Bloodier Than Fiction Read online

  There was another woman who brought a stack of papers and was constantly shuffling through them, handing them to Joshua just to take them back and give him another one. It was like a two-person game of Button. Button. Who’s got the button. Except every time Joshua had the “button,” the woman snatched it away and replaced it with another.

  Maggie would have found it funny to watch if the woman’s disheveled appearance and unorganized manner didn’t rub against the grain. Maggie didn’t want an unorganized, discombobulated person messing with her bookstore. Sure, it was technically Joshua’s bookstore, but Maggie tended to it. She knew where everything was at, how it was organized, and what things could be moved where. It wasn’t just some sloppy thrift store with a couple of random bookcases filled with discarded cookbooks and self-help tutorials. This was a real bookstore. The kind that was hard to find nowadays.

  Finally, near the end of the day, a big, burly guy who looked like he should be chopping down trees in a forest came into the bookstore. He looked around, smiled at Maggie and, in a soft voice, said hello.

  “Is there a Joshua Whitfield who works here?” he asked.

  “Yes, are you here for the interview?” Maggie asked.

  “No, my wife is. But she is busy nursing our new baby in the car. It will only take her a minute. I just wanted to let Mr. Whitfield know she wasn’t late, but our boy eats whenever he decides he’s hungry.” He smiled, and it was contagious. Maggie smiled back and told him she’d tell Joshua that she’d be in as soon as she was finished. It was obvious that this was a very proud papa. He thanked Maggie and hurried back outside.

  “She’s nursing?” Joshua scratched his head. “That might interfere with her time here.”

  “I don’t know about that. I find the whole ritual a little off-putting. But she was considerate enough to send her husband in to say she’d be just a few minutes. That’s considerate, I guess,” Maggie insisted and shrugged at the same time. “What do I know about the etiquette of mothers with new babies?”

  Joshua looked down at her and squinted his eyes. “Not much.”

  “Well, if you are leaning toward Mr. Clean-cut in the sports jacket, I’ve got a little information to tell you that ought to scare him right off your list.”

  “I did like him. He was my first choice. What is it?”

  “I’ll tell you after you talk to this lady,” Maggie said. After a few minutes, a full-figured blonde with bright-red lips and red gym shoes came into the store, tugging at her bra strap and trying to smooth her shirt down.

  “Hi, I’m here to see Joshua about a job.” She panted as if she had sprinted from six blocks away. Maggie told her to take a seat, and as with her husband, there was just something likable about her. And Maggie knew herself to know that she didn’t really like anyone.

  “My name is Barbara Whels, but everyone calls me Babs. What’s your name?” Babs said and extended her hand to Maggie, who couldn’t help but notice the bright-red polish on her fingers.

  “Margaret. But everyone calls me Maggie,” she replied, unaware that she was smiling. Maggie wasn’t used to smiling so easily at anyone who came into the bookstore and almost had to catch herself and replace her grin with her signature squinty look.

  “Thanks for giving me a few extra minutes. My husband is a nervous new father. He wanted me to feed our son before I left in case the interview went long. I said to him this isn’t like I’m interviewing for the CIA. It’s a café, for heaven’s sake.” She laughed a deep chuckle.

  “Well, you can have a seat, and Joshua will be with you in a few minutes.” Maggie hurried the conversation along for fear she might enjoy chatting too much.

  As it turned out, Babs seemed to have the same effect on Joshua, as they chatted easily and comfortably for a while before she stood up, shook his hand, and proceeded to leave.

  “It was nice meeting you, Maggie.” She waved as she left the bookstore.

  “You too, Babs.” Maggie waved as best she could with her arms full of books.

  Joshua appeared and looked at his watch. “You were right. She was really nice, and I think probably a little overqualified.”

  “Are you going to hire her?” Maggie asked, trying not to sound too interested.

  “I am,” he replied, waiting for her smile of approval. Instead, he got a harumph and head shaking. “What’s wrong?”

  “A new baby? A nervous father? I don’t know,” Maggie replied. She didn’t want Joshua to know that she secretly had chosen the same people as he did.

  “And I’m going to hire Casper Lahey as our stock boy and gopher. He seems like a good kid and has his head on straight,” Joshua said, raising his chin.

  “How old is he?” Maggie asked.

  “Nineteen. Why?” Joshua asked. Maggie didn’t want to tell him that he was who she’d thought was the best choice, too, based on the fact he picked up one of the books she liked. The last thing she wanted to admit was that she agreed with him, especially after he dismissed her line of questioning for the potential candidates.

  “Nineteen-year-olds can be irresponsible sometimes,” she added. It was the truth.

  “I don’t think we are going to have that problem with Casper. Something in my gut tells me he’s a good egg,” Joshua replied.

  Maggie shrugged and went back to her work. If she let on she was happy with his choices, he’d tease her about not just her line of questioning he’d so easily tossed aside but also about their mutual desire for the same people to work with them. It was infuriating that she’d have anything in common with him, no matter how good he smelled or how handsome he was when he stood close, looking down at her with those twinkling eyes.

