by Agatha Frost
“I’ll leave you to make up your minds,” Anthony said with a sneer, tossing his hands out as he turned back to his coffee shop. “I gather you’re all intelligent people.”
Anthony pocketed the nail and screwed up the cupcake wrapper before dropping it to the grass. Julia watched in disbelief as he sauntered slowly back to his coffee shop, followed by most of the people who had been standing and watching. They were all looking at Julia in disgust, but she couldn’t summon the words to defend herself. Her father had been right about Anthony being a good salesman and a dirty player.
“Emily! Amy! Plan B!” Dot cried through the megaphone before she tossed it to the ground and set off running towards the coffee shop, overtaking Anthony and the customers in a flash.
Before anybody could figure out what was going on, Emily and Amy stepped forward, pulling long metal chains from their tiny handbags. Dot stood in front of the coffee shop and in an instant, as though it had been rehearsed, Emily and Amy chained Dot’s arms and legs to the front of the coffee shop before padlocking them in place.
“Wicked,” Jessie whispered with a grin.
“That woman has style,” Billy said, as he draped an arm around Jessie’s shoulders. “I can still punch him for you, if you want, babe?”
“Shut up,” Jessie said as she rolled her eyes and tossed his arm away. “Here comes trouble.”
Jessie nodded in the direction of two uniformed officers who had been watching the protest unfold. They walked over to Emily and Amy, presumably asking for the keys to the padlocks, but they both shrugged, before linking arms and hurrying up the lane towards Emily’s cottage.
“I will not be moved!” Dot cried. “This is a peaceful protest!”
“What about when she needs to pee?” Jessie whispered into Julia’s ears as they walked across the village green. “Won’t her arms get tired?”
Julia didn’t know what to say. She turned back to her café, which was emptying as though the building was on fire. Sue darted between the tables trying to make them stay, but it was no use. She exhaled heavily, wondering how things could have gone so dramatically wrong.
It only took a couple of minutes for one of the officers to arrive with a pair of bolt cutters to cut Dot down. The trapped customers inside of the coffee shop scurried out, only to be replaced with the ones trying to flee Julia’s café after seeing her contaminated cakes.
“Call my lawyer!” Dot cried as they pulled her arms behind her back and handcuffed them in place. “Call the press!”
Julia pinched uncomfortably between her brows as the officers forced Dot into the back of a police car. Barker mouthed his apology to her, with a look of ‘I told you so’, but she shook her head to let him know it wasn’t his fault.
The second Dot was driven towards the police station, the protest party dispersed, smiling their awkward apologies to Julia. She wasn’t angry with them for leaving; she would have done the same. They had tried, and that mattered to her.
“Are they going to charge her?” Jessie asked.
“I doubt it,” Julia said. “I’m sure Barker will do his best, although he might want to make her sweat a little first.”
Julia turned her attention to Anthony, who was sitting at one of the sterile metallic tables outside his coffee shop, smoking a cigarette as he watched the scene come to an end. He looked mildly amused more than anything. It hurt Julia that somebody could be so callous and care so little.
Julia spotted Anthony’s wife, Rosemary Kennedy, storm out of the coffee shop towards her husband, wearing one of Happy Bean’s barista uniforms with her greying hair pinned at the back of her head in a tight roll. Julia was sure the woman was past retirement age. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her in, attempting to kiss her on the cheek, but she tugged her arm away and stormed off. She yanked her apron over her head and tossed it to the ground before tossing her hands in the air. Julia noticed her red nails, particularly the lack of one on her left index finger. Anthony chuckled and shook his head as though that too amused him.
“What now?” Jessie whispered as the crowd disappeared, leaving them alone on the village green.
Julia looked back at her café, her heart heavy. She thought about the five hundred pounds in her biscuit tin at her cottage, the likelihood that she would need to use her father’s money increasing. Julia linked arms with Jessie, and they set off back towards her café.
