Page 97 of Stabby Little

Her eyes dart around the shop and then she presses a button on her keyboard. A locking sound fills my ears as the entrance door bolts behind me. I glance up and see the security cameras move away from the counter toward the street.

"Follow me."

"We can talk here."

"No." Her eyes turn to slits. "The back room is safer. No one will walk in on us."

"I don't trust this isn't a trap."

"If you want my information, do as I say."

"Fine." I motion for her to lead me to the back room. "I don't have all day."

She beckons me with her index finger and guides me down a cramped hallway. We pass framed pictures of movie stars posing. It sucks that this place used to be so popular and barely draws a crowd now, but that isn't my concern.

When she leads me to the room, I sit in an upholstered chair and face her. "I need the security camera footage from last week."

Kobe could've swung by this shop any point before Tiffy's wedding, but last week is a decent place to start.

"I won't be able to assist you." She shakes her head. "We don't date our footage."

"That's impossible."

"My employers wrote a script in the security system to scrub the dates from the feeds."

"The tapes must be in order. I'll go through them chronologically."

"The script scrambles the tapes in case of a raid. They use it as an excuse to delete footage if they see fit."

I clench my fists. "The customer's name is Kobe Bailey. You must have a record of that."

"We don't keep our clients' names to preserve their anonymity."

"That's no way to run a business."

"My orders come from the top."

"What if a customer needs to return something? You need a record of their original purchase."

"We have a strict no returns policy. All sales are final."

"It's no wonder you're barely in business."

"We do fine as it is. Our repeat customers purchase new gear every month."

I narrow my gaze. "You mean bank robbers."

"We don't perform background checks on our clients. I can't speak to that."

"Cut the shit. You sell disguises to criminals who commit violent offenses. It's a wonder the NYPD hasn't shut you down."

"We're an esteemed film shop that has done business in this city for seventy years."

"You started legit but you found a more lucrative market serving the criminal underworld."

"Like I said, we don't keep records of our clients. If some of them are mixed up in dark shit, that's not my concern."

"It will be your concern when I alert the authorities. I'll tell them a man who murdered my boss's employee purchased his disguise at your shop."

---