  After what only felt like a few minutes, when Maggie looked at the clock, she couldn’t believe it was almost quitting time. The day had flown by, and still, the window display wasn’t completed, and another shipment of books arrived that hadn’t been unpacked.

  There were stacks of old books that needed to be boxed up and were going to find their way to Broken Hill State Penitentiary. Maggie had done a little research and found out they had a library. She asked if instead of sending the old books or overstocks to the local thrift stores if they could donate them to the prison. It might not have been proper, but Maggie enjoyed the thought of some of those big burly inmates reading copies of Lady Chatterley’s Lover or The Tropic of Cancer.

  “It’s better than having them lift weights,” Joshua joked. Maggie didn’t laugh.

  “Well, if Casper is supposed to help with the heavy lifting, I’ll let him take those to the post office,” Maggie said to Poe, who had finally hopped up on the counter to occupy a square of sunshine. He purred and butted his head against hers when she leaned forward. All Maggie hoped was that Casper was as quiet in the bookstore as he seemed in his interview.

  Chapter 3

  “You’re sure you are okay?” Mr. Whels said as he escorted Babs into the café with a beautiful, bald, round-headed baby strapped to his big barrel chest.

  “Roy, I’m fine. Honey, please,” Babs said as she stroked the huge man’s beard.

  “If you need me, just call. We’re only ten minutes away,” Roy said. He’d said the same thing to her every day since she’d started working four days ago.

  “I know. You take care of Daddy, Earl. Be a good boy,” she said to the baby as she gently rubbed his bald head and kissed his chubby cheeks. Every day she did that, too, and every day it made Maggie smile and quickly turn away. Gushing over a baby was not her style.

  Babs had turned out to be better than either Joshua or Maggie could have expected. Not only was she great with customers, but she knew quite a bit about electrical work, carpentry, and cooking. She made all her baby’s clothes by hand and had helped Roy build a tree house with two sleeping rooms and a staircase for when the little tike got older.

  “I was homeschooled.” She chuckled. “One of the drawbacks of being homeschooled is that you learn how to do more for yourself, so you never have a spare
minute to relax. There is always something that needs to be done.”

  “Maggie, do you want me to dust those top shelves like you’d mentioned yesterday?” Casper had sidled up to her as she was watching Babs and Roy perform their morning ritual. His voice was always soft and apologetic. Like he was sorry for having to speak at all. Maggie liked him.

  “Yes, if you would. And after that, I wanted to try to condense some of popular topics that we now have more room for since we donated all those books,” she replied.

  “Why do you send those books to the prison?” Casper asked.

  Maggie looked up at him and scrunched up her nose. “Just because they are convicts doesn’t mean they shouldn’t have a chance to read a good book.”

  The corners of Casper’s lips curled up just slightly before he nodded and went back to work. For the past few days, he’d done exactly as he was told. On his breaks, Maggie caught him perusing the titles on the shelves and pulling out a few that he would quickly scan before putting back. She had told him he could take any book and read it at his leisure so long as he brought it back when he was done.

  “I might just do that,” he said softly.

  Maggie tried to get to know him a little, but her questions sounded more like an interrogation than friendly chatter.

  “Where did you go to school?”

  “How long have you lived here?”

  “What other jobs have you worked? Where? In what capacity?”

  Finally, she stopped since most of his answers were just a few words before he’d pull up his shoulders and continue with the work at hand.

  Most of the talk that took place in the café was about the football game. Babs was a regular cornucopia of football trivia. She was as excited as the kids who were playing.

  “An undefeated season is a huge accomplishment. Those kids are under a lot of pressure. No one would be disappointed if they didn’t pull it off. But it sure is exciting,” Babs would go on with any customers that came in. They were just as enthralled as she was. Why not? It was the most exciting thing to happen in Fair Haven since the flood that had knocked out the bridges and kept everyone stranded here for days several months back.

  “Are you going to the football game?” Maggie asked Casper when they were alone and she was tallying receipts from the day before.

  “No. I don’t like sports” was all he said before walking away.

  Once again, he got another check in the “good” column Maggie was keeping in her mind. She wanted to ask him what he and his friends did if they weren’t into sports, but she was afraid it would look like she was prying. Over the past few days, she’d noticed a couple kids who waited outside and across the street for Casper when he left. As soon as he appeared, they usually jogged off after him. It wasn’t until Maggie was putting the finishing touches on the display window did she realize there was a real problem with the boys who waited every day for Casper.

  “Do you need me for anything else?” Casper asked before he left every day since he started. His voice was always soft as he stood, like he was a private waiting for instructions from his sergeant.

  “No. I’m just putting some finishing touches on the window, and then I’ll be leaving myself,” Maggie said.

  As much as she tried to be friendly, it was just too awkward, like she was trying to whistle after eating a stack of crackers. Socializing with strangers was not in her repertoire. There were too many opportunities for the whole exchange to go sideways. Even though Casper wasn’t a stranger anymore, he was as quiet and into his own head as Maggie was. They roamed the aisles of the bookstore, completing their tasks as they popped up with almost no words exchanged between them. It was the perfect arrangement.

