Bookstore
Tupelo Twang once said: A bond made for life cannot be broken.
Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine.
It was a small old brick building with big windows on either side of a central doorway. The big windows where thus each divided into smaller windows. Three small steps take you to the door. An old oaken door with a big brass handle and push plate. Upstairs there was one window in the middle with small red curtains flapping in the breeze.
One side of the building was joined onto a workshop of kinds. The other side there was a narrow ally way going to the back of the old shop. The back of the building was walled in by a high brick wall. There was a door leading into the rear of the building, and two upstairs windows and one down. One large step take you to this brightly painted green door. A strong smell of spicy cooking could be smelt from the rear
It was a second-hand book shop. You could smell the old pages as you walked by the shop at the front. As you opened the door a small bell jingled and a smile from the other side of the shop. Today Mrs Jones was looking for something a bit special and this was the place for those special things. The whole shop had been decorated out in preparation of Halloween. Small scarecrow dolls stood amongst the books, and spooky dolls sat on the top shelves.
"How can I help you today Mrs Jones." Such a polite young man. A bit odd. Never seemed to make eye contact. Socially awkward and said some very odd things sometimes for seemingly no reason. But the long haired young man with glasses was always as polite as he could be.
"You know my sister is coming down with her children for the week. I was wondering if you had something like a big bound book of fairy stories?"
He nodded at her and flashed that lovely smile again. Lovely nervous smile. Why was he always so on edge? He sucked in his bottom lip in thought then walked from behind the counter over to the back of the shop. He was very thin. He needed his mum to feed him up a bit. But didn't he live here with his brother or something? She couldn't remember now.
He pulled a big leather bound book off the shelf. The book was huge and he laid it on the counter and opened the first page for Mrs Jones to see. The pages were yellow and ancient.
"It comes at a price Mrs Jones." But he knew she could afford it. He closed it again as she looked at the beautiful leather cover and golden writing. "The colour plates are hand tinted." And he flashed that smile again.
She sighed. "Oh how can I resist you Doctor!" and she smiled back at the odd young man with too much hair and glasses. He pulled tissue paper from under the counter and wrapped it carefully. He took the money without checking it. That was another odd thing. He never counted what he was given. He just smiled and slid the book over to her and stuffed the money in his cords pocket.
"Have a wonderful day Mrs Jones." And a strange little wave. Then he wrapped his arms tightly around himself as though he would explode if he didn't hold on to himself tight enough.
…………
Lewis was in town. He was checking out a few leads the team had on some missing people in the area.
He was an average looking man of about 35 years old. He had cropped very blond hair and bright blue eyes. The rest of the team would be there in the morning. He wandered down a cobbled road with deep gutters. It was a very old part of the town. Ancient buildings with old fashioned shop fronts to pull in the tourists. It was tourists who seemed to ending their journeys suddenly in this town though. So he walked around where they would have gone to see if he could give the streets a quick profile before the rest of them arrived.
As he walked by one of these ancient shops he caught a glimpse of something which peeked his interest. It was a book shop with odd dolls for sale in the window. It was coming up to Halloween. His son would love one of those odd scary little dolls. He stood looking in the window at them. Nothing had a price on it. This always meant it was going to be costly but worth a look. He pushed open the door and heard the tinkle of the bell.
A man was standing at the counter. Long dark hair hanging over his face.
He looked up and smiled.
"Can I help you sir?"
"I was looking at the dolls you have in the window. Are they for sale?"
He jumped down from the stall he was sitting on. "Indeed they are. Which sort are you interested in?"
"Well it is for my son, so nothing too girly. I rather liked the scarecrow dolls in the window."
"Wonderful. They are selling well." The man with the hair and the glasses walked over and picked up one of the dolls and handed it to the customer. "You will notice how they are all hand crafted, by myself, to very high standards." Another winning smile.
"What is it made of?" Lewis was turning it over in his hand….something mesmerising about it.
"Bone and teeth and leather and other tiny left over bits."
"Teeth?" He looked up again at the man with the hair. "You look familiar."
"I have one of those faces. Have you seen these?" and he moved behind Lewis.
………….
When the younger man arrived back at the shop a couple of hours later he was concerned to note it had a closed sign on the door, and all the lights where out. He went around the back and called out. He other man came though a small gate in the wall with led to the workshop buildings. He was wearing an apron over his clothes and was carrying a bucket of hot water.
"You took your time getting back. There is cleaning up to do. Hurry."
"We agreed n n n never in the ssh sh sh sh shop! What the h h h hell happened?"
"He recognised me. Clean up." Pushing the cleaning thing in his hands. "Hurry, dinner is ready."
"Who! Who – who w w w w…"
"Shut up and do what I told you to do. Why do you try to make me angry?"
……………..
It was the following day that the team became concerned about the lack of contact from Agent Lewis. Morgan tried his cell but it went straight through to voicemail. The hotel said he had gone out for a walk in the morning and hadn't returned. Now they needed to try to retrace the steps of Agent Lewis and try to work out where he had gone.
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A/N: This is the opening chapter of the next bit in the series of stories which started with The Scarecrow. Please RandR!