Page 41 of The Attercop

Mrs B prepared her morning coffee and warmed her bran muffin. She filled Duck’s water bowl and refilled his kibble dish, then, snuggled up in her robe, she retrieved the morning paper from the front door of her sister’s house. As Mrs B settled in at the kitchen table, ready to ease herself into the day, she realised that her reading glasses were nowhere to be found. After a ten-minute search, she surmised that she must have left them sitting on her desk at work. She looked around for a spare pair that she often kept in the kitchen, but they too seemed to have magically disappeared.

“Damn,” she muttered.

Duck lifted his head from his kibble bowl and looked at her.

She stared at him for a moment. Her routine had been interrupted, but she wasn’t about to let it ruin her day. She glanced at the clock on the stove. Seven-oh-five. She sighed. There was only one thing to do. Mrs B stood and walked to her room to get dressed. As she put on her jacket, she poked her head into the kitchen. “Come on, boy. We’re going to work early today.”

Duck stood, shook himself and walked with her to the front door.

They made their way to the LRT, disembarking from the C-train at the Sunnyside Station, and walked what normally would have been ten minutes to the office. Duck’s sniffing at every lamp post and garbage bin added at least another ten minutes to the trip, not that Mrs B was in any hurry. It was a beautiful morning.

As she arrived at the street-level door of the office, she noticed Gwen hadn’t opened the café yet. Perhaps she was still in the back baking. Mrs. B would pick up a few sweets for the boys after she had read her paper. She headed up the stairs and opened the main door of the office, punching in the code before the alarm went off. Declan and Charlie would definitely not be pleased if she woke them this early. She knew they’d probably been out late the night before celebrating Charlie’s birthday and were likely still asleep in the apartment above the office.

Mrs B dropped the leash, went to her desk and fetched her glasses. As she slipped them onto her face, Duck began snuffling about, dragging his leash behind him. He wove back and forth, his nose glued to the floor. Eventually he stopped in front of the washroom door. He rose up and scratched at it.

“What in heaven’s name are you doing?”

He turned and looked at her, then barked loudly.

“Shush, or you’ll wake up the boys.”

Duck frantically started to scratch at the door, like he was trying to dig his way through it.

“What’s up with you, you crazy dog?”

She got a hold of the leash and pulled him away. He immediately pulled back to the door and barked.

“Fine. I’ll open the door for you.”

As soon as she opened it, she saw the problem. The glass in the lower window of the washroom was missing. She dropped Duck’s leash and the dog sniffed around then took off. She followed him. Duck snuffled around the floor like he was tracking a scent. He hovered by the entrance to Charlie’s office, sniffing into the room before quickly leaving and heading into Declan’s office. He continued snuffling toward the door that led to the apartment stairs.

Mrs B felt a strange chill.

She led Duck back to her desk. “Sit! Stay!” she said, and the dog obeyed. After closing the door so he couldn’t sneak back into Declan’s office, she headed to the apartment stair doorway.

Please don’t let anything bad have happened.

She opened the door and called up. “Declan, it’s Joan. Is everything all right?”

She stood for a moment, then heard some rustling. Declan appeared at the top of the stairs in his underwear. He looked particularly bleary-eyed.

“Mrs B. What are you doing in so early?”

From out in the main room Duck barked.

“No time for that right now,” she said. “You’d better put something on and come downstairs.”

She went back to the dog and examined her desk to see if anything was out of place, but everything seemed exactly as she’d left it the day before.

In a few minutes Declan and Charlie stepped out of the office, dressed in jeans and rumpled T-shirts.

“Sorry to bother you, but I forgot my reading glasses here, so I decided to come in early. Duck and I came in to get them and he sensed something was wrong. He kept trying to get into the washroom. When I looked…well, go see for yourself.”

Declan and Charlie disappeared into the washroom for a moment then returned.

“The alarm was on when you came in?” Declan asked Mrs B.

She nodded.