Before she reached the door, she turned back and looked at Happy Bean. A man had joined Anthony at the table with two coffees in their signature white and green cups. Anthony offered the man a cigarette, but he declined with a wave of his hand and a toothy smile. Julia’s heart stopped for a moment. Did she recognise that smile? She shielded her eyes and squinted across the village, but her heart eased when she realised it was her imagination playing tricks on her.
“Too much hair,” she whispered to herself as she shook away the suggestion.
“Huh?” Jessie asked.
“Nothing,” Julia said, wrapping her arm around Jessie’s shoulder as they walked back into the café. “Let’s clean up. You never know, there might be a second wind.”
Jessie nodded enthusiastically, even if both of them knew it was more than a little unlikely. As she gathered the half-finished sandwiches and cakes from the tables, she looked around her café, wondering if her dream was coming to an end. If her gran’s protest couldn’t save her café against the corporate machine, she didn’t know what would. She wasn’t going to hold her breath for a miracle.
Chapter Three
Later that night Julia was on her sitting room floor with Jessie, and her two new college friends, Dolly and Dom.
“I promise it won’t hurt,” Dom said as he smeared the jet-black charcoal face mask on Jessie’s face. “Just sit still!”
Julia attempted to chuckle as Jessie squirmed under Dom’s forceful touch, but he had already attacked Julia with the black mask ten minutes ago, and it had completely frozen her face.
“Is it meant to burn?” Jessie asked when Dom had finished.
“Drama queen,” Dolly said as she rolled onto her back on the hearthrug, the spoon from the ice cream tub still in her mouth. “We saw Billy earlier.”
Jessie’s eyes darted to Julia, and then to her fingers, which were suddenly fiddling with the drawstrings on her black pyjama bottoms.
“So?” she replied, attempting and failing to frown through the face mask. “I don’t care.”
“You so love him,” Dom said, ribbing her with his elbow. “I bet you’re blushing under there.”
He went to peel the mask, but Jessie batted his hand away and snatched the ice cream spoon from Dolly to fill her mouth with the chocolatey goodness. The sleepover had been Jessie’s idea, but the ice cream had been Julia’s. After the day she had endured, she needed the distraction and the dairy.
“It’s almost midnight,” Dom announced as he climbed onto the sofa and tossed his head upside down to squint at the clock on the mantelpiece. “Remember how Cinderella turned back into a witch at midnight? You’re going to be the opposite when we’re finished with you, Jessie!”
“She wasn’t a witch,” Dolly mumbled as she tapped her fingers against her black, frozen cheeks. “She was a slave.”
“She was a servant,” Jessie corrected them, much to everyone’s surprise. “What? I grew up in foster care, not on the moon!”
Jessie’s expression remained stern for a moment before she broke out laughing. They all attempted to chuckle, wincing through the pain of the masks that Dom had insisted would make them all look and feel ten years younger. Considering Julia had twenty years on the three of them, she wasn’t sure how much younger they could look without having to crawl back into nappies.
“How’s college?” Julia asked, fondly remembering her days in the patisserie and baking course. “Is Mr Jackson still there?”
“Jacko?” Dom asked. “He’s properly ancient! He creaks when he walks.”
“Leaves a trail of dust,” Dolly cac
kled, amused by herself. “He’s practically mummified.”
Jessie joined in the laughing, which in turn made Julia laugh. When Jessie had first told her she had made friends at college, Julia had been a little surprised, not because she didn’t think Jessie was capable of making friends, but because she didn’t think Jessie would want to, especially with kids her own age. When Jessie brought Dolly and Dom to the cottage a couple of weeks ago, Julia had been even more surprised to see that her new friends were impossibly tall, platinum blonde twins who wore every colour in the rainbow at all times. Julia loved them. They always had something funny to say, and their spirits were so pure. She wasn’t sure they could manage to say a bad word about anyone if they tried.
“If you’re not going to chase after Billy, I might try,” Dom said as he twirled a blonde curl around his index finger. “In for a penny.”
“I’m not chasing anybody,” Jessie mumbled with a roll of her eyes.
