by Brenda Novak
“But day trading is risky, isn’t it?” Ted asked him. “I have a writer friend who decided to try his hand at that, and he lost a fortune in a very short time.”
“There’s a high level of risk involved,” Baxter agreed. “But what else am I going to do in Whiskey Creek?”
“You seemed to be doing so well in San Francisco,” Riley lamented.
“And who the heck are you going to meet way out here?” Eve asked.
“This isn’t about me,” Baxter said. “I don’t think my dad’s going to make it.”
Noah slapped him on the back. “Don’t talk like that. Of course he’s going to make it.”
Kyle couldn’t help watching Baxter a little more carefully whenever he interacted with Noah. They’d been the closest of friends growing up. It wasn’t until a few years ago that Noah learned Baxter had been secretly in love with him for years. That piece of information only emerged when Baxter revealed his sexuality, and Noah’s reaction didn’t exactly make what he felt any easier.
“If the worst happens, I’d rather be prepared,” Baxter said.
“It’s wonderful of you.” Callie slipped her arm through his. “I remember how well you nursed me through my liver problems. But will you enjoy living with your folks? Has your father changed enough so you can feel good about yourself?”
Baxter shrugged. “I guess we’ll see. I should be able to tolerate a few months, anyway.”
Kyle was afraid Mr. North hadn’t changed. Baxter had made comments now and then suggesting that his father still had a problem with Baxter’s sexuality, but Kyle was happy to have his friend back. And at least Baxter wouldn’t be talking about children all the time, like his other friends—since he hadn’t yet found a partner.
“Kyle, have you figured out what you’re going to say at the wedding?” Phoenix asked.
“I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about it.” He was trying to come up with something he could offer if she pressed him for details, but Lourdes interrupted before she could.
“Have you all had breakfast, or can Kyle and I make you some eggs, toast and fruit?”
“You don’t have to cook for us,” Sophia said. “We just came from the coffee shop.”
“You must’ve left almost as soon as you got there,” Kyle said. “Let us make you breakfast.”
They exchanged glances. “If you’re sure,” Addy said.
Lourdes handed Callie’s baby back to her. “I might’ve blown it with my last album, but I can cook eggs,” she joked, and by the time they had breakfast on the table, she was laughing and talking with his friends as if she’d grown up with them, too.
“She’s sweet,” Cheyenne whispered as she hugged Kyle goodbye. “Surprisingly down-to-earth.”
Ted clasped him next. “You did well.”
Kyle felt like a fraud. He’d never lied to his friends before. But he couldn’t claim that he and Lourdes weren’t really involved when they knew she’d come out of his room this morning.
“Good luck with the insurance company,” Noah said. “What happened to the plant sucks, but you’ll pull it back together.” He glanced pointedly at Lourdes. “At least things are looking up in other areas.”
“Yeah,” he said drily and was grateful when his phone rang, so he could justify simply waving to the others and stepping away from the crowded doorway to answer.
* * *
It was the chief of police who’d called Kyle. They’d spoken briefly, then Kyle had thrown on a coat and some boots and left just after his friends. He’d said he had to meet Chief Bennett and a fire investigator over at the plant.
Lourdes picked up her guitar and strummed a few chords as she imagined what the plant might look like without the cover of darkness. Would the damage be even worse than Kyle feared?
She hoped not. She also hoped that the investigation would determine how it had started. If Noelle was involved, she deserved to be punished. It’d been heartbreaking to watch Kyle see so much of his plant go up in smoke.
But that wasn’t the only thing on Lourdes’s mind. She couldn’t stop thinking about what had happened after they went to bed last night. She’d been engaged to Derrick for almost a year, had dated him for three. Shouldn’t she have wanted to be in his arms and not Kyle’s? Because at no point had she even thought of Derrick.
“What’s going on with me?” she whispered into the empty living room. Most of the things that’d seemed so important to her in Nashville felt far less important to her here—the fame, the fortune, the record sales. But never in a million years would she have expected to rebound from losing the “love of her life” so quickly. Why didn’t she miss Derrick?
She could only guess that she’d gone through so much in the preceding months that she’d gotten over him a little at a time—more with each argument. Maybe, amid all that anger and hurt pride, and the conviction of her commitment to him, which she’d never questioned, she simply hadn’t noticed that he didn’t mean as much to her as she’d come to believe.
