Playing With Fire

by Dirk Greyson

  “We don’t know who it was,” Jim said, but Barty shook his head.

  “I know it was him. There is no doubt in my mind.”

  “What about whoever hired the detective?”

  “You mean the most bumbling man on the face of the earth? Please. Whoever hired him didn’t know what they were doing at all and hired the cheapest guy they could find. No. That’s a red herring. I mean, please, the guy almost peed himself when you threatened to put him in jail. No. That’s someone who wants to know something about me, not the shooter.”

  “We shouldn’t talk about this here,” Jim said, checking to see if anyone was listening to their conversation. They didn’t appear to be paying much attention to either of them, and Jim moved closer and put an arm around Barty’s waist. In the thick of things, he’d thought of catching this guy and making sure Barty was safe. There had been a backyard full of people, and while he’d yelled for them all to get inside, the one his mind and heart had gone to was Barty. To think that the preliminary evidence suggested that Barty was the target made him shake inside at how close he’d come to losing him.

  His own fears and past be damned. Jim was downright afraid for Barty’s life. Hell, if the guy had shot at Jim, it would have scared him less than Barty being the target. And it was his fault that had happened. He was the one who brought Barty into this mess, and now it was his fault that Barty was in the line of fire. Jim was damned sure as hell not going to let it happen again.

  They called Barty in, and Jim sat nervously the entire time he was gone. It went on for quite a while, and Jim knew they were trying to figure out if Barty had any enemies and all the usual lines of questioning. Once Barty came out, he looked bruised and was moving rather slowly.

  “Come on, Jim,” Captain Westin said, and Jim stood and took his turn in the hot seat. “Did you discharge your weapon?”

  “No,” Jim answered, then went into his explanation of what happened. “Do you have people checking the neighborhood?”

  “Yes, Jim,” Captain Westin said. “We know our jobs and are spreading the net as wide as we can, and you’ll be in the loop once we’re done processing this scene, but for now, you’re a player, a part of the crime scene.” They went over his movements and what he saw and heard. “Is there the possibility of a third shot? A few witnesses thought they heard one.”

  “No. There were two. Because of the stone house and the berms, the yard can echo. The girls and I play with it sometimes. It does it in spots, but I wasn’t in one of those and it was clearly two shots.”

  “And they were both close to Barty,” Captain Westin asked.

  “Yes. As far as I know. I told you where we were in the yard.”

  “Where was your niece?”

  “Mindy? She was between us, and I pulled her down under me with the first shot, to protect her. I needed her safe. She’s only three.”

  “We’re working through the exact bullet trajectories now, but it looks like the shooter was on the far side of the hedge and that some of the branches may have changed the bullet angles a bit. Handguns aren’t as accurate as rifles, as you know, but you weren’t that far away.”

  “So you’re saying you think Barty was lucky.”

  “It seems that way,” Captain Westin answered, and Jim paled and turned away to get some air and himself under control. He felt his worry rise quickly and wished to hell he hadn’t reacted that way in front of the other officers. He needed to keep his personal life out of his work. “We need to make sure we catch this bastard fast. I want all work done as quickly and thoroughly as possible. Jim, you’ll remain lead investigator, but I’m going to manage everything and coordinate the work in the station. That way we can divide and conquer. This case is getting bigger by the day.”

  “Thank you,” Jim said. He wasn’t going to turn down any help he could get.

  “Now go on home. I think we’ve put Barty through enough right now.”

  Jim nodded and left the room. The house was largely quiet. He went looking for Barty and found him in the living room with Deidre, Franklin, and the girls. They were all huddled together, the girls playing quietly on the floor. Barty sat next to Deidre, talking quietly, and she was listening, both she and Franklin nodding every now and then. Barty didn’t know Jim was there so he stayed back. Barty seemed to be helping them, and a lump formed in his throat. He’d been concerned about how Barty was going to be able to handle all this and worried he’d react badly. But Barty was apparently more concerned about Deidre, Franklin, and his nieces than he was about himself.

