Burning Justice (3 page)

“Are you all right, dear?” The ladies helped me up.

I brushed grass off my shirt, noting a fresh green stain. Oh, well, getting it out would be something to keep Artemis busy. I bowed with a flourish and handed the package to Lexy. “I’m fine. Haven’t met a drone that can get the better of me, yet.”

Cassie glared in the direction the drone had taken. “I don’t know why they can’t make those things work properly. It shouldn't take a rocket scientist to get them to behave.”

“Darn new technology. It’s not always for the best, you know. Lots of things can go wrong.”

I thought about Mr. Caffeine and nodded in agreement.

“It probably just wanted to get a good look at us.” Lexy opened the box to make sure everything she’d ordered had been delivered. “I know we joked before about them having a dual purpose, but I’m starting to think it might not be such a joke. You know, things aren’t always as they seem.”

“That’s for sure.” I knew Lexy was talking about the drones, but as I said the words, my thoughts turned to Evangeline Barrows. I had a pretty good idea things were not as they seemed when it came to her, and I couldn’t wait to return her money.

A
rtemis had looked
up Evangeline’s address and, the next morning while he was still deep in sleep mode in the living room corner chair, I hopped into my personal transportation vehicle and headed to her house.

I left during morning rush hour on purpose. Even though I hated battling the traffic in my stuffy, cramped little PTV, I wanted to get the money back as soon as possible, but also time it so her husband would have already left for work.

I didn’t want to raise any questions with her spouse. Better to just return the envelope and have no more to do with her.

Battling the traffic put me in a bad mood. My PTV was an older model and it didn’t have hover capabilities, so I was stuck down on the pavement while the more expensive models floated up into the air, staying up just long enough to pass those of us crawling along on the ground.

Higher up in the cloudless, blue sky, I could see the black dots of drones making their morning deliveries. I felt sorry for the recipients.

It was a perfect fall day. Bright sun streamed in through the bubble that comprised my roof and windshield, heating my vehicle to temperatures that would allow me to roast a turkey.

I put the windows down to enjoy the fall breeze and keep myself from baking as I made my way out of the city. Evangeline lived in one of the more affluent sections of town and, judging by her address of 21 Lake Street, she was lucky enough to live right on Green Ridge Lake.

Once I got out of the heavy traffic and onto the country roads, I engaged the autopilot and let the car drive itself. I didn’t dare do that in heavy traffic since the vehicle had a history of glitches that had resulted in several minor fender benders. It was best if I kept control of speed and steering when a lot of other cars were around. Out on the open roads, I could enter in the address and let the car find its own way without any mishaps.

I sat back and enjoyed the scenery. Out here, the houses had nice big lawns dotted with colorful flowers. The leaves were still mostly green, with just a tinge of yellow and orange starting at the top and on some of the less healthier branches.

I came to the crest of a hill and looked down at the blue lake gleaming like a jewel, the sun sparkling off shallow waves. I felt a stab of envy of Evangeline, even if she was having trouble with her husband.

Since Artemis and the ladies had verified my own suspicions about accepting Evangeline’s job, I felt confident I was doing the right thing. For me, at least. Evangeline seemed like she might be a little bossy and high-strung and who needed that? Certainly not me, and I felt confident nothing was going to happen to her—she was just being paranoid.

When I turned onto her street, I was feeling pretty good about my decision. I pulled the envelope out of my tote in preparation. I was clutching it in my hand when I noticed three cop cars and a fire engine gathered in front of a large house.

My carefree mood turned gloomy. This had to be a really strange coincidence. My gaze snapped to the GPS. No, it couldn’t be … but it was. The cars were directly in front of 21 Lake Street—Evangeline Barrows house.

The acrid smell of burning wood and plastic filled the air. My stomach swooped as my transportation vehicle pulled up to the house amidst flashing blue police lights and bright red fire trucks.

“Looks like a wee bit a’ trouble.” Agatha, my navigation system piped up in her clipped British accent. I was actually surprised she hadn’t said anything on the way over. She could be annoyingly chatty but was also moody, so you never knew when you were going to get a weather report, scenic tour or argument out of her.

“Yeah, I guess there was a fire.”

“Coincidence? I think not.” Agatha’s tone was stern. “Best we leave and come back later.”

