“Yes. I cannot wait,” John replied excitedly. “Then we will be together through the entire trip as betrothed mates for life.”
“I like your thinking.” Nick accepted the invoice from Saul as the old proprietor brought over the ring set and reluctantly handed the invoice to Nick.
“Are you certain I cannot gift this set for you, Marshal? Am I not allowed to give gifts to anyone I wish?”
“We’ve talked about this, Saul. Run the invoice and my debit card, my friend. Wish my friend John many years of happiness, and give him your blessing. I’m certain that will make this purchase a lifetime of commitment and joy.”
Saul gripped John’s hand in both of his. “My friend John, may the new life with your beloved be shared, not endured. May your many moments together comfort each other, and not breed complacency. May your dreams and ambitions together bring strength rather than satisfaction. May God bless your union.”
“Thank you, Saul. I will share your blessing with my Cala today when I propose to her. She will surely love your wonderful words.”
“I see everything here is in good order,” Nick said. “I’ll go see if I can fix everything at the precinct for Sergeant Boniface. I don’t think the detectives were quite as thrilled with my actions and story as they could have been.”
Rachel hugged Nick. “Stay out of trouble, Nick. I want to go home.”
“I can’t tell you how glad I am to hear you say that. I thought you’d get hooked on mansion living.”
“It’s nice, but I love everything about our house and the walk to the beach.” Rachel pulled away, framing Nick’s face with her hands. “You do know that, right.”
“I do now, baby. I’ll be right back.”
Sergeant Boniface waited for Nick by the door. “You seem to lead a very interesting life, Nick.”
“I write a lot. Lately, I’ve been consulting with agencies more than my usual norm,” Nick answered, knowing he’d be getting the same type of questioning at the precinct, only without the kind attitude.
“The detectives will be giving you a bad time, but I have a feeling you’ve handled over officious idiots before. The tall, thin guy with the ‘Miami Vice’ clothing look thinks he’s that red haired guy that plays in the Miami CSI show, David Caruso. You didn’t get to see him do his staring act and four word lines about the crime scene yet. His name’s Tony Donatello. Tony’s partner is his opposite. Floyd Samson’s the talkative one. He’s easy to get along with, but if you backtrack on a statement, or have two answers to the same question, Floyd will make this a long interrogation session.”
Nick recalled his first impressions when seeing Donatello and Samson. They matched Boniface’s descriptions closely. Donatello in particular seemed upset at the crime scene as if he would have rather found Saul and three customers dead on the floor. Samson, a heavily built, ebony skinned man with smiling disposition had seemed to be disinterested in the scene. In reality, Nick figured Samson noticed the three shots in each man and their positions on the shop floor in a glance. Their manner of dress made no lasting image with Nick, although the open collared white shirt with tan sports coat worn by Donatello did remind Nick of TV show detectives. In a perverse way, Nick thought about ways he could get Donatello to do his David Caruso imitation.
“Thanks for the warning, Sergeant. Although I’ve had some bad experiences with aforementioned over officious law officers, I realize in most cases they’re simply cynical. I know this scene isn’t cut and dried, but the detectives would be goofy not to take into consideration the fact all three robbers were packing Uzis, right?”
Boniface shrugged comically. “One would think so, Nick.”
*
Nick grinned while looking around the bleak interrogation room smelling of desperation. Donatello politely seated him in the room but promptly left saying he would be right back. That had been forty-five minutes ago. At least back in the day when he took sanctions regularly, Nick seldom hung around long enough to be waiting anywhere, especially in a police station. Yep, he thought, this was going exactly the way he expected. He texted Grace and Tim about what happened and the fact he might be getting railroaded for unknown reasons. Tim texted two words back: ‘on it’.
At the fifty minute mark Donatello and Samson jovially entered the room with a few sheaves of files which they placed between them as they sat down facing Nick. Donatello wore his David Caruso/Miami CSI sun glasses.
“Sorry about the wait, Marshal, or since you don’t work in the field often, we could stick with informality if you don’t mind.”
“I don’t mind at all, Tony.”