Chapter 4
June Brooks lived thirty miles away.
She had not seen Nell since the night after the fire.
That was wrong.
Very wrong.
When my men reached her house, the doors were open.
No sign of struggle.
No June.
One suitcase gone.
Two still there.
Voluntary departure?
Maybe.
Forced?
Maybe.
I hated ambiguity.
Then Rafe found a note beneath a coffee cup.
AUGUST IS ALIVE.
GO NORTH.
No signature.
Not June’s handwriting.
Someone had warned her.
Good or bad?
Unknown.
I returned to Reed.
He had spent two hours under guard in the stable office.
He looked calmer.
That bothered me.
Guilty people become calm when they think help is coming.
I sat across from him.
“June Brooks.”
His face changed.
There.
“You know her.”
“Everyone knows the driver’s sister.”
“Where is she?”
“No idea.”
“Who told her I survived?”
He stared.
“No idea.”
Three lies.
Fast.
Then:
“You’re wasting time.”
That interested me.
“Why?”
He smiled faintly.
“Because the thing Brooks stole doesn’t prove what you think.”
There.
He knew about the recorder.
Or guessed.
“What do I think?”
“That I started the fire.”
“You said it.”
He froze.
Not verbally.
Expression.
Enough.
I continued.
“I never told you what Daniel recorded.”
Silence.
“You just did.”
He looked away.
Then he laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because he realized the mistake.
“Fine.”
He leaned back.
“I met someone in the generator corridor.”
“Who?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because the fire wasn’t my plan.”
Interesting wording.
Not denial of participation.
Ownership.
“Whose?”
He smiled again.
“You’re asking the wrong question.”
I waited.
“You should ask why Brooks went back inside after he got you out.”
I went still.
That was not what Nell said.
Nell said her father went back in for me.
Maybe a child simplified.
Or maybe Reed knew something else.
“What did Daniel go back for?”
Reed’s eyes sharpened.
“The second person.”
My body went cold.
“What second person?”
He said nothing.
I stood.
“Who else was inside?”
His answer came quietly.
“Your wife.”
I froze.
My wife, Elise Vale, had been dead six years.
Not in the fire.
Cancer.
Reed smiled at my confusion.
Then corrected himself.
“Not Elise.”
May you like
Pause.
“Her sister.”