The vehicle started to pull away and I jammed my foot on the brake to override Agatha’s control. “Whoa, there. I think I better check this out.”

I jammed the car into park and opened the door.

“You should really listen to me. My circuits have calculated all the possibilities and-”

“Not now, Agatha.” I slammed the door shut, cutting off any further arguing on her part.

Glancing behind the house, I could see there had been a fire out on the water. It looked like it was just a boat fire. I almost laughed with relief—and here I was expecting them to be pulling Evangeline’s body out of the house.

I stuffed the envelope back into my tote bag. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to be giving Evangeline an envelope full of cash in front of the cops when she’d clearly had some sort of incident in her backyard. Thoughts of arson committed on purpose to collect insurance money ran through my head. Maybe her suspicions of her husband being in financial trouble were correct?

I wondered if I should just leave, but one of the cops had already spotted me and was heading my way. Sergeant Harry Hale.

Unfortunately, Hale and I did not get along. He was an older guy—one of those by-the-book guys that didn’t like people questioning official police department rulings. Like the one concerning my mother’s death.

I’d never believed my father’s account of what happened that night, or the official investigation’s findings of the American Intelligence Agency, for which both my parents had worked.

I bit back the bile that rose in my throat as I thought of my parents. I guess you could say they had been spies. Both had worked undercover for the AIA. They’d been my idols and largely the reason why I’d also gone into law enforcement.

But something had happened a couple of years ago. An assignment gone wrong. My mother had ended up dead and my father, who had apparently been a traitor, a liar and a double agent all this time, ended up in jail.

I didn’t really care much about my father. He’d betrayed not only his country but his daughter, as well. But I wanted to know the real truth about what happened to my mother. My father said she’d died at the hands of rogue spies, but since I already knew he was a liar, I didn’t know if I could trust that information.

Since her death had happened right here in town, I’d tried to dig up all I could through the police station, and Hale had been there blocking me every step of the way. It almost made me wonder if he, himself, had been involved.

“Well, well, well. What brings you here?” Hale had walked over and was now standing in front of me, scratching his balding head. He wore the outdated fashion of plaid slacks and a polo shirt with some little animal on it. A muskrat? Or was it a ferret? I couldn’t tell.

I faltered. What
was
I doing there? I didn’t want to tell him about Evangeline’s visit to contract my services, so I made up a lie. Maybe I was more like my father than I thought. “Evangeline Barrows is a friend. I was driving by and saw the commotion. I thought I’d stop in to see if she needed help.”

His brows snapped together. “A friend? How good of a friend?”

I craned my neck to see what was going on in the backyard behind him. Police swarmed the yard, scanning the ground with instruments. Drones skimmed one foot off the surface of the grass, mapping out the whole area with a sequence of videos that the police would later use to canvas for clues by eye and also with the aid of software.

There was a lot of stuff going on at the boat or, I should say, what had
been
the boat. Now it looked more like a crispy, burned marshmallow floating on the water as opposed to a vessel that would actually carry people.

I realized Hale was studying me, expecting my answer.

“Oh, I don’t know her very well. What happened? It looks like a boat caught on fire.”

Hale turned around to look. “You could say that. When did you last see Mrs. Barrows?”

“What? Umm … it wasn’t that long ago.” My answer was intentionally vague.

Hale’s brows pulled further inward. I got a nervous feeling that he was about to interrogate me, and was wondering why he seemed so concerned about when I’d last seen Evangeline when a younger cop came up and interrupted us, much to my relief.

The new guy was a refreshing change from Hale. He was about my age. Tall, with a full head of hair, and dressed in a much more flattering outfit of blue jeans and police issue T-shirt—navy blue with the word ‘police’ on the front in big, white letters.

His face was just short of handsome. Maybe his nose was a little too big and his jaw a little too square, but somehow it all seemed to work. His eyes were a striking, deep gray which stood out on his tanned face. Not that I was looking. I wasn’t in the market for a man.

“I think we’re about done,” the new guy said to Hale, his eyes drifting over to me, probably wondering how much information he should let out in front of me.

“Callie Justice, meet Detective Tony Royce. Tony is new with the department.” Hale gave Tony a knowing look. “Callie is a private investigator.”

Tony stuck his hand out and we shook. His was a firm, warm handshake. Rather pleasant.

