“Yellow… Yes.”
“Then they are going to take excellent care of him.”
“I hope so. I’m so scarab… scared.”
“I know, Coco. It’s going to be okay.”
“Come closer.I want to make sure it’s you,” Frank answered, pivoting to focus directly on Roman.
“Try to stall and stay here,” the detective suggested quietly from his backup position.
Roman never took his eyes off Frank. “I don’t think I want to do that. How about letting the girl go and dropping the gun? We’ll sit down and talk.”
“I tried for three months to get an appointment with you. You won’t talk to me if I let her go.”
“I’m sorry, Frank. I don’t remember you contacting me. Tell me what I can do for you?” Roman asked, trying his best to sound calm and talk to the man as if this were a normal encounter.
“All I wanted was some grace for my store. My wife got sick. I had to close the store for several days to take care of Carol. You repossessed our space when I violated the open-seven-days-a-week policy. You wouldn’t listen,” Frank called.
“Frank, I’m sorry. The manager should have met with you. Let’s see if we can fix this. How’s your wife?”
“Dead. She was gone in a month.” Frank laughed, a dry, humorless mirth. “I have nothing now. No Carol. No store. No house. You took it all.”
Roman swallowed hard. That statement a month ago would have registered as sad. Now after finding his precious Little girl, Roman couldn’t imagine losing her—much less experiencing that and having the rest of his life disintegrate as well.
“Frank, I can’t imagine what you’ve been through. I don’t know if the manager knew what was happening or not, but this isn’t right.”
“You’re damn right this isn’t right,” Frank told him. Hearing his own words parroted back to him underlined how worthless Roman’s words were in this situation. Anger burst through Roman that his manager had handled this situation so poorly.
“Frank, Carol wouldn’t want you to do this to this young woman. Let her go. The police will have to address your actions, but I’m involved now. Can we work on this together?”
“You want to hold a gun to her head?” Frank said with a burst of laughter.
“No, Frank. You need to let her go. She didn’t cause any of this,” Roman told him. “Look at her. She’s petrified. How would you feel if anyone had done this to Carol?”
Frank turned to glance at the young employee. She whispered, “Please. I have a baby at home with my mother.”
Roman watched a dozen expressions rush across Frank’s face, alternating from steely determination to rage to sadness. Roman stayed quiet, letting him think. After several minutes, Frank lowered his arm away from the young woman, letting her dash away. He refocused the gun on Roman.
“Thank you, Frank. Can you set the gun down as well?”
“You talk a good game but will never think of Carol or me again. You’ll go on with your fancy life and all your property.”
“That won’t happen, Frank. I can’t shield you from the police, but I am going to do what I can to help. Testify for you. Investigate why I never knew this was going on. Find out what else has been kept from me…”
“Fire your manager,” Frank suggested.
“If he was instrumental in making your difficult situation impossible, he’s gone. I won’t have my staff treating people like they’re only dollar signs.” Roman saw the detective gesturing at others and knew they were preparing to move. “Frank, you need to put that gun down now. I don’t want them to shoot you.”
Frank studied Roman’s face for a few minutes before slowly lowering the gun and setting it on a table. He backed away. An officer immediately rushed over to confiscate the weapon.
Roman’s shoulders slumped with relief. No one had gotten hurt. “Hey, don’t hurt him,” Roman said to the police officers who swarmed around Frank, who lay unresisting on the ground.
It seemed to take forever to run through his statement with the police, even though they had witnessed the entire thing. Roman kept his composure and dealt with everything.
“We’ve got this, Mr. Amato. Thank you for coming in,” Detective Parks told him as he unfastened Roman’s borrowed body armor.
“My lawyer will meet Frank at the police station,” Roman told him as he handed over his helmet and saw the detective’s eyes widen. “This should never have happened. Frank did the wrong thing and needs to pay for that.”
