Annie was sitting on a stool at the bar when Hauck ran in. She looked drained, in a gray Napa Valley T-shirt under her kitchen whites, her hair in a short ponytail, while a couple of local detectives finished up.
She seemed relieved to see him.
“I came as soon as I heard. Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” She nodded, ashen. She took off her glasses and ran a hand through her hair. “I knew this was going to happen.”
“And I knew I should’ve assigned someone to look after you. I’m sorry.” He sat next to her. “I know you’ve probably already been through it more than once, but I need to hear what happened…”
“What happened? Someone slammed me up against the wall and put a gun to my head and basically said to forget about whatever I may have seen or next time I wouldn’t have the option. You promised me it wouldn’t get out. That I’d be protected.”
“I know.” Hauck grimaced guiltily and shook his head. “I wish to hell I could’ve controlled what happened. But listen, this is important: was this the same person you saw the other night?”
“I didn’t see him. I was pressed up against the wall. He cocked a gun to my head. He…” Her voice was shaky and her eyes filled up. Hauck squeezed her hand. “They knew my name. They knew where I lived. What am I, some kind of target now? I was just taking out the fucking trash…”
“Listen…” Hauck turned her around to face him. “I know how you must feel, but you’re not a target. They came here to scare you, Annie, not hurt you. Otherwise they would have. They wanted to show you how easy it was. You gave the detectives here a description as best you could? For the complaint.”
“You don’t get it, do you?” Her eyes shone at him. “Look, you seem like a good guy, Lieutenant, and I know you’re just trying to do right by me, but I don’t want to file a complaint. I want to go back to my life. I want this over. I’m sorry about that man who was killed. I’m sorry about what happened. I hope to God you get these guys…
“But these people want to give me a message…I’m not exactly dense, Lieutenant. I’m out! This is your case, not mine. I wouldn’t have even goddamned called in the police if Manuel didn’t come out and find me there. I just want to go back to running my stupid restaurant.”
“That’s all I want for you too,” Hauck said. “I promise.”
“So what are you going to do—relocate me to somewhere in Arizona? Help me open up a little taco joint out there? I have a son. I’ve got my life in this place. How’s it going to play once the press gets hold of it? ‘Local Eating Place Target of Gang Intimidation.’ ‘Half off on any entree if you come in wearing a red do-rag.’”
Hauck wished he could answer. Then Annie shut her eyes, shook her head in frustration, and came back with almost a smile. “Might just give me a bit of a lift with the Bridgeport market…”
Hauck smiled back.
“He cocked a gun against my head, Lieutenant. He said next time he’d shoot me.”
“I promise, this won’t happen again,” Hauck said.
“How? Are you going to come in here and keep watch at the door every night?”
“I don’t know. That depends…”
“Depends…That depends on what, Lieutenant?”
Hauck shrugged. “The food, mostly.”
Annie Fletcher stared at him. She brushed a wisp of dark hair out of her eyes, then smiled. “It’s good. I promise. Before I became a witness intimidation target, I ran a pretty tight little kitchen here.”
“Let me drive you home.”
“Yeah, right…” Annie sniffed. “You must be kidding. We have a full house tonight.”
“Your crew can handle it.”
She tapped her fists on the bar, lightly at first, then with more force, something brewing up in her between anger and tears. “I wanted to do the right thing, do you understand? For that man. And his family. I wanted to fight them back. Say ‘You can’t do this to people’…”
Her eyes started to flood. “When he put his hands on me, I wanted to turn and say ‘No, you can’t…You can’t hurt me.’ But you know what? They can. They can totally hurt me. And you know how that makes me feel?”
“I know exactly how it makes you feel…,” Hauck said. He put an arm around her and she sank against him, squeezing the lapel of his jacket tightly in her fist.
“All I could think about was seeing Jared again. That I just had to get through it. Whatever they wanted. You know what I mean?”
Hauck stood there with her leaning against him and nodded back against her head. “I know exactly what you mean.”