The Thirteenth Read Online Free Page A

you want.” He waited for some sign of agreement.
    “Yes. Thank you…”
    Shane placed the clear paper on Val’s arm and had just started to copy the image when they heard a clock chime.
    “Oh no! What time is it?” Val looked around hunting for a clock.
    “It’s nine. I’ve finished. You can go, but come back later. OK? I will see what I can find out and should have something for you by then.”
    “I’m late again so pray that my boss isn’t at work. Thank you, Shane. I will see you later.” Val’s eyes started to fill up again. Shane touched her arm and smiled, and all of a sudden Val didn’t feel quite so alone. She hurried onto the road, looking this time for traffic, and sprinted all the way to work with her fingers tightly crossed.
    She arrived to find the shop in darkness. This was excellent; Wallace must still be away. Finally, something was going her way. Hopefully this would have a snowball effect on the rest of the day.
    She unlocked the many locks on the front door. This was how she imagined it must have felt trying to break into Alcatraz. She then chuckled to herself as she entered Wallace’s date of birth into the alarm, listening as its beeping came to an immediate halt.
    She seemed to have packed a lot into the morning, and it was still only just after nine o’clock. She was warm after her frantic rush to the shop so she went to the water cooler and poured herself a cold drink, not caring today how old the water might be. It tasted great.
    Just then, her mobile began ringing; it was Delta.
    “Hello crazy Yank chic,” Val chirped down the phone.
    “I’m not singing so don’t hold your breath. Happy birthday and all. Get anything good?”
    Val looked down at her arm and felt the irony. “Where are you, Delta? We need to talk as soon as possible.”
    “Italy. Why? What’s wrong? You sound odd.”
    Val didn’t want to tell her over the phone; she would never understand. “Don’t worry I will call you in a few days, when you get here, and we can catch up on everything then. OK?”
    “Fine. Did you get my present?” Delta asked.
    “No. Did you post it?”
    “Oh, was I supposed to do that bit myself? Isn’t that Maria’s job? Not to worry, we can go shopping when I get there.”
    “OK, speak to you…” The line went dead before she could say ‘soon’ and Val was alone again. She put away her phone and stood looking around the shop. What to do now? The book. Yes, she needed to look for the book with the picture of the zodiac circle.
    Val walked impatiently up and down the aisles, looking for the book. She knew it hadn’t been sold as to date, she had made a total of four sales and the book hadn’t been one of them. That didn’t mean it couldn’t have been stolen, although that would just be very bad luck. Once again she looked at her arm, ‘ Let’s not tempt fate,’ she thought.
    Val ended up spending most of the morning and early afternoon looking for the book, in between attempting to polish. Just as she was beginning to lose the will to dust one more thing, the doorbell rang and someone entered. Val got her bearings and made her way to the front of the shop.
    “Hello,” Val said, greeting the young blond woman with a smile.
    “Hi. I hope you can help me. I’m looking for a first edition James Joyce ‘The Dubliners’ for my fiancé. It’s his birthday soon and I’ve heard that if anyone has it, you do.” Val tried to give the impression that she knew what the girl wanted, although really she didn’t have the foggiest clue.
    “Please feel free to browse while I go and see if that book is in stock.”
    “Thank you.” The woman set off across the shop and Val took her sorry self behind the counter trying to work out how she was going to get out of this one.
    She vaguely remembered from her interview that Wallace had mentioned a stock list, not computerised, because he’d said he didn’t trust computers. It must be here somewhere she thought, eyeing the various