“He’s chasing you though,” Dolly exclaimed as she took the spoon from Jessie to dig out a huge brownie chunk. “What do you think of him, Julia?”
“Erm, he’s – nice,” Julia said, everything she knew about Billy racing through her mind. “He’s growing up.”
Jessie snorted her disagreement before snatching the spoon back from Dolly and finishing the last of the ice cream. Dom let out a long yawn, which was echoed by Dolly, and then Julia. Jessie seemed to be the only one who wasn’t tired.
“Do you have any Saturday jobs at your café?” Dom asked, looking at Julia upside down as he dangled off the edge of the sofa. “Our tutor at college said we should try and find Saturday jobs because the bakery we work at doesn’t open on the weekends.”
“No, there isn’t,” Jessie jumped in, her eyes darting uneasily at Julia. “I told you not to ask.”
“In for a penny,” Dom said again with a shrug and a smile, not fazed by the rejection. “I wonder what Billy is doing right now.”
Jessie sighed and tossed the spoon into the ice cream tub. Julia thought Jessie was about to launch into an argument with Dom, but they were interrupted when Julia’s mobile phone vibrated on the side table. They all jumped and looked at the phone, Dom and Dolly immediately bursting out laughing.
“It’s midnight!” Dolly exclaimed. “Maybe that’s Billy looking for his princess?”
Jessie picked up a cushion and launched it at Dolly, who didn’t even try to dodge it. It hit her square in the face, which only caused more hysterical laughter, which was only interrupted by another yawn.
Julia rolled across the floor and grabbed her phone from the table. She looked down at the unknown contact and frowned, the mask pinching her forehead. It didn’t resemble a phone number she had ever seen. She was about to reject the call and toss it back onto the table because of the late hour, but she suddenly remembered what the number was.
“It’s the security alarm at the café,” Julia mumbled under her breath. “It calls me when the alarm is triggered. Gran convinced me to get it after Billy put a brick through my window.”
“Was it a love brick?” Dom asked, twiddling Jessie’s hair.
“No, it was a brick brick,” Jessie said, batting his hand away. “Is it serious, Julia?”
Julia answered the call, and as expected it gave her an automated message that her alarm had been triggered a minute before midnight. She glanced at the clock and sighed as she forced herself up off the rug, her knees creaking a little.
“Just stay here,” Julia said as she headed for the door. “I won’t be long. It’s probably nothing.”
Julia slipped her feet into her sheepskin slippers, tied her dressing gown around her waist, and grabbed her car keys.
“You’ve still got your mask on,” Jessie mumbled through her tight face. “I’m coming with you.”
“You’re not,” Julia said as she turned to the hallway mirror to tug at the mask’s edge. “Ouch! What is this made of?”
Jessie joined her in the mirror and tugged at her mask. She yelped, and immediately let go, tears lining her eyes.
“Satan’s flesh,” Jessie mumbled darkly. “Let’s just rip it off. Like a plaster.”
Julia nodded and met Jessie’s eyes in the mirror. They both yanked up from the bottom of their cheeks, but they stopped before they had even passed their mouths. Julia wiped away the tears as they streamed down her glossy black cheeks.
“I’ll wash it off when I get back,” Julia said, blinking through the pain as her fingers closed around her car key. “You’re not coming with me.”
“They’ll already be asleep,” Jessie whispered. “Please.”
“It’s been less than a minute,” Julia said, walking past Jessie and back into the sitting room, where Dolly was fast asleep on the rug, and Dom was draped across the sofa with his hand on his stomach and his head still hanging over the edge, his mouth gaping open. “Unbelievable.”
“It’s some freaky talent they have,” Jessie said as she pulled her usual black hoody over her pyjamas. “It’s probably a lack of things going on in their head.”
Julia and Jessie shared a little grin for a second before she reluctantly opened the front door, letting Jessie walk through first. She locked Dolly and Dom in and walked towards her car, hoping they were heading towards nothing more than a false alarm.
“In for a penny,” Julia whispered.
