Killing Red by Henry Perez Read Free Book Online

time ago, but is there anything about that night you might’ve overlooked back then? Anything that you’ve remembered after the fact?”
    “You sound more like a detective than a reporter.”
    Chapa smiled.
    “Years come and go, and you make some money, raise children, see them become adults,” Dominic said, looking at his grandson. “You take trips, see new places, and meet new people. But some of the things that you’ve seen and been through, they never go away. The worst of them stay fresh.”
    Chapa jotted down Dominic’s comments in his notepad.
    “What about since then?” Chapa asked. “How are things different for you or maybe this store?”
    “Ever since that night, I’ve been more aware of everything that goes on when I’m here. I was in the backroom when that blue beater pulled up to the store,” Dominic said, describing the car Chapa had been driving for the past seven years. “But I noticed it the moment I walked out here. That’s just how it is.”
    Chapa considered defending his car, then thought better of it.
    “But, for example,” Dominic now pointed to a green sedan that was parked at the far end of the store’s lot, “the person in that car is probably on the phone, or checking a map, or changing the CD. I noticed them right away because they’re here, but maybe they don’t want to get too close. At night, I’d have a reason to be suspicious, but even now I’m on alert. Is that better? I don’t know.”
    Dominic started straightening already well-organized shelves of prepackaged pastries.
    “That night, I was sure someone was out there, Grubb probably,” he said. “The way it was reported, it was like I was just the guy whose store she wandered into, but it wasn’t like that.”
    “What do you mean?”
    He stopped lining up Ho Hos and Twinkies and seemed lost in thought for a moment.
    “When that little girl walked in she drew me right into it, her fear and the terror that she had been through. There was something really special about her. If someone had come in after her I probably would have shot them.”
    It was hard to imagine Dominic Delacruz ever drawing down on anyone, but Chapa sensed this conversation was taking the old man back, maybe to a place that he had spent years trying to get away from.
    “Do you have any children of your own, Mr. Chapa?”
    “I have a daughter.”
    “Then you know what it’s like, but still, that was different. In that moment it was like she might as well have been my child. So naturally I protected her. I’ve come to believe I was put here on that night for a reason.”
    “Anyone come around lately to talk to you about that night or the little girl?”
    “No, not until today, not until you came in. Why did you come here? What were you hoping to find?”
    “Chapa closed his notepad and stared at the door again.
    “I’m not sure, really. Some inspiration? I’m trying to finish an old story and make sure that I get it right, that I didn’t miss anything.”
    Dominic finished the display of pastries and turned back in the direction of his office without giving Chapa the opportunity to offer a second handshake.
    “I hope you figure it out,” Dominic said just before he disappeared into the backroom. “I don’t think you did much good the first time you came around.”

CHAPTER 5
     
     
    As far as Chapa was concerned, using the word beater to describe his car, as Dominic Delacruz had, was a little unfair. The late 90’s Corolla wasn’t rusting out yet, and it ran just fine. In fact, the car had not begun to show its age until some punks in Aurora got pissed off about a story he did on the video game culture and broke the driver’s side mirror. He found it dangling by the cables, and duct taped it back into place as best he could. More than a year had passed since then, and the money from the insurance claim was long gone, spent on things other than the mirror. But he’d get it taken care of one of these days.
    Having received