Fire Beach: Lei Crime Book 8 (Lei Crime Series) (11 page)

He needed to take it easy for just a day or two and let his burns recover. He looked down at his bandaged chest, hands, and knees.

He checked on Keiki. She was sleeping, still under some anesthetic from her burn treatment. She’d been intubated, and the mobile vet had treated her here. The side he’d dragged her on had lost most of its hair.

Thank God for Jared. He was pretty sure none of them would have made it out without his brother’s cool head and quick action.

“All done.” Wayne carried the baby to the little sink, wetted a paper towel, and wiped him down. “Hold him, will you? I gotta change my shirt.”

“Hey, buddy.” Stevens took Kiet, who grinned and reached for Stevens’s blistered face as he sat up carefully. One side of Stevens’s hair was mostly burned off, but Kiet’s expression of delighted curiosity was as happy as usual. He folded the child close in spite of wriggling protests. “Thank God you’re safe,” Stevens muttered into the baby’s tender neck.

Wayne cleared his throat, having reappeared in a clean T-shirt. “Okay, I’m going out to get the baby stuff. Got anything you need?”

Stevens gave a bark of a laugh. “Well, if you hadn’t loaned me some clothes, I’d be naked right now. So yeah, maybe pick up a few things to wear. Mainly I need a new phone. Grab me a minutes-only burner and keep all the receipts. I’ll get on the phone with the insurance company, see what’s going to be covered.”

“Sounds good.” Stevens’s father-in-law left, and as he did, Stevens glimpsed movement outside. He stood up with the baby, gasping involuntarily as his scorched feet hit the floor. Wayne had loaned him socks to go over the bandages, but the skin was tender. He walked to the little front porch and sat on the top step with the baby on his lap, looking over at the black hole where their house had been.

It was easier to think of the foul-smelling mounds of charred rubble as a black hole than to remember what it used to be. The fire crews were long gone, but the unpleasant smell of wet, burned wreckage lingered.

“We didn’t have long to get too attached to it, did we?” Stevens asked the baby. “It’s just stuff, like your mama said.” Kiet flexed his legs, sticking out his tongue. His simple vitality was soothing to Stevens’s ravaged emotions.

Stevens’s eyes still stung and his vision was blurry at times, but he could see Tim Owen and Jared in their yellow turnouts, sifting through the remains.

Jared spotted him and raised a hand. In the chaos of last night, they hadn’t spoken since their dramatic escape from the house. Jared crunched through the rubble and approached them.

“Hey, bro!” He took off his heavy hat, setting it on the step below Stevens. “How ya doing?”

Stevens felt his smile painfully in the tightness of his facial skin. “Glad to be alive.”

“Little guy’s looking no worse for wear,” Jared said, as Kiet, gurgling, reached for his uncle.

“Thanks to you,” Stevens said. “Not sure I could have got us out without you.”

Jared’s blue eyes crinkled and he shrugged, self-deprecating. “I should have been onto the fire sooner. I was sleeping so hard from all that beer. I didn’t wake up until things were well on their way in the living room. I saw your door was closed and knew you’d have a few minutes, and Kiet was closer to the fire, so I went there first. Glad I did.”

“Me too.”

“So Tim thinks the fire was arson.”

Stevens snorted. “’Course it was.”

“And you’re not gonna like this. He found one of those shrouds in the washing machine.”

“Not surprised.” Hot rage boiled down Stevens’s veins, and he tightened his arms protectively around the baby. “This has to stop.” He thought of Lei’s voice as she said that and wondered if that was what she’d been feeling, too.

“Tim’s figuring out what the point of origin was. He thinks, from what I told him, it was by the front door in the living room. He’s done a depth test on the wood left to confirm, and the char is deepest there.”

“Tell him to coordinate with Pono. Pono’s been in charge of the shroud investigation.”

“I already did. Meetings, talks, and such are underway.” Jared sat on the bottom step. “I shouldn’t be too close to the baby,” he said, leaning away when Kiet reached a hand for his hair. “We pick up all kinds of chemicals walking around in fires. That’s why I never bring my turnouts into the house.”

Stevens wasn’t done talking about the night before. “You knew just what to do. I panicked when I realized the house was on fire, yanked the door open, and once I got that big draft of smoke, I was pretty much out of it. If I’d been thinking straight…Dad always told us to stay low, be careful opening doors if there was a fire.”

