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Constance dipped a fry in the half a bottle of ketchup she’d emptied on the side of her plate and slipped it into her mouth with a facetious grin. “Damn straight, now mind your own boy. We didn’t call you in on this to have you harping at us. We get enough of that from our kids.”
The waitress came over to ask if he wanted anything, and he looked at the mountain of crispy golden fries and the burgers that had been laden down with everything, his mouth all but watering like a greedy teen.
Nah! Gotta stay in shape for the detective who was in excellent shape. He knew all too well how happiness could gain you a gut out of nowhere. “Turkey club on rye light mayo and a seltzer with lime.” The young woman took the order while taking in the man but gave up when it was obvious that he hadn’t even looked at her.
“She still in there?” Riley asked the two women as he, too, looked across the street. It was a dumb question he knew since the old beat up cop car was parked in front of what he assumed was the lawyer’s office since there was no sign hanging on the shylock’s door that could be seen from where he was sitting.
“Yep, been a while now.” Riley was about to say something else when there was a loud banging noise followed by broken glass. He, along with everyone else in the diner who’d heard the sound looked on in stupefaction for the first few seconds before he flew out of his seat and damn near took the door off its hinges in his haste to get out.
Living his whole life except for his college days on the farm had taught him a thing or two, and one thing he knew maybe better than anyone was the sound of gunfire. He could even tell from the echo what kind of firearm was being used. That was no hunting rifle; that’s for sure. And this town has an ordinance of no gunfire within city limits.
He didn’t think of his own safety as he ran across the street and hit the door running. All that was going through his mind was the fact that Celia was in there, his Celia. He bypassed the elevator and took the stairs three at a time with his heart in his lungs. “If she gets hurt, I’m gonna tan her little ass again.”
CHAPTER 34
What the hell? Both Detective Sparks and Officer Bailey ran for cover when Stella Simpson pulled the gun neither of them knew she was carrying while Don sat at his desk looking lost as if he had no idea what was going on around him. He was only aware that in the last few minutes, things seemed to be going downhill fast.
A day that had started out like any other had suddenly turned to shit seemingly in the blink of an eye, and for the first time, instead of making things better the way it always did, his stepmother’s presence seemed to be having the opposite effect. It was true that outside of his sexual fetishes, he hadn’t grown much and had always been dependent on the older, more mature woman to handle such things.
All of this was going through his mind as things began to unravel around him, and he couldn’t seem to get a grip on reality even as things were happening right in front of him. The loud recoil of the second gunshot seemed to drag him out of his stupor, and he turned to his stepmother in shock.
“What…what’re you doing?” He stammered as his eyes widened in fear. He’d seen her angry before, even saw her once after she’d taken some young girl’s life that he’d just got through fucking, but this was a new look. It was as if that saying the lights are on, but nobody’s home had come to life right before his very eyes.
“We can’t leave them alive; she knows too much that bitch.” Stella pulled the trigger again wildly. Guns were not her weapon of choice, too loud and too messy, but they’d do in a pinch. She’d made up her mind in the last few minutes that she was not about to let this bitch lock her away in some woman’s prison for the rest of her natural life. That’s if she wasn’t given the chair once all her doings came to light, which she was now beginning to fear might be the case.
Don started to get up from his chair, not sure what he was going to do when someone came crashing through the door and entered the room. “Celia, where the fuck are you?” Riley had assessed the situation from his hiding place outside the door where he’d been standing since sneaking up the stairs. He saw the older woman with the gun, the guy at the desk looking out of his mind but no sign of his woman.
