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“Hi. Yes. She can talk to you. Do you know my address?”
“Yes, Mr. Taylor. I’ve got it. I’ll see you in an hour.”
“Bye.” I hang up and then open my text app on my phone.
Me
Cop on her way over. Will be here in an hour.
Grace
Oh, a female cop. I love it. See you soon.
When I get out of the shower and put on jeans, I see Kate is no longer in bed and Pepper is missing, too. “Kate?” I call out as I pull my shirt on over my head while walking down the hallway into the living room.
“In here. Grace is here.”
“Make sure you’re decent!” Grace calls out.
I ignore her and go to Kate. “How are you feeling?” I kiss her on her forehead.
She nods and smiles, “Good.”
“Bark! Bark! Bark!” Pepper runs to the front door.
I turn to Kate as Grace lets in the detectives. “Ready for this?”
“As I’ll ever be.” She says unconvincingly.
A stern-looking, but small woman wearing a black pantsuit and her hair pulled back in a tight bun comes in along with a tall, heavy-set man also wearing a black suit. “Hello. I’m Detective Kowalski and this is my partner, Detective Smith. It’s nice to meet you.” We all shake hands and introduce ourselves.
“I’m just going to wait over there.” Grace points to the barstools at the kitchen island.
“Well, I’m just going to go ahead and get started. Miss Benson,”
“Kate, please.” Kate interrupts.
“Kate, can you tell me about your relationship with a Mr. Jose Gonzalez? The proprietor of Pizza Pizzaz.”
“I knew it!” Grace exclaims. “Sorry. I’ll shut up.” She says as we all turn to stare at her.
Kate throws her a dirty look and then looks back at the detectives. “Well, there really wasn’t any kind of relationship. He was the owner of the pizza place next door. I mean, he complained all the time to the landlord that his business was failing because all the parking spots in the plaza were always filled with my customers.”
Both detectives are writing everything down as Kate explains about the bogus calls to the health inspector and the Fire Marshal. And then about the destruction of her shop before the explosion.
“So, you’ve had no other dealings with him or an associate of his named Frank ‘Frankie’ Ramirez?” Detective Kowalski asks us both.
“No.”
Kowalski looks at Smith, and they seem to come to a silent agreement.
“Well, I’m happy to tell you we’ve arrested Jose Gonzalez, Frank Ramirez, and Marco Montoya for the arson of your home, the destruction of your business, for the destruction of the structure housing both businesses, and for insurance fraud. We’ll also file charges for attempted murder, but we’re currently waiting to hear from the State Attorney on that one.” Detective Smith tells us.
“Can you tell me what happened?” Kate asks the detectives.
“Well, a Gladys…” Kowalski looks at her notes, “Preston. She’s a neighbor of yours, states she saw a suspicious car driving around your neighborhood and then stop at your house. She took video…”
“Gladys took a video? With her phone?” Grace asks, not believing them.
