There had been something suspicious about his newest hire. John had been feeling it from the moment he first got their job application and he couldn't shake the feeling ever since. Criminals in Brookfell wasn't uncommon, it was more common than anything else he was rather used to hiring them actually. As long as they didn't bring crime into the shop he wouldn't pester them too much about their life choices as long as they would keep those life choices out of his sight. Yet somehow this one, singular employee kept giving him the sensation that it wasn't going to be out of his sight and that trouble was going to happen. It seemed as if it was finally happening.

 

He was standing Infront of his cafe, watching a large truck pull up that looked as if they were just delivering food supplies. All the different things that he needed to run the cafe were being brought in, but there was a problem with that. A couple of problems actually. Firstly, John wasn't supposed to be in town this day. He usually liked to over-look restocking so he'd try to visit when they occurred but he was scheduled to go out to Groveheart. It was by mere fluke that he wasn't in Groveheart and instead was here, watching a truck be unloaded into his shop. The only one working today was supposed to be that questionable employee and Salami.

 

The second problem, was that he didn't have a restock scheduled for Wednesday. He always had them occur on Monday's, and this place had indeed been restocked but two days ago. 

 

He watched for a few minutes more and noticed how Salami wasn't out there helping with the boxes. Another oddity as Salami was physically quite strong, he was always one of the main box movers yet he was gone and it was just that flimsy twig-like man he had hired moving things. It was suspicious. 

 

One more minute passed before John wandered his way forward. Pushing open the front doors and hearing the familiar chime announcing his presence, Salami was at the front, sitting at a table decorating what looked to be a cooking but they looked up upon hearing the door. "Welcome--- John? Oh. John. Hello John!" He greeted mostly casually. The fish-obsessed man did speak his name a few times too many though and John's eyes narrowed.  He didn't say anything, he merely stared in dead silence until he had the magikarp squirming.

 

"....Look, boss? John? Whatever he's up to, I'm not involved. Okay? I'm just here decorating cookies."

 

"Oh so he is up to something then, and you know it."

 

Salami sweated but John didn't keep bothering him. He wasn't the one doing some misdeed and considering where they lived, he couldn't blame them for looking the other way either. "Call the cops will ya, I'm going to go see what's up."

 

The orange haired man seemed to want to try and argue it for a moment but they quickly fell silent and instead just went to call the police while John moved into the back storage room. It was filled with boxes. All labeled as being different baking ingredients but from merely pushing one he could hear the sound of metal hitting metal. He'd heard about smugglers working to get illegal cybernetics from the lower rings into upper Brookfell and felt a bile rise in his throat. Were they really out here, trying to use his shop when he was gone to aid in smuggling? He could hear them chattering and laughing with the delivery drivers so he just waited until they came back inside with another box- where they caught sight of him and dropped what it was they were holding.

 

"...John!" They called out and he heard their slimy voice. Unlike Salami it was already nervous. "What uh, What are you doing here boss? I thought you weren't supposed to be back for another week~ Off to Groveheart ya know?" Johns foot tapped in displeasure on the ground. "Listen, we ran out of flour. Work was crazy yesterday so I made a quick order to replace them. You said we could do that right if we needed to?" 

 

What an absolutely god awful excuse and John's lips curled up. "You must think I'm an idiot." He growled at them. "My one rule when I hired you. Do you remember what it was?"

 

"... Don't attack customers?" 

 

"Not that one."

 

"Try my best to learn despite never having experience?"

 

"Not that one either."

 

"Aha, I uh. I'm not sure I don't fully remember."

 

John reached down towards the box and dug the metal nail from his cybernetic arm into the tape to open the box up. Inside was exactly what had been suspected as it was filled to the brim with cybernetic goods. He pushed it over and watched how they scattered across the flooring while police sirens wailed in the distance.

 

"If you're going to commit crime, keep it the fuck out of my sight and out of my cafe."