Items disappeared from the shop from time to time.
The most opportune moment for thieves was during the lunch period when less staff were on the shop floor. Nothing stolen ever matched Jemima’s loot, but rather, less noticeable items such as small gifts seemed to be the main target.
One day, a young lad walked in and interrupted my conversation with a gentleman at the till.
He threw himself against the counter with the palm of his hands nervously tapping the wood.
“Scuse me love, you got any *****?”
I cannot remember what he was asking for, but it was something that a bookshop doesn’t sell.
He was wearing one of those navy tracksuits that has a white line down the side and had on a matching baseball cap. His manner was that of someone exerting false confidence, and this made him exceedingly jumpy. It was obvious to me that he was up to no good and Trudy, who had been observing him from the mezzanine floor, was suspicious of him also. She put down the greeting cards she was sorting, to give me moral support by making her presence known.
While Trudy peered over the bannister at him, the young man asked me multiple questions – each one being sillier than the last. Suddenly, he looked up to the mezzanine floor and narrowed his eyes like he was in an optician’s chair trying to read the bottom row of letters.
“Oh, what are those?” he said, racing up the steps.
As I followed him, Trudy and I gave each other a ‘What’s he up to?’ look, and watched him closely.
He grabbed a calendar that was hanging on the wall.
“What is this?” he asked again, staring with mock interest at a picture of a pretty cottage in March.
“It’s a calendar.” I replied.
“A calendar?”
“Yes.”
“What’s a cal-en-dah?”
I took a deep breath and asked God for a special measure of grace.
“Well, it’s er…haven’t you seen one before? It shows you…er, what exactly did you come in for?”
He ignored my response and continued to be in awe of his surroundings. He pointed to the first floor where he could hear a price gun clicking while Louise hummed cheerfully.
“What’s up there?”
I turned around to check the ground floor because I suspected that we were being deliberately distracted from something downstairs. Glancing around at the display tables, I could see everything was in order. Nobody was there. I looked across at the CDs. They were all in place. The store cupboard that held the customer orders was closed and nobody had slipped behind the counter. However, our safe was further behind, so I listened intently for the sound of a metal handle being manipulated. Silence.
Our inquisitive customer decided against visiting Louise, and began to take a second interest in the calendars, marvelling at the flowers on one of our long rectangular ones.
To our surprise, he suddenly decided to leave and made an about turn, leaving a yearly planner swinging from side to side as he let it go abruptly.
What a relief that he was leaving! As we lead him downstairs, he walked slowly, draping his hand down the bannister like he was the star of a period drama. Oddly, he stared intently to the right and peered behind the counter as if checking to see if somebody was there. He seemed both pleased and relieved. I was also pleased and relieved. We had not fallen for his little act and were now ushering him out to the door.
As he shut the door behind him, and dashed up the road, Trudy rolled her eyes and suggested that we take another look around. Everything was fine.
For the next hour, the shop was quiet, and this gave us time to tidy up. A while later, a customer walked in and came up to the till with a book. As the till drawer flung open, it made its usual ping noise. The twenty-pound notes were tucked neatly under their spring clip. The tens were there also. But where were the £5 notes? Earlier, there had been about £65 worth, but now that section was empty.
My stomach flipped and I could feel anger rising. Not anger at the lad – that came later. Anger at myself for being such a fool. We had been conned after all!
“Is it okay to give you your change in coins?” I said trying to hold my emotions together.
I picked up the phone and called Trudy, then Casper, who was in his office on the 3rd floor.
It was so maddening to think that while our ‘friend’ was getting to grips with learning what season of the year we were in, that an accomplice had been downstairs stealthily tilting the heavy till to flick the emergency drawer-release switch that lay beneath. He would have had his other hand on the drawer to prevent it from flinging open and alerting us with its ping.
They must have done this before. I became annoyed at the thought that this gang were somewhere laughing at us and wondering which mugs to con next.
I continued to feel bad for having allowed the shop to suffer this monetary deficit, but I thanked the Lord that Trudy and I had at least been quick enough to prevent the rest of the money from being taken.
But was it really our vigilance that had prevented a large theft?
It was strange how the thief went for the smallest denomination of notes. The tens and twenties were only centimetres away from the fives.
I also thought about how at my previous job working for a bank, we had experienced armed robberies and how scary and dangerous that had been for the colleagues involved. These guys did not threaten us with violence and now we were alert, we could pray more intelligently to prevent it from happening again.
My pride was hurt but my body wasn’t. I could go to sleep at night knowing they emptied the £5 note tray, not our safe. They emptied part of our till, but they didn’t empty bullets into us. This indeed was divine protection and who knows how many times God had stopped the devil from sending dangerous people our way?
