Incandescent (13 page)

Anna blushed at her father’s scrutiny. “Dad,
this is Marshal Tahir. He’s investigating the fire at Lacey’s
house.”

Aaron raised his free hand and James shook it
firmly. “Tahir, eh? I know your work, sir,” he said. “You’re out of
Harrisburg, right?”

“Yes sir. State Fire Marshal’s office,” Aaron
replied.

Anna let go of Aaron’s hand and slipped her
arm through her father’s. “You need a ride home,” she said,
intending to offer when her father interrupted her.

“Laura is coming to get me,” he said, a note
of apology in his voice. “We had a date tonight and I don’t think
Hell or high water or a car fire is going sway her.”

Anna chuckled at her father’s admission. She
knew Laura had James in her sights, but he wasn’t ready to commit.
“You might as well give up, Dad. She’s husband hunting.”

James peered over his daughter’s head as a
gray sedan pulled behind Aaron’s truck. “Not in this lifetime,
honey. I like my life the way it is,” he said, watching as Laura
smoothed her blonde hair and checked her makeup in the mirror. She
leapt from the car and skipped to his side.

“Oh James, are you alright?” the older woman
asked, slipping her arm into the crook of James’ free elbow. “I was
so worried when you called. Hello Anna, how are you?” she veered,
her eyes on Aaron and not the judge’s daughter.

James withdrew his arms from both of the
women and stepped back. “It was pleasure to meet you, Marshal,
despite the circumstances.” He winked at Anna. “I’ll talk to you
later, honey. Call me later tonight.”

Laura cleared her throat.

“I mean, tomorrow. Call me tomorrow,” James
said, leaning in to kiss Anna’s cheek. He let the curvy woman lead
him away.

Anna bit her lip to prevent the snicker of
laughter.

“I need to take a look at the police report,”
Aaron said. He walked towards Rand, Anna following closely.

Rand pulled out his notebook. “I haven’t
started a formal report yet,” he said, flipping through pages.
“I’ll tell you what I have.”

Anna stood to the side and listened as Rand
went through his notes and tried to answer Aaron’s questions. The
man’s attitude was curt and abrupt, and he avoided Anna’s eyes.

If Aaron noticed, he didn’t react. He
complimented the officer on his copious notes and asked him for his
assistance later at the impound lot.

“I’d like to be there, too,” she said,
interrupting the conversation.

Aaron caught her hand and gave it a gentle
squeeze. “Of course,” he said.

In an alley two streets away, a man watched
through small binoculars. He’d heard the report on the scanner and
rushed to the scene, only to be frustrated beyond belief. All the
homework he’d done on Johnson had been a waste. He’d followed the
man, day in and day out for weeks, establishing his routine and
routes. The fact Johnson traveled to the market each weekend,
following the same roads, made it easy for him to decide on a
magnetic car bomb with a tilt fuse.

Late the night before, he’d placed the bomb
under the left front fender. When Johnson drove the car the
following morning, he would follow his typical route to town,
driving on Canal, which had plenty of potholes to ensure the tilt
fuse worked. One end of the small glass tube was filled with
mercury, while the other was wired with the ends of an open circuit
to the car’s electrical firing system. When Johnson hit the first
pothole, the tilt fuse would jerk, causing the mercury to follow to
the top of the tube and close the circuit. Once the circuit was
completed, the bomb exploded.

He didn’t make mistakes. He knew the fault
had to be with the materials he’d used. That Johnson hadn’t burned
to a crisp in his luxury car pissed him off, but the sight of Anna
Johnson arriving with the fire marshal, holding hands with the man,
made his blood boil.

He admired her ability to survive so far,
although it had been a lucky coincidence she’d been away the night
of the fire. Her unspoiled beauty soothed him. Seeing her clinging
to the arrogant fire marshal, however, shattered his delusion. She
didn’t deserve his mercy, after all.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Gretchen sat, pensive and sad, on the front
stoop of the burned-out Victorian home, her arms wrapped around her
knees. The large red truck pulled into the driveway. Tinted windows
obscured the passenger who threw open the door and jumped out. Anna
slammed the heavy door behind her and sprinted to the porch.
Gretchen stood.

“You’re not going to believe this,” Anna
said, brushing her long hair from her face. “My father’s car just
blew up.”

