Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
I let Amber go ten minutes before closing. She bitched and complained about Landry possibly lying in wait but after I walked her out and she saw the coast was clear, she drove off.
Once five o’clock struck, I locked the doors and decided to work on some projects in the back room. Usually, I was ready to get home at the end of a long day but my skin was buzzing so I decided to work it off.
The sewing room in my house would have sufficed but I was here so it only made sense.
My mind was immersed in the repetitive sewing of crystals on Milly Conner’s spring gala dress when the sound of scraping against the building jolted me back, causing the needle to prick my skin.
“Shit.” I dropped the baby blue dress before I got blood on it and stuck my finger in my mouth.
I was halfway to the bathroom where there was a first aid kit when the scraping sound stopped me.
“What the hell is that?” Could squirrels on the roof make that noise?
There was no way I was walking outside to investigate. I’d seen enough horror movies to know that was a stupid idea, but I had windows all around the shop; I could look out of them and see if maybe an animal was lingering around.
I kept the lights low so the glare wouldn’t inhibit my view. The front seemed fine as did the left side of the building. I was halfway across the shop when I heard it again. It was definitely coming from the back.
I was probably being paranoid, and the wind was rubbing something along the building but there was an almost methodical rhythm to it, like someone or something was purposely doing it.
From the back windows I still saw nothing. I was going craz—
A loud crash sounded from the roof and yeah, that was enough for me. I slipped my phone out from my pocket and dialed 9-1-1. Maybe this was overkill, but I’d rather not look back on this from the grave and tell dead me I should’ve called.
“9-1-1, what’s your emergency?”
“Hello, my name is Jason McPherson. I’m calling from McPherson’s Tailor and Designs on Cherry Blossom Lane. I believe someone is trying to break into my shop or maybe vandalize the property.”
“Hi, Jason, my name is Cara. Are you currently in a safe area?”
“I think so, they haven’t actively come inside but it’s like they’re taunting me.”
“So they’re still outside? Do you hear them now?”
“Every few minutes. Like a scraping sound then right before I called I heard a loud thump on my roof.”
“Police have been dispatched, please stay on the phone with me. Let me know if you hear any other noises. In the meantime, can you get into the bathroom and shut and lock the door?”
“Yes.”
Quickly I raced to the bathroom, fortunately there were no windows in there. I locked the door like Cara instructed.
“Okay, I’m in the bathroom.”
“Good. I’ll inform the authorities that’s where you are and when it’s all clear an officer will knock.”
The sound of sirens got closer and I breathed a sigh of relief. “I hear the police.”
“They’re pulling up to your shop now, stay on the phone until an officer is with you.”
I listened to Cara as she kept me calm, the police were milling around inside and out, I could hear them and soon enough there was a knock on my bathroom door.
“Mr. McPherson, it’s Officer Davies.”
I stood and unlocked the door. The officer smiled, which helped me shake off any leftover worry Cara wasn’t able to do.
“How’d you get in the shop?” I realized belatedly I’d never unlocked the door.
He cocked his head. “It was unlocked.”
My eyes widened and the officer must have understood.
“You didn’t leave it unlocked?”
“The shop was closed. I’d locked up and gone to the back to work on a project.”
“Does anyone have a key to the shop that you’re aware of?”
“Amber, my assistant, and my parents. That’s it.”
“And none of them would joke around like this?”
I shook my head. “No. My parents never come by the shop and Amber wouldn’t, especially after…”
“After?”
“Oh my word! I think I know who did this.”
I rushed out of the bathroom to the front of the shop. Under the counter was our camera system.
“I can’t believe I didn’t think of this earlier. I was so nervous it’s like all logic and knowledge went out of my head. I have a camera system, both inside and outside the shop.”
“That’s very helpful, may I look at it?”
I plugged in the laptop and accessed the program. “It’s all saved on the cloud.”
Once I pulled up the feed for the day, we started watching.
“There.” I pointed to when Landry Astor entered the shop. He watched and I explained everything and when the video showed Landry leaving the shop and getting into his, of course, Rolls Royce, the cop looked at me.
“You think billionaire Landry Astor is behind this?”
“He was so angry that I wouldn’t make his suits and then when I refused his invite to dinner.”
He nodded and fast forwarded to later in the evening. He paused a few minutes before I explained I heard the noise.
At first we couldn’t see anything then…
“What’s that?” I asked when we could see what looked like a tail maybe? It was too long.
“I can’t be sure. Do you have working lights out the back?”
“No, we never go out there but I can have them installed. It won’t help you now unfortunately.”
“Could be an alligator or a crocodile,” the officer said but when he looked at me, he obviously saw from my expression how ridiculous that sounded. “Just saying.”
“So weird.” I stared as the video kept going but we never saw anything else.
“Mr. McPherson, I can go speak with Mr. Astor and see if he was in the area this evening, but there’s nothing on the video that indicates this was him.”
I sighed, knowing he was right. “No, he was excitable but you’re right, why would a billionaire taunt me for a suit and a meal.”
“Maybe call a locksmith to take a look at your lock as well. They’d be able to tell if it was tampered with, if not it could be faulty in which case you should get it replaced.”
“Will do, officer. Thank you.”
“I’ll also contact animal control to do a sweep of the area. If it’s an animal they’ll find it.”
“Thank you, officer.”
The police stayed until I locked up…again and walked me to my car. They informed me that a police officer would periodically patrol the street and keep an eye on the shop that evening.
I just wanted to go home, have some tea, and read in my favorite chair for as long as it took for me to forget this frightful evening.