Page 128 of Rest In Pink

George shook his head. “That’s not going to happen for a while. They’ve put him in an induced coma. To keep him from moving about and to let some tissue heal before operating.”

“How long will he be under?”

“Weeks.”

“Fuck.” I shook my head. “Someone paid him fifty thousand to kill Thacker. I want to know who. And he already had three hundred and fifty thousand from Faye, in cash. That’s hidden somewhere. And we got the hundred thousand from Navy’s briefcase, but that goes to Margot, since it was theirs to begin with. Cleve’s trust that is. The lawyers can sort it out.”

“Yeah, but once again, we didn’t follow procedure,” George said.

“No one knows I baited Mickey,” I said. “Except Liz, me, you, Faye and Pete. And none of them are going to talk. Besides, that was my decision. You didn’t know about it.”

“I’m the Chief. I’m responsible.”

That simple statement is what made a true leader.

George continued. “O’Toole is going to fire me.”

I felt a sense of deja vu. We had definitely been here before. “I’ll swear under oath that it was my idea and I never told you. Because I didn’t. Besides, it won’t come up.” I put a hand on his shoulder. “You’ve got backup now, George.”

“I appreciate you, Vince, but—“

“I meant Anemone.”

“Oh.” George blinked a few times. And I saw the light go on inside him for the first time in a while. “Oh. Yeah. She’s something else.”

“She is. And she’s all in on you and Burney. I think O’Toole is going to regret crossing you.”

George laughed. It was short, but he laughed, and then he drove off a happier man than I’d ever seen him.

Which reminded me. I’d texted Liz to meet me at the Red Box this afternoon. I wanted to find out if I was going to be a happier man than I’d ever been.

Chapter Sixty-Five

When I woke up the next morning with Peri curled against me, Vince was gone, which made sense. I knew he was out there now, working like a fiend again, and I planned to keep my distance when we saw each other; that bruise on his chest was horrible. I wanted to call him, just to hear his voice, but he’d texted me that he’d meet me at the Red Box at five, so that was something. At least he intended to eat.

I took Peri to swimming to keep the routine going and answered all of Crys’s questions because she didn’t ask about the factory. This girl was all about the fires.

Then we went back to the Blue House where Marianne, who had refused to leave since Mickey hadn’t torched the tower, fixed what I am sure was a magnificent lunch, but I was distracted by . . . everything. I’m pretty sure I ate it.

I gave Peri a hair dryer and an extension cord and set her to work fluffing bears in the driveway, and kept us both out of the way of the crew that was drying out the house—where Anemone finds these people I will never know—and tried to work on the book sitting in my Candy Apple Red car, taking a stab at the last chapter, Chapter Nine, the future, until I gave up and took Peri to ballet lessons, figuring that what the kid needed was routine. I tried to sleep in the car while she pirouetted, but it was no good. I had a decision to make, and the time to make it was now.

So I took Peri home, told Anemone I might not be back for a while, and went to the Red Box to meet Vince.

* * *

Vince was sitting in a booth when I went into the diner, looking at some papers, focused and serious and all by himself even though Mac and Will were at the counter, laughing with Kitty.

I slid in across from him. “We need to talk.”

He looked surprised.

I swallowed hard. “I think we should try living together.”

He started to say something and I held up my finger. “No, me first. I love you which is why I’m going to try staying here in Burney. I want to finish this book with Anemone, and take Peri to swim lessons, and make Marianne teach me to cook, and then I want to come home to the Big Chef to you. And I want you to come home to me. I want to move in with you. I want to fall asleep with you and wake up with you. I want to be with you.”

I stopped and he didn’t say anything, and I didn’t think I could make it any plainer. Diagrams maybe? So, I said, “You can talk now,” and braced myself.

He slid one of the papers in front of him across to me.