Page 33 of From the Flames
“Can you bring us up to date on the situation?” Carter asked, and Kevin provided background detail on the fires and the construction company.
“The thing is that Kraft and Hobson did shoddy work and likely defrauded their clients and the borough codes office. But that was over ten years ago. There isn’t a lot anyone can do to them unless someone were to die. And so far no one has,” Kevin said.
Carter made notes, and Willy grabbed half a sandwich and took a bite. “What I don’t get is, why make threats at all? It’s just going to get us to dig in. If they kept quiet, we wouldn’t be here talking to you. I would have moved on, and the fire department would have done their job. Yeah, maybe Kraft and Hobson would have gotten some bad publicity, but it would have been minimal. There aren’t real news sources any longer. The local papers don’t get much circulation, so this is something that’s going to go away very quickly for the most part.”
“Exactly,” Willy said. “It doesn’t make sense.”
“Can you give me a description of the man?” Red asked.
Willy nodded. “Black hair, scruffy, just below the ears, brown eyes, fake-tanned skin, dark stubble. This is a guy with constant five-o’clock shadow. He has a triangular-shaped face, and his nose was broken at some point. Maybe six foot or six-one. He’s of decent build, but not bulky or too thin. His clothes were recent, not fancy but not too old either.”
Red looked up from his notes. “Can I have you at all my crime scenes? Not that I want you to be a victim of a crime, but damn, if I got descriptions like this all the time, our jobs would be a lot easier.”
Kevin placed his hand on Willy’s. “I don’t have anything to add after that. How did you get to be so observant?”
“I have two kids. How else can I keep my head above water and a step ahead of them?” He smiled. “When I was inhigh school, I wanted to be a police officer, so I watched every television cop show, and they all stressed how important it was to watch things. So I started playing games with my friends. We’d each write down questions, and at the end of the day, we’d answer them. It was a weird game. If the teachers had ever found our questions, they’d have been appalled. How big were Coach Johnson’s pit stains after third period—stuff like that. We used to laugh over them, but I always won because I could recall just about everything during the day.”
“And you did all that because you thought you might become a police officer?” Carter asked.
Willy chuckled. “Mostly because it was a fun away to get through the day. But good observation got me through college with top grades. What I really learned was to see what was there rather than what I expected to see.”
Red nodded, and Kevin slipped his arm around Willy’s waist. “What do you remember about when you first met me?”
Willy felt his cheeks color. “That you had your hand on my ass as you carried me.”
“Daddy, you said a swear,” Grant said as he ran in, the dogs behind him. He went to the counter and brought Willy the container. Willy got out his wallet and put in a dollar. Grant stretched to put the container back and returned to what he was watching.
“Okay, that was adorable,” Carter said. “Alex used to do things like that when he was younger.” He looked every bit the proud parent.
“Did you and your partner have him together?” Willy asked.
Carter shook his head. “Alex brought Donald and me together. We’d gotten off on bad footing. Donald works for Child Services and had a real reputation—”
“Because he will do just about anything to help the kids in his care,” Red put in.
“Yeah. Red and I found Alex in an abusive situation. We rescued him, and caring for Alex was the catalyst for Donald and me. Alex is almost eleven now, and he remembers almost nothing from that time in his life. After Donald and I got married, we adopted Alex as our son. It was the best decision we ever made.”
Willy nodded. “I don’t know what I’d do without these two. Probably sleep more.”
“But your life and your heart would be empty,” Kevin said. “I know that.” He took another half sandwich, and Willy did the same. The buttery cheesiness was amazing. American cheese was the worst, but in a grilled cheese, it was so good.
“So where do we go from here?” Willy asked. “I’m afraid for the kids. I have special instructions at the daycare that if anyone even asks after the kids, they are to call me. I don’t want anyone to get to them.”
“Carter here is great with computers. He’ll use your description and a program we have to create a face. We’ll send it to you so you can tell us how close we are, and once we have an image, we’ll see if we can match it to anyone. The process can take a little time.”
“Whatever I can do to support you,” Willy said. “I want to get to the bottom of this. We’ve already lost our home and everything we had. The kids have been uprooted. The only good thing has been that we met Kevin in the deal. But putting everything back together….” He turned to Kevin. “I just want to feel safe again. I know it sounds dumb, but every time I hear a siren, I tense. I burned a piece of toast and nearly had a panic attack. I know it’s going to take time for all that to pass. But… with all of it… it feels like it’s just hanging on.”
“We’ll do everything we can,” Carter said. “If he shows up again, call 911 and get through to the department. Say that this is a repeat attempt at intimidation and that you need someoneright away. Use our names. But get someone here. Maybe we can catch him in the act.”
“Yes, of course. We want that too,” Kevin said.
“Are you living here now?” Red asked.
Kevin took Willy’s hand. “I got caught in a fire, so Willy and the kids are looking after me. The hospital said they didn’t want me to be alone.” His smile told more of the story than Kevin provided.
Red nodded slowly. “Carter and I need to get going.”
“Yes. I have plenty to do,” Carter agreed. They both stood. “Expect an image later today.”
