles zipped together, Jake flips John onto his back.
“You don’t understand,” John says, his voice having changed from yelling to whimpering. “Those books are mine! You can’t do this to me! I won’t let you do this to me!”
“You have the right to remain silent--” Erin tries to say.
But John mutes her words with his continuous yelling of, “You can’t take them. He gave them to me. Ebenezer gave me those books.”
Erin looks at Jake, who looks at Jennifer, and they’re all thinking the same thing: John has gone mad.
“Ebenezer wanted me to have these books,” John yells again.
“We need to get him to the station,” Jake says, his voice calm. “Sir, we’re going to take you to the station.”
“But Ebenezer…” John’s voice trails off as he breaks into tears.
“My car is maybe a block away,” Erin says.
Jake looks over at Jennifer, but Jennifer’s eyes are on the man she sees breaking down right before her. But, then, her eyes drift to the staircase that is hidden behind the bookcase -- the one John secretly came down. All of her instincts tell her to follow those stairs.
“You alright if I take him out to Erin’s car with her?” Jake asks Jennfier.
Jennifer nods, turning her attention to Jake. That’s when she sees the red bump forming on Jake’s forehead. It has a small cut from where the edge of the book got him.
But before she can say something or show her concern, Jake has John on his feet, and looks over his shoulder as he tells Jennifer, “I’ll be right back. Lock the door behind us.”
Jennifer does exactly that, but then she takes off running and goes up the pokey staircase to see where it leads.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
A Not-so-Normal Hobby
The stairs are enclosed on all sides. The walls are painted a deep maroon, and there’s a single candlestick sconce domed in glass that lights the way up the wooden steps. The flame flickers and casts a deep shadow as Jennifer walks by it. When she gets to the top of the stairs, she finds herself in a room that has two large windows on the far wall that frame the twinkling lights of the city.
The walls of the room are covered in paneling that’s painted a light green. There’s an iron bed in the corner of the room, and the white, crumpled sheets are pulled back as if someone hurriedly jumped out of bed. Taking a few steps in, th
e hardwood floor creaks under her feet. There’s a winged armchair opposite the bed, and next to it is a side table stacked with books and a lamp that glows warmly throughout the room. The chair is angled by a crumbly, red-brick fireplace that has two crackling logs wrapped in flames.
As Jennifer walks further into the room, she smells an unfitting stench -- like alcohol, or ammonia, or a liquid that she can’t name but can feel bothering her nose. She follows the smell, and it leads her to a door that’s next to the staircase. She sees a small kitchen off to the side of the door, but her true interest lies with what’s behind this door.
She opens it, and when she does, the stench crashes on her like a wave. She covers her nose and mouth with the sleeve of her cream sweater.
“What is that smell?” she asks, feeling for and finding a light switch on the wall.
When the room, which must have originally been a walk-in closet, is flooded with light, Jennifer sees the culprit for the stink. There are mounds and mounds of mooshy, pulverized paper covering the long table that’s in the middle of the room. The table has a red cloth covering and draping off the sides of it, which makes no sense to Jennifer, seeing as this damp paper is on top of it.
There is a stainless steel machine that looks like a hollow torpedo to her right, and it’s dripping with remnants of milky water and pulverized paper.
What is he making? Jennifer wonders, having no idea what John is up to. She continues to walk through the room, getting to the end of the long table. There in the back, sitting on the floor, are three small stacks of paper, but this paper isn’t like normal paper. It’s heavier; it’s yellowed rather than white; and she can actually feel the fibers when she touches it. And, this paper feels exactly like how the thick pages of the A Christmas Carol books feel.
Jennifer’s heart stops, though, when her eyes land on the plastic container that’s lodged behind those stacks of paper. It’s exactly like the containers they saw at Fred Gailey’s building, and just like those, this container also has the letters NaCN written on the top -- in the same black-marker handwriting.
