Chapter 24
All four of them pressed their faces to the window to see inside the shop. The front was filled with old mannequins that seemed like they belonged in a horror film, old books with yellow spines, and a bunch of clothing that Caspar was sure had moth holes in it.
“Ah, seems like a good place,” Caspar said. “Real quality merchandise.”
“Is it a pawn shop?” Natasha asked. “Or a store? I’m not too sure.”
“Well, we look hella suspicious right now,” Malek stated, taking his hands away from the window. The others followed suit. “I don’t even see the mic. Would a place like this sell it?”
“They could be repurposing it,” William suggested. “This is the right place, though. Wood & Bone Trading Shop.”
He gestured toward the sign that had the store name emblazoned on top, followed by a logo displaying a cross made out of a stick and a femur. Natasha consulted her iPad again before nodding.
“He’s right. It makes the most sense given the clues. I’m just… surprised, is all. I was expecting the morgue.”
“At least we’re not on Toronto Island looking through a dump,” Malek said. “Or going through dead bodies.”
An old woman with a shopping cart filled with handbags, clothing, and bedsheets entered the store with a dinging of a bell.
“Don’t people usually carry empty carts into the store and come out with full ones?” Caspar asked.
“It’s a consignment shop, I guess?” Malek said.
“So a different kind of dump. Got it,” Caspar said.
Malek shot him a look before gesturing to the door again. “We should go in now, because even though we’re not peeping through the window, we all still look super suspicious, and that’s the last thing we need right now.”
“We should split up, too,” William said. “We’ll cover more ground that way.”
“Not only is that the first bad decision in every horror film,” Malek said, “but what happens if one of you find the mic and don’t realize it?”
“I highly doubt there’s more than one in this place,” Caspar said. “But if we find something, we’ll be sure to get you to verify. Sound okay?”
As soon as Malek nodded, they all entered the store, the bell dinging once again.
Caspar’s eyes took a while to adjust to the low lighting after the brightness of the spring sun.
The aisles were cramped with stuff in bins on rickety shelves that had been re-priced at least a dozen times, if the changing sticker colours were any indication.
The entire store smelled like his parents’ garage before they had cleaned it out.
Caspar ran his fingers around the jewels in his front pocket to be sure they were still there.
A man behind the counter stood up from his seat.
His skin was like leather and his hair like steel wool over his oblong head.
A patchy beard covered his red cheeks made even redder by the polo shirt he wore.
When Caspar’s gaze landed on the man’s throat, a silver brace around his neck, followed by a small hole at the centre, came into view.
An electrolarynx. The man touched the knob over his throat and greeted them in a robotic voice.
“Good morning. Welcome to Wood & Bone Trading Shop. Can I help you with anything today?”
“No, no. Thank you.” Caspar darted down the first aisle and became consumed with the old baby clothing there.
Natasha took the back of the store, along with Malek, while William rooted around the front bins.
The older woman who came in with her cart full of clothing and bags rolled it around to the front area and tried to barter with the man.
“These bags are Gucci,” she said. “And I don’t want cash in return. I want romance novels—but not The Sheikh’s Adventure Bride. I want the sequel to that one. By Penny Heinz.”
Caspar perked up. There was a sequel? He’d found The Sheikh’s Adventure Bride in the bin Jocasta had retrieved for him, but he hadn’t found a sequel in that mix.
He strained his ears as the woman talked about the work of Penny Heinz and her amazing tales of Sheikh romance.
Caspar noticed a spinner shelf full of Harlequins in the corner near the jewelry case.
Since no one else in his group had scouted out this area, he made his way over.
Several titles on the spinner sounded good, so he added them to a basket he found nearby.
He didn’t even notice when William came to his side.
“Are you shopping?” William asked. “What are you even doing, man?”
“Penny Heinz. She’s written so much. The prison only had the first book.
But there are so many.” Caspar held up the first book gleefully to show William before he caught a glimpse of the sequel, The Sheikh’s Adventure Honeymoon.
Caspar contained his gasp and scanned the area for the woman.
She was still bartering with the clerk. He was leaning over the counter so he could argue with her, pressing his electrolarynx as he did.
When the woman wouldn’t listen to him, he finally picked up the microphone for the PA system.
“Hello, customers, this is your friendly owner reminding you that we can and will kick out customers who don’t follow our company procedure when exchanging merchandise. Thank you.” When he set the mic down, he returned to arguing with the woman.
William shot Caspar a knowing look. What were the odds that the mic the clerk used for the store was Malek’s?
Caspar put the last Penny Heinz romance novel in the basket and carried it by his side as they went in search of Malek.
When they reached him, William gestured as inconspicuously as he could to the front of the store.
“Afternoon, customers,” the clerk said over the PA system again. “We need to remind you that store coupons for the Salvation Army will not be accepted here. We are not the same chain.”
