"It's okay," she said, giving me a small little smile. We got started by her going over the basics of the register system, which was nearly identical to the system I'd used in Lima. Most registers nowadays are, after all. You scan, the system pops the price, you go to the next item. If something doesn't scan you can either put it in by the UPC or SKU code, or for prescriptions and other items like that you used a customer code that was generated by the pharmacy techs in the back. The system was nearly foolproof, which was probably a testament to the ability for people to screw it up.
By eleven o'clock I was fully confident in being able to do the job, and Kelly also could see I knew what I was doing. "So what had you move to this dump?" she asked, shifting to small talk. "No offense, just that this isn't exactly a popular place for new people to move. Hell, even with the Spaceport thirty miles away nobody wants to move here."
“I don’t know if you know him, but I’m dating Cam Swagger," I said simply. "We met on vacation."
"Oh, Mr. Swagger? You're dating him?"
"You know Cam?" I said. "How?"
Kelly blushed and twisted her hands in front of her. "He uhm, he was my English teacher last year. I really liked his class."
"So how is Cam as a teacher? I've never seen him in the classroom," I said, "although I got to watch him a bit with the basketball team."
"Mr. Swagger's awesome," Kelly said enthusiastically. "He didn't talk down to us or anything, but still you could tell he expected us to work hard and he was always pushing us to do better."
The rest of the shift went quietly, until right before the end. I was going over end of shift procedures with Kelly, who was showing me the checklist I needed to go over each time before handing off the register. The little electronic chime over the door buzzed, and I looked up to see two men come in. There was nothing all that out of the ordinary about them, there'd been at least a dozen other men just like them coming in and out during the shift, so I ignored them at the time.
As I went over the checklist again, I got the weirdest feeling and glanced up. There was nothing in sight, but when I looked into the old fashioned security mirrors in the corners of the store I saw both men standing in the middle of one of the back aisles, looking up at the mirror. I swore they were looking at Kelly and I. "What the?"
“What’s wrong?" Kelly asked, and I shook my head. "What is it?"
"I just swear that those two guys who came in are staring at us," I said quietly. "See them in the mirror?"
Kelly glanced up then looked over. "Maybe they think you're cute."
“With that look? I don't think so. Are they locals?"
Kelly looked up again, then shook her head. "I don't think so. I've never seen them before. Want me to do a walk-by?"
I shook my head. "No, just keep an eye out. They're not doing anything wrong.”
"Okay. Still, Mr. Winters tells us that if we have a strange feeling, we should act on it. Better safe than sorry, you know."
In that moment, something Jay said came to mind. I'd trust Cam with the keys to this place and the registers stuffed full of flu season cash, but he seems to be a magnet for things going wrong.
The two men stayed around for another five minutes, and I was just about to do a walk-by myself when they approached the register. One of them, a guy about five eight or so with a compact build bought a Pepsi, his dark eyes studying me intently while Kelly counted out the change from the five dollar bill he paid with. After taking his drink, the two left, and Kelly looked at me. "You're right, that guy was weird. Seriously, he was staring a hole into you. How'd you get into town and already have a weirdo stalker?"
"You say that like it's a good thing."
Chapter 16
Cam
When Melina told me about the two strange men, I felt a familiar yet uncomfortable feeling creep over me. I'd thought after the last time I had to send a message that it had been received. Instead, it looked like the surveillance had never gone away.
Melina said she wanted to check out places to go exercise, so while she was gone, I did some investigation. Jumping in my truck, I drove over to Winters Pharmacy. Jay was just getting off when I came in.
"Hey Cam, how was your day?"
"Good, I just realized I'd run out of toothpaste. Since I'm cooking Italian for Melina tonight, I figured I needed to get some."
"You know you could have just gone to the Dollar General close to your house," Jay said with a laugh. "Why come up here, unless you're snooping?"
He was closer to the truth than he realized. "Okay, okay, you got me. I do need the toothpaste, but I just wanted to see how things went for Melina on her first day. I mean, coming to a place like T or C from Ohio is quite a change, and I feel responsible for her."