by Jen Talty
Brodie, his fellow arson team members, and Harper had gathered at the back end of the ladder truck. The crowd that had gathered had been reduced in numbers, but the local news stations had set up camp at the corner, trying desperately to get the military police to talk, but that was never going to happen.
A few local fireman and police officers gave statements about how the ‘incident’ had been turned over to the Air Force authorities since the casualty had been a military man, but they were even more in the dark than Brodie.
“Are you going to fill us in on the scope of the investigation?” Brodie asked what Ace, Hunter, and Jax were all thinking.
She shook her head. “We’ll do a full briefing back at the base where I know it will be secure. Too many civilians wandering around with big ears.”
“I don’t like the sound of this,” Ace said as he pulled his fireman coat around his body. “How do we know what we’re supposed to be looking for if—”
“I want you and your team to focus solely on the fire. Where and how it started. What caused it to burn so hot and fast.” Harper took the jacket Brodie offered, along with the hard hat.
“You’ve got to give us something.” It wouldn’t be the first time Brodie went into an investigation knowing very little, but not when murder might be on the menu.
“I agree,” Hunter said. He’d arrived at the scene fifteen minutes ago and other than Ace, he had the most training when it came to arson.
“All I’m going to tell you right now is that a week ago, my office opened an investigation into Jonathon,” Harper said.
“About what?” Brodie didn’t want to let it go. He couldn’t. They needed to know if they should be looking for something specific.
“Look.” Harper let out a long breath. “Today is my first day, and I’m not completely up to speed. But more importantly, we don’t know how far what we are investigating goes, so you’re just going to have to wait until we’re on base. Ace, you’re with me.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Dude told me Harper was one tough cookie,” Hunter said, slapping Brodie on the back. “I hear she’s your neighbor.”
“Yep.” Brodie followed Ace and Harper across the front yard. Just ahead of them was the medical examiner with one member of his team and a gurney. They all paused for a moment, the reality of the situation sinking in. “What the hell do you think Jonathon was into?”
No sooner did the words leave Brodie’s mouth, then Harper glanced over her shoulder, shooting him a dangerous look.
He nodded, acknowledging he needed to keep his trap shut and that made him even more nervous. He scanned the area, making a mental note of all the military personnel, wondering if someone had either set the house on fire.
Or was in cahoots with whatever crap Jonathon had gotten himself into, which honestly didn’t surprise Brodie. Jonathon had known issues with authority his entire career, and his reputation preceded him wherever he went.
“If looks could kill, I’d say you’d be flat on your back,” Jax said.
“I hate that look. Claire gives it to me every time I let the kids fall asleep in our bed.” Hunter had two rug-rats and was probably considered one of the cool dads. Of course, he was independently wealthy, so that helped since he had a big house, with a pool, and every toy a kid could ever desire.
“Scarlet gives it to me when I let Rusty play video games too long,” Jax said.
“No. She does that because you’re the one playing too long,” Brodie said as he stepped across the threshold.
“Whose side are you on, anyway?” Jax said as more of a statement than a question.
“Ace and I will take the bedroom side of the house, you three have everything else,” she said right before she took the turn down the hallway, Ace two paces behind.
In silence, Brodie, Jax, and Hunter examined the family room, or what was left. Half of the roof lay on top of what Brodie assumed to be a coffee table, sofa, and an electric recliner. He knelt next to it, inspecting the wires that had burned into the socket on the floor, but there was nothing indicating it could have started with that.
“Look at that.” Jax pointed to the gaping hole that used to be the outside wall in the back of the house. “Does it look like it burned inward to you?”
“Yeah,” Brodie said, stepping over the rubble that was still warm.
“But it burned up and out over here,” Jax said, standing where the kitchen would have been. Instead, all that was left was a shell of a fridge and an oven. The counter had slipped right off the cabinets, which were scorched. Everything had a black layer of wet soot.
“It looks like the fire started on the other side of the house,” Hunter said. “What direction is the wind blowing?”
“East to west,” Jax said.
“Make sense since there is less damage over here.” Brodie stood by the door that went to the side porch. He took his glove and tapped at the wall. “Pretty solid. Not very warm at all. I bet this wood isn’t singed all the way through.”
“That means point of origin has to be in one of the bedrooms,” Hunter said as he headed in that direction, while taking pictures of the destruction.
“Two years ago, Jonathon failed his drug test,” Brodie said, shaking his head.
“I remember that.” Hunter stopped in front of what used to be the bathroom door and snapped a few images. “He’d been on leave for twenty-one days and owned up to smoking a little weed. He got a slap on the wrist.”
The sound of feet crunching over debris caught Brodie’s attention. He glanced up to see the medical examiner pushing a gurney with a sheet over what couldn’t be much of a body, considering the size of the mound.
Out of respect, they stood at attention, saluting as what the assumed was Jonathon’s body was removed from the house.
“At ease,” Ace said, standing in the doorway.
