‘Got everything?’ said Ben.
‘Think so,’ I said, picking Dave up and placing him into the boot of my car. We’d packed up the few things he’d had at Dominic’s, and that we’d bought for him, and were taking him to his new home. I felt kind of bad, giving him to the alchemist, but we’d agreed to let the alchemist have him as payment for helping us. We couldn’t really say no when we needed him on our side so that he kept our secret. Given that alchemists were known to be shady, I figured he’d probably done a lot worse than strip someone’s skin and give it to someone else, but still.
‘You know, I think Fadil is really going to miss him. He seems to like the company,’ said Ben.
‘At least now he can go out a bit more.’ I closed the boot then slid into the driver’s side. Ben got into the passenger side. Dave started crying. Because of course he did.
I sighed, turning the engine on. ‘It’s all right, Dave. The drive isn’t far,’ I said in my calmest, deepest voice. It didn’t make much of a difference. So I chose to ignore him instead. I always felt guilty, ignoring an anxious dog, but I knew that comforting him could feed his anxiety and make him worse. Dog training wasn’t the same as raising a child, even if many people saw their dogs as their children, too.
Yes, me included.
‘Hasn’t he been in a car before? I don’t get why he’s so anxious,’ said Ben.
‘He’s been in one a couple of times with us, but he was in the back with Edie. Maybe he’s not used to being in the boot and unable to see.’ I’d hoped it’d make him calmer, but obviously not. ‘I still feel weird taking him to the alchemist. What if he’s going to experiment on him? Or dissect him?’
‘Do you really think he’d do that?’ said Ben.
‘I dunno. I don’t know anything about him other than that he’s seriously dodgy.’
‘Well, if we get any red flags, we’ll take Dave and leave,’ said Ben.
There wasn’t much traffic on the roads, but I tried to be extra careful just in case because the setting sun was blinding me and I had a headache that made the sun that bit more annoying.
I scoffed. ‘You think he’ll let us walk out that easily?’
Ben took his glasses off and cleaned them on his blue plaid shirt. ‘Between the two of us, I think we could take him. He doesn’t exactly look that physically fit.’
‘No, but it wasn’t a weakling’s job to do what he did to Fadil and Dominic. I don’t trust him. I’m not sure how much of what he does is an act to throw people off how powerful he really is.’
Dave started barking. I flinched, his high-pitched squeak making my head twinge. Just a little bit farther to go. Hold in there Dave…
‘Maybe it is. But we’ll keep our promise until we smell something fishy. Hey, that can be our codeword: fishy!’ Ben put his glasses back on, chuckling to himself.
I rolled my eyes. ‘We’re having a code word?’
‘Well, yeah. How else are we going to tell the other person something is off without him knowing it?’
‘Isn’t fishy a little obvious?’ I said, turning off the main road.
Ben shrugged. ‘I’m open to other suggestions.’
‘All right. Dolphin.’
Ben frowned at me. ‘Dolphins aren’t fish.’
‘Exactly. But they’re marine creatures. He’ll never make the connection.’ I smiled at my clever code word.
Ben laughed. ‘All right. Dolphin is our code word. But what are we looking for, exactly?’
*
Ben attached Dave’s lead to his collar, placed him on the ground, then closed the boot. I carried Dave’s things in his battered plastic bed. It was a short walk through the frosty forest to where the alchemist lived, which allowed us to enjoy the atmosphere and not think about just how creepy the place we were visiting was. Even though the alchemist had never done anything against me, there was something about him that I found unnerving. I couldn’t work out what it was.
Ben knocked on the wooden door. Dave sniffed the outside of it, then sat down. He was a lot happier out of the car.
The alchemist opened the door. ‘Niamh. Ben.’ He looked down. ‘And Dave!’ He crouched down and fussed Dave’s furry brown cheeks. Dave leaned in to his hand. It was the happiest I’d ever seen him. His tail was even wagging! Well, that was unexpected. Weren’t dogs meant to be good judges of character?
Dave licked the alchemist’s hand. Did he know him already, or something? I’d genuinely never seen the two of them look so happy before. When they both came across as so immune to emotion, it was unnerving.
Ben handed the alchemist Dave’s lead as we stepped inside. The alchemist’s house had been cleaned and dog-proofed since we’d last visited. It no longer looked like it belonged in a children’s horror movie. This time, it looked much more like a home someone actually cared about. There was a new dog bed in the corner, with a bunch of toys and a couple of food dishes beside them.
‘I thought he could use a new bed. Stayed up all night to finish making it,’ said the alchemist.
I put Dave’s things down by the front door. The alchemist could sort through them later. ‘You made the bed?’
