You Fired a Tech Genius novel · Chapter 5 of 32

Chapter 5: The Corner Store

The grocer's store sat on a corner of 71st Street with a green awning and a hand-painted sign for fresh collards.

We got there at six, in Zoe's car, with the sky still the color of dishwater.

He was standing at the door with his keys out, and he had not slept either.

He was sixty-three, with a grey mustache and a white apron.

He owned three stores and had said the name Hallett about nine thousand times in my headset.

He looked at Zoe.

Then he looked at me, and his jaw tightened.

"Sir," I said. "I'm Axel Torvik."

"I know who you are," he said.

"Then you know I can't prove I'm not a thief by standing in the street."

I held out my empty hands.

"Open the register, and let's do it in front of everyone."

He stared at me.

A woman in a church hat stopped on the sidewalk behind us with her shopping cart.

Two stock boys in aprons had come out of the loading door to see.

The grocer rubbed his face with a tired hand.

"Come in," he said.

We went in through the produce, past the collards, and he pulled the manager's tablet out of a drawer under the counter.

The little store was already filling up with people who had no business being there at six in the morning.

"The float," I said. "Open the merchant balance."

"They told me to check it," the grocer said, his voice cracking. "I was afraid to."

"Check it."

He touched the screen with a blunt, shaking finger.

A number came up.

"Forty-one thousand, three hundred and twelve dollars," he said.

Keep reading free with an account. Start You Fired a Tech Genius from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.