  As Jim watched, little Mindy got up from the floor and tugged on Barty’s pant leg. Barty looked shocked, and then he lifted Jim’s little niece into his arms, and she hugged him around the neck. When he put her down, she went to her mother and did the same thing, settling there. Meghan seemed less affected, probably because she was inside the house when everything happened and hadn’t actually witnessed it.

  “I thought I told you to go home,” Captain Westin said quietly from behind him. Jim stepped away and let him glance in the room before he too stepped away. “That’s not what I expected to see.”

  “Neither did I,” Jim said. “But it’s what he’s trained to do.”

  Captain Westin nodded slowly. “Sometimes he seems so… innocent, maybe naïve, to do what he does.”

  “Barty has told me that he has trouble understanding people, but that’s not the case, judging by what I just saw.”

  “Everyone has their skills, and clearly whatever he’s doing is one of them.”

  Barty was obviously so much more than what Jim had first thought. Maybe Barty just didn’t see himself as he really was. But Jim thought maybe he was starting to. He’d begun developing feelings for Barty over the past few days, but the scene he’d just witnessed touched his heart.

  “Jim,” Barty said, coming out of the room. “I’m about ready to go.”

  “Let me say good-bye to them, and then I’ll take you back to the house,” Jim said and went inside. He hugged both of his nieces and held Deidre’s hand.

  “I don’t know who could have done this,” she said softly as he looked up from Mindy. “Your friend… is Barty just a friend? Because he’s brilliant and knew just what to say. He does understand.” She wiped her eyes and then hugged him, something she hadn’t done in many years. “Take care of him… and yourself.”

  “I will,” Jim agreed, and she released him. Jim said good-bye to both his nieces, lightly stroking their blonde hair. He joined Barty, and they left the house, telling Captain Westin that they were leaving.

  “Penelope is going to be happy to see us.”

  Jim didn’t understand that comment or why Barty was choosing to focus on his cat after everything that happened. They got in the car, and Jim left the neighborhood, went through the nearest drive-through for some food, and then drove home.

  Jim entered the house cautiously, checking that the alarm was truly undisturbed. Once they were inside, he reset all the perimeter sensors and then went into the kitchen. He got plates and mugs and grabbed two beers before returning to the family room, where he found Barty sitting on the sofa with Penelope on his lap.

  “If you don’t mind my asking, what did you say to Deidre? Because right now you’re, like, her favorite person in the world.”

  Barty didn’t move. “I just listened, mostly. Your sister is extremely driven, but she cares very much what others think of her. She was concerned that no one was hurt and then, of course, that Mindy was so close to the shots. I explained that the fear and concern she was feeling were justified and normal for any mother and that she should take comfort that her daughters and her guests were all fine.”

  “Is that all?” Jim asked and took a bite of his burger. He hadn’t realized how hungry he was until he took that first bite.

  “No. I told her that she’s going to be afraid and that was normal, but I said that her daughters were going to need her and that she had to be strong for them. Your sister has a steel
backbone, and all I did was try to remind her of that. I don’t know what it’s like to have children, but I do know what it feels like to be shot at and missed. What I don’t know is how I’m going to feel about it once I have a chance to think. But right now I’m okay.”

  “I know you don’t think you’re good with people, but you knew exactly what Deidre needed to hear.”

  “That’s because of training. In the end Nana was right. Going into this field did help me understand people, but from an intellectual perspective as opposed to a personal, deep-down understanding. Sometimes that’s a good thing, and other times it’s very difficult. I think today it was good. I was able to remain detached rather than get caught up in my own emotions and fear.” Barty took a bite of his burger and then set it down, chewing slowly, like he was contemplating something. “They were shooting at me, weren’t they? They didn’t tell me in the interview, but they asked plenty of telling questions.”