  But on this particular evening, as Casper put his lightweight jacket on and went to leave for the day, Maggie followed him outside to look at the display window from a pedestrian’s point of view. That was when she realized the two boys that had been waiting for Casper were not friends.

  “Casper!” one shouted as they both jogged across the street to catch up to him. They didn’t dress like Casper, who was just a tall, skinny kid who wore a black T-shirt every day, tucked neatly into the waistband of his jeans, and black boots. His hair was a little long and had a natural wave in it that caused him to flip his head to get it away from hanging in his face. But these boys who came up to him looked a lot different upon close inspection.

  “Where you goin’?” the other boy asked as he stood in front of Casper. He was wearing a rust-colored hoodie with the hood pulled over a white baseball cap. His eyes were set far apart, and his mouth was nothing more than a thin slit in his face. Maggie watched as Casper looked down at the sidewalk and then across the street as if he were searching for someone and not hearing the two boys who had crossed his path. The second boy tapped Casper on the shoulder to get his attention. He was stockier than the other two with the physique of a bulldog, heavy at the shoulders and chest then tapering off around the waist and legs. His neck was thick, and his hair looked like someone had put a bowl on it and cut around the edges. He could have been part of her display for the Fair Haven High School team.

  “I told you guys I’m not interested,” Casper said in his soft way.

  “That doesn’t matter, Casper. We’re interested in you,” the bulldog said.

  Maggie watched out of the corner of her eye as they muscled Casper up against the wall. There were very few people out, and those that were paid no attention to what the three young men were doing. For anyone passing by, they looked like nothing more than some friends talking. But Maggie could tell by Casper’s mannerisms that he was not friends with these people.

  They muttered and spoke firmly to him, but she couldn’t make out what they were saying. Then, out of the blue, the scrawny fellow in the white baseball cap slapped Casper across the face. Maggie’s chest tightened. Part of her wanted to rush up and get between Casper and the two boys, but she didn’t. Not only might it have embarrassed him, but there was also a danger factor. Just as she was contemplating what to do, Casper pushed the boy who slapped him and took a brave step forward. It was two against one.

  As they stood toe-to-toe, Maggie had an idea. Without giving herself time to think through her plan, she called Casper’s name.

  “Casper! Thank goodness you are still here! I need you for one last thing!” She shouted and waved at him as if she hadn’t seen anything that had just happened.

  The two boys stepped aside and let Casper pass. His cheeks were bright red, and he stomped away from them without looking back.

  “I’m sorry to interrupt,” Maggie said with a crooked smile. “I needed two of the books on that top shelf down because I’ve got someone coming in tomorrow who wants to take a look at them. I forgot all about it. But even on tiptoes, I can’t reach,” she lied.

  Together, they walked to the back of the store where the bookshelves went almost to the ceiling. Thinking quickly, Maggie pointed to one huge tome of drawn illustrations of fish of the Amazon and then quickly spied another that was The Derby Special. It was a book she’d never read. But it looked old, and now that it was coming down off the shelf and the dust was being blown off it, she thought she just might.

  “Thanks, Casper. You can go ahead with your friends now,” she said and watched his face. He mumbled something before he turned and walked toward the door.

  After waiting a few seconds, Maggie hurried on the tips of her toes to the door, opened it, and peeked around the corner. Casper was alone on the sidewalk, heading home. She scanned the street for the other two boys but didn’t see them. Her breath that she hadn’t realized she was holding came out in a long sigh of relief.

  Young men Casper’s age usually didn’t want interference from adults in their affairs. But it picked at Maggie as to whether or not she should tell Joshua about what she saw. It was difficult, but she decided not to do anything. Casper pushed back. Those boys might have realized he was not a pushover, and this would be the end of things. With
that her only comforting thought about the whole situation, she grabbed her bag and keys, locked up the bookstore side of the storefront, and left for the evening.

  Chapter 4

  “There are three streets blocked off!” Maggie burst into the café to find Joshua and Babs standing behind the counter. They stared at her like she had sprouted one antler out of the middle of her forehead.

  “Yeah, they are getting ready for the game coming up next week,” Babs said.

  “I had to practically park on the other side of town. And this is going to be like this for how long?” Maggie huffed.

  “From now until the game, I guess,” Joshua added. It wasn’t the answer Maggie wanted to hear. She threw her arms up, let out a grunt, and stomped into the bookstore side of the building.

  “I just love her,” Babs said. “She’s like a cartoon character.”

  “She’s a character, all right,” Joshua replied. Maggie heard the exchange and blushed. She didn’t mind what Babs had said. It wasn’t a lie. But the fact that Joshua chimed in with his own opinion made a wave of heat rush over her skin.

  “Whatever,” she muttered and went to unlock the front door. No sooner had she snapped the dead bolt back did Casper come bursting into the shop. He pushed past Maggie, almost knocking her off her feet.

  “Sorry,” he huffed, barely looking at her as he hurried to the back of the bookstore.

  The first thing Maggie noticed was that his shirt and jeans were dirty, like he’d fallen to the ground. His hair was mussed, and his hands looked red and scraped.

  “Casper?” Maggie called then looked toward the café then back at Casper. He turned around. His face was scratched, and there was a small shiner developing under his left eye.