Malek’s eyes lit up. “That’s it. That’s the mic.”
“Are you guys having a meeting without me?” Natasha asked as she came over. She held up a necklace and a matching set of earrings made of big plastic purple pearls over her chest. “What do you guys think of these?”
“Seriously?” William asked.
Natasha bit her lip awkwardly. “I may have… gotten distracted.”
“It’s fine. So did I.” Caspar held up his books, and then gestured to the front of the store. “But we also found the mic. The store clerk is using it.”
“That’s great, right?”
“Yes, but we can’t just buy it,” William said. “If it was in the stacks, then no matter the price, we could have pooled our funds together and walked away with it. Or wish boy Caspar could have made it so.”
“I can’t wish for his microphone. Or can I?” Caspar turned to Malek with hope in his eyes.
“I’m not sure if you can wish it from the clerk without rousing suspicion.”
“Not to mention I’d be out of wishes, and out of time to make a decision.”
“Yeah,” Malek said, his voice forlorn. “So we’re stuck. See? I was worried this was a waste of time and—”
“Hey, don’t give up so easily. That is so not what I signed up for,” Natasha said. “What if we didn’t buy it or wish for it?”
“Are you advocating for a five-finger discount?” Caspar asked. “Never thought I’d see the day.”
“You’ve known me for twenty-four hours. And I’ve already stolen for you once.”
“But that was for me. Not Malek.”
Natasha made a face, and Malek stuck his hand between them. “Hey. Hey. No infighting. But I’m not above stealing. I’m just gonna put that out there.”
William grinned now that his expertise was finally needed. He assessed the front of the store, the owner, and the microphone, along with the exits. “It’s possible to get out of here with it. There are no cameras and only one exit available to customers. I may know a thing or two.”
“A thing or two?” Caspar teased.
“Fine. More than that.” William looked to the counter, but the old woman and her cart were gone.
Their huddle of four people, two of whom were over six feet tall now, was getting very suspicious.
“We can’t keep talking like this, though.
You and Natasha go and buy your items. You’ll check out while Malek and I get the rest of the plan straight.
I’ll meet you outside in a little while, where I’ll give you the next steps. Okay?”
After a brief nod, they parted ways. Natasha stepped up to the counter with her junk jewelry first, while Caspar stood behind her, assessing the counter.
The clerk only used the mic when he was giving announcements, but since it was mere inches away from where he sat and delivered change, it was rarely out of his sight.
When Caspar stepped up to pay for his books, the clerk raised a brow.
“Aren’t you a little… old to be reading these kinds of stories?”
“What do you mean? Romance doesn’t have an age limit.”
The man shrugged. He stamped a loyalty card and handed it over. “Another three five-dollar items and you get a free one. Enjoy.”
The bell rang on the door as Caspar and Natasha left. William stood under the awning of the next shop over, running a hand through his hair. He seemed utterly focused as Caspar and Natasha relayed what they could about the front of the store.
“There’s no silent alarm,” Natasha added. “I can tell from selling so many buildings with them. The mic is connected to the entire PA system, but it can leave the stand once it’s unhooked from the system. There may be some crackling feedback when that happens, but not too much. Helpful, right?”
“Definitely,” William said. “I think we’re going to have to get creative with our bait-and-switch techniques, but that’s okay, since there’s more than one of us. Always so much easier than stealing alone. Malek is going to do the grab, since he’s tall enough to reach over the counter.”
“I am too,” Caspar said. “Why not me?”
“You have something else I need. Ever heard of the glim dropper?”
Natasha shook her head, but Caspar’s blood went cold. “Really? That’s your creative plan?”
William shrugged. “You got a better technique, one-eyed man?”
“No,” Caspar mumbled. When Natasha still seemed utterly confused, Caspar explained.
“The glim dropper was a con used by grifters in the 1950s. You pretend to lose a valuable item and offer a reward. Someone tries to get the reward by buying back the item from a stranger who finds it, except that the stranger is working with the person who lost the item, and it’s always an item that’s not valuable at all. ”
“Exactly. Except that we don’t have time to wait around for the reward part,” William said. “When you get the clerk out from behind the counter, looking for your valuable glass eye, Malek comes up and steals the mic, and then he runs out of there. I follow after that, and so do you.”
“But me?” Natasha said. “Do I stay out here and watch? I think I should be more involved.”
“You are,” William said. “You get to hold Caspar’s actual glass eye.”
Natasha made a face, but soon nodded. “Fine. I can do that. Easy enough.”
“Good.” William turned to Caspar, his brows raised. “All we need is your approval—since you’re pulling the bulk of this endeavour. What do you say?”
With another sigh, Caspar reached into his socket and pulled out the glass eye. “Okay. Let’s do this.”