Page 16 of Special Agent Anastacia

“Take shelter.” His voice thundered with his order and everyone within hearing knew what that command meant. Each firefighter began covering themselves with their aluminumblankets for protection from flaming debris falling from above. Thankfully, there’d been room inside the vehicles for the civilians.

For the next five minutes, they remained protected, shielded from the worst of the flames but not so much from the scorching heat. Thankfully, the trucks drove fast and soon they’d cleared the worst of the threat.

Nash lifted his blanket, releasing his tight hold on the trembling animal he still cradled close. The big brown doe-eyes filled with bewilderment stared at him, blinked, and then closed… the trembling, tiny body lying limp in his arms.

Looking around at the huddles of co-workers, Nash watched as one by one they all began to push their way from their protective shields. Breathing air not contaminated with smoke felt wonderful. Holding up his fist, Tiger let out a yodelling yell. “Yee haw,” and the others joined in, smiles covering their dirty, grimy faces. Bloodshot eyes sought each other, and their high fives were given with exuberance and a shade of thankfulness if the truth were to be known.

On their way toward the city where they had a shelter set up for victims and a rest area for the fighters, Nash breathed a sigh of relief and took time to comfort his tiny pal who’d hovered under the covering with him. The baby’s whimpers of fear faded, but the shivering continued. Speaking low, his calm, husky voice filled with gentleness, Nash soothed the beast while cuddling it close.

Again, he felt a vibrating in the pocket of his filthy, yellow firefighter jacket having ignored the last few times he’d felt it and reached in to bring out his cellphone. Seeing numerous calls from the aunt who’d raised him, he pushed in her number and held the mobile close. Using his special name for her, he said, “Hey Maria-ma, what’s up?”

Chapter Twelve

The video surveillance at Lew’s store didn’t reveal near as much as Ana had hope for. The day after the incident, she’d left Hanna with Maria at the hospital and had gone to the sheriff’s office on the pretext of delivering the bundle of burglar’s possessions she’d found in her parents’ room.

“Hanna, do you mind staying with Maria. I hate to leave her alone until her nephew arrives. She said he’d finally returned her call and would be showing up sometime today.”

“Of course I’ll stay. Poor woman’s in a terrible state. Anyone can see how much she loves Lew and how terrified she is of losing him.”

“Yeah, it’s a second time around for both of them. From what my dad told me, Lew and his first wife broke up when she left him for a younger man. Go figure that out. Guess he stayed a bachelor for a lot of years until Maria came along. She’d also married young, but her husband died while fighting overseas for the military. Then she adopted her nephew to raise andstayed single until she met Lew. She calls it love at first sight. According to Lew, he calls it lust at first sight.” She laughed as she remembered his words. “He does love to tease.”

Grinning at Ana’s words, Hanna’s expression sobered before she muttered, “Goddamn bastards that shot him are scummy shitbags.”

“Hey! Poopy mouth, what’s with the language?” Ana’s own thoughts of the insane murderers had been kept to herself, wanting to protect innocent ears. Guess she was the naïve one, forgetting that teens all over the world had access to and probably used more cuss words than she did.

Hanna didn’t look fazed but still apologized. “Sorry. I just thought I’d left those kinds of murdering freaks behind me.”

Ana wrapped her arm around Hanna’s shoulder and squeezed her body close. “Sorry to have to tell you this, but bad seeds grow everywhere.” She let a moment pass and then added, “I need to stick around but if you’d rather head back to LA and stay with Mom, I’d understand.”

“No. Please. I want to stay with you and help Maria. She’s so needy right now. Plus, she told me her nephew is a fire fighter who barely gets a day off during this season. He’s coming to see her, but she knows he won’t be able to stay for long. I think she’s afraid of being alone.”

“Poor thing. Can’t blame her.”

“I know, hey? Those murdering ba… ahh, freaks are still out there doing who knows what to who else.” Changing the subject, she added, “I prayed Lew would come through the operation, and now that he has, we still have to pray his strength holds up, and he makes it through another night.”

“I know.” Ana steered Hanna down the hall toward where Maria waited. “The bullet came close to ending it all. Doc said another inch to the right, and he’d be a dead man. Thankgoodness he’s a fighter.” She faced Hanna. “You okay? I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

“I’m good. You go and help the sheriff.”

***

Now… looking at the evidence, she watched the snatches of video with the local sheriff, her father’s old friend Dave Chalmers. Trying to make sense of what the tape showed, they rewound it several times.

“There. That’s when the motion started up the video. Looks like a couple of men breaking in. One’s roaming around the store, heading to the camera at the back of the room. Can’t make out their faces because of the balaclavas. But look here… at the hand that grabbed that wooden barbecue stick. He’s wearing a long-sleeved shirt and gloves but just for a second, you can see white skin. Roll it back and play it again. Stop. Right there… see?”

Sure enough they could see white skin between the end of his sleeve and his glove and also make out the curving lines of a tattoo just before the stick smashed the camera and everything went black.

“Jesus, Ana. I’ve gone over that tape a dozen times and never noticed that split second of evidence. All we got from the footage was two male figures breaking through the window.”

“Now we know at least one was a white guy, both looked to be medium height, and neither were overweight. Were there any signs they tried using the doors, either front or back?”

“No. Probably figured they were monitored. See… Lew had these alarm sensor gadgets that folks use for home security on their exits. He just pasted them on the doors as a warning for anyone who might have ideas to break in. Cheap bastard never did hook them up to a system. Guess the one he had on thewindow must have fallen off, and if these two did any early scouting they would have noticed that way was clear.”

“I can believe that. Lew wasn’t one to overly fuss about security. Even Dad, who was more relaxed out here than ever in the city, had tried talking Lew into paying more attention. Lew just poo-pooed him and made jokes. Thing is… the locals would never do this to him, and he knew it. Therefore, I suggest you be on the lookout for transients and campers just passing through.”

“Yep. My theory too. But there’s only myself, Mrs. Perkins, who never leaves the office, and my deputy, old Pat. Man’s on his last year before retirement and hasn’t much get-up-and-go. He figures it got up and left about two years back after his latest asthma attack.”

Chuckling at Dave’s joke, she took his hand – the same hand who’d passed out lollipops to the neighboring kids from as long ago as she could remember. “I’ll be around for the next few weeks. Any help you need, I’m here for you.”

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