Make It Right (15 page)

“She ended up breaking three of her fingers. But that doesn't make what I'm thinking crazy. She broke three fingers over lights. What would she do after finding out about Royal's second family?”

“You're suggesting that Missy killed them? She doesn't do anything where she can possibly break a nail.” If Amelia didn't look so serious, Danny would have laughed. Missy made people open jars for her because it was too much effort.

“You're right. I'm being ridiculous.” She smiled again. “And our bath water is getting cold.”

“Well we can't have that, can we?” Danny ran his hands down her arms. “And we're going to find the person who took them away from us. It might not be tomorrow, but it will happen and they will die.” She nodded before she turned away, but he knew that she didn't believe him.

Really he wasn't sure if he believed him. They were no closer to finding out the truth of it, there were times that he thought they never would be. One of his only fears was that he'd let Amelia down again, hurt her again, when he'd rather cut off his own arm.

<#<#<#

The fire investigator was still on the scene when Danny finally rolled up to the smoldering ruins of what had been Amelia's house. She'd grown up there, taken her first steps on the front lawn. She'd loved it there. Now it was just random pieces of support beams standing and rubble. He looked over, saw that the shed was still standing and nearly sighed with relief. Everything that he had stashed beneath it should be safe. There was no way to check and know for sure until everyone cleared out, including his Brothers.

“Royal,” the inspector, Ryan, walked over and extended his hand. “Good to see you, wish it was under better circumstances.”

“What do we have?”

“It's definitely arson, no question about that.” Ryan looked around and lowered his voice. “I'm going to do what I can, but there's going to be some questions. Remember the Fulton Street fire? This one seems to have started the same way. The neighbor who called it in stonewalled the police, but I know her, she saw a dark-colored SUV parked in front. She thought it was strange, so she watched it for a while.”

“Wait, you're talking about Mrs. Cane, right?” Danny immediately looked across the street. “Nosy old broad.”

“She speaks highly of you.” Ryan chuckled. “And she says that she saw two people leave the house. Sadly she wasn't wearing her glasses, so she couldn't tell much more.”

“Two of them.” Royal looked thoughtful. “Well that's more than we knew before.”

“Did the lab ever figure out what accelerant was used?” Ace questioned.

“Got the report back last week. Acetone. It's volatile but pretty easy to get your hands on. Hell, my wife buys it from the beauty supply place by what seems like the gallon.” Ryan looked around. He stood up straighter. “Here comes trouble.”

Danny turned and wasn't at all surprised to find that trouble had taken the form of Detective Harris. She smiled and gave him a little wave when she noticed the attention. “Morning, Boys. Is this a private meeting or can anyone join?”

“What do you want?” Danny decided to cut straight to the chase. He needed this bitch gone before he let himself act on the sudden urge to wring her neck for outing Amelia.

“I'm here to check the progress of the fire investigation. Oh and Ryan, you'll be pleased to know that everything from this case is going to be fast tracked. Isn't that great?”

“Absolutely.” Ryan replied. “If you'll excuse me, I've got work that needs to be done.”

“Just curious, is he in your pocket, too? Like Monroe?”

“Go get fucked.” Buster said with a smirk. “Just might improve your outlook on life.”

“Oh, I get fucked.” Harris replied. “Regularly and better than you could ever manage.”

“If you say so,” Buster grinned. Danny knew that he was enjoying the exchange. Ace and Train also looked amused. It seemed Royal wasn't finding the humor, either, but since he was letting it play out, Danny held his tongue.

“So charming.” Harris replied. “I'd suggest that we all go inside and talk but...” She glanced over her shoulder at the house and Danny's desire to wrap his hands around her neck returned in full force. “Anyway, we know that the knife we found at the crime scene was Train's and not just because your Old Lady likes to run her mouth, Benson. Except I'm guessing that you all knew she was going to run her mouth. In fact, I'd put my next paycheck on the fact that you told her to come to me. Did you
really think that I was stupid enough to believe she was going to flip on you?”

