They opened the shop.  Customers came in and wandered about, becoming little more than rustling noises in distant aisles until they emerged with something to buy.  Money went into the till.  And around once an hour, Mariam found herself standing by the break room door, as if she’d been drawn back by a magnet.

It was locked- she knew that because she’d tried it.  She was pretty sure the keys were in one of the drawers of the front desk, but she hadn’t checked.  Gavin had been behind the desk most of today, and he’d want to know what she was up to.

What was she up to, anyway?  When she’d tried the doorknob, she’d told herself that she was just checking to make sure that customers couldn’t wander in, but that wasn’t true.  The actual reason, as simple as it was ghoulish, was that Mariam wanted to see the body.  Not out of morbid fascination (at least, she didn’t think so), but because, until she saw it, she wouldn’t completely believe it was there.  The longer the day went on, the more she felt as if she was having a dream, one of those weird ones where nothing worked the way it should and you woke up feeling really uneasy without knowing why.  Actually seeing the damn thing might be enough to shock her back into reality.  Until then, part of her would suspect that Gavin was playing an elaborate, tasteless joke on her.

It was half an hour before closing time when Mariam saw her chance.  A customer went up to Gavin and asked him to help her find the newest Maeve Binchy, and as soon as they were out of sight, Mariam went behind the desk and opened the drawer.  Sure enough, there, lying on top of all the paper and debris, was a ring of keys.

Instead of going straight to the break room, she palmed the keys and waited behind the desk for a few minutes.  Gavin would have fewer questions about why she was standing behind the desk than about why she was sneaking about behind the desk.  This way, she was just making sure it wasn’t unmanned.  When Gavin came back, he gave her a grateful smile, and she came out from behind the desk, supposedly stepping aside so that he could go back.  She didn’t run for the break room door.  She walked along at a professional clip, as if she’d been asked to sort out an issue on the other side of the shop.

The door was shabby, blue, and completely unassuming.  There was no strange smell, there was no sinister vibe, there was no disturbing background music.  Mariam had it open before she even had time to prepare for it.

Mr Bridger was in there, alright.

He could almost have just been sleeping in his chair.  Almost, because Mariam found it hard to imagine him being this silent even when he was asleep.  She’d thought that seeing the body would be the thing to bring her back to Earth, but now she was here, it was the silence that did it.  He was definitely dead.  He’d never have been that quiet if he was alive.

Gavin hadn’t covered up his face, and Mariam didn’t dare to look directly at it.  She took a step forward, looking for a cloth or a blanket or something, and she saw something out of the corner of her eye.  There was something wrong with Mr Bridger’s neck.

She went round to the back of the chair, and looked properly.  His head was slumped to one side.  No, not just slumped- bent.  As if it had suddenly…

As if someone had…

Gavin.

Of course he had.  Why wouldn’t he?  He’d probably wanted to do it for years.  And no wonder he hadn’t wanted to tell anyone his dad was dead.  Why had he even told her?  Why hadn’t he just run off last night?  Wasn’t there money in the till from yesterday?  There must have been!  Why had…?

Mariam took a deep breath.  She crouched down and looked at the floor, trying to feel less light-headed.  They were going to have to work something out.  They couldn’t just leave him here- someone would find him and work out what had happened.  They had to…  Mariam didn’t know what they had to do, but they needed to work it out as soon as possible.

She straightened up, and saw Gavin standing in the doorway.

She met his eyes.  For a moment, neither of them said anything.  Once again, Mariam tried to work out the one perfect thing to say.  She might have actually managed it this time, if Gavin hadn’t spoken first.

“I’ll just say you did it,” he said.

(To Be Concluded)