We advanced to where Luke, Shirleen and the other man were standing.
When I got within a few feet of her, Shirleen crowded in, pulled me away from Hector and Daisy and gave me a fierce hug.
“Child,” she said softly into my hair.
Then she let me go.
That was it. But that was all there needed to be. Shirleen Jackson gave good hugs.
“Sadie, this is Luke Stark and Jack Tatum,” Hector said when Shirleen moved away. “They work for Lee and they’re here to give their statements. They were there the night you drove into the garage.”
At that, my body froze solid.
Bex told me a lot of people blocked out what happened to them. Not me, no, I remembered every last second. Including scrambling in the stairwell in nothing but a nightgown.
I instantly decided I couldn’t do this.
Right before I could turn on my heel and run, Jack spoke. “I’m just gonna say, I like Hector’s plan for takin’ Ricky down a lot better than this shit. I don’t like the idea of him gettin’ a cushy jail cell for the next fifteen years. No man makes a woman end her night slippin’ in her own blood on some stairs –”
“Jack,” Luke growled (yes, he growled).
I felt rather than saw Hector’s body grow tight and that dangerous current was snapping all around the lobby.
“Thank you,” I said quickly in an effort to fight back the current.
Jack stared at me. Then he said, “What?”
I pushed back the panic, tamped down the fear and sallied forth so Hector didn’t come to blows with his colleague because he’d been an eensy bit too honest at an inappropriate moment.
I explained, “You got to me first. You were nice. Thank you.”
Jack stared at me again. Then he muttered, “Jesus.”
I decided to take that as a muscle-bound man’s way of saying “you’re welcome”.
I took a deep breath, straightened my spine, looked up to Hector and asked quietly, “Can we go and do this now?”
His arm slid along my shoulders, he pulled me into his side and looked down at me.
“Yeah, mamita, we can go do this now.”
* * * * *
We walked into a big room that was full of people, phones ringing and lots of desks.
It didn’t go silent when we walked in but the noise definitely muted.
My eyes caught Eddie who was standing at a desk in the middle of the room. Beside him was a middle-aged man, shorter than Eddie by several inches, definitely rounder and he had dark, thinning hair.
Eddie and the man’s eyes came to us immediately upon entering the room. I saw Eddie look at his brother before his eyes moved to me. Then he smiled.
His smile was nearly as nice as Hector’s.
“Willie, Brian, Tony, Jorge, she’s here. Round ‘em up,” the man beside Eddie said, pointing to some uniform officers that were standing several feet away and then he twirled his finger and pointed to the door.
The officers didn’t waste time, they took off.
Eddie and the man walked to us.