Gretchen staggered a step back. “You’re
shitting me.”

Anna cringed at the vulgar expression. “No,
I’m not. We just left him. Laura is taking him home and his car is
being towed to the police impound lot.”

Gretchen peered over Anna’s shoulder and
spoke to Aaron, who approached the two with watchfulness. His green
eyes flickered back and forth as he scanned the neighborhood.

“Is this true?” Gretchen asked him.

Anna bristled. “Of course it is. Would I lie
to you?”

“Well, who would have done something like
that?” Gretchen replied.

Anna cocked her head. “What do you mean,
‘who’? The car caught on fire at a stop light. He got out in
time.”

Suspicion twisted Gretchen’s pretty features.
“Cars don’t catch on fire by themselves. Especially fancy cars like
your dad’s Lexus,” she said. “Right, Marshal? Tell us how cars
explode.”

Aaron stepped onto the porch with the two
women and extended a hand to hold aside the police tape. “Let’s go
inside and we’ll talk about this in private.”

Gretchen raised her eyebrows at Anna as if to
say, “I told you so.” She faltered at the doorway, a whiff of burnt
wood and furnishings assaulting her. She raised a hand to her mouth
and gagged. “Oh my God!” She sank to her knees, swaying. Aaron
caught her before she fainted.

Aaron pulled into the parking space at his
motel. He turned off the engine. Instead of climbing out the truck,
he relaxed his shoulders and rubbed his forehead. His head
pounded.

How could such a great day turn into crap so
quickly? He’d spent the night with Anna, waking next to her warm,
willing body. Then, her father’s car caught fire and he’d asked the
Eaton police to impound it. The downward spiral continued when he
and Anna met Gretchen at the house.

He didn’t know what he expected, however,
Gretchen fainting wasn’t it. He’d expected her to show signs of
guilt, remorse. Watching the feisty blonde collapse, her mercurial
demeanor change from confused to sad to furious when she awoke,
perplexed him.

She’d pushed away at Anna’s supporting arm
and walked into the house, eyes narrowing with each step. Aaron
walked the women through the house, as suggested by Cooper, asking
them to recall everything they could about the day and night before
the fire.

Aaron took numerous photos and wrote
meticulous notes as they walked through each room. Occasionally, he
put an item in a plastic evidence bag and wrote on it with a black
marker.

Both women maintained Lacey would not have
lit candles late at night.

“She isn’t the kind of person to soak in a
tub surrounded by candles,” Anna said. “She prefers to take
showers.”

Aaron pointed to the tub. “We found the
stopper in the drain, and there’s an oily residue. The water either
drained out or boiled away from the heat,” he said. “The way we
read the situation is, she decided to take a bath, filled the tub
with water and some kind of bath oil, and lit the candles. At some
point, she decided to go to bed, without emptying the tub or
blowing out the candles. Maybe she changed her mind. Maybe she’d
had too much to drink and forgot what she was doing.”

Gretchen shook her head. “You’re grasping at
straws there. I’ve already told you, Lacey was in bed and sound
asleep when I left. It was late. She wouldn’t have gotten up in the
middle of the night to take a bath.”

Aaron studied her. “Maybe you’re right. If
she didn’t fill the tub and light the candles, who did? You’re the
only other person we can place at the scene.”

“The scene!” Anna shrieked. “Are you accusing
Gretchen of starting the fire?”

Gretchen didn’t blink. Instead, a disgusted
sneer twisted her lips. “So, that’s what this little visit is
about, eh? You thought if you could get me here, you’d break me?
Get some kind of confession? Well, you’re going to have to try
harder, asshole.”

Anna stepped in front of Gretchen, placing a
hand on Aaron’s shoulder and pushing him back. “This is
ridiculous.”

Aaron’s gaze dropped to Anna’s and softened.
“If you don’t think Lacey did this, you have to consider the option
someone else did.”

Gretchen crossed her arms. “Exactly! Someone.
Not me.”

Anna peered over her shoulder at Gretchen,
her eyes narrowing. “Wait a minute. Gretchen, didn’t you tell me
when you left, you were worried someone was prowling around? You
said you saw someone?”

