Chapter Two

Corrina pushed the box of charms off to the side and propped her elbows against the counter to go over the ledger again. A stray beam of sunlight bounced off of the sun catchers in the window, painting her face with warm hues of gold and red, autumn colors.

Pete took the moment of quiet to study her face, taking in the sight. He found his eyes being drawn to Corrina’s checks where the colored lights brought out many freckles, sunspots and moles that speckled her forehead and cheekbones. The spots grow ever larger and darker as they crept into her hairline and out of sight, he knew even underneath that soft hair they did not disappear or fade.

She wore her long hair down this morning, It framed her face with it’s long dark-mousy-brown wavy, velvety locks that flowed over her shoulders.

And because there were never any customers during these hours on the weekdays, she’d left her signature oversized floppy sun hat on the hat stand. No longer hidden under the hat her expressive finlike ear fringes, long, and stripped with flashes of orange, white, and brown, were allowed to sway and bob softly as she tilt her head this way and that, reading the shop’s purchase and sale logs. The left one had a habit of twitching whenever she lost count and it seemed the entry Corrina was going over at the moment was a tricky one.

“Pete, would you check the register? I think I forgot my pen over there and I need it to work this math out.” Corrina broke his trailing thoughts with the request, waving a hand in the direction of the old cash register she’d bought off of a retiring antiques salesman shortly after they bought the shop.

He stood up gingerly and walked over to the clunky machine. She bought it ages ago from an antiques store going out of business and loved the dumb thing to death.

First inspection around the counter space revealed no pen. “I don’t see one, maybe you leave it somewhere else?”

“It might have gotten mixed in with the cash while I was counting out change for tomorrow. Check the money drawer,” She said, not looking up from the task at hand.

He clicked the money drawer out and checked amongst the loose notes and coins. Everything was as it should be, but no pen.

“It’s not in here, maybe Prof. Ryder took it.” He called into the back room then turned around to do another, more thorough search.

His eyes were pretty sharp, so he was fairly certain it wasn’t in the area but he was almost as human as any other man… Almost. Being able to hide inside of a penguin skin and the years training himself to be a very successful phantom thief always made things a little more interesting.

“Well if you see her, could you ask about it? I really liked that pen.” Corrina’s voice called out and he could hear her move further… Probably searching the desk in the back room.

Oh, speak of the devil, Pete glanced up in time to see Prof. Ryder climbing out of her car with a brown paper bag. She tapped on the glass door and waved at him before she entered.

“Hey, I brought some supplies. I picked up some stuff I’ll need if you’re going to leave Tressa with me, and here,” She said and then pulled out a box of donuts. “Doctor’s orders. I even got some jelly ones for Corrina.”

Pete couldn’t stop himself from making a sound of mild annoyance. Prof. Ryder was always bringing back donuts whenever he got hurt.

Corrina laughed from the back room when she heard Pete’s groan. “You’re only kidding yourself, Pete. We all know how much you enjoy Ryder’s donut runs.”

“I really do like the donuts, Prof. Ryder, but sometimes I wish you’d just get me pain meds after I’ve been shot.” Pete smirked and gave a half chuckle.

Ryder caught the look in his eye and smiled back. “Nonsense. Here, eat this and be happy,” she laughed, holding out a custard filled one.

Pete accepted it and took a bite to satisfy the old family friend. It was still warm from the rack and tasted wonderful. The carbs and sugar were a nice boost after transforming, especially being wounded. He returned to his rest chair and sat down, wincing at the pain when he accidentally bumped his injury. Prof. Ryder started taking items out of the sack and putting them on the counter.

“Did you borrow Corrina’s pen, by any chance?” He asked, licking the last of the glaze off his fingers.

“No, I haven’t seen it…” Ryder’s voice dropped a little lower, aware of Corrina listening in the other room. “She lost it? That’s so unlike her, you don’t think somethings wrong, or…”

Pete felt his heart drop to a dark place in the pit of his stomach hearing the hope in her voice. Prof. Ryder was always making Corrina’s actions out to mean more then they did. “No, it’s probably nothing. People lose pens all the time.” he said, answering the unspoken question.

