A Work In Progress

Chapter 18

I woke up with the familiar chime of my phone. I squinted my eyes in the dark and looked at the screen. It was a text from Landon.

Hey. I tried to order the book you asked for. Turns out it's not a real book, you dummy. Don't waste my time on purpose.

What? Of course it was a real book. I had it out right in front of me just a day ago. I briefly considered that Landon was messing with me, but by the tone of his text, he didn't seem to be in a jokey mood, especially for something this important.

The first thing I did was checked my burner phone and discovered that I still had no texts from Harry. At least Alex wasn't coming back this afternoon and we we're going to go to dinner together later. I spent the next couple of minutes searching it up on my phone, just to be sure, and found that it was, in fact, not a published book. I then felt even more frustration at myself for being stupid enough to leave something so valuable unattended in the library.

I was working today, so I decided I would ask Ms. Teapot about who had checked the book out. At least I would have a name to work with. I showered and dressed, and half an hour later I was in the library at the front desk. I passed her a post it note with my question on.

"Oh dearie, that is against our privacy code, I'm afraid. You'll just have to wait for it to be returned."

I nodded as if I understood and waited for her to go to the bathroom. It didn't take long given her advanced age, and as she hobbled away, I swiped my card, logging into the database. I scrolled down quickly, knowing I only had a few minutes before she returned. There weren't many entries, especially on the day I was looking for, and I quickly spotted it: 'The Myths and Legends of Bibury' borrowed by Miss Maisie Hobble.

My heart sank. I knew Maisie; she was the seven year old orphan who spent most of her time in the kid's section, asking me what a long word meant, every once in a while. An easy target for someone to steal a library card from. Which is what they must've done.

I logged off and scooted my chair away from the computer just in time for Ms. Teapot to sit back down. She smiled at me and I grabbed the pile of books that needed putting away. Whilst stacking them, I turned to my next idea: the surveillance cameras. They would've seen who took my book. However, Ms. Teapot wouldn't freely give away information about where the footage was stored, so I would have to be discreet.

After finishing the section I was in, I walked back over to her to collect more books, but instead I wrote to her, "There's a lot of valuable books here, right?"

"Yes, dearie. Hundreds of them. It's frightfully upsetting that many people don't appreciate them. Our members have dipped drastically in the last couple of years." She said sadly.

I wrote, "It is sad. The plummeting interest of the written word. Some of the books here are so old and fascinating. It's a surprise people don't try to steal them let alone borrow them."

"Yes well, I don't think anyone would. Our community is very tight knit. And for any greedy new comers, we have the alarms and cameras watching at all times."

"Doesn't the footage delete itself?" I wrote.

"Oh don't worry about that, dearie, it's all safely stored in the maintenance cupboard upstairs." She chuckled, "Again, not that anyone would be interested in stealing from me." And she complained for another ten minutes about the reduction in her readers.

I slipped away afterwards, continuing to do my job. But my head was just thinking about Farren. How I needed to save her. How I needed any help that I could get. How I needed that book to tell me what my pin could do. What if it could help me get her back safely to her worried husband? I stroked the hues with my fingertip, thinking about it, wondering what it could possibly be capable of. And I made up my mind. I was going to hunt down that book. I needed to get it back. Even if it was just a load of hokum, I had to be sure. I was willing to risk anything I could to find out. 

I didn't dare try to open the maintenance cupboard with Ms. Teapot around though, so I knew I had to wait for her to leave. I'd come back at night. I told myself that it wasn't breaking and entering because I had my own key, but I had to be totally sure that I could pull this off just in case I got caught. I'd be no use to Farren if I got arrested. So maybe I could use some help...and before I could stop myself, I had texted Alex.

Fancy doing something more exciting than dinner tonight?

Later that night, we were standing outside the library dressed in all black, as insisted by Alex- we would put our hoods up as we entered. He seemed eager to help me out, and he had also mentioned he used to work for the local food delivery company at the shopping centre, so I had no doubt he would come in handy. I had told him I needed to find someone because they had taken a rare library book with a fake card, and Ms. Teapot didn't seem to care. He seemed to be empathetic, and agreed almost immediately, also sharing my opinion that this was not breaking and entering. We didn't really have a plan, but I was pretty confident that we could get in and out easily, given Alex's past job and the fact that I had spent now a whole week familiarising myself with this place.

The shopping centre was still open, but it was pretty deserted since all the shops were closed.

I unlocked the library door carefully and turned the alarm off, before we both slipped inside. I wasn't surprised to find that the maintenance cupboard was locked, so I stalked back downstairs to look for the key at the front desk. We opened all the draws and Alex found one with a scribbled label: Maint Cupbrd.

I was almost amazed that this was going so smoothly. We dashed back upstairs and unlocked the door. It creaked open, revealing a small dingy room with a single computer and a few filing cabinets. I entered my details while Alex guarded the door. My hands were sweating and the adrenaline was making my hands jittery, but I ignored it and searched for the date. I clicked it open and watched through it at a fast forwarded pace. The image was quite blurry but I clearly saw myself reading on the table. Then I got up to leave, and a few seconds later, a figure with a stocky build and a grey hoodie snatched up the book and left.

"Wait, rewind it. Quickly," Alex muttered, coming forwards. I dragged the cursor back and watched the person take my book again. "Yes. I know who that is." He announced, right before we heard shouting coming from downstairs.

Panic washing over me, I logged off as fast I could and Alex locked the door behind us as we bolted across the dark landing. I could see that someone had switched the lights on downstairs, so we couldn't escape through the entrance. I looked at Alex, hoping for some input, but he looked just as frightened as me. For fuck sake. How did this happen? We were so careful. Who is even down there?

We creeped to the top of the staircase and peered down, so that our bodies were still hidden by the wall. I couldn't see anyone, but I heard shuffling footsteps, and realised that there was more than one person. I felt a tugging at my arm and jumped, but it was only Alex, leading me towards a door to the left.

"I almost forgot because I haven't been here in years," he whispered, "but there's a connection between here and the courtyard out back. I used to deliver food and stuff through the passages." Oh thank God for this amazing human, I thought to myself, and I followed him past the closed eating area on the right, and through the door into a musky hall with no lighting.

I shook my head frantically at him because I could hear muffled sounds getting closer to us. He sensed my urgency and took my hand, breaking out into a run. We were making a lot of sound now, the cluttering of our footsteps getting louder as we ran faster. I was sure they could hear us, but we were almost at the other end. I just repeated over and over in my head, that I was doing this for Farren. To save her.

We reached the other end of the corridor and I slammed my hand into the large green exit button on the wall. The door buzzed and Alex forced it open, pulling me outside with him. We were at the entrance to the shopping centre, by the courtyard just as he had said. We had gotten away. Relief was starting to spread through me, even though my heart was still beating too fast. I felt so alive. I had even forgotten what we went in there to do as we ran away from the site.

I was still scared that someone was following us, but we had reached the sea front, and a couple of other people were roaming along the sea wall enjoying the moonlight and the breeze of the calming sea. Alex seemed to be thinking the same thing because we had stopped and he had backed himself up against the wall, clutching his chest.

I stepped towards him and we both stared at each other intently for a second. Then I felt a smile starting to form on my face, and he burst out laughing. Before he could say anything though, I reached for his face and kissed him.