Her expression had gone from damn near pleasant to cold, controlled fury as she spoke. She raised a hand and motioned. Two uniformed officers, hands already on their unstrapped holsters, stepped forward. It took a minute for Danny to recognize them, but when he did he nearly groaned.

Al and Sal Marco were brothers. Their father had been a cop. All of their uncles had been cops and even their grandfather had been a cop back in their native Italy. They were big, taller than Danny by several inches and as nearly twice as wide. They hated Nightshade as much as they loved their badges.

“Officers, if you'd be so kind as to take Mr. Grimes into custody. Joseph Grimes, you are under arrest for the murders of Fiona and Taylor Mason. Read him his rights and get him out of here.”

“Easy, Fellas.” Train's jaw was set in a hard line as Al, or maybe it was Sal, grabbed his arms and twisted them behind his back. “You want to play rough, you really need to at least buy me dinner first.”

“Shut your mouth.”

“You'll never convict him.” Royal told Harris. “You're barking up the wrong tree, Detective.” His voice was surprisingly calm.

“Oh, I disagree. And I'm thinking we won't even get to trial. I smell a plea deal. A deal that will give me you and your precious club on a shiny silver platter. Here's what I think happened. I think that you gave the order. Davenport Development has been suffering financially. You were desperate for money and the answer was right underneath your nose, your dirty little secrets. With family number two out of the way, you just have to sit back and collect.”

“Jesus, you are one twisted bitch, aren't you? Who fucked you up?” Buster questioned. He reached in his pocket, laughed when Harris reached for her gun. “Don't shoot me. It's just a pack of smokes. You want one?”

“I'll pass. Thanks.” Harris narrowed her eyes at him. “I could ask you the same thing, Mr. Townsend. You really are a long way from home, aren't you?”

“I am home.” Buster gave her no other reaction than flicking ashes off the end of his cigarette.

“If you say so.” Harris smiled again. “And I'll prove what happened to Fiona and Taylor, you can count on that. And everyone even remotely connected with it will be brought to justice.” She turned her attention to Danny. “Even you, Benson. Isn't Amelia going to feel foolish when she figures out the truth?”

“And what truth would that be?” Danny questioned. He didn't realize he'd taken a step closer to Harris until Ace reached out and grabbed his arm.

“The truth of the lengths you'd go through to get her back here in Detroit. She'd visit before you came home, right, but after you were released she never came within a hundred miles, until her family came up missing. And now the two of you are as close as ever. I can't see that being a coincidence.”

“Doesn't surprise me that you can't see anything, since your head is shoved up your ass. No one in Nightshade had any involvement with Fiona and Taylor being killed. They were family. If you know so much about us, you should know that family is everything.”

“If I believed that, I would have my head stuck up my ass. Now, if you gentlemen will excuse me, I've got an interrogation to conduct.” With that she turned away without looking back once.

“Jesus, that is one crazy bitch,” Ace mumbled.

“She ain't crazy. She's determined.” Royal let out a sigh. “Everyone head back to the bar. There is nothing that we can do here.”

“I'm going to hang back a minute,” Danny told them. “See if I can find anything whole, something for Amelia.” He was just beginning to realize the depth of what she'd lost, of what she'd already lost. The more he thought about it, the worse he felt because he really hadn't been there through any of it. He'd come in after. She'd faced it all on her own, which was her worst fear. It was no wonder he was starting to feel a rift between them. Maybe he should have expected it with the past they had. Most likely he'd been a fool to think that they could just fall right back into the way that they used to be just because they still loved each other.

“We can stay. Help you.” Royal offered.

Danny appreciated the offer, but he shook his head. “No, this is something that I need to do on my own.” He headed towards the crumbled house and waited until he heard the roar of bikes before he started towards the shed.

