Page 47 of No Broken Promises

Linc nods toward a group of doors at the far end of the bullpen. “He's in the detectives' office working on something.”

Poppy pats me on the shoulder. “Let's go. I've got to get back up front, so the sooner I get you to him the better.” She eyes the hall we just came through suspiciously. “The last time I left my desk, the patrol officers thought it would be funny to steal my chair. Which was hilarious, until I grabbed all of theirs while they were gone and then wrapped all their desks in plastic wrap after they got their chairs back.”

Linc laughs again. “Seriously, Parker. Poppy's a freaking savage when it comes to revenge. I'm just glad I managed to avoid that particular punishment.”

Poppy sniffs. “You couldn't have stolen my chair since you were the one I was helping. You were spared.” She sounds like a queen, and the way she sweeps through the bullpen has me smiling widely. The other two officers, whom I don't know, both fled in the opposite direction when she approached.

“They didn't get spared,” Linc whispers loudly. “Now they know not to mess with dispatch. They can make our lives a living hell if they want to.”

He walks with me through the bullpen, eyeing the envelope in my hand while Poppy leads the way to the detectives' office.

“What's Artie Sims got to do with anything?”

I side-eye him and smack my lips together. “Mind your own business, Linc.”

He isn't done pestering, but thankfully Officer Ortiz opens the door just as Poppy raises her hand to knock.

“What's up?” He looks past Poppy and sees that I am standing there with Linc, and he nods. “Never mind. I'll take it from here, Poppy.”

Poppy turns to face me with a bright smile. “Have fun. If I don't get a chance to say goodbye, we should get drinks sometime.”

“Sure,” I return her sentiment with a smile. “You know where to find me.”

Everyone knows where to find me. I've been running Lucy's for years, and up until recently, I've never even thought about leaving. After all, Birch is my home. It wasn’t until the night Boo died and everything started to go downhill that I'd seriously started to consider it.

“Come in, Ms. Hayes.” Officer Ortiz steps aside, then blocks Linc's way when he moves to follow me. “Not you, Linc.”

“Oh, come on, Dom.” Linc eyes the office with curiosity. “I'm so bored.”

“Not my problem.” He shuts the door in Linc's face and I laugh.

“That was good.” The walls of the office are white and empty, without even a picture to decorate them. The two massive desks in the room make up for the empty walls, though. They are both covered with paperwork and manila folders.

“Excuse the mess,” he says needlessly as he moves to sit behind the less-messy of the two. “We all share these desks while there's an open investigation. Since we don't have much information on your fire yet, I'm going over all the information from the fire department.”

“That's why I'm here, Officer Ortiz.” Standing awkwardly in front of the desk, I hold out the envelope. “My neighbor gave me this today when I went by the house to grab something.” I swallow down the sudden rise of emotion that comes with remembering why I went to my house.

“Call me Dom, Ms. Hayes. Please, have a seat.” He takes the envelope from my outstretched hand. “Artie Sims is your neighbor?” He stares at me with a raised eyebrow. “He must be the neighbor who didn't answer his door the night of the fire.”

After I sit down in the uncomfortable chair on the other side of his desk, Dom puts the envelope down in front of him and takes his own seat.

“Thanks, Dom.” I motion to the envelope. “Yeah. He stopped me before I could leave my house and gave it to me. He's got surveillance cameras outside of his house and thought that maybe the recording from the night of the fire might help.”

Dom inspects the still-sealed envelope. “You didn't open it to see what was there?” He doesn't sound accusatory, though. If anything, he is curious.

“I wouldn't know what I was looking at.” The admission doesn't hurt like I thought it might. “Plus, I watch a lot of true crime shows. I didn't want to mess with the chain of custody or whatever.”

He laughs unexpectedly. “That's not how the chain of custody works.” Dom keeps laughing until he is wheezing. “You're a funny lady, you know that?”

My answering look can only be called sardonic. “Right. Do you think it could help, though?” When he doesn't answer immediately, I go on. “You know, to find out who thought it would be a good idea to try and fire-bomb my house.”

“I don't know,” he admits. “But I'll take any help I can get at this point. Whoever did it didn't leave any trace.”

Swallowing down all the doubt and fear that has started to bubble over ends up being a lot harder than I thought it would be. I find myself struggling to breathe a moment later as panic takes over.

“Hey.” Dom reaches across his desk a moment later, tapping the wooden surface in front of me. “You’ve got a lot of law enforcement behind you. From your uncle, to Remy, Linc, and me, all the way up to our chief. You’re going to be fine, Parker. We’re going to figure this out. Whoever did it will have made a mistake.” When he has my attention, he leans back and pats the envelope I brought. “Who knows, maybe your neighbor even caught something on his camera.”

“Thank you.” I hold my trembling hands tightly together and focus on the fact that I am not alone. That whoever started the fire hadn’t destroyed my house and hadn’t hurt Nox.

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