The Little Shop of Curiosities The Music Box Part 2 (Crawshanks Guide to the Occult)

Chapter 1

I’ve got a really bad feeling.

My heart pounds and my palms are sweaty as I pause at the entrance of the back street where Viv’s shop is tucked away. I know what I’m going to find in her shop, but it’s not Viv’s murder that has me hesitating.

I glance up at the sky as the dark clouds shift and reveal the pale moon. Its sickly glow is the only thing lighting the alley. The streetlights are always switched off during the off-peak hours of the night, and it doesn’t bother me usually. I’ve never been afraid of the dark.

Until now.

It feels like something is lurking in the darkness, wreathed in shadow. The air smells wrong somehow, carrying the scent of something…other.

Magic, if I had to guess, and not the friendly Mary Poppins kind.

Swallowing hard, I force myself to move forward into the darkness.

Every inch of my skin is crawling, and something presses down on me, heavier and heavier, with every step.

Part of me wishes Harrison was here with me.

Magic, after all, is his area of expertise.

But another, much more insistent part of me, is glad he’s not.

Whatever this is, it feels dangerous, and I don’t want him anywhere near it.

I freeze at a sudden movement and quiet scuffling sound from further down the alley. Hitting the flashlight function on my phone, I hold it up so that the beam of bright light lands on a tumble of wild red curls beneath a black knitted cap.

“Maddie.” I relax a fraction.

“It’s Detective fucking Wilkes when you get me up at four in the morning to meet you down a dark alley in the middle of Whitechapel.” She scowls. “This better be a fucking emergency.”

“It’s for Danny.”

“Oh, for Danny?” Her eyes narrow. “Why didn’t you say? Great, I can be pissed at him too. He’s cosied up in some cute hotel in Yorkshire with his adorable boyfriend, and I’m out here waiting to be murdered while my wife is snuggled warm in our bed. I’m so cold my fucking toenails hurt.”

“You should try warmer socks.”

“Do you want to be arrested for wasting police time?”

“You’re really not a morning person, are you, Detective Wilkes?”

“It’s not morning, it’s the middle of the bloody night,” she grumbles. “And it’s my day off. Sonia was going to make me breakfast in bed. Do you know how often I actually get to eat breakfast with my wife? Let alone in bed?”

“I’m really sorry, Maddie.” I know how she feels. I’d much rather be in Harrison’s bed than freezing my balls off in a creepy-ass alley in the early hours of the morning. “I wouldn’t have called if it wasn’t urgent. No one’s been able to get hold of Viv, and we’re all getting a bit worried.”

As excuses go, it’s weak, but it’s the best I can come up with on short notice. I couldn’t really say Tristan’s dead drag queen bestie dropped in to tell me she found Viv murdered in her shop.

Maddie frowns. “And it couldn’t have waited until actual morning?”

“Sorry. Tris says he can’t sleep until he knows she’s okay. She’s…had a rough time of it lately.”

I wish I could tell Maddie the truth, that Viv’s shop has a magical portal into the spirit world and a chaos monster traumatised her while trying to escape into our world.

But it’s not my secret to tell, and also, I’m really not sure how she’d react.

I really don’t know Maddie as well as Danny does.

“Fine.” Maddie sighs loudly and rolls her eyes. “I like Tristan more than I like you and Danny right now, so let’s just get this over with.”

I fall into step beside her as she heads towards Viv’s shop.

“Shutters are open,” she mutters as we near the door. “It doesn’t mean anything. She could’ve just forgotten.” But despite her words, the tension radiates from Maddie.

“Maybe I should go first?” I reach for the handle, then stop when she stares at me. “Okay.” I lift my hands.

Maddie reaches into her pocket and pulls out a small flashlight, then reaches for the door handle. It turns easily, and she pauses, glancing over her shoulder at me.

“That’s not a good sign.”

“No,” I murmur as my stomach roils.

I thought the street felt bad, but inside the shop is so much worse. The atmosphere is heavy and oppressive. Every breath I take in leaves a sharp metallic taste in my mouth, and my skin prickles, every hair on my body standing on end.

“Do you feel that?” Maddie whispers as she clicks her flashlight on. The thin beam highlights the floor.

“What?”

“The air feels weird. Heavy, prickly. Like when a storm is coming.”

I glance at Maddie. The magic in here must be really potent for her to feel it too.

She sweeps the flashlight’s beam across the room until it lands on a rumpled heap lying on the floor, the pale light settling on tie-dyed material and an Ugg boot.

“Fuck,” Maddie swears. “Where’s the light switch?”

“There’s one here, hold on.” I grope the wall next to the door for the switch, then flick it on, blinking as my eyes adjust to the sudden brightness.