Everything inside reeked of smoke, but every single thing he'd left was there. Secure. Secure enough that he was comfortable leaving the boxes and bags there. After he'd moved Royal's boxes inside, he'd taken his own rainy day fund and added it to the cache. Danny crouched down and opened a battered metal cash box.

He'd had it since he was a kid. Inside were bits and pieces of random things that for one reason or another he couldn't get rid of. That didn't mean that he opened the box often; the last time had been just after his release, when he'd placed Amelia's engagement ring and wedding band inside. She'd left them with Buster when she'd left Detroit.

The ring didn't look like an engagement ring. It was old; he wasn't sure how old since he'd found it at a pawn shop and the guy behind the counter was too busy with his soap opera to offer any information. The moment he'd seen it, he'd known that it was the right one. And she'd loved it. She'd jumped him immediately after to show just how much. And he'd left it in the box, not even thinking about it once she was back. How could he have forgotten? Danny slipped the ring and their matching wedding bands into the pocket of his cut.

He left the shed, his mind on Amelia. Danny didn't expect to find her standing in front of the house. “Hey, I thought that you were going to stay home and try to get some sleep.”

“Couldn't sleep,” she replied. “I had to see it. What were you doing in the shed?” Danny hesitated just long enough for her to let out a sigh. “Oh, I see. I'm out of the loop on that, too. Even though it's on my fucking property. You know what, I don't like this. I don't like this at all. I did not sign up to be kept in the dark.”

“You signed up for me,” Danny replied. “And I'm asking you to trust me. It's not always going to be like this. You're not always going to be in the dark.”

“But I am now, and this sucks. This all just sucks.” She looked away from him, over at the house. “I'm going to see if there's anything that can be salvaged. I've got all the important papers at your house, but there were other things that I wanted.”

“I'll help you,” Danny told her. It was at that inopportune second his phone rang; he knew that he wouldn't be able to help her. It was Royal.

“No, you'll answer the phone.” She shook her head. “Don't worry. I won't wait up.”

“Amelia,” Danny called out and she continued to walk without looking back. “Fuck me.” He grabbed his phone out of his pocket. “Not now,” he snarled into the phone and ended the call. The sky was filling up with dark, thick clouds; they'd have rain soon or maybe worse. He'd smelled snow in the air earlier.

When he reached the house Amelia was already far enough in the rubble to make him nervous. “Amelia.”

“Just leave,” she called out.

“I'm not leaving right now. We need to talk.”

“Add that to the list of things that I'm sick of hearing,” she called out but kept digging through the remains of the house.

“Add it to the list of shit that I'm sick of saying.” Danny felt his anger flare but swallowed it
down. He didn't want to fight with her. When he'd stepped out of the shed all that had been on his mind was going home, finding her and putting the ring in his pocket back onto her finger.

“I'm not up for a fight so I think that it's better for us both if you just...” she trailed off. “Oh God. Chopper?”

Danny walked to where she was, followed her gaze and saw a dog in the yard. “Babe, that's too small to be Chopper.” Even as he spoke the dog moved closer and he realized it was indeed Chopper. The once massive dog now looked half starved and moved with a very distinctive limp.

Amelia fell trying to get to the dog, pushed Danny off when he tried to help her up. He watched as she dropped to her knees and began to hug the dog. He heard her start to cry and felt his chest tighten. “Poor guy.” He stroked his hand over Chopper's head. “Let's get him into the car. Get something for him to eat and get him warm. We can take him to the vet in the morning to have him checked out.”

“We've got to stop and get something to feed him. Oh fuck, he must be starving.” Amelia was fawning over the dog. She hadn't even realized he'd just suggested the same thing.

“We'll get him something. Can't give him too much, don't want him to get sick. Come on, let's get out of here. He's probably freezing, and you should have worn something more than a sweatshirt. There are jackets in the downstairs closet.” Danny was constantly having to be after her about wearing a coat. It was a small comfort that as much as everything had changed, some things still felt exactly the same.