Page 18 of Just for Him
“I think so. The EMTs are having a look at her now.”
“I’m on my way.”
I hauled ass, opting to take the car to get me there faster. The fire was out by the time I arrived, but the firefighters were still spraying water around to put out any remaining hotspots. Lindelman’s was still standing, yet the interior was a blackened mess. I spotted Hannibal and Lecter taking statements, presumably from potential witnesses. The only thing I cared about was finding Haven.
“Vinnie!” I heard my name and turned to find my brother Dom waving me over to the fire truck. Haven was sitting there with a blanket around her shoulders. Dark soot smudged her pretty face, making her light blue eyes stand out even more than usual.
I sat down beside her and put my arm around her shoulders. She was shaking. “Hey, are you okay?”
She nodded then looked at my brother. “Thanks to him. Wanda and I got trapped in the kitchen when the fire started.”
“Where is Wanda?”
Her eyes filled up with tears. “She went in the ambulance with Cal. He tried to stop them, and they hit him with something.”
“Who hit him?”
“The two guys who came in. They said if we gave them the money from the register, no one would get hurt. Cal came out with his billy club and told me and Wanda to get in the kitchen. He tried to chase them off, but there were two of them ...” Her lip trembled, but her eyes were filled with anger.
“Okay, it’s okay. How did the fire start?”
“I don’t know. When they started trashing the place, Wanda and I pulled Cal back into the kitchen and tried to bar the door. Next thing we knew, we smelled smoke. We were trying to pull Cal toward the kitchen exit when the fire department arrived.”
“Did you recognize them?”
She shook her head. “No. They were wearing ski masks, and their voices didn’t sound familiar, but ...” She lifted her eyes and met mine. “One of them was really angry. He said something like, ‘he never mentioned the security cameras’.”
Dom and I shared a look. He was familiar with the string of hits on local businesses, and I knew he was thinking the same thing I was—someone had gone into Lindelman’s to check the place out before the hit.
“Ms. McAlister.”
Hannibal and Lecter had worked their way over. Their eyes narrowed on the way I held Haven next to me. I didn’t care.
“We’d like to ask you a few questions.”
She nodded. “Sure. Go ahead.”
Dom took off to tend to something or another. I sat there with Haven while they asked their questions. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust them—both guys were pros. I stayed there forher.
She leaned some of her weight on me, which I took to mean she liked having me there. That worked for both of us.
They asked her the standard questions, and she told them basically the same thing she had told me with a few additional details. Two unidentified males entered the diner during a lull around three-thirty a.m. and demanded cash from the register. Cal Lindelman attempted to get them to leave the premises, and a physical altercation ensued. After disarming and disabling the owner, the suspects then proceeded to empty the register and cause as much damage as possible in a short amount of time.
When the detectives finished, they thanked her, and Hannibal gave her his card in case she remembered anything else.
“I’ll be right back,” I told her, then got up and jogged up to the two detectives. “You are going to check the security cameras, right?”
“Not our first rodeo, Cerasino.”
“Yeah, I know.” I rubbed the back of my neck. “But this one’s personal.”
Hannibal’s lips twitched. “Yeah, figured that out, too. We’ll call you first if we find anything.”
“Thanks.”
I returned to Haven. Even though her hair was disheveled and her skin was covered in black smudges, she still looked beautiful to me. “Come on; let’s get you home,” I said gently.
