Noah Anderson liked to think that he was a good decision maker. He wasn’t impulsive, he thought things through, and while he wasn’t always right, he did his best to stick it out when he made a mistake. This situation had turned into one of those choices, and he was now regretting his decision to drive across two states in one sitting. He would not have even entertained the idea if he and his best friend, and newly minted business partner, Katherine Maruyama, were not on a tight timeline.
“Are you sure that we’re gonna make it in time?” This was the third time in the last hour Noah had asked the question of Kat. The short, dark haired Asian woman was acting loosely as navigator for their drive. She looked up from her book, an Agatha Christie collection that he swore lived in her purse, and shot him a glance of mock annoyance.
“I told you 15 minutes ago that we’ll be there before the end of the day, and that we can stop and get a motel if we need to.” She rolled her eyes and smirked. “If we aren’t, you only have yourself to blame. I’m not the one that took a whole day to pack for what’s barely going to be a week away from home. Focus on driving, I can’t get more than a page if you keep asking”
Noah grumbled to himself under his breath, tightening his grip on the wheel as he did his best not to push his luck with the speed limit. It had been a strange set of circumstances that had led to this scramble from the middle of nowhere Montana to the middle of nowhere Washington. Noah was perhaps being a bit blunt in referring to his soon to be temporary home in Eastsound as the middle of nowhere, but when he’d last been there, he had been 11 and it had felt like there was nothing much to do besides devouring the vast library that made up his uncle’s bookstore. It had been 16 eventful years since he’d last seen or heard from his uncle, and he had been shocked to receive a letter out of the blue informing him that his uncle, Albert Anderson, had died in a boating accident and had left his bookstore to Noah.
His uncle, his father’s brother, had lost contact with Noah and his mother Penelope when Noah’s father Jarod had moved the family to Montana, only to cheat on Noah’s mother not even a month after they’d finished unpacking and then vanish out of the country with the girl. Noah’s mother had been heartbroken, but his father hadn’t been all that bright and the house and most of his assets were in Penelope's name. Noah had already been enrolled for school, so the two just stayed where they were and made the best of a bad situation. He’d met Kat soon after, so it was for the best in his eyes.
The big issue with their current predicament was the date that Noah needed to be present in western Washington for. His uncle’s will was set to be read on the 21st of march, and the letter had arrived on the 19th, his address smudged, and the envelope mangled. It had obviously made a wrong turn somewhere in the postal service and had been delivered to the wrong address before it made its way to the correct recipient. Noah had paled when he opened the document and read the date. He’d been with Kat, both celebrating the end of their last quarter of university, the two having both just finished their degrees. Actually, it was more that Noah had finally come to terms with giving up on a degree in computer science to focus on his burgeoning wood working business, while Kat had finished her masters degree in business, which she had decided to use to help Noah build his own business into something viable while she attempted to network her way into something much more long term. Noah had been unsure of what to do, but Kat had taken one look at the letter and insisted that Noah pack immediately and meet her at her apartment. In less than a day, the two had started their drive to Washington.
They drove in silence for a few more miles. Exhaustion battled with stress. Noah’s fingers drummed on the wheel. He cleared his throat.
“Penny for your thoughts?”
Kat sighed and dog-eared a page, causing Noah to internally cringe for the poor book, before she turned her attention on him fully and she sighed.
“Talk to me. What’s got you so on edge? I know the tight travel time is stressing you out, something that didn’t have to be an issue if you’d just let my dad pay for plane tickets. You know he loves you waaaaay more than he loves me. I still don’t know why you didn’t want to fly…” She was joking, only a little, but her tone quickly turned back to being serious. “But I can tell there’s something else. You’ve been tense since you saw the return address before you even opened that letter.”
Noah bit his lip. She was right. Truthfully, she was almost always right, something that had irked him for the first month of knowing her but that he now found to be one of the things he liked most about their friendship. He cleared his throat again.
“It’s just, I feel bad about not trying to reach out to Uncle Al sooner.” He let his grip on the wheel go a little slack, his white knuckles regaining some color. “I kept meaning to write him, but every time I would go to sit down and try to put my thoughts on the page…” Noah exhaled heavily and ran a hand through his dark brown hair. “I didn’t feel like I’d done anything worth sharing, so I just kept putting it off, and now I feel like I messed up by not writing him anyway when I had the chance.” The guilt sat heavy on Noah’s shoulders. If it had been his father? Noah knew he would feel nothing negative; he might even find the news to be a reason to celebrate. He hated his father so much and it would be a great relief to not have to think about the man who had hurt him so much again.
Kat’s smile was soft, and she placed a hand on his shoulder. He felt the weight grow lighter at her touch. “I’d say that if you didn’t feel that way that you’d be kind of an ass. From what you and your mom have said about your uncle, he was more of a father than your actual dad was, so I’m surprised that this isn’t tearing you up more. If I had gotten a letter telling me that one of my aunts had passed and I needed to fly to New York tomorrow, I’d probably be crying my eyes out into your shoulder on the plane ride over.” She squeezed his shoulder. “Remember that you can show emotions when tragic stuff happens.”