When Julia drove into the village, she immediately heard the blaring siren and saw the red flashing lights coming from her café. As she pulled up outside, the lights in the bedrooms across the village green flicked on, including her gran’s, who had been released from the police station with a caution after only an hour of questioning.
“The door is open,” Jessie mumbled as she scrambled for her seatbelt. “I’m going to murder whoever it is!”
Julia killed the engine and struggled to undo her seatbelt. She caught a glimpse of her shiny face in the rear-view mirror, realising how ridiculous she looked.
She slammed her car door and hurried over to her café. The small pane of glass in the door had been smashed, the fragments on the doormat. Pulling Jessie back, Julia edged into the dark café, immediately making her way to the alarm system. She punched in the code, which was the date she had rescued Mowgli, and the alarm finally stopped.
“Hello?” she called out into her empty café.
“Come out, you rats!” Jessie cried, bursting past Julia and running into the kitchen. “They’ve gone.”
Julia hurried after her. To her relief, the kitchen was empty. She flicked on the light to see what had been taken but she was surprised to see everything where she had left it, including all of her expensive professional baking equipment that had cost her a pretty penny when first opening. She turned and looked through the beads into the café, but the till was still there too.
“Odd,” Julia whispered. “Maybe it was an accident?”
“There’s no such thing,” Jessie said, storming out of the café and turning on her mobile phone’s flashlight.
She scanned it across the village green, and down the alleyway between the café and the post office. Julia followed her, but she couldn’t see anybody.
“Maybe a bird flew into the window?” Julia suggested.
“There’s no blood,” Jessie said bluntly. “Somebody is trying to scare you.”
Before Julia could ask who, she looked over to Happy Bean, her stomach turning when she saw that all the lights were still on. She knew they opened late, but not this late.
“Get in the car,” Julia ordered.
“Fat chance!”
“Jessie!”
“What?”
“Do as you’re told.”
“Have we met?” Jessie replied with a clenched jaw. “I’m not leaving your side, cake lady.”
In their pyjamas and charcoal face masks, they edged towards their rival, sticking to each other’s side like Velcro. Jessie illuminated the path in front of them, her Doc Martens clunking on the cobbled road underfoot. When they wer
e feet from the coffee shop, Julia noticed that the door was slightly ajar.
“We should call the police,” Julia whispered, holding her arm in front of Jessie. “This doesn’t feel right.”
Jessie pouted before stepping around Julia’s arm. She set off straight for the door. To Julia’s surprise, she pulled her sleeve over her hand before pushing on the door. Julia suddenly remembered the time she had caught Jessie breaking into her café before they had known each other, and she realised she had more expertise than Julia had given her credit for.
All the lights in the coffee shop were switched on, but it appeared empty. Julia followed Jessie inside for the first time, making sure not to touch anything. She looked around at what her competition had to offer, initially impressed until she took a couple of steps inside. Everything looked like it was trying impossibly hard to appear comfortable and relatable, but it all felt a little sterile. On closer inspection, the exposed brick walls were just wallpaper, the leather sofas were pleather, and the framed pictures on the walls were nothing more than generic stock photography and bland prints of utilitarian paintings. Even the menu above the counter was eerily barren, with calorie contents and prices in tiny black text, making her chalkboard menu look like a piece of art.
“Julia,” Jessie said with a gulp as she peered over the counter. “You might want to see this.”
Julia’s heart suddenly stopped in her chest. She recognised the fear and shock in Jessie’s eyes. She had felt it herself more times than she cared to remember recently.
Taking her steps carefully and slowly, Julia walked towards the counter where Jessie was pointing the light. She looked over, and jumped back with a gasp, having not expected to see the eyes of Anthony Kennedy staring back up at her, glassy and vacant.
“Is he dead?” Jessie asked.
“I think so,” Julia gulped, nodding her head as she dared to take another look. “We should get out of –”
Her voice trailed off when something on the counter caught her eye. She leaned in and peered at what had caught her attention, realising that it had been her own name. Perfectly aligned under the spotlight above the counter sat two sugar sachets, one brown and one white, both inscribed with glossy red writing.