Prof. Ryder gave a soft sigh. “Oh… you’re right, sorry.” Before she went back to the task of doing inventory.

Pete leaned back and glanced suspiciously at the shop window. He’d been bothered by it all morning… some unsettling feeling. Nothing looked suspicious, and with the exception of a single, cheap ball-point pen, everything was in it’s place. He closed his eyes and tried to relax. A slight breeze brushed the wind chimes outside and set them off. There was something in the air, his animal instincts told him that much.

Maybe it was nothing, or the weather changing. It was late october, and fall was just barely starting to touch their home and town.

CRASH!

Startled awake with his heart racing he jumped out of his chair. A loud racket had came from the back room where Corrina was, and in two heartbeats he was at the door archway, ready to beat someone to the next galaxy.

“Ouch… Ah, sorry Pete, the books… they… fell down.” Corrina brushed her hair back from her face where it’d come loose from her hair clips, and looked at the pile of ledgers scattered around her in confusion. “I must have knocked them all over when I was putting the other one back, I wasn’t really paying attention.”

Pete felt the adrenaline fade from his body with the escaping breath of relief, and immediately remembered why he was suppose to be in bed-rest or at least sitting down. The pain turned his sigh of relief into a hiss of pain as he staggered, catching himself on the door frame. The books fell? Now he knew something was amiss.

“Pete, you’re bleeding!” Corrina gasped. He looked down at his side. The stitches must have torn when he jumped up, for there was a new stain on his shirt. “I’m alright, Corrina,” He straightened and walked over to her, looking over her for any injuries. She almost protested and he knew if it were any other time she’d be insisting that she wanted to check his side first.

There was a slight bruise forming on the side of her cheek, but she looked okay. He felt the rage creep up, but there was no target for him to take it out on, so Pete submitted after he was satisfied that she had no serious injuries.

“Alright, sorry for the fuss. You scared me,” Pete said softly, surrendering to her inspection.

“Come here, let me see you.” Corrina reached over and pulled him by the shirt tail until he was close enough pushed his shirt up. She examined his reopened wound and made a soft pity sound. The bandage was stained, no duh because the shirt was stained too. “I thought so. We’re gonna have to get Prof. Ryder to redo these stitches.”

“The books, your pen… This doesn’t add up to normal. I’ve had a odd feeling that something was off about the place ever since this morning.” Pete explained as his wife called for Prof. Ryder to bring the first aid kit.

“We need check those logs for whatever the person broke in here for. The pen and books suggest they were after some information and needed to jolt it down.” He looked at the books scattered around the floor, wondering what anyone could find of interest in them. They were just inventories and records for the store, nothing involving the thief or myths. Maybe someone could use them as proof for a small case of tax evasion a couple years back but that’s all!

“A list of names maybe? Maybe they think we’re using the shop as a cover for some other business.” Corrina suggested.

Pete nodded. It would make sense, if someone knew who they were. “But why target us? Why go through the shop records?”

Corrina tapped her fingers together and hummed, her habit when she was thinking back on earlier events.

“The only thing I can think that’d connect this shop to mythological type…is… your dads came here the other day. They were just letting me know that the search for Tressa’s family hasn’t gone anywhere, but maybe someone followed them here?”

Prof. Ryder came into the room with the first aid kit with enough time to catch most of the conversation and had a very serious expression. “Corrina’s right. Sounds like your parents’ work has gotten you tangled up in some of their business. Why someone connected… This is serious Pete, if they connected the Phantom Thief to your parents and found this shop, it could mean your secret is on the line. I hope you understand what a two trillion dollar bounty¹ on your head will do.”

“Bah, they don’t have any proof! Look, all I’m concerned about is these pirates. Unfortunately we don’t have any proof either, and it’s not like we could involve the police anyways, most of our kind are like Tressa, completely unsuited for this world covered in humans. If they can’t even accept each other for a slight variation in skin, love, or belief, why would they accept monsters and freaks like us?” Pete said, the burning from the torn stitches giving his tone a sharper edge than he intended.