“I’ll be sure to come to you when I decide to let the waterworks flow.” His smile was small, and he was only half joking. He hadn’t let himself get too emotional, but he knew that would probably change when they actually got to the shop and he had a chance to let himself think.
“You didn’t answer my other question though.”
Noah frowned. Kat’s eyes were like a puppy dog, begging for him to humor her. He hardened his look and turned his eyes back to the road. Kat pouted.
“Fine, keep your secrets, but don’t expect me to share my snacks with you at the next gas station.”
@A@A@A@A@A@A@A@A@A@A@A@A@A@A@A@A@A@A@A@A@A@A@A@A@A@A@
Brilliant emerald fir trees blew past, the road twisted and curved as it cut a path down from Steven’s pass. Kat had been correct in her assessment of their travel time, and although they had to stop once for gas and again for the night due to ferry availability, they arrived on the morning of the 21st at the bookstore.
It was the third building in a row of eight. Two large windows allowed a view past painted letters proclaiming the establishment as “Anderson’s Archive” into a dark shop. There looked to be a layer of dust coating the books that Noah could see, and he wondered how long it had been since anyone had been inside. He felt a twinge of sadness as he took in the disrepair of the storefront. This was where he’d grown up. He hadn’t had many friends when he’d come to visit for the summer, and while Albert had been more than happy to engage with the young Noah, he wasn’t always free.
Noah’s reminiscing was interrupted by the arrival of the executor of the will, who let them inside. He introduced himself as Herbert Garrett, a lanky man with a receding hairline and whose suit seemed just a bit too small for him. He burst into a fit of sneezes when he placed his brief case on the counter and disturbed a cloud of dust.
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“Just the two of you?” Herbert asked between sneezes, which he muffled with a handkerchief. Noah and Kat both just nodded hesitantly, trying not to look to squeamish as the man sneezed loudly in their direction.
Herbert worked quickly, driven by the constant sneezes to try to get the ordeal over and himself out of the bookstore. The will named Noah as the only recipient of any material possessions, he was asked to sign some documents, and he was handed the keys to the bookstore and a sealed bubble mailer with his name scrawled in his uncle’s cramped handwriting. His uncle had apparently sold his home months before his death, and the bank information would need to be obtained at a later date.
The executor loaded the documents into a briefcase, promised that he would be in touch, sneezed a dozen more times, and nodded to Noah before he finally left. The bell on the shop door tinkled as he exited, and Noah and Kat were left in the silence of the somewhat musty store.
Once she were sure he wasn't coming back, Kat shuddered. “That was honestly worse than any other time I had to be in the room with anyone sick. Is there a bathroom in here? I feel like I need to wash my hands…”
“Yeah, it’s that door over there…” Pointing to a thin door just past the counter, Noah’s eyes moved to the bubble mailer in his hand. He’d held off on opening it, mostly so he wasn’t distracted by it’s contents while the executor was doing his job, but it now almost felt like it was burning hot in his grip, as if it wanted to remind him it was there. With a sigh, he moved to the counter and examined the sealed package. He frowned, realizing it was wrapped in layer after layer of packing tape. As Kat vanished into the bathroom, Noah leaned over the counter and took a minute to find a pair of scissors.
“I still don’t get why they had to have it today.” He grunted as he straightened. Noah had called the listed law firm immediately on getting the letter, but they’d insisted that it couldn’t be helped. Cutting one end from the package, he dumped the contents onto the counter. All that was inside was a flash drive, a locked leatherbound journal, and a silver key. Noah frowned as he examined the items. The journal’s lock was much smaller than the key, which had a stylized ‘A’ that made up the head.
Kat returned from the bathroom, wiping wet hands on her jeans. “We need to get some paper towels…” She leaned against the counter next to him. “Huh. You’d think he would have left a note with this stuff. The will didn’t mention any of it, right? I was pretty sure I was paying more attention to what it said than you did, and I don’t remember anything about a flash drive or journal.” She picked up the key, admiring it as it glimmered in the fluorescent lights. “I wonder what this goes to…”
“No clue.” Noah slid the journal into his back left pocket. It was a snug fit, but it wasn’t likely to fall out. “I’m more interested to see what’s on this.” He held up the drive. “I don’t see a computer, and I left my laptop out in the car, let me just-” He was cut off by a squeal from Kat. Noah whirled in panic, his heart racing. What was wrong?
He exhaled a sigh of relief when he saw Kat crouching and scratching behind the ear of a Tonkinese cat. The cat had a very smug look on it’s face, obviously very pleased with the attention. Noah cocked an eyebrow. That was odd. His uncle had never kept pets, and the will didn’t say anything about one either. Did it sneak in when they’d come into the store?
Kat continued to coo over the milky cat, it’s bright blue eyes locked with Noah’s as it seemed to take stock of him. Was the cat… judging him? Noah shivered. Something was off.
The cat’s collar jingled as Kat manipulated it to read the engraved tag. She gave a little hum. “Says ‘Duncan Alabaster, Assistant Archivist.’ No number or address…” she frowned. “You far from home little guy? How did you even get in here?”
