Page 47 of Winter Nights at the Bay Bookshop

LARS

As I approached Castle Street on Wednesday morning, my stomach lurched at the sight of a police car parked on the cobbles outside Bay Books and I broke into a sprint. The door was wide open and there was a female police officer talking into the radio on her shoulder. She stopped me as I approached.

‘The shop’s not open yet.’

‘I work here. I’m the owner’s boyfriend.’

‘You’re Lars?’ she asked. ‘You’re fine to go in but mind where you walk.’

Assuming there’d been a break-in, I looked down, expecting to see glass, but all I could see was… I scrunched up my nose as the smell hit me. That surely wasn’t…

‘It is what you think it is.’

Lily appeared from the children’s section carrying a cleaning caddy in one hand and a bucket of soapy water in the other, looking and sounding thoroughly fed up.

‘It was posted through the letterbox but they must have taken their time to fling it or it’d have landed on the mat instead of being everywhere.’ She placed the bucket on the floor and the caddy on the counter. ‘As you can see, I stood in some before I’d put the lights on.’

‘Who posts dog poo through a shop letterbox?’ I asked, giving her a hug.

‘Someone who hates me.’

I released her and looked into her eyes. ‘You think it was specifically you being targeted?’

‘The sign was a bit of a giveaway. Didn’t you see it?’

She took my hand, led me outside to behind the police car and told me to look up.

The shop had two signs – a pub-style one hanging above the door with the shop name and logo on it and one with just the name across the top of the window.

On the latter, somebody had painted over all but the letter ‘b’ on the word ‘books’ and added four replacement letters so that the sign now read: BAY BITCH.

‘That’s horrible.’

‘Isn’t it? I’m upset, obviously, but I’m mostly angry. Angry that somebody would think to do that in the first place and angry that I’ve got to clean it up now.’

‘I’ll help. We’ll get it sorted.’

A man called Lily’s name and she looked across the street to where a police officer was waving at her from the doorway of Forget-me-not Cards opposite the bookshop.

‘That’s Sergeant Haines,’ she said. ‘He must have found something on Anne-Marie’s CCTV. Whoever did it covered over mine.’

Lily checked the female officer was okay to mind the shop, after which I followed her over the road and into the card and gift shop. Lily did the introductions and Anne-Marie offered her sympathy for the damage.

‘Anne-Marie’s camera has captured the perpetrator really clearly,’ Sergeant Haines said. ‘It’s not who we thought it was, although she could have got someone to do it for her.’

‘She?’ I asked.

‘The only person I could think of who might have a grudge against me personally was that woman whose kids trashed the books,’ Lily said. ‘She called me a bitch when she left and Sergeant Haines had a word with her yesterday so the timing works for a retaliation.’

Anne-Marie had twisted her laptop round so we could see the screen and she set the footage playing. Recorded at 3.48a.m. it showed a figure wearing a dark hoodie approaching the bookshop, carrying a small stepladder and a bucket.

‘It’s a man!’ Lily exclaimed.

‘Do you recognise him?’ Sergeant Haines asked.

I felt Lily stiffen beside me and I knew why. I’d recognised him so there was no way she hadn’t.

‘I don’t think so,’ she said eventually, her voice sounding a little higher than usual. ‘Am I okay to go back and clean up?’

‘Yes, no problem. If you think of anything else or you want another look at the footage, just say.’

With a parting whispered thank you, Lily ran across the cobbles.

‘I think the shock’s just kicked in,’ I said to the sergeant and Anne-Marie. ‘Thanks for your help.’

I closed the bookshop door behind me moments later and locked it. Lily was standing by the Christmas tree with her back to me, trembling.

‘I’m so sorry,’ I said.

She whipped round to face me, tears streaking her cheeks. ‘Why did he do that to me?’

I had no answer. What sort of man called their daughter something so derogatory and then daubed it across her shop?

What sort of person gathered up dog poo especially to throw it through a letterbox?

Justin Mayes was one seriously disturbed individual.

So I gave the only response I could and wrapped my arms round her, holding her tightly as she sobbed against my chest.

‘I needed that,’ she said, stepping back and looking up at me with bloodshot eyes. ‘Do you think I should have told Sergeant Haines?’

‘It has to be your decision, Lily. But do you think you should have told him?’

She glanced out of the window to where he and his colleague were talking.

‘I don’t know.’

I understood why she might feel conflicted, but I really hoped she would tell the police about Justin. There had to be consequences for vandalism like this. If there weren’t, he might do it again.

‘If this was Cassie’s shop and her estranged father had just done that, what would you advise her to do?’

Lily closed her eyes for a moment and took a few deep breaths.

When she opened them, she gave me a weak smile, nodded and headed for the door.

I reached for the rubber gloves in the cleaning caddy and made a start on the floor, grateful that the bookshop had wooden flooring rather than carpet, which would have been harder to clean.

There was a can of air freshener behind the counter so I gave a generous spray before going into the yard to empty the dirty water down the drain.

When I returned with a stepladder and a fresh bucket of water for scrubbing the sign, Lily was closing the door behind her.

‘I told him it was Justin,’ she said, before exhaling slowly. ‘That was hard.’

‘I can imagine.’ I put everything down and hugged her once more. ‘Are you okay?’

‘Not really, but there’s nothing I can do about it. I’ve got a shop to get open.’

I gave her a gentle squeeze and released her so she could get on. ‘The floor’s done and I’ll clean the sign as soon as the police car moves.’

‘Thank you for being here.’

‘Nowhere else I’d rather be.’

The police car left so I went outside while Lily logged onto the system.

Cleaning the sign took some elbow grease but it would have been a lot worse if Justin had used gloss paint.

The white paint he’d used to cover up the original letters was emulsion and he’d used spray paint for his replacement letters which came off as I scrubbed and scraped the emulsion.

Half an hour after opening time, there was no physical evidence left from what Justin had done, all the cleaning products were stored away and the smell had gone.

I went down to the staff room and sent up mugs of coffee in Jeeves but, when I returned to the till, one look at Lily’s pale cheeks and the unshed tears sparkling in her eyes showed the emotional impact.

‘Do you want some time out?’ I asked. ‘I can keep an eye on things.’

I thought she’d protest but she nodded slowly. ‘I still can’t believe he did that.’

‘Me neither.’ I hugged her tightly. ‘Take as long as you need. I’ll send your coffee back down in Jeeves.’

One of our regular customers came in and Lily welcomed her warmly before disappearing down the stairs.

I hated Justin Mayes for what he’d done to Lily.

She was kind and friendly to everyone she met and she didn’t deserve to have anyone treat her with anything other than love and respect.

Even when I’d been unkind to her at school, she’d still kept trying and she’d been so understanding and forgiving when I’d shared my story.

But Justin didn’t deserve her understanding or forgiveness.

The difference between him and me was that I’d been an eleven-year-old kid in a lot of pain and he was a grown adult – her father – who should have known better.