The Unborn

Chapter 4

 He made a left on Bligh Street and accelerated a little before settling into an easy cruising mode for the next twenty minutes. A river of dazzling neon signs soon shone on either side of him. Among them, Ben spied the rather mundane advertisement for Shelby’s Coffee House. He found the first available car park, got out of his car and headed for Shelby’s. Ben pushed open the single glass door and stepped inside. Instantly, his senses were tantalised with the aroma of fresh coffee beans and a less familiar scent he figured could be cinnamon. 

Shelby’s looked like a lower class coffee shop. Its tables were covered with cheap plastic backed cloths instead of the usual cotton blend found in most places he had visited down town. Instead of fresh carnations in china vases in the centre of each table, there were tacky fake roses in fog stained, mock crystal flutes.

  Browsing around further, he found the atmosphere to be pleasant enough and the chubby, young bru-nette behind the coffee grinder shot him a broad, welcoming smile. Ben approached the counter and took a seat directly in front of her. 

"Can I get you something, love?" she asked, her smile broadening.

 Ben looked up and down the counter, his eyes falling on a fully stocked cake platter.

"Is that apple and rhubarb?" he asked, pointing to the platter.

 "Sure is, darl. Best in town too," she answered.

 "I’ll have a slice of that and a white coffee with one and a half sugars thanks," Ben in-structed her. His taste buds were screaming at him for having ordered coffee. They could still taste the chunks from the last cup of Shelby’s coffee Ben had subjected them to, a year ago.

 "Comin’ right up," she replied. 

He reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet and I.D. He then turned his attentions back to the brunette and asked, "The Manager about?" 

"I certainly am, what can I help you with?" she asked still busy gathering his pie and coffee. When she placed his order in front of him, he opened his wallet and flashed his credentials at her.

 "I’m Detective Ben Torrens," he said. "I just have a couple of routine questions for you. It won’t take long." 

"Bout what?" the brunette asked, looking rather confused. 

"First off, what’s your name? Shelby?" 

With a girlish giggle she replied, "Oh no honey, I’m Joanna Kent. Shelby was the previous owner." She paused for a moment then contin-ued, "I only took over a month ago and I figure, why go to all the expense of changin’ the name here? Things are fine as they are."

 "I understand," confirmed Ben. "Do you still accept these buy one get one free cards?" he asked pulling the copy of the redemption card from his notebook.

 "Sure do," she said. "You wanna redeem it now?" 

"Oh no, no, no." Ben pulled the card back from her reach. "I was just curious, is there any way of knowing who owns this card or when they acquired it?"

 Joanna eyed him suspiciously, still uncertain if he was aiming for a freebie or if he had a legitimate reason for asking what she considered to be an unanswerable question. 

"Well, all I can tell you is that we don’t ask for personal details when we hand them out," she said as she studied the card carefully. "Though I can tell you this much…" 

Ben’s eyes lit up, hoping his break was coming through.

 "That card you have there only came in the Friday after I took over."