Ryder’s eyes flashed the dark grey that always reminded Pete of vault doors as she administered the general anesthetic. “There really aren’t many humans like your dads and me…” She gave a sad shake of her head. “Most of them wouldn’t believe the half of it. And then there are those who think it’d be fun to have zoos full of myths, and the ones who want their own piece of mythology, which you know all too well, Corrina.”

“That’s it, I’ll get started with those background checks on Mullings.” Corrina declared, wheeling her chair around. The memory that she’d been kept as a pet by one of those later type of people fueled a sense of urgency. Pete really couldn’t blame her.

“The Prof. will probably let you use her computer, it’d be a good idea to get out of the shop for a while. Take Tressa and go stay with there, if this has anything to do with those… pirates… we don’t want them to find a chance to abduct you two.” Pete said, waiting patiently for Prof. Ryder to finish stitching him up again.

Corrina gave a short nod, understanding what he meant. With her ears and tail ever present, and Tressa’s owl head, there was no way of keeping the guise of normal humans up if someone wanted to expose them. Pete’s human form was easier to hide in, completely human looking and with the exception of his blond streak no one would guess he was shifter that could turn into penguin.

“I’ll be fine here and keep an eye open for more suspicious things, keep the store running smoothly, beat up any fool who tries coming here with anything but sun-catchers and wind-chimes on their mind, announce a heist for the grand re-opening of that old treasure exhibit… you know, the usual.”

“Pete! I know you consider it a pleasant idea to spend the rest of your retired life as a bird, but who’s going to explain how the Phantom Thief escaped high security prison and left nothing behind but a penguin?” She exclaimed as she pinned the last of the gauze around his waist.

Corrina giggled behind a fist and Prof. Ryder paused to consider what she just said to Pete.

“That sounds like the ultimate grand finale for my show, wouldn’t you think so, Prof.?” Pete chuckled, buttoning his shirt up over the bandages.

Ryder shook her head as she put the first aid supplies back into the box. “One of these days, Pete. It’s bad enough they’ve gotten to the point where they’re shooting at you again. Though I must say your fanatics certainly provided quite the riot after that. Being a celebrity is quite the effort. All this talk about Sherlock Holmes, A. Lupin, even Houdini. Ever feel like you’re cheating?”

“What, by being creative with my natural born ability? Nah, a magician never reveals his secrets, it’s part of the fun! and the fans are still calling, what with all these rumors that I’m dead. Maybe I should put on a show again soon.” He got that evil glint in his eye. “I heard there’s a new museum exhibit curtsy of a certain man trying to bribe mayor votes… our friend Mullings.”

Corrina frowned, her ears twitching back. “I don’t think so,” she said and poked his side, making Pete yelp. “Not until you’re better. Now go sit down and don’t pull those stitches again.”

Pete winced and gingerly rubbed his side. “Okay, okay, I surrender. But I’m not going to nap, I want to be working. Ryder, you wouldn’t mind helping me bring my chair into the backroom, would you? I want to go through the files and see what I can find that might be interesting for the sneak.”

“Sure, no problem Pete, besides, your wife would have my head if I dared let you do it yourself.” Ryder laughed and Corrina wiggled a finger at her.

“Well, with you two doing that, I’ll go pack some bags for Tressa and myself.” Corrina turned to Prof. Ryder and directed the next part to her. “You don’t mind if I put them in the trunk of your car, do you?

“You don’t even need to ask, dear.” Ryder called out over her shoulder as she picked up the chair and carried it into the back room.

“Thank you, by the way. For taking them in while we get this situation settled.” Pete said as he gathered up the loose ledgers.

“Huh? Oh, don’t worry about it, Pete. You know I consider you all to be family. Please, Tressa’s like a granddaughter to me. I’ll love having them over, it’ll be a nice change of pace having some life back in that old house.”

Pete put the stack of ledgers on the counter next to his chair and gave the kind older woman a hug.

She returned it lightly, careful not to squeeze his side. “Don’t worry, they’ll be safe with me. Just get these guys and keep that secret identity of yours to yourself.”

He nodded and turned his attention back the the ledgers. If he was going to find anything, it’d be in those.