“And have you spend double the money? No, I’m good. You know me—I’m just as happy at Fifties as anywhere else.”
“Would you prefer Fifties?” I’d grown quite fond of the place myself in my months living in Mission City.
“Stavros’s is fine. I haven’t been there in years. I’ll be ready for you to pick me up at seven. For ourdate.” He hung up.
I spent the next six hours fielding interviews from various news organizations across the spectrum. British Columbia, of course. A couple from around Canada. A few online and one from Australia because of course. Why the hell not? I was wondering about that call when I remembered we had a recent Aussie transplant. Whether Dean being in Mission City for just over a year had anything to do with the interest from the land down under, I had no idea. Something to ask, the next time I saw him.
“You look spent.” Spring put another Timmie’s coffee on my desk.
“Thank you. And I’m never going to sleep tonight.”
“You’ve got your date with Finn tonight. I’m certain you’ll find a bit of insomnia will be a small price to pay.”
“How do you know about my date?”
“Because I was sitting at the desk next to you when you spoke to him. Sheesh, Boss. Get with the program.” She chuckled. “You on speaking terms with Colton again?”
“I didn’t realize we were ever not on speaking terms.” I chuckled. “He’s still mad I didn’t call. That said, one less bad guy to prosecute isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Not that I wanted Gerard dead or anything.”
“Or anything.”
“But, still. Not a huge loss in the world.”
“You know his wife’s death was tragic.”
“Yep.” I clicked my pen closed.
“And Marlon’s addiction to gambling started soon after that.”
“Yep.” I closed the lid of my laptop and secured it to the docking station. I was happy to leave it here tonight. Tomorrow would be soon enough to retrieve it.
“And Chief was at risk of losing the family home.”
“Got all that. But a child died in the fire in February.”
She bit her lower lip.
“And millions of dollars in insurance fraud hurts everyone. And selling drugs, Spring.”
“Well—”
“And Marlon left Finn to die.” To me, that was the end of any possible sympathy. A kid dying was bad enough. Truly. The family would be scarred for the rest of their lives—even though they hadn’t done anything wrong. And poor David, ODed— another lost child.
Then leaving a fellow firefighter to die in a blaze? Yeah, that was right up there with unforgivable sins. “Plus, the dogs—" I swallowed. That part of the investigation was looking pretty gruesome as well. “They won’t even be able to charge all the people who bet on those fights. Scum of the Earth.”
“Yeah. How’s Yanna holding up? You believe she didn’t know what was going on?”
“She’s got a sick child at home. Yes, she’s the manager for Hearts & Paws—so the proverbial buck stops with her. But Meyer and Selah were good at covering their tracks. Finn only figured out the false paperwork because he knows the numbers of the streets so well. That kind of knowledge is certainly something I don’t possess.”
“How many dogs were saved?”
“The cops found five. Three had to be euthanized because they’d been used for fighting repeatedly.”
“Oh my God.” Spring blinked several times. “That’s horrible.”
“The other two need homes. We can run a feature on them—”
“I’ll do it. And ensure folks know Yanna and the shelter aren’t to blame. That they’ll need our help more than ever.”
