ALL THAT GLITTERS, chapter 1

chapter 28

chapter 28

A gust of cold air behind her let Lucky know the door was open, and as she listened to the police officer announce himself over the racket of the store alarm, she concentrated on the four people caught inside the store: a young woman with dreadlocks and several facial piercings, a middle-aged one clutching a hardcover book, and a trembling white-haired lady leaning against a bookshelf with her hands clasped over her ears. The fourth was a man with a long beard and a gray ponytail. None of the faces reacted to the police officer the way Lucky thought a guilty person would – they all looked upset, though.

She half turned and realized the police officer was the older one from the night before. Bradford, that was his name. She said, “Thanks for coming, officer. Is it all right with you if I turn the store alarm off?”

Pauline cut in. “I already tried, Lucky. It’s stuck on, or something. I keep pushing the button and it just keeps ringing.”

Lucky winced. “That’s probably the panic button, Pauline. You need to use the switch in the back room.”

“Go ahead, Ms. Franklin, shut it off,” the policeman said. “Now, can someone explain to me, what started the alarm ringing?”

Pauline raised her hand and waved it above her head. “I can explain. It’s my fault. I forgot to turn it on when I came in, because we were cleaning up from – from – a terrible accident, you know?”

“I know about Mr. Franklin being shot here,” the officer said dryly. “You were cleaning up, where? The floor?”

Lucky found the switch in the back room as quickly as she could, then moved back to the front of the store so she could watch the faces again. The girl with the piercings, she should know that girl’s name, who was she?

“I washed the floor,” Pauline confirmed. “And put a lot of books back. And I had to replace some of the signs that got, that got – you know, ruined.”

Blood on them, probably. Lucky’s stomach lurched. Her dad’s blood. Thank goodness he wasn’t killed by the gunshot. OMG. Jon’s message from the hospital, and Roger and Jake out at the Perkins place, what should she do? She looked toward Michelle, who had stepped partway behind the store counter and was looking downward. Good. Michelle was checking texts and must be answering them. Lucky pulled her focus back to the conversation in front of her, wondering when the policeman would ask for everyone’s names.

Pauline was still talking. “So I opened up at quarter to twelve, and people were waiting outside, and they all came in. And then these two boys were here and I didn’t like the way they kept whispering, so I watched until they left and then I remembered the alarm and I turned it on from the panel up front. And that’s when it just started ringing and I couldn’t make it stop. Because I guess I forgot that you have to use the other switch to shut it off.”

Lucky interrupted, to stop Pauline from saying more about the store security. Besides, somebody needed to get this moving along. “It’s supposed to ring when somebody takes a tagged book around by the door, unless the tag’s been taken out. It’s just the valuable ones that have the tags.” She pointed to the glass-fronted cabinet of rare books halfway down the center aisle. “Mostly the books from in there, although if an art book is priced at more than fifty dollars, my dad tags those, too. Over there.” She gestured at the extra-wide shelves beyond the cash desk.

“And somebody took one of those books out, and walked past the sensor with it,” Officer Bradford concluded. “So, where’s the book?”

Everyone in the shop looked around at everyone else. The middle-aged woman put down the book she’d been holding, saying at the same time, “It wasn’t me. I didn’t take this book up there. And besides, it’s a three-dollar book from the sale shelf.”