They Thought He Was Safe by P.D. Workman

Author:P.D. Workman [Workman, P.D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: pd workman

18

“Zachary, you’re okay. Come on back. You’re not there. You’re in the camera store. Open your eyes. Look around.”

Zachary became aware of Mr. Peterson’s gentle touch and his calm, even voice. If Mr. Peterson was there, then the fire was long extinguished. He could breathe again. Zachary sucked in lungfuls of cool, sweet air. He pried his eyes open and took in the camera store around him, a couple of the employees gawking at him like he was some sideshow freak. Zachary held Mr. Peterson’s arm, trying to ground himself back in the present.

“You’re okay,” Mr. Peterson repeated.

Zachary nodded, unable to speak yet. He focused on breathing slowly in and out, trying to slow the pounding of his heart. Mr. Peterson stood there waiting patiently.

“Sorry,” Zachary apologized.

“You have nothing to be sorry for. You can’t control the flashbacks.”

“I should be able to. After this long, I should know better than to let myself think…” he trailed off, trying to force his mind away from thoughts that would take him back down that hole.

“See anything you’re interested in buying today?” Mr. Peterson looked around at the shelves of camera accessories, trying to distract Zachary.

“Plenty,” Zachary agreed, forcing a smile. “Just like Pat said, I could spend all of my money here.”

“I’m thinking of a macro lens.”

“Yeah. Those are cool.”

“Were you… talking to someone?” Mr. Peterson nodded to the phone in Zachary’s hand. He looked down at it and realized the call was still live. He put it back up to his ear.

“Uh—hello?”

“Mr. Goldman? What the hell is going on? Where are you?”

“I, uh… I get flashbacks sometimes. Sorry.”

“Flashbacks to what? Were you a soldier?”

“No. A fire.” Zachary tried to gloss over it, to focus on other aspects. “So everything was destroyed. All of John’s original research.”

“I would say so. Did he have a suspect? Who knew he was coming to see you?”

“I don’t know who might have known about it. Just me, and him, and Philippe as far as I know. He didn’t have a suspect… not that he mentioned. I’ll have to see what’s in his papers, but I would think that if he had a name, he would have told me, even if he couldn’t prove it.”

“And Philippe? Give me his info.”

“He was a friend of Jose’s. He’s not the one.”

“You can’t rule out anyone Jose knew. It’s a lot easier to get someone alone if they trust you.”

“He’s just a kid. Eighteen, maybe.”

“I need to talk to him. Whether he is a suspect or not, I need to know who he talked to or who might have overheard him. If only three people knew where our vic was going to be, then one of you either torched the car or told the person who did.”

Zachary sighed. He knew it was true, but he couldn’t imagine Philippe having anything to do with Jose’s death, not even because he had accidentally let slip to the wrong person where John was going to be. He reluctantly gave Philippe’s information to Dougan.

“I want copies of all of the papers you took pictures of.

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