“Justice?” Tony’s brow puckered. “That sounds familiar.”

A sigh escaped my lips. Most everyone in law enforcement had heard about what had happened with my parents. It was embarrassing and I hated it being the first impression anyone ever got of me.

“You probably heard about her dad,” Hale said. Was there a smirk on his face?

Tony’s eyes widened. “Ohhh. Right. Well, nice to meet you.”

He sounded uncertain, like he was really thinking ‘nice to meet you even though I don’t want to have anything to do with you or your family’. Whatever. I didn’t really care because I had a bigger problem right now.

I had come to give Evangeline back the envelope, but that probably wasn’t a good idea now considering the circumstances. I was almost certain her husband wouldn’t be at work given the fire in their backyard, and I was sure Evangeline would have more pressing concerns than the money. But that meant I needed to hightail it out of there before she noticed me. Or worse, her husband did and started asking questions about who I was and why I was there.

I was just turning to leave when a familiar figure came walking up towards us. January Frederick, the medical examiner.

What was
she
doing here?

I jerked my head in the direction of the boat again. Was there a body on it?

As if to answer my question, January waived a little black device in her hand, nodded to me and turned to Hale. “I’ve got an ID. Turns out the deceased had registered titanium cheek implants. I was able to trace the numbers.”

“So, who is it?” Hale asked.

“One of the homeowners. Evangeline Barrows.”

M
y stomach plummeted
.

Evangeline was dead?

A wave of guilt washed over me. I hadn’t believed her when she’d claimed her husband was trying to kill her, and now she was dead. What if I’d taken her more seriously and followed her husband like she wanted? Would I have been able to stop him?

I felt like a heel. And responsible. I glanced down at my tote bag with the white envelope inside. Still full of money. Money she’d wanted to pay me to prevent this very thing.

But now I was in a weird position. I had to tell Hale that Evangeline had wanted to hire me, even though just a few minutes earlier I’d said she was my
friend
, not my client. That was going to make me seem even more suspicious and unreliable than Hale already thought I was.

Hale looked back to the boat and shook his head. “What an unfortunate accident.”

My heart skidded. Accident? “What makes you think it was an accident?”

He turned back to me. “The boat was an antique model. An old Chris Craft, made before everything went solar. It was powered by gasoline. As you can see, the boat is pretty burned up, but according to the fire chief it looks like someone must have forgotten to close the hatches after refueling. The inside of the boat filled up with fumes and then all it took was a little spark and …
kaboom
.”

“But that could have been done on purpose, couldn’t it? What makes you sure it was an accident?” I eyed the charred remains of the boat, a chill running through me as I pictured Evangeline in there somewhere. Had it really been an accident? Given what she’d told me yesterday, that seemed like one heck of a coincidence.

Hale’s brow ticked up. He glanced over at Tony as if to say ‘look at the know-it-all PI butting in’.

“We’ve been investigating crime scenes for a few years now,” he said sarcastically, “and we’ve gone over the area pretty good. Haven’t found anything suspicious.”

“Why was she out on the boat in the middle of the night? Doesn’t that seem odd? What about her husband? What does he say?” I persisted.

Hale’s eyes darkened. I could tell he was getting tired of my questions. “Why is this your concern?”

The envelope was burning a hole in my tote bag. Should I tell Hale about Evangeline’s suspicions? It seemed like he was going to be happy as a clam to just put this down to an accident and close the case. It was a lot less work for him. I snuck a look at Tony to see if I could get a read on whether or not he was more inclined to launch an investigation, but he had a poker face on.

Since Evangeline was dead, I didn’t have to worry about client confidentiality. Confessing to Hale about my real relationship with her might be the only way for her to get justice. And I was all about justice.

“Okay. I didn’t want to say this before because of client confidentiality and all, but Evangeline came to my office yesterday and wanted to hire me because she suspected her husband was trying to kill her.”

“Oh, really? So it seems like you might know more about this than you were letting on if you are investigating the husband.”

“No, not really. Actually, I was going to return her money.”

“And why is that?”

He had me there. I was returning the money because I didn’t believe her and I could see it in his eyes that he didn’t believe the husband did it, either.

I shifted on my feet. “I felt like she wasn’t being straight with me … but now in light of what’s happened, the husband seems pretty suspicious, don’t you think?”