If that was the case, Crystal had done her a huge favor, no question about it. Lourdes still had to figure out how to put her career back together now that she no longer had a manager, but at least she hadn’t married a man who didn’t deserve her trust. She was free and capable of moving on...
But to what? Could she have it all—a career and a husband and family? Or would she, like her mother, be forced to choose?
23
As Kyle walked through the burned-out shell of what used to be his office, he found it hard not to get mad all over again. Fortunately, his inventory was safe and so was his machinery. Only the office portion of the plant would need to be rebuilt. But as busy as they’d been lately, that was going to cause enough problems.
An hour ago, when he’d pulled in, he’d come upon several of his employees, who’d shown up, expecting to work as usual. The barrier tape Chief Bennett had put up had kept everyone out of the building, but finding the plant in its current state had shocked his workers. They were more than a little curious as to what could’ve started the fire. However, Chief Bennett and the fire inspector he’d brought over—a bespectacled, balding man by the name of Ronald Lee—told him not to say anything about seeing Noelle at the plant last night. So Kyle had told his employees that he didn’t know what had happened, which was the truth, and sent them home for the day with instructions not to return to work until they received further word. Even if the factory portion of the plant could be made operational fairly soon, Bennett and Lee had indicated that it would take a couple of days to assess the safety of the building, investigate the cause of the fire and gather any evidence that could be found. Then Riley would have to remove what had been damaged, rebuild the necessary support posts and load-bearing walls, and clean up the mess.
With Christmas only ten days away, Kyle felt he was looking at mid-January. Luckily, he’d already promised his staff of fourteen a whole week off for the holidays, which was something he’d planned for all year. That would ease the effects of the shutdown for them. But paying his employees for other weeks they couldn’t work would stretch his resources.
Despite having received the text Kyle had sent her last night, and knowing it wouldn’t be possible to work, Morgan had come to the plant, too. She’d shown up a bit later than the others, since she’d been trying to catch as many as she could to save them from driving in for nothing. But she hadn’t been able to stay away, had told him she had to see it for herself.
He frowned at his melted and charred computer. It wouldn’t turn on, which came as no surprise. Morgan’s was the same, making him all the more grateful that she’d backed up both computers yesterday. She’d assured him of that before he’d sent her on her way, as he had the others. She’d also agreed they could limp along by running the business from home until the offices were rebuilt, and before she drove off, s
he took his company credit card to buy them new computers.
“Mr. Houseman?”
Kyle was crouched in front of his desk, trying to pry open the drawers. At the sound of the fire inspector’s voice, he stood. Chief Bennett had been with Lee as they’d carefully canvassed the grounds, as well as the building itself, going from the least to the most damaged areas. But Whiskey Creek’s police chief had taken a call and stepped outside to get something from his squad car just before Kyle had gone in to see if he could recover anything of value from his office. “Yes?”
“It was an incendiary fire. No question.”
“That means arson?”
Lee nodded. He came across as a strictly “by the book” guy, someone without much in the way of social skills. Kyle couldn’t say he liked him, but Lee seemed to know a hell of a lot about fires. So Kyle didn’t care that he wasn’t very personable.
“According to the burn pattern, the point of origin isn’t far from the front door.”
Kyle had suspected arson and yet he was still shocked. How dared Noelle go that far... “But the plant was locked. You heard me confirm that with my assistant when she arrived this morning. So either someone had a key, which is unlikely, since my assistant’s the only person who’s got one besides me, or they broke in.”
“They broke in. Smashed a window,” he said without any hint of doubt. “There’s a rock not far from the front door, and it’s much bigger than the smaller pebbles that are everywhere else. I think the culprit drove in, took that rock from the perimeter of the property and used it to shatter the window next to the door. Then he poured alcohol inside on the carpet, and—”
“Alcohol?” Kyle interrupted. “How do you know it was alcohol?”
“Ignitable liquids with high vapor pressure will flash and scorch while those with higher boiling components tend to wick, melt and burn. What I’m seeing is definitely the former.” He slid his glasses higher on his nose. “Besides, there’s a broken Jack Daniel’s bottle in the parking lot. Unless your employees typically bring alcohol to work, it stands to reason that whoever set the fire was running for his car and accidentally dropped it. When it shattered, he had to leave it behind. So we’ll collect the pieces and hope to get at least a partial print. I doubt he was wearing gloves or he wouldn’t have been so intent on taking it with him.”