The cat just blinked at her, looked back to Noah for a moment, and then was in motion before anyone knew what was happening. Kat cried out, dropping the key and holding her hand, Duncan having swiped his claws across the back of her hand. He landed easily and grabbed the key in his mouth before he took off running into the back nook of the shop.
“The hell!?” Noah was shocked. The cat had stolen the key. Are cats that smart? He knew that they knew what they wanted and would find a way to let you know, but this was a whole new level from anything he had ever seen or heard of. He moved to Kat, taking her injured hand in his and inspected it. It was bleeding slightly.
Kat breathed out in a hiss. “That kitty is lucky he’s so cute or I’d be much more mad right now.” Tears formed in the corners of her eyes as she nursed the hand, and Noah couldn’t help but worry for her.
“Can you grab me some tissues from my purse? And maybe a bandage if I have one? I can’t remember if I put more in after I ran out last week.” After a few moments of digging, Noah passed her a travel package of tissues, which she used to dab at the small wound. He found no bandages in the purse, but the scratch barely bled, and she scoffed when he offered to find a first aid kit. Turning her hand this way and that as she looked at the angry lines emblazoned on her hand. Shaking her head, she looked back to Noah, an intensity in her eyes.
“Come on, lets go find him. I don’t know why he grabbed that key, but that makes me even more curious about the key AND the cat.”
Noah knew what that look meant. When Kat set her mind to something, it was going to happen one way or another. He’d only tried to fight her on something once, and it had ended with her not speaking to him for a week. He’d come to the conclusion that it just wasn’t worth the fight.
He shrugged. “Alright, let’s look.”
The two moved around the shop, finally taking in their surroundings as they tried to pinpoint the furry bandit. For Noah, it was a walk down memory lane. In his mind’s eye, the dreary shop still held the hints of what he remembered of it from a decade earlier. The shop wasn’t very large, but it did a lot with the space it had. All the available wall space was covered in shelves stuffed to the brim with all manner of books. There were a few tables that filled the rest of the floor space, stuffed with titles that Noah wasn’t even sure were real books or genres.
He held up a book, raising an eyebrow to Kat. “What’s a LitRPG? And who thought a guy in boxers is a good idea for a cover?” The blurb on the back didn’t answer either question, so he tossed it back onto the stack he’d grabbed it from.
She just shook her head. “Your guess is as good as mine when it comes to the genre, but it depends on how well built the guy in boxers is.” Noah flushed red, and Kat laughed at his suffering as she held up a book of her own. “I’m more surprised that there’s a whole table for James Patterson books. Does anyone actually read these??”
They slowly picked their way through the shop, no rush to their search to find the cat. The building was bordered on all sides by other shops, so Noah was quite confident that there were no back doors or other ways out besides the main door. There hadn’t been any when he’d spent summers here.
Reaching the back of the building, they were both quite surprised to find a door that they hadn’t noticed when they’d come in. Noah was very confused. He KNEW that this hadn’t been here when he’d last visited. It didn’t quite match the rest of the building, a deep blue door with a hatched window and metal trim and the words ‘EMPLOYEES ONLY’ stenciled on it in bold white lettering. The door was slightly ajar, and there was a tuft of fur caught on a spur in the metal door frame at ankle height.
Noah frowned. This door was a pull door, which means it had to have been open already for the cat to use it, right? Was someone else in the building? He looked around again. Dust still coated the books, and it didn’t look like anything in this back alcove had been moved or touched in at least a month. He shot a glance at Kat, who just shrugged at him with a frown and mouthed ‘what?’
Noah grabbed the door handle and pulled. It was heavy. Like three times heavier than he’d expected. He grunted in surprise at the strain, but managed to pull it wide enough for both Kat and himself to slip inside. Pausing, he leaned his shoulder against the door and grabbed the largest book in his reach, a dictionary from the 1940s, and stuffed it as a wedge to keep the door from closing. The door might have been a pull door, but he did not want to get stuck behind a door that he wasn’t confident he could open.
Behind him, Kat gasped, and he turned to see what she was surprised by. His heart dropped as he joined her at the railing of what he now realized was the top landing of what looked like an apartment stairwell. It continued on deep enough that the stairs grew dark and he couldn’t see the bottom. A red exit light illuminated the space, and dim wall lights existed at set intervals around the stairs. This was not helping to calm Noah’s nerves.
“Are we sure we want to do this?” He looked at Kat, expecting to see her determined and defiant look still plastered to her face. Instead, she was looking uncertainly at the lights that didn’t give off as much light as either of them wanted.
“How about,” Kat bit her lower lip, worrying it under her teeth, “Instead, we pop back into the shop and see if there are any flashlights? I still want to find out where Duncan scampered off to, but not if we have to try stumbling around in the dark.”
Of course. Noah should have expected he wasn’t getting out of this so easily.
It only took ten minutes of searching before they found two flashlights tucked next to a first aid kit under the counter, but only one of them had working batteries. Kat insisted this was fine, they would continue down the stairs. Noah only insisted they put antibiotics on the cat scratch. They were down two full landing levels before Noah began to wonder if he would have been better off taking this trip by himself.
Noah would soon be very grateful that he had not chosen to come by himself.