“No, I didn’t see anyone,” Gretchen corrected
her. “I felt something. It was a creepy sensation, like someone was
hiding in the shadows, watching me. Then Mark showed up. I figured,
it was just the heebie jeebies because it was so late.”

Anna turned towards Aaron, her eyebrows
raised. “Maybe there was someone else. Maybe someone broke in.”

He looked at his clipboard, avoiding her
pleading eyes. “There was no signed of forced entry. Why would
someone break in and take a bath? It doesn’t make sense.”

“Exactly!” Anna said. “Like the fire
detector. That doesn’t make sense either.”

Gretchen frowned. “What are you talking
about?”

“They said the batteries were dead in the
fire detector,” Anna said.

“Both of them,” Aaron interjected.

“What? Weird,” Gretchen said. “Lacey is
always careful with her possessions. She is always prepared, like
one of those doomsday preppers. She even keeps a spare solar
charger in her car just for her phone.”

Anna tilted her head, pondering the comment.
“I know the fire detector downstairs was working. It went off when
I used the broiler a few weeks ago.” With a glance at Gretchen, she
added, “Remember? Lacey joked I used the detector when cooking
instead of the oven timer.”

She walked away from the group and headed
down the hallway to the kitchen. They followed and Aaron watched
her pull out a cabinet drawer next to the sink. “See, she had
plenty of fresh batteries.”

He arched over her shoulder to see a neat
stack of green, silver and black, name-brand batteries.

“She brings them home from her shop,” she
said, closing the drawer with a slam.

The trio looked at each other.

“You don’t believe us, do you?” Anna asked,
her tone solemn.

Aaron shook his head. “It’s not that I don’t
believe you. Of course I do. I have to weigh all the evidence.”

Gretchen interjected, “You have to find it
first, dummy.”

“Don’t call him a dummy,” Anna said.

“Well, he’s giving up too easily. He has his
mind made up. I’m the one who did it. Why look for anything
else?”

Aaron frowned. “I didn’t say that.”

“Yeah, but you’re thinking it. You’re putting
all these ideas into Anna’s head, and you’re not listening to us.
You need to listen. We’re the ones who know Lacey the best,”
Gretchen said. She held up a finger. “Number one, she wouldn’t have
woken up in the middle of the night to take a bath. Number two, she
didn’t light candles when she bathed. Number three, she kept fresh
batteries in the house, so she wouldn’t have let the fire detectors
run down. I may be a selfish bitch, and I may like to party with my
boyfriend, but I’m not an idiot. I wouldn’t light candles and then
leave my best friend asleep. And, I’m not a liar. I don’t care if
you don’t believe me. I do care that you aren’t trying to find out
what really happened.”

Aaron lifted his chin. “I will find out what
happened here.”

Gretchen shook her head with derision. “Kiss
my ass, Marshal. I’m out of here.” She turned and left the
kitchen.

Anna bit her lip, worry creasing her
forehead. “I’m going with her. I’ll talk to you later,” she
said.

Aaron nodded once, his jaw clenching.

As he pulled into the motel parking lot, the
sound of ringing broke Aaron’s reverie. He pulled his cell phone
from his pocket and looked at the screen, hoping it was Anna. He
pressed the answer button.

“Hi Dad. What’s up?” he asked, opening the
door and exiting the truck. He slammed the door behind him, tucked
the phone under his chin and pulled out his wallet. He fumbled for
the motel key card, then slid it into the reader. The green light
flashed and he turned the handle.

Cooper spoke, “Just following up on our last
conversation. Did you go over the scene again?”

Aaron went into the dark motel room, letting
the door swing shut behind him. He flipped a switch and the foyer
lit up. He put his keys and wallet on the dresser, then collapsed
on the bed, the phone next to his ear.

“Yeah, I did. I just returned.”

“And?” Cooper prodded.

“Well, I got my ass handed to me on a
platter,” he said with resignation. “By two women. The roommate and
her friend.”

“The friend? Is this the one you suspected
accidentally starting the fire before leaving? What was it?
Candles?”

“Yeah.”

“And the roommate. Would this be the woman
you’re seeing? What’s her name? Anna?”

“Yeah.”

“Hmmm. Well, why don’t you give me a call
later, when you’re squared away and we’ll catch up. Go over your
notes. See what you missed.”