The Fire Still Burns (10 page)

“Nice to know I'm not the only one getting those lovely little looks.”  Brynn saw movement in one of the windows of the red brick house she watched and scooped up her binoculars, remembering she was working a job—a paying job which would add more to her get-out-of-Black-Bear-Gorge fund.

“I'm sorry, Brynn.”

The words were spoken low, nearly a whisper.  The apology sounded genuine, but Brynn refused to let herself believe it.  Doing so would make it hurt that much more the next time he belittled her.

“No, you're not.  You think I'm getting exactly what I deserve.”  She watched the men inside the small house continue their game, none of them doing anything particularly notable.

“Nobody deserves a run-in with my mother.”

Brynn laughed, unable to control herself.  “Yeah, I guess that does qualify as cruel and unusual punishment.”

“Pretty much.”  There was a hint of amusement in his tone though the words had been spoken seriously.  “So, who are you tailing?”

“Why, Adam Good, are you becoming one of Black Bear Gorge's gossiping elite?”

“Very funny.”

“I think so, and I can't tell you.”  She smiled, surprised by the friendly, easy tone of the conversation.  “I have to protect my client’s privacy.”

“Oh, please.  Do you really think if the guy is cheating, half the town doesn't already know?”

“I'm sure they do, but the little wifey doesn't and probably wouldn't appreciate me blabbing her business.”

“I can help you get your proof and then we can focus on the arson case.  You said you had information.”

Brynn sighed deeply and weighed her options.  Adam never had been a blabbermouth or a gossip, and he knew everybody.  Plus she'd never cared much for long stakeouts.  “My client is Nellie Barton.”

“Bruce meets Dalia Smith at Tasty Burger every Tuesday night.  You're not going to catch him doing anything tonight so let's meet up.”

