I couldn’t imagine Rhonda was right. This had to be about Burris or me. It felt personal. But now it was affecting our employees, and hurting them. Raymond had barely escaped with his leg intact, and Harris could have been badly injured.
“The kid has a mild concussion, but is okay,” Anelya said, joining us.
“Detective Rhonda Clayton, this is Anelya Conshon.” I introduced them.
Rhonda gave Burris and I each a quick glance, then smiled. “Anelya, you’re Carolina’s sister, right? Her pie is responsible for me gaining weight all the time. But you’re the one who helped with Raymond? How did you happen to be here tonight?”
I rubbed the back of my neck, feeling a flush creep up. Rhonda was worse than my grandma at times, who seemed to know things about me, or even Burris, though he wasn’t even her blood relative.
“We’d gone out to dinner, then were watching the fireworks,” Anelya said. “We were in Greg’s office when the call came in about the truck accident.”
“I went to high school with these two,” Rhonda continued. “They are good guys.”
Anelya nodded. “You should come have a pie flight with me at the diner sometime soon and tell me all about what they were like in high school.”
“I’d enjoy that. Give me your number and your statement about tonight and we will make a plan for pie in the future.”
“I’ll get statements from you two after I finish with the staff,” Rhonda said to Burris and I.
“Anelya, we can take you back to your car as soon as we’re done,” I said.
She nodded. “No hurry. I want to make sure everyone’s okay.”
We spent the next hour talking with our staff and contacting board members about a meeting the next day. My Dad and Rachel, my stepmom were on a cruise and we couldn’t reach them.
Burris and I kept our discussion on the night’s events when we were among the staff, but I couldn’t stop thinking about all the different events and what the pattern might be.
***
“That’s all I can think of,” I said to Rhonda in my office as Burris and I finished our statements. “I wish I could remember something helpful, or think about who is behind this.”
“We will figure this out,” she said, standing up. “I’ll send three interns here tomorrow to start, and your friend Bryan is coming tomorrow afternoon, too, right?”
Burris nodded.
“That’s good. New faces may be suspicious, but at this point stopping the escalation is the most important thing.”
I agreed with her but I wanted to catch the bastard threatening our employees.
“So, Anelya?” Her smile was bright as she stretched and put her ipad back in her bag. “I like her.”
“She’d be an asset to the paramedic unit,” I said. “We are hoping she will apply here.”
Rhonda nodded. “You know my cousin is one of the Captains over there. I’ll put in a good word. I’m impressed by her. We could use more women in the ranks here, and more younger people. Lots of people coming up for retirement in the next few years.”
As we walked out of the office, we saw Anelya heading towards us.
“This isn’t how I thought our first date would go,” I said to Anelya.
“It certainly wasn’t boring,” she said. “But I’m just glad no one got seriously hurt.”
“Rhonda, we will see you at the meeting tomorrow then, correct? Or do you want to call in for the meeting, too?” Burris asked her.
“No, I want to see as many faces as possible. I’ll come in for it.”
“So far nine of our twelve members are coming. I think many have heard about the accidents,” I added.
“I told you people would know more about this than you thought,” Rhonda said.
