“Kismet Confections. It’s just down the street from the station. The owner occasionally brings baked goods in. You should definitely check it out.” She claimed that the pies or cakes were leftovers from the day and that she didn’t want them to go to waste. Leslie couldn’t imagine how an entire chocolate pie survived the day untouched.
“I’ll do that. Thank you.” He ate the last of his pie and leaned back in his chair with satisfaction. “So you’re addicted to chocolate. What’s one food or drink you can’t stand?”
“Mayonnaise. Anything with mayonnaise.” No contest there. She was not a picky person and could eat almost anythingput in front of her—unless it had mayonnaise in it. “I know you don’t like coffee. What’s one food that you can’t get enough of?” She used her fork to scrape the last remnants of pie off her plate.
“Lasagna. Or really, anything Italian.” He looked thoughtful. “There’s a great place on the other side of town. A little restaurant on Maple run by this couple that makes an incredible lasagna. Have you ever been there?”
“No, but I’ve heard good things about it.”
“I’ll have to introduce you to it once all of this is wrapped up.”
He hadn’t quite asked her out on a date, but it was close. Was that his intention? Or was he simply answering her question with an offer to pay her back for sharing the chocolate cream pie?
Feeling suddenly flustered and not sure what to do, she stood and gathered their plates. “You can’t go wrong with Italian. It’s always nice to find a new place to eat. Some of those smaller restaurants are better than the big chains. They have a personal flair to them.”
Leslie carried the plates to the sink. When she turned, Clint was pushing off the small kitchen table to stand. There was no indication that he was encouraged or discouraged by her reply.
“I should probably go and let you get some rest. Please don’t be surprised if you see a police car driving up and down the street or even parked outside. We’ll increase patrol here at least for tonight until you can get that window fixed and we have time to run fingerprints.”
She stood as well. “That sounds good. And it’ll make me feel better to know the police are out there, too.”
“If this were a run-of-the-mill robbery attempt, chances are they went somewhere else after they came up emptyhere. With any luck, we’ll still have an opportunity to catch them tonight.”
“Thanks again for coming. You were the first person I thought to call. You know, since you’d given me your card.” Ugh, that wasn’t awkward at all. But she was glad he’d given it to her, and she planned to put his contact information in her phone in case she ever needed to call him again.
She’d spent so much time with him the latter half of the day that she was rather sad to see him leave even though he was likely ready to get on with his night after everything.
“I’m glad you did. Please don’t hesitate to call me again. It doesn’t matter what time it is.” He ran his fingers through his close-cropped hair. “Would you mind if I checked in on you tomorrow? I’ll be sure to keep you updated on the case.”
“That would be great.” She walked him to the front door.
“Good night, Leslie.”
“Good night.”
As soon as he left, she closed and locked the door, including the deadbolt. Then she moved a kitchen chair and propped it up under the doorknob. She did the same with the back door.
It took a while to settle down enough to try to sleep. Even then, she left the bedroom and bathroom lights on and curled up on the couch. Between worrying about Danny, replaying the day’s events in her head, and then second-guessing Clint’s comment about dinner and her awkward response, it wasn’t until well after two in the morning that she finally drifted off to sleep.
Even then, she had nightmares of an unknown firefighter sneaking into her home in the middle of the night with a gun.
Chapter Eight
The bullet the surgeon removed from Danny Bracken’s chest went through ballistics, but there wasn’t a match. Clint was hoping it would lead to something. Even if it had been matched with a bullet from another unsolved case, at least there would be more evidence to sift through. It might’ve been enough to lead them in the right direction. Instead, they had nothing.
Detective Paris walked into his office, handed Clint a bottle of water, and then took a seat at his desk with his cup of coffee. “Sorry to keep you waiting. I was interviewing a man who worked for the paper company until he was let go a few weeks ago.” He took a sip from his cup and leaned back in his chair. “He’d been logging hours he wasn’t actually working, got caught, and was officially fired for theft. According to one of the managers, he was quite upset.”
“Did it sound like he’s the type to burn down the warehouse to get back at the company?”
“I don’t think so. He came off as flaky and lazy without the drive to put in the kind of planning and effort our shooter did. He gave me an alibi for the time of the fire. I’llrun that down, but I expect it to pan out.” Paris set his coffee on the desk. “We went through the security footage taken from any cameras in the vicinity of the warehouse. There was nothing suspicious or unusual. Which makes me think the shooter was familiar with the building and knew how to get inside undetected.”
They kept hitting dead ends. The guy hadn’t teleported in and out of the building. He had to have gotten inside somehow. “Have you heard when we’ll be able to go in and do a thorough search of the warehouse?”
“Not yet. I should find out sometime this afternoon, though. Once we do, we’ll take a group of officers in. Only a third of the warehouse was damaged by the flames, so the potential for evidence is high. Especially if the shooter had banked on any evidence being destroyed by the fire.” A notification came through on Paris’s phone. He checked it, then turned the screen off. “Have you gotten anything else on Bracken?”
Clint opened his water and took a swig before twisting the cap back on. “That’s the main reason I wanted to stop by. I spoke with Leslie yesterday, and if Bracken was having any difficulties, she said he never talked about it. However, we ran his financials. It turns out he took out a second mortgage on their house less than six months ago. He’s also got several credit cards with their limits maxed out. According to their bank account, they’ve been living paycheck to paycheck for a while.”
Hopefully, worker’s compensation plus insurance would take care of the hospital fees that would add up quickly. Clint doubted Bracken and his wife would be able to handle an astronomical medical bill right now.