Brodie swallowed hard, remembering his last encounter with Jonathon, which ended in a confrontation and a fist fight, not to mention some pretty nasty verbiage they both had exchanged. He didn’t like the man, but Brodie didn’t wish Jonathon any harm. No one deserved to die in a house fire.
“I’m going with the medical examiner,” Harper announced as she appeared from the bedroom, her face pale even though perspiration beaded across her forehead.
“Harper?” Brodie started, staring into her dark, horror-filled eyes.
“Finish here and then meet me at the base. It’s going to be a long day,” she said.
Brodie wanted to race over and hold her. He had no idea how many dead, burned bodies she’d seen, and it didn’t matter.
Every single one would haunt you for the rest of your life.
Ace nodded toward the hallway before following Harper out of the house.
Brodie carefully stepped over more wreckage as he made his way into the main bedroom. “Jesus,” he muttered.
There was nothing left of the room but black, charred material. The roof had completely caved in, and what should have been a door to the back patio was another cavernous hole. The temperature of the room had to be five degrees hotter than the rest.
He peeked his head out and scanned the patio.
“Holy fuck,” he said.
“What is it?” Hunter raced to his side.
“That gas can right there.”
“Yeah, what about it?” Hunter asked.
“It’s mine.”
Chapter 7
“Where’s Brodie?” Harper dropped a thick file on the conference table.
At the far end of the room, Ace leaned against the wall with his arms folded across his chest.
“Interview room two,” Ace said with a tight jaw. Mozart had told her, or maybe warned her, that Ace was worse than a mother bear when it came to his crew.
“And Declan?” she asked. Changing the name from interrogation to interview didn’t change that she was about to question her new neighbor, and her lover.
Well, one night didn’t make for anything but a one
-night stand.
“Room one.” Ace’s short answer went along with her frazzled nerves.
“Are you alright with Edwin leading the questions?” Normally, she wouldn’t pass off any part of her investigation to another officer, but in this instance, it was probably best to protect the integrity of the case.
“I’m okay with it, but I don’t understand why you’re not doing it. You barely know either one of my men.”
She sucked in a deep breath. If she didn’t tell Ace about her little slumber party last night, she could make things worse in the long run.
“I want to watch from the viewing room.” She’d learned early on that sometimes you could learn more about a suspect and their potential role in a case by observation instead of taking the lead role.
“I want to be there too.”
“Not a problem, but I think I need to tell you something.”
“What’s that?” Ace cocked his head. Mozart had also told her that Ace could read people better than most, and based on his narrowed stare with one slightly curved eyebrow, he might have already suspected.
“Brodie and I, we… how do I put this?”
“I get it.” Ace raised his hand. “Is that the real reason you don’t want to question my men?”
“That’s one reason.”
“Can you be impartial?” he asked.
“Can you?”
“Absolutely not,” he said with conviction. “I’ve served with those men for a decade. They have saved my life more than once. They are my brothers. I also know the angst between Brodie and Jonathon. It goes back a few years.”
“What is the source of their problems?”
“Jonathon,” Ace said matter-of-factly.
“There has to be more than that.”
Ace nodded. “Nobody likes Jonathon. He’s a cocky son-of-bitch who doesn’t follow the rules, and he’s put us in danger with that attitude.”
She pushed the folder across the table. “This is all the information I have on Jonathon and our investigation into him.”
“Give me the abridged version.”
“Five years ago, his half-brother robbed a bank in North Carolina.”
Ace pressed his knuckles on the table and leaned forward. “I didn’t know he had a half-brother.”
“His name is Archer Henderson. Archer was the product of an affair their father had. He was apprehended shortly after the heist, but the authorities could never get him to give up his accomplices or where he hid the money. Three months ago, Archer’s new high-priced attorney managed to get a retrial based on some questionable police work, and the conviction was overturned.”
“So, Archer is a free man and you think that Jonathon was one of his partners in this bank heist.”
“Jonathon was on leave during the time of the robbery, so it’s possible, but he had an alibi and even though his military career isn’t without scars, he was dropped as a potential suspect.”
“But that’s changed?”
“When his brother was released, the FBI kept a close watch on Archer, and he made several phone calls to his brother and a week ago, stopped by for a visit.”
“Seriously?”
“That’s when the Feds lost him and contacted us. My office questioned Jonathon about his brother, and he told us that there is no love lost between them and when he showed up, he kicked him to the curb. However, since Archer has become a ghost, and the FBI found some inconsistencies with Jonathon’s story, we started combing through his bank records, but nothing out of the ordinary popped up until recently.”
“And what’s that?”
She flipped opened the folder. “On the day his brother was released from jail, he bought a Harley, with cash, and it’s not the one parked under the carport. Where is that bike?”
“I don’t know of any such purchase,” Ace said, pushing off the table. “But I’m not close to the man. I honestly do my best to avoid him.”
“One other strange thing we noticed was that Jonathon started withdrawing larger amounts of money than he normally had in the past, and this also started after his brother had been released.”
“How much money?”
