o J o &
in the Natural History section of Eden Valley Books. Perhaps he could suggest to Lawrence that it would be a selling point. He could put a sign in the window J!oo&s priceJ 6y Egn Cooper. Don V mJM tnis ycn.safiona/ opportunity wni/g .s-foc^j Jajt/ On the other hand, putting anything at all in the bare windows of Eden Valley Books might spoii the ambience.
He priced a tattered copy of 77)e Natura/ History of 5e/6orne at 12.50 and added ‘Or Near Offer’ for a bit of varietv. His attention began to wander, and he looked around the shop. On the floor, between two sets of shelves, he noticed a telltale scattering of black mouse droppings. In a pigeonhole behind the counter there was a half-drunk tumbler of whisky. So that was how Lawrence kept himself from dying of boredom during the day.
‘How are we doing?’ called Lawrence.
‘We’re doing fine,’ said Cooper. ‘With a bit more practice, I could get a job filling shelves in Somerfield’s supermarket.’
“I like a man with ambition.’
The bookseller manoeuvred a tray carefully along the passage, swaying his hips to dodge some of the unsteady stacks of books. He looked approvingly at the newly priced labels.
‘There — wasn’t that worth coming in for? You’ve learned a new skill.’
‘I want to ask you about a woman called Marie Tenncnt,’ said Cooper, when he had his coffee in his hand.
‘Do I know her?’
‘That’s the question, Lawrence.’
Lawrence had brought a plate of biscuits, too, but he didn’t seem to mind eating them all himself. In fact, he was stuffing them into his mouth absent-mindedly, the automatic movement of somebody used to snacking all day long.
‘Oh, I sec,’ he said. ‘Marie … what was it?’
‘Tenncnt. She’d be aged about twenty-eight, medium height, dark hair, a little on the plump side maybe. She could have been buying books by Danielle Steel.’
‘Oh, a customer? That would be a novelty.’
In between biscuits, Lawrence began to fiddle with his glasses,
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leaving crumbs on the frames and a large thumbprint on one of the lenses.
‘Do you remember her coming in here, Lawrence?’
‘Would this have been recently?’
‘I’m not sure. It could have been any time. She bought a few modem novels, fitness books, autobiography.’
Cooper’s phone rang. He found it in his pocket, looked at the display, and sighed as he pushed the button to end the call. There was always another job waiting for him.
‘Daniclle Steel, did you say? I don’t have many customers who buy Daniclle Steel novels. They’re a bit too popular, if you know what I mean.’
Cooper was starting to get irritated by Lawrence’s constant
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fiddling with his glasses. He found it distracting not to be able to sec someone’s eyes when he was talking to them.
‘You don’t stock them, then?’
‘I didn’t say that, quite,’ said Lawrence. ‘Down at the end there, I do have a few boxes of books that I’ve bought at auctions and never bothered sorting out. People can have a rummage in there, if they want to. Anything they find, they can have for lOp. There might have been some Daniclle Steels. There was a Jeffrey Archer found in there once.’
‘You would remember Marie Tennent, if she’d been a frequent customer, I suppose?’ Lawrence picked up the last biscuit and broke it in half, then into quarters, scattering crumbs on the desk and on to the floor. More food for the mice tonight.
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‘Yes, of course. I know my regular customers pretty well — I can usually guess what they’re looking for.’
‘But you don’t remember her?’
Lawrence shook his head, then clapped his hand over one side of his glasses as if he were testing the eyesight in the other eye. ‘Sorry. Local, is she? Not a tourist?’
‘Local. She had a baby recently. You might have noticed her if she came in when she was pregnant?’
Finally, Lawrence took his hand away from his face. Cooper noticed that one of the bookseller’s eyes was looking rather strange behind the lens of his glasses. It was slightly drooping
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and lop-sided. He wondered if Lawrence had suffered a minor stroke recently, which had left the muscles weak on that side of his face. But then the lens of Lawrence’s glasses dropped out and landed on one of the books in front of him on the desk, and his eye looked normal again. Cooper realized it had keen working loose for the past few minutes.
‘Damn and blast/ said Lawrence. ‘They’re a real bugger to ^et back in once they come out. Especially when you can’t sec what you’re doing properly because your lens has fallen out.’
‘Haven’t you got a spare pair?’
