Page 32 of Burke (The Haven #2)

He explained that the only name that he knew him by was Frankie.

“That’s such a hoodlum kind of name,” the cop noted, shaking his head.

Just then they were joined by another man.

Burke kept on with his explanation as he studied the new arrival.

“According to Shirley, Frankie’s deadly scary, and that’s the only reason she responded when her sister reached out for help.

When Silvia said that Frankie was insistent on her getting the money from Shirley, no matter what, she believed her sister.

Honestly, I’ve never seen the guy, but it does make some sense.

Do you happen to know Timber and his group? ” His gaze encompassed both men.

“Sure do, and Badger and a whole pile of the others,” the new arrival confirmed, with a half laugh. “My name is Richard by the way. Detective Richard Martin.”

Burke smiled and nodded. “Nice to meet you. I’ve been staying with Timber for the last several weeks,” he explained, “and then we brought Shirley out there after Silvia—the sister you’ve got in custody—along with her boyfriend Frankie, were pressuring Shirley for money, to the point that she closed her bank account and moved her money elsewhere.

The sister raised such a fuss at Shirley’s workplace that she lost her job as well. ”

“Jesus, one hell of a sister, isn’t she?”

“No kidding,” Burke replied, with a smirk, “and that’s another huge problem. Left with no job and no safe place to go, Timber agreed to have Shirley come out to the Haven.”

“And that’s a hell of a nice place to go to,” Richard said, with a nod. “I’m sure that just pissed off her sister more.”

“She didn’t know where Shirley was, only that she disappeared and had moved her money, afraid that Silvia would end up ripping her off, and, well,…

there you have it. And today Silvia baited Shirley out of hiding with a desperate plea for help, which turned out to be a ruse, then ended up shooting her when she wouldn’t cooperate, when Shirley was walking away. ”

“And that’s how things escalate in a really ugly way.”

“Isn’t that the truth?” he muttered. “I just need her to be okay.”

“It sounds as if she should be fine, but any surgery, any shooting incident, is just bad news, no matter the situation.” Richard straightened and added, “I’ll need you to come down to the station.”

“Of course.” Burke sighed. “It sure would be nice if we could do things digitally.”

“You’re free to write out a statement and bring it with you,” Richard suggested. “In many ways that’s not a bad thing. I can build on that as soon as I get it.”

“Maybe I will,” he replied. “I’ve got nothing better to do right now.”

After setting up a meeting time, he said goodbye to Detective Martin.

As soon as he was alone again, Burke brought out his phone, opened the notepad, and painfully started to describe what happened.

As soon as he had everything down as best as he could, he sent it off to the detective.

He ended up closing his eyes and just resting while he waited and waited and waited.

It seemed like forever, then suddenly the doctor stood in front of him.

He smiled and noted, “Glad you caught some rest.”

“Nothing like a shock to get your adrenaline going. Then as soon as it stops…”

The doctor smiled and nodded. “As soon as it stops, it drops,” he interjected. “I hear you. Anyway, she is out of surgery. She’ll be fine, and everything went well. We’ve got the bullet, which will go to the police. We’ll keep her overnight, and then we’ll see how she’s doing tomorrow.”

“Good enough,” Burke said, with a sigh. “Glad to know everything went well.”

“Of course.” He smiled. “It is highly recommended that she stays overnight.” Then he frowned and asked, “Does she have insurance?’

He frowned at him. “I don’t really know.… I suppose it matters though, doesn’t it?”

“No, not necessarily. Even if she’s not working, she might still have medical insurance. And, if she just lost her job, it’s usually still good for thirty days afterward.”

“That’s good to know. I guess we’ll find out from her when she wakes up, won’t we?”

The doctor nodded, and he left Burke sitting here, worried about something so simple as insurance. Yet it was a huge thing for so many people, and it should be because, without it, people were left in really rough straits.

As soon as they moved her from recovery to a private room, he was allowed to be with her. He sat at her side and just waited as she slept. She woke up a couple hours later, and it was almost noon.

He smiled as she surfaced, and he asked, “Hey, how are you doing?”

She looked at him and shuddered. “Not exactly what I thought my morning would be like,” she admitted, “but I guess you were right. I shouldn’t have gone.”

His eyebrows shot up, and he shook his head. “No,… absolutely not. That’s not how this goes,” he said, with a smile. “We don’t think that anybody is right or wrong in an instance like this. You had to go see if your sister was in trouble, and we all understood that.”

“And yet, because of her, now I’m in trouble,” she replied.

“I hate to ask this, but they did want to know if you had insurance.”

“I do,” she said, waving her good arm, “but I forgot to bring my purse with me. It’s back at Timber’s place. I was so spun up and worried about Silvia that I left without it. That’s probably one of the reasons Silvia was so frustrated that she ended up shooting me. She was really pissed off.”

“Possibly but,… if she has any money, she should pay for this.”

“Any money she has is probably from your credit cards.”

He winced at that. “And I would pay for it, except I’m not even sure what kind of money we’re talking about.”

She smiled and added, “Not necessary. I do have insurance from my old job.” She sighed. “The insurance from that is still good. Plus, I did take out a private policy after leaving the project management world, so I should be okay.”

“That’s good to know,” he said. “I didn’t want to stress you out with that and have you worrying about money too.”

“No, it’s not a problem,” she muttered. “Everybody has to deal with insurance, and thankfully I could afford to take care of it.”

He smiled and nodded. “That was really smart of you. As soon as you’re feeling better, we can get you home.”

“Tonight?” she asked hopefully but frowned at his headshake. “Do I have a choice?”

“Nope,” he said, with half a laugh. “Do you want me to get you anything?”

“You might as well go home,” she suggested. “I’ll probably just fall asleep.” And, with that, she was already yawning.

The nurse came in, hearing her say that. “Sleep is exactly what you need.” She turned and looked at him. “You can stay here, but the best thing for her is to let her nod off.”

“Right,” he replied, and, even as they watched, Shirley fell asleep in front of them. “I’m hoping she can come home soon.”

“As soon as the doctor releases her, but not before,” the nurse said, with a smile.

“I understand she’s been shot, so she is still in shock, and all kinds of stuff are going on.

So we need her strong enough to ensure she doesn’t have anything in there go south.

So, if you see something, anything at all, we can’t play around with this.

We’ll talk about tomorrow when it comes and when we see how she is,” she explained.

“You should go do something you need to do, and, if you want to come back tonight, that’s fine.

Maybe she’ll be more awake, but, then again, she might be asleep. ”

“Right,… and I’ll have no way of knowing that either.”

“You can call,” she suggested. “You absolutely can call.”

“Okay, maybe I’ll do that.” With that, he kissed Shirley on the cheek, and, with one final look at her, he smiled at the nurse and added, “Hopefully tomorrow.”

“I would think so. It’s not a big injury after all, and, with any luck”—she gave him a smile—“it’ll be something she’ll recover from very quickly.”

Burke had to be happy with that.