She stepped behind a shelving unit and texted June. The Grim Reaper pinched my duck.
June texted back three question marks, and then, Is that sex?
NOT SEX. PINCHED = STOLE. HE STOLE MY DUCK. DOT’S WOODEN DUCK. HE IS A FUCKING CON ARTIST.
Chapter Eleven
Unsure what to do next, Laurie flopped down on a bench with a PLEASE DO NOT SIT sign taped to it and put her head in her hands. She didn’t have the original agreement that had said he would take the duck to be appraised. They’d transformed it into his receipt when she sold him the duck for fifty dollars. All he’d had to do was lop off the top and produce the bottom, and it showed that she willingly handed the thing over—which, of course, she had.
She had the appraisal that was forged, that she could show was forged, but nobody had any way of knowing that he made it or gave it to her, that it was his scam rather than hers. Will talk later, have to think, she had texted to June, but what was there to think about?
She heard the phone ring over at Captain America’s counter and started to walk that way. “Sea Spray, this is Daisy.” A pause. “Hi, Matt.” Matt. “Not busy, no. Couple people in and out. Sold that clown lamp.” Beat, beat, beat. “For sure, you bet. Will do. Yes, I remember. Yes. No, I know. Okay, bye.” Laurie came around the end of an aisle just in time for Daisy to mutter “and fuck you too, chucklehead,” then look up at Laurie in horror. “Oh. God, sorry,” she said.
Laurie came closer. Daisy was sitting on a stool behind the counter, putting her straight black hair back in a short ponytail. “That’s okay,” Laurie said with a smile. “I’ve had some crazy bosses.” She hesitated. “I’m not going to say anything.” She made a lip-zipping gesture with one hand and threw away the invisible key.
Daisy smiled. “Thank you. Long day, that’s all.”
“Yeah.” Laurie walked over until she was only a few feet from the counter and started to skim a couple of shelves of paperbacks with her eyes while ignoring them with every one of her brain cells. “So, have you worked here long?” she asked.
“Yeah, about seven years. Since I was in high school.” Daisy started picking at her nails, which were polished blue.
“I see you like Captain America,” Laurie said.
Daisy looked down at her shirt. “Oh, yeah.”
“You took his side in Civil War?”
Daisy shrugged. “Oh, I don’t know, but I go with Cap anytime it’s him or Iron Man, who’s just a rich arms dealer and doesn’t belong with superheroes in the first place. I mean, if I had a bulletproof AI suit that shot lasers out of my hands, I’d be brave, too, right?” She pointed at the Claws shirt Laurie was wearing. “Are you from Calcasset?”
“Oh, yeah, I grew up there.”
“I used to go to camp over there. Camp Smithson.”
“The arts camp? My brother was a counselor there when he was in college. Probably about 2004 to 2008-ish? Ryan Sassalyn?”
Daisy broke into a grin. “Did he sing Bye Bye Birdie all the time?”
“That’s the one.”
“Your brother was Hot Ryan!” Daisy pulled her head back, like Laurie had just shown off an Olympic medal. “Not for me personally, since men are not my jam and weren’t my jam even when I was twelve, but everybody liked him. Tell him Daisy Sun says hi. I was into painting, so he didn’t work with me as much, but one of my cabinmates fell off a bench in the dining hall trying to squeeze in next to him.”
“Yeah,” Laurie said, “that sounds like Ryan.” She took a step away from the books and toward Daisy. “Do you still paint?”
“When I can. My girlfriend is a musician—she plays at a bar that’s down on the water—so sometimes she writes music and I paint and we drink green juice with chia seeds and shit and it’s just hippie-dippie-skippy. It’s how I unwind after a long day dusting the clocks.” Daisy picked up an apple that had been under the counter and bit into it. She chewed and watched Laurie stand by the books, clearly not actually looking at them. “Is there something else? I’m really sorry about before.”
“No, it’s funny, because, I actually—” Laurie gave a dry laugh. “As it happens, I actually came here looking for your boss. The chucklehead?”
The effort Daisy made not to roll her eyes was visible. “You’re looking for Matt?” She was nervous again. “Do you know him?”
Laurie shook her head. “No. I definitely don’t. I thought I did.”