THE NOSE AND HIS PERFUME

Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight: Under the Basement

The apartment was dark and quiet, except for the door-muffled snores coming from the Varshavskys’ bedroom. Bunny poked Beau awake. He groggily rolled out of bed. Shifting from one foot to the other to keep his bare feet off of the cold floor, Beau pulled jeans on over his pajama bottoms. Bunny glanced back at her room, double-checking to make sure that Penny was still asleep. As soon as Beau was ready, they tiptoed out into the hall. 

Mrs. V always left her keys to the store on the table in the foyer. Bunny scooped up the giant ring of keys, carefully holding them tight so they wouldn’t jingle, and they padded out of the apartment. The twins had seen security guarding the store’s entrances and exits, the Gingerbread Village, the basement, and the elevator, but there was a back staircase used only by Spark’s and Campbell’s employees that they had never seen any of Mr. Hartford’s security guards in. They were hoping that by taking the back staircase, they could sneak into the basement.  

It took them a while to climb the seven flights down to the basement, but they made it without being seen. The basement was colder than the rest of the store, and the chill in the air sent a shiver down her spine. She was glad that, like Beau, she had put her clothes on over her pajamas, because she wasn’t wearing a coat.

When the twins came to the hall where the elevators were, Bunny cautiously peered around the corner. There was a different guard watching the elevator now; a severe-looking woman with long hair pulled back so tightly into a ponytail it pulled her skin taut. The woman stood rigidly planted with her arms crossed, her gaze fixed on the elevators. Spitting distance down the hall from her, the twins silently snuck past her. As they approached the Nose’s workshop, they heard a noise and ducked into a storage room. Bunny quietly nudged the door of the storage room they were hiding in open a crack, and peeked out into the hallway. There were sounds coming from the Nose’s workshop across the hall. The Nose must still be in there. Bunny was wondering if he ever left, when he came out of his workshop. Thinking they were incredibly lucky that he was leaving, she crossed her fingers, hoping she hadn’t jinxed it by thinking it. Beau watched with her as the Nose shut the workshop door behind him and walked away down the hall.

As soon as he was out of sight, the twins scooted into his workshop. Bunny shut the door behind them, and Beau switched on the overhead lights. As her eyes adjusted to the bright lights, Bunny looked around. The room was even messier than the last time she had seen it. There were papers everywhere and discarded, crushed cans of energy drink on the floor. The Nose was supposedly staying at the hotel across the street, but Bunny noticed a toothbrush, razor, and mirror by a small sink in one of the stainless steel worktables. In the corner of the room she spotted clothes and blankets piled on a couch. It occurred to Bunny that the Nose might sleep in his workshop, and this made her nervous. Beau lifted a pot up off of a Bunsen burner and smelled inside it.

“Tomato soup,” he said.

Bunny looked over his shoulder. The soup was congealed and burnt, and she squinched up her face in disgust. 

“Do you think he’s living here?” Beau said.

“Yeah. Where do you think he went?”

“I don’t know, but we better hurry up before he comes back.”

The twins searched the workshop.

Unfortunately, they found nothing. Aside from a lot of high-tech equipment, which seemed to have nothing to do with perfume making, they found no indication that the Nose was doing anything shady or suspicious.

Suddenly, Bunny heard footsteps coming from the hall outside. A moment later, all the glass bottles and beakers in the room began to rattle from the rumbling of a subway passing under the store. Bunny grabbed Beau by the hand and under the cover of the noise, pulled him across the room to hide behind the door. The door opened, and the Nose came into the room with Mr. Hartford and two guards. They walked right past the twins without seeing them.