It All Started with a Sticky Note

Chapter 2: Unwanted News

***** Dedicated to imabooknerd13 for making my amazing cover, Thanks! *******

The bakery bell rang shrilly as we entered the warm smelling store. Roosevelt was looking grudgingly at us from the street post because he wasn’t allowed to come in and view the case of cookies for himself. Since we wanted to be quick, I decided to just purchased three pig cookies and a raspberry Danish for Cecelia. A new young lady was running the shop by herself for the time it seemed. She looked like the right girl for the job, her red hair was pulled into a neat bun as she efficiently sorted the goodies onto each shelf, which is more then I can say about the previous employees. 

“How can I help you there?” The girl said in a soft, kind voice. After we ordered she gave us an equally warm smile.

 As the collaged aged employee was bagging our snack Mr. Dillard, the head baker, appeared from the back with a fresh batch of cookies. I’d have to say with pride that I was the most well known costumer at Dillard’s bakery. Just as we were leaving he repeated a familiar line:

“Awe shucks, your dog is always making me feel sorry for him – and I don’t even like dogs, but since he’s such a well behaved beast, I’ll give him a cookie. It’s on the house. See you tomorrow Avery.”

We thanked him and headed back to the library, but not two minutes on our way back from our Danish mission Roosevelt started whining for his treat.

“That dogs got x-ray vision!” Stefani exclaimed.

“I wish, Mr. Dillard just spoils him so much he expects it.”

We tied Roosevelt up to the bike rack and I gave him his pink iced cookie, but I removed the chocolate chip eye, since it was bad for dogs and popped it in my mouth. We walked In the library, expecting to see Cecelia but she was absent from her desk.

“I’ll just put it in her desk drawer, since food in here isn’t appreciated. Be back in a sec.”

I told Stefani so she turned to look at the new releases to see if anything interested her. I walked behind the desk, not looking to suspicious because there were only a handful of people in the library. I opened the drawer to put the brown bag in when I saw it: a brown paper bag, the size of a lunch sack with my name written on it. I casually reached for it and put it in my backpack and walked over to Stefani just as Cecelia was coming out of the staff bathroom. I turned and gave her one of Tracy’s innocent smiles.

“Oh- Cecelia, they didn’t have any bagels so we got you a pastry, hope it suits you fine.”

“I didn’t expect you to be back so soon, oh but, um.... the Danish is fine thank you. I expect I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Is Sharon coming back? If not, I still wont see you tomorrow, its Saturday-“ I started.

“Must have slipped my mind, well since we have the day off tomorrow I’ll see you on Monday then. Unfortunately Sharon wont be back until the end of fall, if she’s coming back at all, I suppose.”

Then she picked up the phone to inform some families that their books are overdue, as if she was avoiding the subject.

I walked home, not in an amazing mood, for that I blame the heat, even though I knew the main reason was I didn’t see someone I had expected to see. I warned Roosevelt:

“No running you hear? I’m not going to catch heat stroke.”

Stefani and I walked home in almost silence, she caught I was disappointed about my morning, so she gave me a suggestion.

“Why don’t we call Mac when we get home? Maybe I can talk to him; I doubt he’s mad at you, maybe just struck a little. Anyhow, you can’t beat yourself about this, its not like you were going to marry him or anything.”

I stopped her right there.

“I don’t like him.” I started, but I was interrupted.

“Nonsense, you weren’t head over heels and you didn’t show you liked him, but I know you cared for him weather as a friend or not.”

I attempted to hide my shock, I was surprised she knew something and dint tell me though I couldn’t decide if my strong feelings were from a friend or foe point of view. Like I said, sometimes my mind has a mind of its own, and there are times I cant uncover its meaning.  

Now we really were walking in silence, but I didn’t mind it. Fifteen minutes later we were walking in the driveway, there were no cars yet Roosevelt was barking like mad. I shot a confused look at Stefani and she returned it. I ran out back, expecting to see Tracy maybe hurt under the swing, or crying from her fear of heights from the tree house. But she wasn’t there. I decided to run into the house, she was probably in her room, cleaning like the procrastinator she was.  The backdoor was opened which was unusual so I shot up the stairs, I rushed into Tracy’s room but it looked just as I had left it, bed unmade, clean cloths in a laundry basket on the floor but not hung up. I ran back outside, her paint wasn’t even poured for her painting. I started panicking, yelling her name.

Calm down Avery, I told myself you are overreacting; she’s not gone... Just...On a walk.

Stefani came outside with a puzzled look on her face.

“Avery, there’s a sticky note.”

I told you so, a voice inside my head said, there’s a sticky note so she did go on a walk.

I walked inside to view the note from Tracy, I recognized her hand righting, neater then the average kid but still blocked letters, it read:

They are at the back door with masks but I can hear an accent. They are looking around the house for something, not money. They are saying words like –

...And then some words were crossed out, almost as if they read it but wanted me to see it, just not what they were saying. Now my stomach was acing more then before, I felt like I needed to go and sleep for a week straight. Stefani read and re-read the letter, not believing something like this was happening. Not believing she was involved in it. I looked around the house, nothing looked different then when we left, and hour ago, it just seemed empty. It felt almost hollow. I stood there, staring, thinking. Roosevelt’s barking brought me back to the present.

Avery!, I told myself, you need to stay focused!

Looking back I am a bit ashamed to say that along with fear, I felt excitement – this was a real mystery, and I had to solve it.