“Hi.” He lowered himself slowly into his seat, his eyes locked on her. “Coffee?”

“Please.”

He lifted his hand and a waitress with a red apron and a red-and-white uniform came over.

“Two coffees, thanks.” As the woman left to go get the pot, Vin tapped his red-and-white menu. “I hope you’re hungry?”

Marie-Terese opened hers and looked at all the choices, thinking that every single one of them was appropriate for a Fourth of July picnic. Okay, maybe not all the breakfast items, but this was the kind of place where the word salad always had a modifier like chicken, potato, egg, or macaroni, and lettuce was only for sandwiches.

It was glorious, actually.

“See anything you like?” Vin asked.

She did not take the opportunity to look across the table at him. “I’m not a big eater, generally. I think for now I’ll just stick with coffee.”

The waitress came back and poured. “You know what you want?”

“You sure you won’t do breakfast?” he asked Marie-Terese. When she nodded, he took both menus and handed them to the other woman. “I’d like the pancakes. No butter.”

“Hash browns?”

“No, thanks. The pancakes are quite enough.”

As the waitress headed for the kitchen, Marie-Terese smiled a little.

“What?” he asked as he offered her the sugar.

“No, thanks, I take it black. And I’m smiling because my son…he likes pancakes, too. I make them for him.”

“How old is he?” Vin’s spoon made a clinking sound as he stirred.

Although the question was casual, the way he waited for her answer was anything but. “Seven.” She glanced at his bare ring finger. “Do you have kids?”

“No.” He took a test sip and sighed like it was perfect. “Never been married, no children.”

There was a pause as if he were expecting her to quid pro quo the info.

She picked her mug up. “The reason I called you was because my boss…he wanted to let you know he’s taking care of everything….” She hesitated. “You know, about what the security cameras might have caught last night or…things like that.”

Although she was worried he might not appreciate someone obstructing justice on his behalf, Vin just nodded once, like he was the kind of man who’d handled things in the same way Trez did. “Tell him I appreciate it.”

“I will.”

In the silence that followed, Vin ran his thumb up and down his mug’s thick handle. “Listen, I didn’t do anything to those two guys last night. Well, other than what you saw me do to them. I didn’t kill them.”

“That’s what Trez said.” She took a sip and had to agree with him: The coffee was superb. “And I didn’t mention anything about you or your friend when I spoke with the police. I didn’t tell them about the fight at all.”