  “We think so. But until they work out the ballistic trajectories, it will be difficult to tell. Sometimes there are surprises.” Jim bit his lower lip, wondering just how much to tell Barty. Until now he’d been very up-front with him. “He shot through the hedge and there are marks on the branches, so it’s possible that trajectories were altered. We don’t know yet, but it seems like you were the target.”

  Barty nodded blankly. “Then he’s becoming more desperate. This wasn’t a distant act, but up close, and I’m not sure how thought-out it was.”

  “He got away pretty cleanly,” Jim said.

  “True, but this time he left clues. I’m sure of it.” Barty stared at his food but didn’t touch it. “You know, it feels funny to be someone’s target. For years I was the guy in the corner who people only saw when they wanted something, at least outside the academic arena, and now I have the attention of a psychopath.” Barty turned toward him, his eyes hollow, fear pulling at his lips. “I think I’ll go back to not being noticed very much.”

  “I know what that feels like. I was the target in Philadelphia a few years ago. It’s why I left the force there and came here. I needed to get away from all that. I was assigned to a gang task force, and somehow one of the gangs got hold of a list of officers on the force, and they targeted all of us. At first it was harassment and things to try to send a message to back off. Then one of the members was shot, and I was being followed a few times. We found the ones responsible and shut down the gang completely in the end. But the family in charge, three brothers, attacked me, and I nearly died from multiple gunshot wounds.”

  “And then you come out here looking for something quieter and end up investigating a serial shooter who is now targeting the person you’re….” Barty didn’t finish his sentence. “I don’t know what to say here.”

  “I know, and it’s my fault.”

  “I mean, I know a kiss is just a kiss and it isn’t a marriage proposal or anything. But sometimes kisses signal the beginning of something more, and sometimes they’re just kisses. I’ve only had three so I don’t have anything else to compare it to, and…. But does it mean something more, or was it just a kiss because you like me?”

  Jim leaned closer, his food momentarily forgotten at the confusion in Barty’s eyes. He tugged Barty closer and brought their lips together. Barty tasted like hamburger, but only for a few seconds, and then his natural richness took over. He loved how Barty tasted and loved the mewling whine that welled up in his throat. It took all Jim’s self-control not to make a similar sound.

  Then Jim pulled back. “Does that answer your question?”

  Barty blinked at him for a few seconds and then shook his head. “Not really. It’s a wonderful kiss, but what does it mean?”

  “Okay, it means that I like you and think you’re someone special. It also means that we’re working together and we should be careful.”

  “But I’m only a consultant,” Barty said. “I’m not really part of the police force or anything, and at the moment, I’m here because you’re protecting me.”

  “I’m trying,” Jim said, thinking he wasn’t doing a very good job. He should have told Deidre that he wasn’t going to be coming to her party because of the case he was working on. The girls would have been disappointed, but he wouldn’t have put them and Barty in danger the way he had. “Not doing a very good job, though.”

  “Yes, you are. How were you to know he’d attack people at the party?” Barty asked, and Jim gasped.

  “What if he was already at the party? You said yourself that you thought the shooter might work in academia and that there were triggering incidents. What if one of the triggering incidents was my sister being chosen as department head? She was throwing a party and invited all the people in her department, and the shooter was already there and saw you.”

  “I suppose it’s possible,” Barty said and then yawned. “I’m sorry. I haven’t been sleeping too well, and after all this excitement, I think I need to lie down after we eat.” Barty finished his burger and drank some of the beer. “I think you might have a good idea.”

  Jim nodded, and his first thought was to call Captain Westin, but he held back. It was just an idea, and he had nothing to back it up with at the moment other than suspicion. And he’d been given a direct order to go home and get some rest.

  “I’m going to write this down so I don’t keep running it around in my head all night.”

  Barty took what was left of the food into the kitchen, with Penelope following. When he returned, he sat in one of the chairs and pulled the light throw Jim kept on the sofa over him.