All the air leaves my body in a slow exhale as I stare at the scene in front of me. I was at plenty of crime scenes during my time with the West Yorkshire police, but this…this is new.

“I have to call this in. You know the drill, don’t touch anything,” Maddie says, her mouth set in a grim line as she pulls her phone from her pocket.

I glance back at her and nod, then step closer to Viv’s body. I don’t have long to check out the scene before the coroner and a lot more police show up.

My heart aches as I pull my own phone out of my pocket and start taking photos of anything that might be useful in figuring out who the hell would do this to Viv.

There’s no way we’re leaving this to Scotland Yard.

This one is personal and, judging from the crime scene and the magic hanging thick in the air, way above their pay grade.

I didn’t know Viv well, but I liked her. She was usually halfway through a gin bottle or a joint and prickly as hell, but there was something about her that I warmed to. It was like what she showed to the world was there to hide a much deeper pain, and part of me recognised a kindred spirit.

I lower my phone and stare at her body, my jaw tightening so much my back teeth grind.

Someone is going to fucking pay for this.

The sofa has been pushed up against the bookcases at a weird angle, opening a wide space in the middle of the room.

In the centre is Viv, splayed out in a grotesquely unnatural way.

Every inch of exposed skin on her is covered in strange spidery symbols.

Just the look of them sends an icy chill down my spine.

But the worst part is the thick, uneven stitches of red cord piercing her lips and binding her mouth closed. As if, even in death, someone had wanted to keep her silent.

I kneel beside her, careful not to touch the small pool of blood spreading out beneath her. After taking a few close-up shots of her and the symbols, I finally lower my phone and release a slow breath.

“I’m so sorry, Viv,” I whisper. “We’ll find whoever did this, I promise.”

“Don’t touch anything,” Maddie says sharply, and I gaze up at her as she approaches.

“I’m not,” I mutter. “How soon?”

“Ten, fifteen minutes, maybe.” Her eyes narrow as she studies me. “Long enough for you to tell me the truth.”

“What truth?”

“You knew she was dead, didn’t you? That’s why you were so insistent I meet you here. Danny didn’t call you at all, did he?”

I sigh and push myself up to stand. “He did.”

“How did you know? About Viv? Because right now, this is putting you in as prime suspect.”

“I’d never hurt Viv.” I frown. “For god’s sake, I’d never hurt anyone if I could help it, and I sure as hell couldn’t…” I gesture to Viv’s body.

“Then I suggest you start talking, Sam, and no bullshit. I’m the only thing standing between you, a pair of cuffs, and an interview room right now.”

“It’s not what you think.”

“I would hope not. I like to think both Danny and I are pretty good judges of character. I personally wouldn’t have said you had this in you.

” Her troubled gaze falls on the ugly blood-red stitches holding Viv’s mouth together.

“I’ve been around Danny and Tris long enough to know weird shit orbits them.

I may be willing to take some things on faith, given my trust in Danny as a partner and a friend, but the police officers turning up to document the scene won’t be so understanding. ”

I blow out a frustrated breath. She has a point, but I have no idea how much to tell her.

Fuck. I wish Danny was here.

She starts again. “You knew Viv was already dead when you called me, didn’t you?”

I nod.

“How?”

“There really is no easy way to say this.”

She folds her arms across her chest and stares at me. “Try.”

I sigh. “A ghost told me.” I decide to take one for the team and omit the part about Tristan being able to see the dead and that Dusty is his spirit guide in training. Better she thinks I’m crazy than Tristan and Danny.

Maddie blinks slowly. “A. Ghost. Told. You.”

I nod and tuck my hands in my pockets. “Danny did call me to let me know that he and Tris were worried when they couldn’t get hold of Viv.”

“Uh-huh.” She lifts her hand and makes a rolling motion. “Skip ahead to the part about seeing ghosts, Haley Joel Osment.”

“I had a near death experience a year or so ago.” I try to make my words as vague as possible. “They say it can alter your perception sometimes. When I woke up in the hospital, I could see and hear spirits.”

She stares at me silently.

“I know it sounds insane, but this bookshop is usually filled with ghosts, and one of them came to find me to tell me about Viv.”

“Usually?”

“What?”

“You said usually filled with ghosts. That would imply it’s not now.”

Well, damn. I can see why her and Danny make such good partners.

I look around the shop and shake my head, surprised that not only can’t I see them, I can’t even sense their presence. “There aren’t any of them here now. Which is weird, come to think of it.”

She glances at Viv once more. “I’d say weird is relative right now.”

“I know it’s a lot to take in, but it’s the truth.”