He shrugged. ‘I had a few bits of leftover fabric and padding lying around. Why let them go to waste when I could make Dave a new bed?’ He let the dog off his lead. Dave sniffed around the room, located the new bed, then settled into it and lay down. The bed was a quilted design, with several different plain and patterned fabrics stitched together. I wasn’t sure what he’d used to fill it, but it looked pretty comfortable compared to the plastic thing he was used to.
‘Looks like he approves,’ said the alchemist with a smile.
‘I didn’t realise you were such a dog person,’ I said. Ben elbowed me. I ignored him.
The alchemist smiled. ‘Some of us are more comfortable around four-legged friends than people. I’m sure you understand.’
What was he implying? I mean, sure, I preferred Tilly’s company to most people’s. But how did he know that?
‘Well, if you’re both happy here, I think we’ll be off,’ said Ben.
‘Are you sure you don’t want to stay for a cup of tea? The kettle’s just boiled,’ said the alchemist. He didn’t look like he really wanted us to stay, more like he was following what he felt like were social norms. But I was more than happy to get out of there.
Ben checked his smartwatch. ‘Thanks but we have somewhere we need to be.’
‘We do?’ This was news to me. Was he making it up to get us out of there?
‘Yeah. There’s something I want to show you.’
*
‘Are we actually going somewhere, or did you just say that to get out of there?’ I asked as we drove away. Ben had said it in such a believable way that I really wasn’t sure. I mean, it was a line people used in films to get out of a situation, right? But Ben wasn’t the type of person to use a line like that.
‘We’re actually going somewhere. Can you park by Wilkos, please?’ he asked.
‘Sure.’ I had no idea what his plans were or what he wanted to show me in town. He wasn’t generally one for secrets or surprises, so this was a new side of him that I was intrigued by. What was he going to show me? Was it just something cool he’d found in a shop, or somewhere new he wanted to check out?
Who was I kidding? New places rarely opened up in town.
I pulled up in the car park a few minutes later and followed him through town. Near the edge of the town centre, he stopped outside a vacant shop. It had a large glass front with a blank, faded white sign above it. It was hard to make out what was inside, but the little I could see was messy. And covered in dust and cobwebs. Nobody had been in there for a long time.
Ben shifted his weight from foot to foot, looking like an excited child. ‘What do you think?’
I lowered an eyebrow. ‘To what?’
He gestured to the shop. I was still clueless. What did I think to an empty shop?
Someone walked out of the estate agents next door and over to Ben. The blonde woman shook his hand. ‘Ben, it’s good to finally meet you.’ She turned to me: ‘I’m Lauren, the estate agent.’
‘Niamh, Ben’s girlfriend,’ I said. It felt strange, calling myself someone’s girlfriend at forty, but that’s what I was. And I was happy to be with Ben.
Lauren grinned. ‘You make such a lovely couple!’ She’d probably just said that to butter us up, but I’d take the compliment. She removed a bunch of keys from the pocket of her tan-coloured trench coat and used one of them to open the door to the shop. ‘Now, there isn’t much inside here yet, but that means you can do whatever you want with it. It can really be brought to life with a lick of paint and someone to call it their new business. You want to open a bookshop, if I remember rightly?’
I turned to Ben, trying to hide the surprise in my face. I’d had no idea he wanted to become a bookseller. It seemed like a logical career progression for him, but he’d never mentioned any desire to do it. Of course, a lot of people had hopes and dreams they never talked about, myself included.
Ben smiled at me, nodding as Lauren walked us through the premises. It was basically an empty shell. Lots of formerly white walls that hadn’t been painted in a long time. A very fusty smell in the air. Quite possibly a family of spiders living in the corner that I was trying not to look at.
But it also had a big window to show people all the books they could buy as they walked past. A potential way to lure people in as they walked through town or headed to and from work, or to public transport. There was a bus stop right nearby, too. It was in a good spot.
‘I’ll leave you two alone for a moment to discuss things and take a look around. I’ll be outside if you have any questions,’ said Lauren.
‘Well?’ said Ben once she’d gone, a hopeful glint in his eye.
I smiled. ‘I think it’s a great idea. Why didn’t you say something?’
He shrugged, stuffing his hands into his pockets and looking away. ‘It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, but I guess I’ve never found the right time, or the right premises, or had the money, or something else has got in the way. But Dominic’s diagnosis and Tessa’s death reminded me that life can be short. We don’t know how long we’ve got left. If I don’t take Lauren up on this, and someone else turns it into something else, will I regret it? Will I wish that someone had been me?’
I put my arms around him and hugged him. ‘You’re right. If it’s what you want to do, you should go for it.’
Ben grinned. ‘Really? You think so?’
I nodded. ‘I think you’d be a great bookseller. And I think you’d love doing it, too.’
He straightened up, looking around. ‘Yeah, this place has a lot of potential. I’m excited to be the one who can give it some life again.’