In Too Deep(38)

"Melina, can I see you in my office?" Jay said when I came in, and a sliver of worry worked through my heart before evaporating.

"Sure Jay. What's wrong?"

Jay led me into the office, leaving the door open which I took as a good sign. "Hey, Cam called me from work yesterday, said you two had a traffic accident on Saturday. He said you had a stiff neck?"

"I've been called worse," I joked, sobering when Jay didn't laugh. "It was minor. Cam's already getting his truck fixed, and I'm taking some ibuprofen for it. It's feeling better from Sunday already."

"All right, but if you feel any pain or limitations, you tell me. I can get Jerry on the evening shift to take care of any restocking or heavy lifting."

I was touched by his concern. "I'm fine Jay, really. Although if you let me borrow your key to the real good stuff you keep locked away in the pharmacy, I won't tell anyone."

He laughed this time at my joke, waving me off. "All right, get up there and do your shift. Just take it easy today."

I headed back up front, taking over the register from the person who’d opened the pharmacy. With school starting, Jay said he would use me mostly in opening and mid-day shifts in order to try and let me and Cam have similar work times. Of course, that didn't mean I wouldn't sometimes be asked to do a weekend shift, but that was unavoidable.

Since it was the middle portion of a Tuesday, I really didn't have too much to do. There were about at most three or four customers an hour until four o'clock, when the after school moms and some of the older kids from the nearby junior high school would begin to trickle in. I didn't even have another co-worker to talk with, as the pharmacist, a nice guy named Tim who'd I'd exchanged a total of two dozen words within the entire time I'd been in Truth or Consequences (normally consisting of Hi, Tim and Good night, Tim) stayed behind his counter the whole time.

About fifteen minutes before I got off shift, I saw something that caught my attention. Glancing up, my blood ran cold as I recognized the same two guys I'd seen the week before, once again hanging out near the snack aisle, which gave them a clear view of me at the front of the store. This time, though, I had a whole laundry list of other things to associate with them besides just being weirdos.

The two guys approached, again with an intense, ugly look on their faces. My relief was counting out the register, so they had to wait a minute, both of them staring at me almost the whole time. With them so close, the malicious intent practically radiated off of them, and I decided to take a risk. Grabbing my phone, I turned around and took a ‘selfie’.

I quickly snapped the photo, making sure that the two guys were visible in the background. One of them was very clearly shown, in what would have nearly been a photo-bomb if it had been unintentional. I immediately turned back around and gave my co-worker a shoulder hug. "See you tomorrow!”

Not giving the two guys a chance to react, I went to the back and clocked out, hanging out for a good ten minutes just to make sure they were gone. While I was waiting, Jay came in. "Hey, Tim just said you were taking a selfie up front?"

I nodded. "Yeah, sorry. I wasn't trying to actually take a selfie, just that the two guys who were at the register had come in when I was in training. They really give off a creepy vibe, so I wanted to get photos of them. If I see them again I'd like to look at what can be done. I'm not saying they're dangerous, just . . . creepy."

Jay considered it, then held his hand out. "Can I see? I'll keep my eye out if they return."

I handed over my phone, and Jay took a look. “Well, that one guy definitely doesn’t seem like the nicest fellow. I'll walk you out today just to be safe.”

I didn't feel the need for it but was grateful as Jay escorted me to my car. "I'll keep an eye out. And make sure Cam knows, okay?"

He didn't need to worry about that. As soon as Cam got home, I showed him my phone. "Those two guys were back," I said. "But this time, I got a photo.”

I thought Cam would have been happy, but instead, he seemed a little peeved. "What?"

"I should have told you earlier, after the last time I slipped a hack into Jay's computer system," he said. "I could have pulled the images off his security cameras just as easily as downloading them from your camera."

I blinked then shook my head. "Just how much of this town do you have wired up?"

“Most of it. I can monitor traffic cameras, access city and county records, and I have full access to everything in the school district as well. Jay's is one of the few private businesses I've tapped.”

"Seriously? So the last time I said something, you pulled up the footage."

Cam shook his head. "I went by and slipped in the tap afterward, but Jay's security isn't all that great. By then, his system had already looped around and deleted the security footage from his hard drive."

"So you can go in there now and get images as well as these, right?"

“I plan on it. I should be able to figure out who they are and who they work fore.”

"So what do we do in the meantime?" I asked. Cam grinned and I felt a warm flush go through me. "Okay, that's one idea."

But first things first. It was actually pretty cool watching Cam pull out Albertine and download my images. He established a link through his other computer to Jay's security system. "Hey, you want to see the payroll for last month?" Cam asked jokingly. "You know, if you want me to add a zero somewhere."