“You get a pass. You’d already been through that other fire. That’ll mess with a man’s head. Besides, you’ve been looking for a way to give me a chance to save your life for years. Since we were kids, in fact.” Jared grinned.

“Ha-ha, right.” Stevens made a gesture as if to punch his brother, brought up short by the reminder of chemicals and his bandaged hands.

The lifted purple truck Pono drove pulled up the driveway, and they watched as Lei’s burly ex-partner approached.

“The morning after a good poker game is always a little rough,” Pono said as he reached the porch.

Stevens laughed a hoarse rasp. “Yeah, that was some game last night.”

“So I’m up to speed with Tim Owen on what he’s found so far,” Pono said. They all looked at the young man dragging a metal sledge through the rubble to load with items as he continued sifting for evidence. “What’s interesting is that he’s sampled the accelerant. Preliminary reading shows it’s the exact same mixture that was used on the cane fires.”

Kiet chose that moment to get restless, fussing and writhing. “Why don’t we go inside and you can get my statement,” Stevens said. “I’ll give this guy a diaper change.”

“Never thought I’d hear that in a sentence.” Pono chuckled.

“I’m back to work.” Jared loped off as Pono came up the steps. Pono pulled open the screen door for Stevens, loaded with the baby and awkward with his bandaged hands.

“Can you do the diaper? Want me to help?”

“Nah, got it covered.” Back in the cottage, Stevens put the baby on a towel on the couch and changed him while telling Pono the series of events. “Come to think of it, Keiki was acting funny all evening—running around, wouldn’t settle down. She must have smelled something. Wish I’d paid more attention.”

Pono flipped his notebook shut. “I know. I was there. How’d the arsonist get past her?”

“Don’t know. But Keiki wasn’t herself—that’s for sure.” The big Rottie raised her head at the sound of her name. “Yeah, girl, wish you could talk.”

Keiki lowered her head with a deep, sad-sounding sigh. Pono frowned. “She looks pretty beat-up.”

“She’s got a few more battle scars, that’s for sure, and the vet said she’s getting up there for a Rottweiler. I dread how Lei’s going to take it when she passes.”

“Speaking of your wife—where the hell is she? I thought she’d be back by now.”

“She didn’t get my message until this morning. She said she’d come as soon as she could.” As Stevens said that, he felt the same prickle of alarm, remembering her voice when she said, “
This has to stop
.”

“Well, I hope she hasn’t gone all
lolo
and taken on the Changs by herself,” Pono said with a forced chuckle.

Stevens glared up at him. “Leaving me here to take care of the baby?” Neither of them, looking at each other, could make a joke of it. “I better call her. I’ll tell her about the arson, the mixture of accelerant.”

“Let me hold my
hanai
nephew, then,” Pono said, and scooped Kiet up with the ease of a practiced dad.

Stevens borrowed Pono’s phone and dialed the memorized number of the burner Lei had given him. She didn’t pick up, and he felt agitation spiking his heart rate. He told himself she was probably at the airport and couldn’t get reception.

“Lei, I’m on Pono’s phone and just wondering what your ETA is. Kiet and I are hanging out at your dad’s cottage, and there’s a lot going on with the investigation. Pono says the accelerant used on the house is the same mixture as the cane fire burns, so maybe it’s the same arsonist. Anyway, call me and let me know when to expect you.” He hung up and took the baby from Pono without meeting his eyes. “I’m sure she’s on her way back.”

Pono shook his head. “
Chee,
brah. Sure hope so.”

Lei found herself in front of the Chang compound without any real idea how she got there.

She pulled up in her spot next to the hedge and got an eye on the property. Early morning. The dogs were sitting on the porch, alert. Still no signs of movement inside. One of the dogs spotted the hood of the car and trotted down the steps to investigate, a porch she well remembered storming up with the FBI team just a couple of years ago.

Lei shut her eyes and leaned her head on the steering wheel, considering her options.

She could continue with her current plan, which was to surveil the house, figure out Chang’s traffic patterns, and find a way to grab him when he was on the move.

She could try to get help from her FBI friends or friends at the station, come up with some reason to search Chang’s house, and let him know she was onto him.

Or she could do what she’d done with Healani Chang when the vendetta against her family was first revealed, walk up to the door and have a talk.

She made up her mind.