“No, I don’t think. I look at clues. And so far there aren’t any pointing to the husband. He’s not even home.”

“He’s not? That seems suspicious right there … I mean, he didn’t notice the fire in his backyard when he got up for work this morning?”

Hale looked at Tony, who was patiently standing there listening to us argue. “Apparently, the husband wasn’t at home when the fire started, which we figure was around two a.m. Not that this is any of your concern. In fact, I think we can do the job of figuring out what happened fine without your input … and if we come across some evidence of foul play, we’ll be sure to suspect the husband first.”

And with that, he motioned to Tony and turned around, heading toward the back yard. Tony shot me a sympathetic look and followed him.

I hated being dismissed like that. I was watching his retreating back, trying to keep my blood from boiling over, when he turned around. “Oh, and Callie?”

“Yeah?”

“Sounds like you don’t have a client anymore, so there’s no need to be sticking your nose in the investigation. Right?”

“Yeah. Right,” I lied. He spun back around and continued on his way. I didn’t like the way he had said that last line. It sounded like a command … or a threat. Either way, I had no intention of following his ‘orders’.

I felt like I’d let Evangeline Barrows down by not taking her suspicions seriously. I didn’t care what Hale thought. That boat fire had been no accident. Evangeline had been right. Her husband
had
been planning to kill her … and I’d be damned if I’d let him get away with it.

A
fter I left
the Barrows’s house, I drove home. Agatha must have still been mad at the way I'd cut her off because she gave me her version of a cold shoulder. The silent treatment didn't bother me, but the way she kept blasting the air conditioning in my face was annoying.

It looked like Hale wasn’t going to do his job, so I’d have to do it for him. And I knew what I had to do next—look for the motive.

In my experience, motive usually came down to three things—money, love or revenge. Evangeline had suspected her husband was having an affair, plus she’d said he was up to something at work … something to do with money. So, that’s where I’d look.

Thankfully, computers made that kind of investigating easy, and I had the best of the best right at home.

When I got home, Artemis was lying halfway under the Meal-A-Tron, his legs sticking out into the kitchen.

“Artemis?” I ventured, not sure what exactly was going on.

“Huh?” His muffled voice drifted out from under the machine. He slid out, grease on his cheek and a wrench in his hand.

“What are you doing?”

“Oh, just tinkering with this thing. You said the consistency of the food is not to your liking.”

I was touched. I hadn’t actually realized that he’d noticed. “Oh, thanks. Did you fix it?”

His brow creased and he turned back to look at the machine. “Not sure. Guess we’ll find out next time we make a meal.”

His lack of confidence worried me, but I didn’t have time to dwell on that now. I needed to dig up some evidence on Evangeline’s husband so I could push Hale in the right direction.

I slid the envelope out of my tote bag and slapped it onto the counter. “Anyway, I have big news and more important things for us to do.”

The crease in Artemis’s brow deepened at the sight of the envelope. “You didn’t return that yet? I thought that was where you went.”

“It was, but I couldn’t return it. Looks like Evangeline wasn’t exaggerating when she thought her husband was trying to kill her.” I told him about the events of the morning and my new desire to seek justice for Evangeline.

“Just because you couldn’t return the money doesn’t mean that you have to take the case,” Artemis pointed out.

“I’m not taking the case … not really. I just want to find some evidence to give to Hale so he’ll investigate it as a murder instead of an accident. I feel like I owe her that much.”

“Okay. What angle were you thinking?”

“Evangeline said her husband had just boosted up her life insurance, and the boat was an antique. Do you have any way of looking at either of those?”

“Of course.” Artemis’s face went blank, his brows shifting up and down in an expression that I knew meant he was accessing data.

A few seconds later, he said, “Yep, her life insurance was upped just four days ago. From five hundred thousand to three million. And the boat was insured for two hundred thousand. I checked the blue book value and that was in keeping with the value of the boat so it wasn’t over-insured.”

“So he did change the life insurance. Hopefully, that will spurn Hale into action,” I said.

Artemis nodded. “I took the liberty of doing a wider search and there’s another thing that Hale might find suspicious as well.”

“What’s that?”

“Nathan Barrows bought two one-way tickets to Star Island early this morning.”