Oh What Fun by Alex Sigmore

Author:Alex Sigmore [Sigmore, Alex]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dark Woods Press
Published: 2023-12-07T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Zara and I spend most of the morning scoping out the local pawn shops. While there are tons all over the city, we start with the smallest ones and move up. If I were a new criminal, looking to unload some hot merchandise, I certainly wouldn’t start by going to the biggest shops in town. The ones with all the security cameras and that have five-star reviews on Yelp. No, I would start at the smallest, shittiest little pawn shop I could find, hoping the owner might be willing to look the other way when I brought in a couple grand worth of jewelry.

What the criminal probably doesn’t know is that most pawn shops report a list of everything they have purchased to the local authorities every day.

Not all shop owners do it, but those that want to stay in business do.

Zara and I pulled the sheets for the past few weeks, looking over them for anything that might stand out, but there wasn’t much. So my guess is either the criminals didn’t use a pawn shop, or they found one who was willing to look in the other direction. Even if they didn’t use one locally, these things always have a system to them—a line of back-room communication where they tend to warn each other of impending threats, like local crackdowns.

“Murray,” I announce with a big smile on my face as we enter America Cash Pawn, which is situated on the southwestern side of the city. It’s a small hole-in-the-wall kind of place, no bigger than a couple thousand square feet and shoved between two other businesses, a Korean barbeque place on one side and an accountant on the other. As far as I know, ACP has been here for the better part of two decades, never changing hands.

“Ugh,” the man behind the counter says. There’s a plexiglass partition which separates the register area so that it’s boxed off from the entire store. There’s a small slot in the front, big enough to pass bills through, then another drawer to the right which would be to transfer any goods. The room also has a door over on the left side, which allows Murray access to the rest of the store.

As for the man himself, he’s heavyset, wearing a white wife-beater, and sports a long beard and very little hair on top of his head. Zara says he resembles a fat Kratos from his mugshot, but I missed her reference.

“Officers,” he says, barely looking up.

“Murray, I’m offended,” I say. “You don’t remember me?”

He finally turns and one eye arches. “Oh. Yeah. Agent Rocks or something.”

“Slate,” I say. “Emily Slate. And I sure remember you. Almost busted for tax evasion, wasn’t it? Skimming off the top?”

He wets his lips with his tongue. “Almost. What do I have to do to get you out of my store?”

“We’re looking for anything you might have heard about a large quantity of stolen jewelry. Would have been new stuff, straight from retail,” Zara says.

Murray leans around me to look at Zara.

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