CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Franks pulled up in front of the Hilton's home.
It was a nice, middle-class home, the yard well maintained.
Several cars were parked in the driveway, and a few others were parked along the curb.
Franks wasn't surprised. It was common for friends and family to rally around a family when they lost someone, and he was sure that the news of Chef Tom's death was the headline story on every news program in the area.
"Glad you're with me," he told Amy. "You're the best with handling a grieving family. "
"Thanks, but it's one part of this job I hate." She left her bag on the floor of the car after making sure she had her notebook and a pen. "At least we aren't notifying them of his death. That's the worst."
Franks got out of the car and met Amy on the sidewalk.
He wasn't sure what to expect from the family.
In grief, they could react in a million different ways and Franks had to be ready for anything.
He'd had family members fall into his arms crying, and he'd had others come at him ready to fight, blaming them for not protecting their loved ones better.
He never knew what reaction they'd get until they got inside.
They made their way up to the front door and rang the doorbell.
Franks could hear people inside talking as they waited for someone to answer.
From the sound of it, there were a lot of people inside, which would make interviewing the wife harder.
They needed to get her alone where they could talk without being disturbed.
"Can I help you?" A young woman opened the door and stared at them. She appeared to be in her late teens. Her eyes were bloodshot and swollen as if she'd been crying.
"Hi, I'm Detective Burns and this is my partner Detective Franks. We were hoping we could speak to Hillary Hilton for a few minutes," Amy said softly.
"That's my mom. Come in." She pushed the screen door open and stepped aside. "All my aunts and uncles are here right now, so it's a bit crowded." She shut the door and turned to them. "Did they find out what caused the explosion?"
"Not yet. They've got investigators out there now trying to find out what happened," Amy told her.
The girl sighed. "My mom is in the kitchen." She led them through a short entryway and then through a living room filled with people. "Mom, police are here to talk to you."
A woman stepped into the room, her eyes also red and swollen. She looked at Franks and Amy and tried to smile, but it never reached her eyes. "I'm Hillary. How can I help you?"
Amy introduced them again. "We were hoping that we could ask you a few questions. Somewhere private?"
"I want to hear," the girl who had opened the door said.
"Becca, I'm not sure…" Hillary started.
"I deserve to know what's going on. I'm not a child." Becca gripped her mother's shoulder. "Please don't shut me out."
"We're fine with Becca sitting in," Franks told them. "If you're okay with it. We just have a few questions. She might have some input." He didn't think the daughter would know much, but there was no harm in keeping her in the loop. She was old enough to handle what was going on.
"We can step outside." Hillary led them to a sliding glass door that led to a small patio in the backyard. "Please, have a seat."
"Thanks. We won't take up a lot of your time." Amy sat.
Franks took the seat beside her at the table. "We're so sorry about your husband."
"Thank you. It's been horrible." Hillary sat down beside her daughter.
"I heard about it on the news. By the time we'd rushed to get to Desorio's, they wouldn't let us near the place.
I could see smoke. It took them nearly two hours to confirm Tom was dead.
" Hillary unraveled a tissue she was holding and dabbed at fresh tears.
"Had your husband mentioned any issues at the restaurant recently? Any kind of mechanical issues with equipment?" Amy asked.
"No, everything seemed okay, but he wouldn't have necessarily told me about things like that. He tried to keep work and home separate as much as he could. You'd be better talking to his partner, Tyler Chris, about things like that. He'd know more than I would." Hillary shrugged.
"What about problems with employees? Did he mention any arguments or fights with anyone he worked with?" Franks asked.
"No, but again, we didn't discuss that stuff often.
Nothing seemed to be bothering him. He wasn't any more distracted about work than usual.
I know when his pastry chef quit a few weeks ago he was upset because she hadn't given him any notice.
But he hired someone to replace her pretty quickly.
" Hillary sniffed. "Again, Tyler would know more about that. "
"Do you know this pastry chef's name?" Amy asked.
"I don't," Hillary told them.
"It was Mary. I don't know her last name.
She was really nice. I was sad when Dad told me she'd quit.
I think her mother had a stroke and Mary wanted to be with her.
She lives in Oregon or somewhere in that area I think.
" Becca sat up straighter as if she was proud that she could share something to them that her mother couldn't.
"So her leaving wasn't because of a fight or something work related?" Amy asked.
Becca shook her head. "No, I don't think so.
Dad was mad she left him in a bind, but I think he understood why she had to get to her mom so quickly.
I was there the day she came in and told him she was going to quit.
They didn't fight about it. It wasn't until she left that Dad even showed he was upset. "
"Did you spend a lot of time there?" Amy asked Becca.
"Yeah. At least since I graduated high school.
I leave for culinary school this fall, but until then, I was trying to learn all I could from Dad.
I plan on being a chef just like him." She smiled despite the tears filling her eyes.
"I was going to work with him until I could open my own place someday. "
"Don't give up on your dreams," Amy told her. "Your father will be proud of you following in his footsteps."
Hillary sighed. "Just don't make it more important than your family. Your father sometimes forgot that he had a wife and kid at home he needed to spend time with." She reached out and touched her daughter's arm.
"He put in long hours?" Franks asked.
"Often. Cooking was his first love. I was his second." Hillary laughed softly.
She said it as a joke, but Franks could tell she hadn't been happy about it. "It can be hard juggling a career and marriage."
"Dad tried, but Desorio's was always so busy.
He had good help, but he felt like he needed to be there.
Tyler handled the business side of things, but he can't cook, so that was up to Dad and his crew.
It was a lot, but he loved what he did." Becca wiped at her tears. "Do you know what happened last night?"
Amy shook her head. "Not yet. They're still investigating.
They had to wait for the fire to cool before they could really get in there and look around for the cause.
We were hoping you might have heard something about some equipment problems or even an upset employee or diner who might have wanted revenge. "
"You think someone caused this?" Hillary's eyes went wide.
"We don't think anything yet. We're investigating all possibilities right now. We don't know whether there was a gas leak or someone caused this to happen. Until we do, we're just covering all the bases," Franks told her. "You were there yesterday afternoon to see your husband?"
Hillary looked shocked that he knew that but nodded. "Around four. I stopped in to see if he'd be able to take the night off since my parents were in town and we wanted to go out to dinner. He said he was too busy and that he'd meet us later once the dinner rush was over."
"You didn't go to eat at Desorio's?" Amy asked.
"Seldom did. Tom was too distracted when we'd go eat there, so when we would go out as a family, we usually selected other places where he wouldn't feel like he needed to rush back to the kitchen and help.
He said he couldn't get away, so we went out without him.
We went out to eat and had just got home when I turned on the news and saw what had happened.
That was when Becca and I rushed to Desorio's.
Tom wasn't answering his phone, and we didn't know if he was hurt.
" Hillary gave Becca's arm a supportive squeeze as they both wept.
"Did you notice anything odd while you were visiting your husband at work? Any staff fighting or upset? Anyone there that shouldn't have been?" Amy asked.
Hillary shook her head. "Not that I recall, but Tom and I were in his office most of the time.
I know Jules was upset about flowers. She interrupted us to complain about flowers dying.
She's the only one that I really interacted with while I was there.
Everyone was busy in the kitchen. I wasn't too happy that Tom wouldn't leave work for dinner with my parents, so I left in a bit of a hurry. I wasn't paying attention to much."
Franks nodded as he looked out over the backyard, trying to think of what else they needed to ask.
It was hard when they still didn't know the exact cause of the explosion.
The only lead they had right now was that someone might have smelled gas somewhere in the kitchen area, but even that couldn't be confirmed.
"Were there any issues between your husband and his partner, Mr. Chris? "