Page 14 of Justice for JoElla

“I’m dropping my bag at the station house and going for some breakfast with a couple of the guys, and then I’ll be there.”

“Okay. I need to go to the store, so I?”

“Want me to watch Sim?”

Jerrica chuckled. “No. I was going to say I’ll wait until you get here so we’ll be out of the house for a while. Let you get settled in to sleep before we come back.”

This was the woman his soon-to-be ex-wife had belittled with his encouragement, and she was thinking of ways to get her own house quiet so he could sleep. Every time they did something like that, he felt like even more of an ass, but he deserved it. “I don’t want you to feel like you can’t be in your own home.”

“Nothing like that. Landon will be coming in exhausted too. I’ll come home, put away all the groceries, and then go to Mom and Dad’s for a while so you guys can sleep.”

God, I really am an ass, he told himself. “Thank you so much. I know you don’t owe me anything, so I really appreciate it.”

“Yeah? Well, remember that when I’ve got to go to work and you’re off. That babysitting, bub? I’ll be calling in the marker for that!”

“You go right ahead. I won’t mind at all.”

“And I’ll remember you said that. So go get some breakfast and I’ll turn down your bed.”

“Thanks. And don’t forget the little mint on my pillow!” he said with a laugh.

“Oh, but of course not! We’re all five-star around here! Bye, Brandon.”

“Bye.” Someday he’d find a way to repay Jerrica and his brother. He didn’t know how, but he’d do it. In minutes, he’d dropped his bag off and was headed to the waffle restaurant.

He, Wyatt, and Frankie had only been sitting there for about fifteen minutes when he heard a voice say, “Can you bring me a coffee? Black. And two eggs, over easy, and some toast.”

“Yes, ma’am,” a voice answered, and Brandon turned to see JoElla wandering in. In honesty, it was more like dragging.

“You been there all night?” Wyatt asked her.

“Yeah.”

“Have a seat,” Frankie offered.

She stood at the end of the table and looked from one man to another. “Don’t want to bust up your little party.”

“No party. We’re too fucking tired to party,” Frankie muttered.

“I hear ya.” She plopped down in the chair next to Brandon and waited while the server brought her coffee. “Thanks. I need that.”

Wyatt nodded. “We all do.”

He couldn’t stop himself from asking again. “Have you seen my brother?”

“Yeah. LieutenantFox? He was behind the building. There were more residents back there than in the front. Walked right into that flaming hellhole and started dragging people out. I saw him carry out one woman in his arms because they didn’t have enough gurneys and backboards for everybody. I think every unit in four counties was there. It was a mess. How’d it go for you guys?”

Frankie and Wyatt stared down into the coffee cups. “Not everybody made it,” Frankie answered.

That made Brandon think of something. “Hey, did any of you by any chance come into contact with a woman named Mildred?”

Before his fellow EMTs could answer, JoElla said, “Some guys from Station One did.”

“And?”

JoElla took a deep swallow of the steaming hot liquid before she answered. “She left with the coroner.”

That poor old man. Brandon was pretty sure Mildred was his wife, and now he’d be alone. “Yeah. I treated her husband out front. He was asking about her.”

---