“A thousand here, two grand there. All checks made out to himself or cash,” she said.
“So, what are you thinking?”
“The Feds believe he’s helping his brother and when I spoke the agent in charge, he’s positive his brother must have killed him for the money.”
“Which means perhaps he was part of the heist or had been holding the money all these years,” Ace said as he paced at the end of the room.
“Or didn’t know he had the money. Jonathon bought that house six months before the robbery.”
“That’s a lot of what ifs with nothing substantial to back it up.”
She nodded. “And then there is the issue of the gas can, which Jax and Hunter’s report clearly states an accelerant had been used.”
“But the can was stolen out of the back of Brodie’s truck.”
“So he says.” Her heartbeat became irregular as the words fell off her tongue.
“And you don’t believe him?” Ace asked.
Of course she believed him, but she had to follow all leads. “Brodie has had more than one run-in with Jonathon and the most recent resulted in a fist fight. I have to consider that whatever ties Jonathon might or might not have with his brother, has nothing to do with his alleged murder.”
“Come on. You’re a smart lady. You really believe that?”
She shook her head. “But I can’t ignore the gas can, now can I?”
“No. I guess you can’t,” Ace said, running a hand through his hair. “Alright, let’s get this over with so you can rule out my men.”
“Hey, Ace,” Harper said as she gathered up the file. “Can I count on Brodie to tell the truth, even if he thinks it will damage my reputation or my working on this case?”
“I’d lie for my wife, so be prepared for anything.”
Brodie had expected Harper to be sitting across the table in the interview room, not some guy from her office named Edwin.
“How well do you know Jonathon Battle?”
“We’re not friends, but we’re both Fire Protection Specialists.”
“Are you enemies?”
Brodie had seen Edwin around the base. He was kind of hard to miss at six foot seven, but he hadn’t had any interaction with him until today.
“No.” Brodie decided it was best to keep his answers short and to the point.
“But you got into a fist fight the other day, correct?”
“We did,” Brodie admitted, trying to contain his frustration. He figured he would be sitting in this chair for another hour, answering the same questions over and over again.
“Why?”
“He crashed a party he wasn’t invited to and made a dickhead comment about one of my co-workers.”
“What do you mean a dickhead comment?” Edwin asked, his hands clasped together on the metal table.
“A sexist remark about a new crew member on my team. I didn’t take too kindly to it, not to mention I was drunk.” Brodie had always been more sensitive to those types of things because of his twin sister. Didn’t matter if whoever said the derogatory comment didn’t mean it.
“So, you just hauled off and punched him?”
“Not exactly. I asked him to leave, politely, but he got in my face, that’s when I hit him.”
“What happened next?” Edwin asked in the same monotone voice he had used for the last question.
“We both tossed a few more before my buddies broke it up and then Jonathon left.”
“When did you next encounter Jonathon?”
“I didn’t. That was the last time I saw him,” Brodie wouldn’t feel bad about the fight, but his heart did drop to his stomach knowing that Jonathon was dead.
“So, he didn’t ask to borrow your gas can?”
“Nope.” And here came the fun questions. The ones where Edwin would try to g
et him to admit to something, or not.
“How do you suppose it ended up at his house?”
“I don’t know,” Brodie said, and that was the truth. He’d run through that day five times in his mind while waiting to be questioned, and he hadn’t a clue.
“When did you last see the can?”
“I put it in the back of my pickup, but I got called in to cover a shift, so instead of getting gas, I drove to work.”
“With the gas can in the back of your truck?” Edwin asked as he leaned back in his chair.
“Yes.”
“When did you notice that it was missing?”
“When I stopped to get gas after the overnight shift. I had to borrow gas from a neighbor to mow the lawn,” Brodie said, shifting in the hard, cold seat.
“Your neighbor will corroborate your story?”
“Yes.”
“What did you do last night?”
Fuck. If he lied, he’d look guilty as hell when it came out. If he told the truth, he would be putting Harper in a difficult position. “I had dinner with a neighbor.”
“What neighbor?”
“Does it matter?” Brodie grappled with his conscious. The gentleman in him wouldn’t kiss and tell. Things with Harper were too new, and he wanted more time to see where things might go. Telling Edwin about his evening would put her under the microscope and right now, he figured that was the last thing she needed. “The fire wasn’t set the night before.”
“Alright then, where were you this morning?”
“Home.” Hopefully Brodie wouldn’t have to elaborate. Lying by omission seemed less like lying.
“All morning?”
“No. I went to the grocery store before I got called to the fire.”
“How long where you gone?” Edwin asked.
“Forty-five minutes.”
“And what store did you go to? I mean, where was it in relation to your house and Jonathon’s.”
Well, that was a humdinger. “Two blocks from Jonathon’s.”
“That would be enough time to start a fire, especially by a man who knows more about fires than the laymen.”
“That’s all true, but I didn’t start the fire. I’ve got the receipt at home for the groceries, with timestamps. My roommate saw me leave for the store, and return. May I go now?”