Page 60 of Barron

“You’re my baby girl, and I take care of you. Maybe one day I’ll allow you to help me. Not tonight. I want to hear about your day. I can tell it was stressful.” He folded the last pieces on the bed, then held out his hand to her. “Come. I want to feel you close.”

Yoanni held on to his hand as he headed toward his bedroom, hers now. He left the remaining bundle of undergarments on his bed and walked out with her in tow. Once in the kitchen, Barron opened a cabinet door for her. On the bottom shelf, she found two sippy cups, several small-sized eating utensils, and a pink pacifier.

“After our conversation, I realize the paci isn’t your thing.”

She touched his hand. “I like the paci. Can I keep it?”

“Nugget, you can keep anything that makes you happy. Do the other items work?”

“They do. Thank you.”

“Great.” He dragged a chair from his dining set and put it next to the dishwasher. Guiding her by the shoulders, he sat her down.

“Now take a peek at this.” Turning on his phone, he showed her the photo of Betty in the midst of her outburst.

“Not a flattering photo.”

“I sent it to Shifter. He’s running it through a facial recognition program.”

“Why?”

He shrugged. “The hunch I told you about. Can’t put my finger on it. I just want to verify her identity.”

“But the Garden City police investigates the background information of every applicant.” She paused a moment. “On second thought, the department’s budget is limited. I don’t see HR exhausting their precious pennies on a civilian junior secretary.”

“I figured as much. My photo picks up the slack.” He pulled out a chopping board, set a couple of knives on the counter, and opened the fridge, searching in the vegetable bin. “Most likely, it’s going to confirm her identity. But these days, it’s easy to forge documents and fingerprints. Some people are real geniuses. They produce fake documents of such good quality that it’s difficult to tell the difference. A face is another matter.” He took out a head of Chinese cabbage, mushrooms, and other veggies she couldn’t see.

“Chicken stir-fry, okay?”

Barron said stir-fry, and Caesar appeared out of the shadows. He settled next to the fridge, and she laughed.

“He’s amazing.”

“The sounds of cooking bring Caesar out of hiding. I don’t know why, because I don’t feed him from the table.”

Staring at Caesar as he licked his paws, she half listened to Barron. Her mind was still on Betty’s questionable identity. She recalled their first visit to the diner. Yoanni had opened up about her family and personal information, but her coworker not so much.

“When will you find out, about Betty, I mean?”

“Hard to say. Shifter is doing the search. It could be tonight or tomorrow. You were going to tell me about your day. Kind of a big deal.”

“My stalker struck again.” She winced. “This time, his mind fuck affected several heads at the department, not just mine.” She told him about the paper bag, Durbin’s concern, and the careful search through the contents.

“Damn, what an ordeal. Officer Durbin’s a good man. I owe him for taking care of my baby.”

“Add psychotic Betty to the day, and it was a doozy.”

“You have to inform the captain first thing in the morning.” Barron started chopping veggies. “You can’t have an obsessed woman in a police station.”

“Obsessed?”

“Babe, I saw her. She was in quite a state.” He wiped his forehead with his forearm. “All that screaming and yelling…except, something doesn’t track. When she stared at me, it was a fraction of a second. I had a feeling… Like she knew me.”

“Really?”

“Weird, I know.”

“Have you seen her before?”

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