Fatal Divisions by Claire Booth

Author:Claire Booth
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780727889973
Publisher: Severn House Publishers
Published: 2020-05-27T00:00:00+00:00

TWENTY

Vic Melnicoe arrived right on time for his shift at Number Four. The sweet female clerk, whose name Hank realized he hadn’t gotten, left in a battered sedan. He hoped that what he was about to do wouldn’t end up costing her a job. He had a great vantage point from the gas station across the street, which was also busy enough to mask the fact that he’d been sitting there in the BMW much longer than an ordinary customer. And he had to say, this car was ruining him for surveillance in anything else. He’d never be comfortable in his cruiser again, with its lack of satellite radio, heated seats, and leather upholstery.

His plan was to wait a little for Melnicoe to settle into his shift and then go in and buy something else. He mainly wanted to get a sense of the guy before he called Fin. He had a feeling he would need every bit of information possible in order to convince her to call the police. He sipped at his industrial-sized gas station Diet Pepsi and watched the manager go into the back room several times. Then he planted himself in front of the second cash register. It looked like he was ringing up purchases, but there were no customers. In some other retail store, Hank would have thought he was working on online orders, but last-century Lew had no internet presence. The guy was bent intently to his task. It looked like a good time to interrupt.

Hank drove back over and walked in with a bounce in his step. He walked right up to the counter before Melnicoe had a chance to hide the paperwork next to the register. It appeared to be an inventory list. Some items were checked off and others weren’t.

‘Hi, there. How you doing today?’ Hank smiled. ‘I was wondering if you could help me. I’m looking for something for my little girl. I’ve been gone a while – business trip, you see – and I got one more sales call to make, so I’m in a bit of a hurry. You got anything I could grab real quick and take home to give her?’

Melnicoe blinked in surprise and took an involuntary step back under the force of Hank’s monologue. He was in his late twenties and on the skinny side, with a curly brown nest of hair atop a thin, pinched face and big, wide-set eyes that continued to blink rapidly. Hank leaned in, placing his hands on the counter and moving his smiling face much closer to the stack of papers.

‘Yes, um, of … of course,’ Melnicoe stuttered. He took another step back. By now, Hank was practically hovering over the counter. He was able to get a glimpse of the register’s monitor, which showed a purchase of more than three hundred dollars. A person could buy a whole aisle worth of merchandise for that kind of money. He wasn’t able to see much else because Melnicoe moved away from the counter and walked hesitantly toward the aisles.

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