Page 92 of Fracture

“Will you share that with the officers over here?”

The woman nodded again.

Vinnie led her to the detectives, who met his gaze before whisking her away to speak to her alone after they heard her report.

Vinnie looked at the space around him. It was a place that should have been happy. Peaceful. Fun. And it became a place for death. A place where a man decided no life mattered.

“Why did you shoot him?” Joshua hissed, coming up behind Vinnie.

Vinnie turned on his partner. “He was going to shoot you.”

“I’m wearing a vest. There’s no way he would have been that good of a shot.”

“You really wanted to take that chance?”

“I wanted to talk him down. I wanted these kids to not see someone shot in front of them. Do you have any idea how this is going to affect these children? They’re never going to recover from this.”

Vinnie opened his mouth to defend his actions, but Joshua stalked away. He ignored everyone who tried to talk to him and slammed his way out of the library.

“What was that?” Molly asked.

“He didn’t want me to shoot the guy.”

“He was going to shoot him.”

Vinnie nodded. He looked at the kids. The horrified looks on their faces, the tears and sobs and fear in their eyes. One recoiled when an officer tried to speak to her. A boy buried his face in his mom’s shoulder and refused to turn around.

“He said he would have rather that happen than these kids see what they saw.”

Molly looked at the kids. Her gaze skipped around the room, breath lifting her chest before she released it slowly. “They’re never going to be the same.”

“Do you think I made the wrong decision?” Vinnie asked.

Molly shook her head slowly. “You know I can’t answer that. You were the one inside. I was watching, but my vantage point was different. All I could see was him raising his weapon.”

Vinnie ran a hand over his face. His throat tightened. He was one of the good guys. He saved those kids.

But when they looked at him, they all hid. Buried their faces or screamed or moved behind their parents.

They were afraid of him.

20

Adam didn’t push Lorelei to talk. He let her be. He distracted her with stories about their coworkers and drove around for as long as she needed before she was ready to talk.

“Find a place to park,” she told him, knowing Adam would understand she wanted to talk.

He drove to Goat Island and found a spot close to the Visitor’s Center and the top of Niagara Falls. They got out of his SUV and made their way toward the scenic overlook.

Lorelei leaned her forearms on the large metal railings that separated sightseers from the deadly drop to the bottom of the Niagara Gorge. She stared at the water and let the breeze drift around her, cooling her skin as the sun warmed it.

“What’s going on?” Adam asked after a few minutes.

Lorelei turned to face him. “I remembered Mark this morning.”

Adam groaned. “Of all people.”

“I said something with Vinnie there.”