I let out a sigh. I guess my little freak out with the officers touching her didn’t go unnoticed after all. I really don’t need this as the new guy on the force. “Yeah, she’s my neighbor.”
“Wait. Are you saying she’s the one that gave you a hell of a time about the parking shit?”
“Yes, she is,” I grind out. “Can we just drop it for right now?”
A legitimate smile crosses Rafe’s face. I knew I should never have told him about my altercation with Bianca. Now it’s coming back to bite me in the ass. I choose to ignore that goofy as shit grin on his face and get back to work. “Fill me in. What do we have?”
Immediately he’s all business again and flips through his notepad. “What I’ve been able to gather is that the suspect entered the establishment at about zero one hundred hours with a gun. He attempted to rob the place but when an older gentleman was too slow getting out of his way he hit him over the head with the butt of his gun and knocked the guy out cold.That was who was in the ambulance we saw speeding off when we pulled up.”
I nod my head taking in what he’s telling me. “If it’s a civvy that got hurt what happened to our suspect? Why is he bleeding?” I look back over to where the second ambulance was parked but see that it’s now gone as well, transferring our perp to the closest hospital for treatment. Then it’s strait off to jail for him.
“Oh, that’s where things get interesting,” he says with a grin. “Apparently your girl over there—”
“She’s not my girl,” I grumble, lying through my teeth. She feels a little bit like mine.
“Whatever man. Well, it seems that there was some kind of altercation between her and the perp. I can’t seem to get a straight answer out of any of the witnesses. They all claim their view was obstructed or they were looking the other way.”
“What the hell could have happened? This guy is bleeding and has to go to the hospital while Bianca doesn’t look like she has a scratch on her. You’re telling me they saw nothing?”
Rafe shakes his head. “There were three other people in there and they’re all adamant that they didn’t see anything after the old man went down. If I didn’t know better, I’d think they were trying to protect the girl.”
I feel like I’ve walked into some parallel universe tonight. Maybe I’ve been on duty too long. We really should have gone home hours ago. I grab the closest officer and make sure he collects any CCTV video the store has. Then both Rafe and I head back to the car where Bianca is waiting. If her fidgeting is any indication, she’s not waiting very patiently either. Opening the side door, it’s clear she looks pissed again. Awesome.
“You locked me in here,” she hisses at me, turning her body so that her feet are out of the car and on the pavement making sure I can’t close the door on her again.
“Bianca, it’s a police vehicle. All the back doors only open from the outside. It had nothing to do with you.” She crosses her arms indignantly under her breasts causing them to push up even higher and I let out a groan before planting my gaze well above her neck.
Rafe and I exchange a look and I give him an almost imperceptible nod as he flips to a new page in is notepad. It’s best if he questions her since Bianca and I have a personal relationship. Not as personal as I’d like, but still.
“Miss Moreno, I’m Detective Campo and I believe you know Detective Turner.” She glances at me then turns her attention back to Rafe and gives him a nod. I don’t know why it bothers me that she’s paying attention to him, but it does. I want her eyes on me damnit.
“Bianca, tell us what happened.” Both she and Rafe turn back to me. She looks impatient and he’s giving me a look that sayswhat the hell?since we both know he’s the one that should be doing the questioning. I rub my hand down my face and take a physical step back, giving myself some room to breathe.
“I was minding my own business and that guy just walked in with a gun—”
“Let’s roll it back for a second, Miss Moreno. Why don’t you start at the beginning of your night.”
She lets out a sigh and looks over to me like I can somehow speed this up. She doesn’t realize that I’m just as interested as Rafe to hear what the fuck happened tonight.
Realizing she’s not going to get any help from me she tugs my coat, still hanging off her shoulders, closer to her body.
“Fine. My friend Jenna and I went out to Vinnie’s tonight—” Rafe is just nodding like he knows the place but I’m new here so I can’t help interjecting.
“What’s that?”
“Vinnie’s? It’s a kind of bar down on Monument. It’s maybe four blocks from here,” she answers.
I look around and don’t notice her car in the lot. “If it’s four blocks away, where’s your car?”
She gives me an exasperated look that, not surprisingly, matches the one Rafe is giving me as well. I know I need to keep my mouth shut but something about Bianca makes me toss my common sense right out the window. It happens every time I argue with her and it’s happening right now.
“I thought you wanted me to tell this.” She says, voice filled with annoyance. If I don’t let Rafe handle this, we’re going to have another knock down drag out fight right here in the middle of this parking lot with half a dozen officers looking on.
“I’m sorry, go ahead and continue,” I say as evenly as possible.
“As I was saying, my girlfriend and I went to Vinnie’s together tonight. She ended up going home with someone, so I told her I’d take a Lyft home.”
“What time was this?” Rafe asks.