The Drowned Ones

7.

7

He kept walking down the road, passing the Lee family diner, which had always been called Takeaway. The building was one of those standard white buildings with the awning over the top, the plastic threaded curtains over the entrance to keep the flies from entering, and every time you walked past you could smell the cuisine they made inside.

Liam turned the corner and kept going towards Cashies, he hadn't parked in the parking lot this time around due to the lunch rush, often at this time people would come around to the local areas and eat at places like the Lees place or a few other takeaway places that were dotted around, Cashies small carpark would be full by now.

As he got to the orange building, he noted that there was a white van in the parking spaces in front of the place. It had a small antenna on top and was too familiar. Liam brushed it off and kept walking in through the door and heard the buzzing sound that often went off as everyone walked in through the front door, the lighting was always dimmer in this place then it was outside, Harry never changed out the old amber light bulbs.

It took a few moments for Liams eyes to adjust. As they did, he noticed that it was quite busy there was a heavy-set guy talking with Harry at the desk and a few others walking around, a few tourists and a guy waiting at the counter being served by one of the teenagers Harry had on staff. Liam decided to pretend to view the old CD's whilst he waited for Harry to be done with the guy at the counter.

As he got closer, he noted that the guy being served by Harry was Brad. The other one being served by the teenager had been one of Brads crew members. Liam also noticed that the engagement wasn't going well.

"What do you mean you don't have stock for this?" Brad said to him almost shouting. He wasn't too happy with Harry and Liam lacked context to figure out why that was.

"I don't keep stock of things like this Brad, I can probably order them in for you but I'm a pawn shop I only really stock things that I buy from the community, also whatever else a can find, I could get this in but it will take a week or so," Harry responded, which was true he never operated that way, though he would order certain items in for customers he knew.

It seemed out of character for Brad to be harassing Harry like this everyone in the community knew that Harry never stocked certain items, it was a pawn brokerage shop. It wasn't well known that he would get certain items in if he had a guarantee of a sale.

"Isn't there a way to get it in quicker though? You must have some friends that already have it in stock," Brad argued. Harry shook his head in disagreement.

"OK I'll have to find it elsewhere, but what about the tapes?" Brad asked.

"Look, Brad because it is you and we are friends I'll see what I can do about both, but I can't promise you anything, I don't have any relationships with the companies and it would be a lot to get these in for you, it would be better tax wise for you to get it yourself, but if you really want it I can get it," Harry responded. Liam at this point tried to intervene. He walked up beside Brad and Harry at the counter.

"Hey Brad, hey Harry you guys, ok?" he asked the embarrassing intervention threw Brad off of his rant, he kind of gave Liam a look of disgust for a moment before changing his tone.

"Hey Liam, fancy seeing you here," Brad said with a now happy expression on his face. Liam reciprocated and slapped him on the back. Whatever unusual aggression he had was now evaporated.

"Did you get paid yet?" Brad asked him to change the topic completely. It was odd to watch Brad turn off the aggression like that, though Liam pretended not to notice.

"Yeah, I just was down at the office now, got quite a bit, though I think they are using more of your footage now," Liam responded.

"That's good that you got your payment, or they don't get the footage for next time, and I mean we got a serial killer on the loose now, that the cops are clueless about, so he will strike again," Brad replied. As much as Liam hated to admit it, he was right the unfortunate truth was unless the cops were closing in on whoever it was, he would probably strike again.