Lei reached into the backseat for her duffel bag. She strapped on an ankle holster with a small, unregistered snub-nosed six-shot already loaded in it. She clipped a knife in a sheath onto her belt and strapped into a Kevlar vest. She’d bought a larger one, so it came all the way down to her hipbones, making sitting in it awkward, but she had someone else to worry about now, and coverage was key. Short of getting shot in the head, she ought to be able to survive this confrontation.

“Because this has to stop,” Lei said aloud. “Baby, it just has to stop.”

Baby had nothing to add.

Lei strapped her shoulder-holstered weapon onto the outside of the vest and clipped her badge onto the front in plain view. And, finally, she scraped her unruly curls into a ball and anchored her hair with a rubber band. She was ready.

Lei got out of the car, slid the keys into her pocket, and walked casually to the front of the gate.

The dogs went apeshit, leaping off the porch and flying down the driveway to fling themselves at the wire, baying and howling an alarm.

Lei set her hands on her hips, legs spread, and waited.

The front door opened, and Terence Chang came out onto the porch. He looked impossibly young in a pair of gray sweats and a white T-shirt, his black hair spiky with sleep, and Lei remembered he couldn’t be more than twenty-five. He clapped his hands, and the dogs shut up and trotted back to stand beside him on the porch.

“Lei Texeira,” he said. “Kinda early for a raid, isn’t it?”

“I just want to talk to you.” She pitched her voice normally, and the dogs barked at the sound of it. He clapped his hands again, and they slunk away to lie down on beds on the end of the lanai.

“You what?” He walked down the steps toward the gate, and Lei imagined pulling her weapon and pegging him two in the chest, one in the head, like a Mafia executioner. The fantasy was so vivid that she blinked when he was still standing, and right in front of her. “What do you want?”

“I need to talk to you. A police matter.”

He looked around. “You cops travel in packs. Where are the rest of them?”

“Just me this time.” Lei kept her voice flat and uninflected. “We have some unfinished business.”

“Yes, we do.” He matched her tone. “Okay, come in.”

“I’d rather you came with me. We can go somewhere private.”

He snorted, and she realized his brown eyes were as hard as his grandmother Healani’s had been. “I’ll bet you’d like that. But no. You want to talk to me; you can come inside and sit down. We’ll act all civilized, because that’s how I roll.” He’d been carrying a bunch of keys, and he unlocked a small gate next to the big retractable one.

Lei walked in, and the dogs surged up off their beds and swarmed down the stairs, barking. They surrounded her. “I say the word and they’ll rip your throat out,” Chang said.

“I expect no less.” Lei kept her eyes unwavering on his. “Lead on.”

He snapped his fingers, and the dogs retreated to either side of him as he led the way back up onto the porch. He held the grilled steel front door open. “After you.”

Lei went ahead of him, stifling the fearful knowledge that she could be walking to her own execution. She was gambling with a pair of twos, but the right bluff could win her the game. A prickling at the back of her neck reminded her that he was right behind her and so were the dogs.

The interior was not as dim as she remembered. The place had been redecorated: white walls, a deep burgundy Persian rug, couches in pebbled chocolate leather, a wall-mounted flat screen.

After so long and so much death, here she was, in the living room of the enemy.

“Have a seat.” He gestured to a couch.

Lei still stood, assessing. “Where is everybody?”

Every other time she’d been at this house, it had been a teeming beehive of activity and relatives, all armed and dangerous.

Terence Chang took a seat in what was plainly his usual spot, a designer leather chair facing the TV. “I live by myself now.” One of the dogs, the brindled one that Lei recognized from the raid a few years ago, sat beside Chang and leaned on his leg.

Lei’s eyes had adjusted to the interior light, so she chose a spot on one of the couches nearest the door. She was still feeling her way, considering what to do. There wasn’t a blueprint for any of this. “You’ve made quite a lot of changes around here.”

“Tutu left me the place and the business. I’m running it my way now.”

She gazed at him. Chang had a handsome face, mixed heritage evident in the olive tan of his skin, flat cheekbones, and full lips. His tilted eyes were guarded but intelligent. She thought back to his belligerence and angry threats against her when he’d been in captivity with the FBI.

“We have a history, you and I.”

“Inherited. I’ve got no beef with you.”

“That’s the first time I’ve heard that.”

“Well, after that other situation, I took stock of my life. I was on probation for two years, as you know, and I cleaned house. Literally. Decided what I was going to do different, and one of the main things was to go straight. I have no need of the family business.”