8 - shift

Timbella Vissel walked into the pawn shop. Her dad had given her and her mom more jewelry, and while it placated her mother, Timby just wanted cash. She stopped short when she entered, staring at the young man checking out at the register. Tall, dark, and handsome. Dark-haired, at least. Brown, probably. Whatever, he was hot.

She walked up to him. "Hey Mole," she said to the guy behind the counter.

"Hey Miss Vis," he replied. "Daddy have another fling?"

"Of course." She dropped the necklace and matching earrings on the counter. Then she turned to the new crush and smiled. "Daddy thinks he can buy his way out of his mistakes. I'm Timbella, by the way."

He blinked. "Deeter," he said.

"He's new in town, maybe you should show him around?" He rang up the jewelry and counted out some money for her.

"Sure thing," she said, snatching the money with one hand and Deeter's left hand with her other. "Come on, let's see some sights."

"All right," he stammered, and let her drag him out.

"So, what brings you to Kwee City?" she asked as they strolled down the street.

He seemed to relax. "Well, I can't really tell you, it's kind of a secret." His accent was hard to place.

"Oh, yeah, you killed someone?" Kwee City was well-known for its lax law enforcement, in addition to lack of extradition.

"Kill someone? I wish! No, nothing so crass."

She raised her eyebrows. "Smuggling?"

He wrinkled his forehead. "I can't really tell you," he repeated. "You wouldn't - Do you know any smugglers?"

"Not exactly, but I know a guy who might know a guy."

He nodded. "Well, enough about that. I'd like to get some cash, if you don't mind."

She released his hand and stared at him. "Are you gonna mug someone?"

"What? Oh, no, just wanted to sell some things."

"Weren't we just IN the pawn shop?"

He seemed taken aback. "Were we? I meant that," he said, pointing to a jewelry store.

"Oh. You shoulda sold them back there, though, Mole gives decent rates." Although the main reason she used Mole had to do with her father; at least she knew he wouldn't be caught dead in there.

Deeter ignored her and walked to the jeweler's. Sure enough, in the window was the exact set her father had bought her. She almost stayed outside but her curiousity won out.

She pretended to be looking in a display case, but stayed close enough to the transaction to figure it out. Apparently he had a bunch of rubies and whatnot that he was selling. A lot of them. Just loose stones. No wonder he wanted a reputable place. Mole was good, but he couldn't buy that much hot stuff at once.

The jeweler didn't seem to care; Deeter had given some sob story about his mother dying as the reason. He just looked at every piece with that wacky little scope of his, then wrote Deeter a fat check and gave it to him. They thanked each other, Deeter smiled at Timbella, and they walked out the store.

"Is that why you're here?"

"One of the reasons. Although I only took them for practical reasons."

"So you just stole them on your way out of the country?" They grinned at each other.

"The draft is drawn on 'First City National.' Do you know where that is?"

"Yeah, there's a branch 'round the corner. They're my bank too. How much is that check for?"

"Ten thousand units."

"Damn! You want to cash that whole thing?"

He nodded. "I suspect these smugglers you don't yet know would prefer cash."

"Oh. Yeah, you're right."

So they cashed the check. In large bills it wasn't a huge problem, although he left one in smaller bills on her advice. "Food?" he suggested.

"Yeah, sure," she said, idly wondering if this could totally rank in her top three stupidest things ever done. For a guy, probably.

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