  “You can go upstairs if you like,” Jim offered, but Barty shook his head.

  “I don’t want to be alone.”

  That settled it. Jim had been contemplating going in to the station regardless of what the captain had said, but he wasn’t going to leave Barty, and they both needed a chance for a little quiet time. He went into the office and sent his ideas and theories in an e-mail to himself. When he returned, he’d hoped to find Barty asleep, but he was back on his feet, pacing the room, Penelope watching him from the chair like she was looking at a tennis match. At least Jim had his answer.

  He stood in the doorway, letting Barty pace. Sometimes people needed to work things out for themselves. He wasn’t sure if that was what Barty needed right now, but his nervousness was contagious, and Jim’s own stomach clenched and his heart rate increased, making him flush.

  “They kept asking me if I knew of anyone who might want to hurt me,” Barty said. “I told them no, other than the man who’d left the message. I mean, things happen, and there is professional jealousy, but is that enough to take a shot at someone?”

  “People have killed for less, but I don’t think that’s what’s going on here, and neither do you,” Jim said as Barty stopped pacing and turned to him, looking every bit like a kid who’d lost his puppy.

  “Then why did they ask me all those questions? I’m not the killer, and….” He wrapped his arms around himself as if to give himself his own hug. “I don’t understand. Even Captain Westin was there, and he didn’t stop them.”

  “They have to go through everything. We can’t assume things. What if you’d just had a fight with a colleague and he’d stormed out with threats to make you pay? We’d need to look into that. What if the shooting isn’t related to the others? I think it is, but that’s speculation that needs to be verified somehow.” Jim walked into the room and right up to Barty, putting his arms around him, and Barty leaned into him. Damn, he felt perfect in his arms. Barty was just a little taller, but at the moment, he seemed smaller and delicate.

  “It still hurts knowing people are going through your life to see who might want to hurt you. Not that I have much of a life to go through. It should take them all of ten minutes.” Barty lifted his head away so Jim could look at his face. How anyone could overlook Barty was a huge surprise to him. Barty’s eyes alone were so big, filled with intelligence and light. Their beauty tugged Jim closer, and he waited for Barty to tense right
up until he kissed him.

  Jim had meant for the kiss to be light, to reassure, but Barty slid his arms around Jim’s neck and pressed harder, deepening the kiss as he shook in Jim’s arms. He hoped like hell it wasn’t more fear, but from the way Barty pressed to him, clinging and damn near trying to climb up him, Jim knew there was so much more at play.

  Jim still hesitated. Barty had only been kissed, and Jim knew he’d never done anything else. The thought of introducing Barty to sex was both heated and nerve-racking. He had to take his time and make it special for Barty, but Jim was wondering if this was the right time to do that.

  However, it seemed Barty had his own ideas. “I need to forget,” he whispered. “I never forget anything, but today I need to forget what happened, at least for a little while.” Barty kissed him as though he were a ravenous wolf.

  “We shouldn’t have sex, especially your first time, just because you need to forget what happened. Your first time should be more than that.” Jim moved away, hoping Barty would cool down a little. He was hard enough to pound nails, and part of himself screamed for him to take Barty upstairs to his room and introduce him to the wonders of sex. But he was not going to have Barty regret anything between them or make rash decisions because he was scared or worried about what had happened.

  “Jim, I know my own mind.”

  “I didn’t say that you didn’t. But I also know human nature, and this is a reaction to what happened and I won’t do that to you.” Jim guided Barty back to the sofa and sat him down. “Just lie back and close your eyes.” He tugged Barty’s legs and feet onto his lap and took off Barty’s shoes and socks. Then he slowly rubbed his feet.

  Barty groaned softly and lolled his head back on the arm of the sofa. Penelope jumped up and rested on Barty’s chest, riding it up and down with each breath.

  His feet were soft, and Jim stroked along Barty’s heel and down his foot over his toes, then back up and along his calf under the leg of his pants. “How is that?”