Was she stealing it for herself or was she stealing it for him? Had she thought she would get away with it? The searing sound of the sirens seemed to have smashed both of these questions into irrelevance. An alarm had been triggered. Security had been called.
The prize, her goal had been on display in the shopping mall. A simple comic book. A simple, first edition, original. So simple it had been photocopied and then signed by its author. In a simpler time. A time before he spawned one of the most successful graphic novels ever written. A time before he had been killed in a car wreck.
Becky had seen it on display, not for sale, and coveted it. And as she coveted it a plan had begun to formulate in her mind. A way to possess it. Even if it was just temporarily because she knew, deep down she could feel it, that if she gave it to Todd then he would know, finally know, how she felt about him.
Except it hadn’t been as simple as that. Her hands trussed in her lap in the mall’s security office were evidence enough of that.
Let’s Get Pets – the shop Becky worked in was two units down from the comic book store and it seemed like the simplest thing in the world to use the fire door at the back to let herself into the concrete guts of the mall. After all there were no security cameras in there.
Except it hadn’t been as simple as that either. Standing behind her were two security guards who were weighing up the consequences of her actions.
The front of every store was heavily armed with metal shutters so a frontal assault was never an option. Once the blast shield came down that was, as the saying goes, that. But Becky knew the fire doors at the back of the shops weren’t alarmed because shop assistants used them when they nipped outside for a sneaky ciggy.
Getting through the fire door of the comic book store hadn’t been problematic at all. It was amazing the opening power of a chisel slammed into a door just so. Becky had suspected that the glass case that held the artefact would be alarmed. That is to say that touching it would alert security rather than the container being perturbed by her presence.
“Why did you do it?”
She’d only seen one of the security guards but she knew there were two of them and so far hadn’t answered any of their questions. Her eyes just stared straight ahead at the photocopied treasure that her antagonist had thrown carelessly close to a half-drunk cup of tea.
He came from behind and leaned in close to her, close enough that she could smell his stale sweat. Putting his right hand on the top of her head he put his mouth against her ear, moved her hair out of the way with his free hand and spoke.
“We don’t have to tell the police.”
His breath getting heavier against her cheek but Becky just stared straight ahead not reacting. Staring at the comic. Thinking for a second about Todd.
The security guard told her what they could do; call the police, call the comic book store manager and let him decide or they could just return it and let her go. If she was what he described in a whisper as ‘co-operative’.
He leaned in closer still, his tongue flicked out and touched her earlobe then back into his mouth. She tried to suppress a shudder as she felt the saliva evaporate on her skin.
It had been strange in the darkness of the comic book store. Such a familiar place rendered completely foreign by an act as simple as turning out the lights. Becky had taken a moment to get her bearings and then went straight for the target display.
Their timing was impeccable, like in a movie where the cops had been tailing a master criminal. Except there was no way they could have known she was in there. But it seemed they did. As soon as she had the comic in her hands, before she even had the opportunity to relish the precious thing, to open it even, the shutters of the store began to rise.
His breath smelled of rotten hamburgers, she still didn’t answer just tilting her head a fraction away from him. Becky heard the footsteps of the other guard come over and the first man stood upright. He was intervening, she thought, stopping this pervert in his tracks.
It was silent behind her but the communication that had passed between them had made the first guy mad as hell. He started shouting, saying how guard number two had no business telling him what how to do his job.
“You’ve been here – what? A week? You know how long I’ve been doing this? Eight years!”
Becky just kept staring, thinking of how she could get out of this. How she got into this. Then both the guards’ intercoms burst into life with words and hissing.
“Stay here, keep an eye on her,” said the first guard and stormed out of the room.
“Thank you,” said Becky finally.
“Don’t thank me yet,” said a voice. A familiar voice.
He leaned forward and dropped a can of pepper spray in her lap.
“When he comes back,” said Todd, leaning into Becky’s view. “Spray him with this, grab that and run for it. If you turn left as soon as you get out of the office there’s a fire door that leads to the car park.”
Becky smiled. “But what the hell are you doing dressed like that?”
“Got the job as a cover to nick that,” he gestured towards the comic, pausing for a second before looking back at Becky. “For you, actually. To, erm…”
“Impress me?” she said.
“Yeah,” his cheeks flushed. “Something like that. Doesn’t look as though it worked. It was my cack-handed attempt to get it that got you caught. He was…”
Becky leaned forward and allowed her lips to touch his. Just for a second.
“Erm,” he said succinctly.
“I was trying to get it for you,” she smiled then kissed him again. He looked less confused by it this time.
The sound of footsteps echoed in the hall outside and the first security guard came back in.
“Now, where was I?” he moved across the floor, shoving Todd out of the way leaning in once more to Becky. “Have you made a decision?”
His screaming was loud in the tiny office. He hurled himself backwards, clawing at his eyes as Becky grabbed the prize, winked at Todd and bolted through the door, out of the mall and into the freedom of the car park outside.