Brynn dropped the binoculars back on the car seat and started the ignition.  “Fine.  Where?”

~~~

Twenty minutes later, Adam sat with Brynn in a secluded nook of Red’s Tavern, as far away from possible eavesdroppers as they could get.  Adam read the names on the list Chuck Davis had emailed Brynn, straining to see them in the dim light of the bar, and shook his head.  “My brother couldn't have possibly had this many enemies.”

“Adam
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”

“I'm not defending him or fighting against you.”  He cut Brynn off, recognizing the exasperation in her tone.  “I just don't see how anyone but a terrorist could have this many enemies.”

“Yes, well, loverboy got around.”  She took a sip of her Coke and nodded toward the paper before him.  “Most of that list is comprised of lady friends, special emphasis on friends, and some of those lady friends' husbands.”

“You think that could be it?  He messed around with someone's wife and they killed him in a fit of jealousy?”  He glanced toward the dance floor, noted at least three married men and two married women he knew dancing to the loud music with partners who weren’t their spouses.  Maybe some jealous husband had come into the bar one night to spot Zeke dancing with his wife.

“That would seem the most likely scenario if not for the arsons.”  Brynn leaned back in her seat across the booth, one hand tapping against her glass.  “Someone is trying to tell us something, and I don't think it's that their wife was a hussy.”

Adam couldn't help but grin at Brynn's bluntness, a reminder of the bold tell-it-like-it-is girl he'd fallen head over heels for in his youth.  “Well then, Miss P.I., what do you think he or she is trying to say?”  He took a swig of beer from the bottle he’d ordered and leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table. 

“If I knew that, I'd be one step closer to knowing who he or she is.  Is there anything special about the eleventh?  The second arson was on the eleventh and so was the murder.”

“The fire on the football field was the thirteenth.  I don't think the date had anything to do with it.”

“Maybe.”  Brynn's tone lacked conviction and although her gaze was directed to the table between them, Adam could tell there were ideas brewing behind those little green gems.

“You know something.  Spill.”

She glanced up, opened her mouth but snapped it shut again as her gaze caught on something behind him.  “You know what?  We really should have done this over the phone.”

Adam turned around, noting the pair of gawkers sitting at the bar across the room from them.  “Those idiots doing something I should know about?” he asked, turning back toward Brynn.

“Just the usual,” she answered with a humorless laugh.  “Staring, whispering, pointing.  It's  a lot easier to ignore when you're walking down the street as opposed to just sitting in their line of sight like a, well, like a sitting duck.”

“I'll take care of it.”  Adam placed his hands on the table to extract himself from the booth they shared, but a small yet surprisingly strong hand gripped his wrist.

“Don't you dare, Adam.  You'll only make things worse.”

He slid back onto the vinyl seat, noting how she scrunched down, like a small and bashful child desperate to stay out of the spotlight.  It was a reaction he never thought he'd witness from the bold and sassy Brynn Harlow.

“If it makes you feel any better, Brynn, they're talking about me, too, wondering if I'll make the same mist…”  The words had slipped out before he'd had time to analyze what he was saying, or how badly it was going to sound when it came out.  “I mean—”

“Save it.”  Brynn snatched her car keys off of the table and slid out of the booth.  “Like I said, we should have done this over the phone.”

“Brynn.”  He shot out of the booth after her but her small frame allowed her to dart around the people filling the club better than he could.  He couldn’t get close enough to grab her.  “Brynn, wait!” 

The only response he received was a hard slam of the door as she left him in the bar.

He heard a loud guffaw and turned his head to see the pair of gawkers, two of his high school classmates, laughing while staring straight at him.  He’d just hurt Brynn’s feelings and felt like an ass.  If the two fools hadn’t looked their way in the first place, shame wouldn’t be slamming him in the gut. 

“You think something’s funny?”  His voice was low and menacing as he approached.  The small brunette’s eyes widened but the man with her appeared too drunk to realize he was in danger.

“Hell, yeah.”  The stocky man, J.D. Philips, rested his bottle on the bar.  “I thought it was funny the first time that slut—”

Adam balled up his fist and knocked the man off the barstool.

Chapter Seven

“You're quitting?” 

“Yes, sir.”  Brynn cringed under the chief’s hard glare but pressed on.  Quitting was the coward’s way out but after tossing and turning another night, waking in the morning with tears on her cheeks remembering what Adam had said at the bar…she couldn’t continue working alongside him.  Enough was enough.  “I haven't been a part of this town for many years and everyone's right.  I'm used to the city way of
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”

“Bullshit!”  Chief Parker brought his fists down on his desk with a loud bang.

Brynn jumped at the angry tone exploding from him.  The older man sat before her on the opposite side of the desk, his fists resting along the wooden surface.  She gulped, a faint twinge of apprehension twisted her stomach as he leaned forward and pointed a finger at her.

“That's bullshit, Brynn Harlow, and I won't sit here and let you serve it up, little miss.  You understand that?”

“Chief Parker, I'm not the person you need for this job.”

“You're exactly the person I need for this job.  One of them, anyway.  You and Adam Good are both highly intelligent, capable detectives.  You both know fire.  You both have a lot of heart.  You can do this, provided ya'll quit thinking with your asses.”

She licked her lips, as butterflies flapped their wings inside her stomach.  “Chief Parker
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”

“Silence!  I don't want to hear it.  What's the matter with you anyway?  You used to have a spine, dammit.  You've finally come back home and instead of walking with your head held high like you should be, you're a cowering mess.  If your daddy were alive today…”  He trailed off and reached inside a desk drawer to pull out a pack of cigarettes.

“I swear I've smoked more of these since you came back home.  I'm supposed to be cutting back, dammit.  You and Adam are stressing me out.”  He pulled one of the cigarettes free and slammed the rest of the pack down. 

Brynn felt her jaw go slack as she sat still, blinking at the man before her, not sure what to say.  On one hand, he was not speaking to her in a professional manner and she had every right to call him on it and tell him what to do with himself.

On the other hand, he had been one of her father's closest friends and had known her since she was in diapers.  It put her in an awkward spot.

“Well?  Are you just going to sit there all fish-faced or are you going to go out and catch me an arsonist?”  Chief Parker tapped the cigarette on his desk, his mouth compressed into a tight frown.

Brynn closed her eyes, and her mouth, feeling slightly embarrassed to have been caught gawking like a fool, and tried to summon the calm she needed.  “Chief Parker, I realize you've known me my whole life but I am an adult woman now and would appreciate being treated like one—”

“Then act like one.”

“Excuse me?”

“You want to quit this case because you can't handle working with Adam Good, your high school sweetie.”  He liberally laced his voice with high-pitched sweetness and waved his hand dismissively.

“Get over it.  The two of you had problems.  Patch things up or move past them, but don't let emotions get in the way of your job.  That, little miss, is what being a grown-up is about.  Only children run away from their problems.”  He looked at her pointedly and Brynn could practically feel herself shrinking in her chair.

There was a knock on the door, followed by Adam half-emerging into the office.  “Chief Parker, I—”  He looked from Chief Parker to Brynn, his brow creased as he seemed to catch a hint of the mood in the air.  “Oh. I'll come back.”

“Halt,” Chief Parker commanded, his sharp tone causing Adam to freeze with his body halfway out the door.  “Shut the door and sit your ass down, Good.”

“Sir?”  Adam looked back at the man, his eyes full of uncertainty and if Brynn was correct, a slight touch of fear.

“Sit.  Down.  Now.”  Each word punctuated with its own growl.

Adam looked at Brynn as if questioning what he'd walked in on then shut the door behind him before settling into the chair next to hers.

“Were you coming in here to take yourself or Brynn off the case?”  Chief Parker grabbed his pack of cigarettes again.

Adam looked at her with a frown then returned his gaze to the chief.  “I don't have the authority to—”

“Were you coming in here to ask me to take one of you off the case?” Chief Parker barked, obviously not in the mood to beat around the bush.  The pack of cigarettes in his hand crunched and Brynn wondered if any of the repulsive, cancer-inducing sticks would survive his temper.

“Well?” he barked again when Adam didn't race to answer his question.

Adam gulped.  “Well, yes, sir, I was going to—”

Brynn closed her eyes and breathed in deep.  She really shouldn’t be surprised.  He’d probably asked the chief to remove her from the case twenty times already.

“You disappoint me, son.”

“Sir?”  Adam frowned, his forehead wrinkling with the action.

Chief Parker laid his big hands on the desk and leaned forward, giving them both a hard look.  “I'm going to say some things and you two are going to listen.  More than that, you're going to comprehend.  A man died in our town.  Your brother.”  He paused long enough to nod toward Adam then began again.

“Zeke Good's murderer, and Black Bear Gorge's arsonist, is on the loose.  I have my two best people on the case, and yes, Brynn, you are one of my people whether you believe it or not.  You were born here and this will always be your home.  The two of you are damned good at what you do, but you can't see past your own personal shit to take care of business.”

Brynn cast her gaze to where her hands lay in her lap.  She’d always been professional in her work, had prided herself on it, which made the chief’s harsh words sting worse.

“Brynn, you still have feelings for Adam.  Adam, you still have feelings for Brynn.  Act on them or ignore them, but whatever you do, get them out of the damn way.  Do it for Zeke, do it for the town, or do it for yourselves, but just do it!  I'll leave you two to decide how to progress as two adult co-workers.”

Brynn kept her eyes averted as Chief Parker scooped up his crumpled pack of cigarettes and marched out the door, muttering an apology for his choice of language.  The old man was tough when it was needed, but still an old-fashioned gentleman at heart.