Of course, Eva didn’t expect to find anything. If she ran a bookstore of a less than scrupulous nature, she wouldn’t leave evidence lying around the front room. There would be no hidden rooms where customers could stumble into them. There wouldn’t even need to be a secret room. Just a shelf in the back storage room with a few legitimate books set in front of whatever needed to be hidden.
If there were anything that needed to be hidden at all. But you didn’t deal with people who smelled like death if you didn’t have anything to hide.
After finding nothing around the shelves, Eva changed tactics. She walked up to the counter where Stephen Toomey, based on his name tag, still glared at her. “Do you have any books you keep out of the main room here?”
“What’s wrong with the books out here, huh?” His nasally voice peaked at the end. He stood from his stool and waved a finger at Eva. “If you’ve damaged any of my merchandise little girl, I’ll be collecting tenfold the cost from you.”
Eva held up her hands. “Nothing like that. I’ve read most of them and was looking for more along my interests.”
Stephen Toomey crossed his arms. “Read most of them? I don’t believe you. I haven’t even read half of them.”
“You clearly have better things to do,” Eva countered. “I am a student stuck in the most boring town I’ve ever been in. It would be strange if I hadn’t read all the books around town.”
It was a lie, of course. She had barely read the required school books. It sounded believable to her though.
Apparently it sounded believable to Toomey as well. “Even if that’s the case,” he said, “I don’t think I have anything to show little brats who shirk responsibility and damage products.”
“Damage products? I never–”
“Don’t be coy with me, little girl. It was you and that brat with the blond hair.” He pointed at an approaching Juliana. “The book you ruined was pointed out by two gentlemen, still dripping with ink.”
“Are you sure they didn’t do it?”
“Don’t shirk responsibility onto others. I was with them the whole time, showing a book on a completely different shelf when one of them tapped me on the shoulder and pointed it out.”
Eva frowned. “Do you still have the book?”
“‘Course I still have it. Can’t sell rotten books now can I?”
“I thought you might have thrown it away or something.”
“Thrown it away? Even damaged as it is, it still is an original copy of the Resplendent Mysteriis.”
“Bring it out and I’ll buy it at full price. Plus extra for compensation.”
Toomey stared at Eva. “You better be able to afford this, little girl,” he said as he stalked into the back room.
Juliana walked up to Eva with raised eyebrows.
Eva shook her head. “After we leave,” she whispered.
Toomey returned to find a large amount of cash sitting on the counter. Double the most expensive book Eva could remember seeing in the bookstore. The cash was the results of her rather successful business. Eva didn’t want to risk her spending money on her scholarship card being low.
He counted the money then slid the book across the counter. “Take it and get out of here.”
“My friend,” Eva said as she stepped out of the way, “still needs to purchase her books. I’d ask that you don’t treat her the way you treated me. She only arrived at Brakket earlier today.”
“Yeah, whatever.” He rung up Shalise’s total without another word and glared the group out of the shop.
Outside, Juliana immediately turned on Eva. “What was that all about? I know you didn’t spill ink on that book.”
“You didn’t either.”
“Those men then?”
Eva nodded. “I think so.”
They filled in a very confused Shalise.
“You never told me why you were afraid of them.”
“I wouldn’t say afraid,” Eva said with a light shuffling of her feet. “I had my nose right in one’s chest. People who smell like they do are generally not the sort of people you want to be around.”
“You can’t discriminate against people based on how they smell,” Shalise said. “Maybe the poor guy’s house was undergoing renovations and he couldn’t shower.”
Shaking her head, Eva said, “not the same kind of smell. This was pungent and vile, the kind of smell I expect from a corpse whose stomach has been torn open.”
“C-corpse?” Shalise half shouted.
Eva hushed her. Glancing around, she was glad for the mostly empty plaza. “There are plenty of very good reasons to smell like death.” Eva tried calming the girl. “Undertakers, morticians, even doctors, nurses, and veterinarians. Trust me, I volunteer at a vet’s office sometimes.”
That seemed to assuage Shalise, at least a little. Juliana, on the other hand, had gone very pale.
“Let’s get back to the dorms,” she said.
“Juliana?”
She shook her head. “I’ll tell you back at the dorms.”
She marched off leaving Shalise and Eva behind. The two shared a glance and followed after her.
—
“Z-zombies?”
“Just one, as far as I know. Mrs. Baxter didn’t tell me what happened afterwards.”