He—or she? If they managed to get a print, Kyle would have something more than his sighting of that Honda to prove Noelle was behind this...
“I haven’t found a lighter,” Lee was saying, “so I’m assuming whoever it was dropped in a match—or a whole book of matches.”
“From Sexy Sadie’s, perhaps?” Kyle asked drily.
“Excuse me?”
“That’s the local bar.”
“Right. Where your ex worked before she was fired. I remember you said that. If it was a book of matches, they were completely destroyed, so I won’t be able to prove where they came from. Of course, I’m not finished looking yet, but so far, I’ve found no remnant.”
Kyle was being facetious, anyway. Lee seemed to pick up on everything—except the subtle nuances of meaning that hinged on tone of voice and body language. “So it was quick and easy,” he said. So easy that even someone who’d never done anything like this before, someone like Noelle, for instance, could’ve started the fire.
Lee made some notes on his clipboard. “Doesn’t get much easier. No one was here. It was dark. There’s no security—not that I’d expect it out here. And there are no close neighbors. Like I said, easy.”
All of which made it more of a miracle that Warren had smelled the smoke. If he hadn’t stepped outside to have that cigarette precisely when he did, the whole place would probably have burned. But that reminded Kyle that he’d briefly wondered about the possibility of Warren smoking too close to the building. He highly doubted that was the case, but he did feel he should at least raise the question. “Are you sure it couldn’t have been started by a random cigarette butt?” Kyle asked.
“It wasn’t started by a random anything,” Lee replied. “Do you know anyone, besides your ex, who’d have anything to gain by setting this place on fire, Mr. Houseman?”
Kyle rubbed his temples. When he’d told them about Noelle, Chief Bennett had frowned as if he could believe it; he knew Noelle. Lee had merely scribbled down her name and address on his notepad. But she was the only one who had it in for him. “No.”
“So just this...Noelle.”
“Yes.”
“I see. You and your ex have been divorced for five years and have no children, is that correct?”
“It is.”
“And you’ve been paying her spousal maintenance every month.”
“I’m ahead, and I can prove it.” He’d already said that, too, and Lee didn’t strike him as the type who’d need key information repeated.
“So wouldn’t she worry about your ability to pay her if something happened to the plant?”
“You’d have to know her to understand.”
“Yet she’s never done anything like this before.”
Kyle felt his muscles tense—with exhaustion, disappointment, frustration and irritation. “I told you. She gets obsessive every once in a while. In the past, she’s been distracted by other potential relationships. But when they don’t work out, she tries to get me back. It’s a cycle.”
“Has she ever done anything violent before?”
He thought of all the times she’d tried to hit him, but he’d never reported those instances, so he knew they’d sound flimsy and unbelievable if he mentioned them now. “She attacked a coworker this past week.”
“You said that, and I’ll look into it. In the meantime, is there anyone else who might have a grudge against you?”
“I told you. No.”
“No disgruntled employees or clients?”
“None disgruntled enough to commit arson!”
He glanced up from his clipboard. “Do you carry hazard insurance, Mr. Houseman?”
Kyle wished Chief Bennett would return. He didn’t like what this guy seemed to be implying. “Of course. Don’t most businesses carry hazard insurance?”
“Just checking.” He made another note. Then he turned to go but Kyle stopped him.
“Wait a second. If anyone set the fire, it was my ex-wife. I have no reason to burn down my own business, if that’s what you’re thinking. This isn’t insurance fraud.”
“Insurance fraud is probably ninety percent of these cases,” he said.
Coming from anyone else, that would be an accusation. From this dude... Kyle couldn’t tell for sure. Still, he was offended by the mere suggestion. “That must make your job easier, but I’m afraid you’re going to have to work a little harder on this one.”
His eyebrows slid up as if he was shocked by Kyle’s response.
“Check my finances,” Kyle said. “You’ll see that I’m not in trouble, that I’d have no reason to destroy what I’ve worked so hard to create.”
“I will check. I have to. It’s my job,” he said and went back to work.
Kyle would’ve slammed his door, if he still had one. “Unbelievable,” he muttered. Now he was under as much suspicion as Noelle?
* * *
Lourdes hadn’t intended to tell her family about her breakup with Derrick until after Christmas. But once the gossip rags had published what they did, she had no choice. So she assured her mother and sisters that she was handling the end of her engagement without any problem and that she’d find another manager in the New Year.
She was still having trouble convincing her mother that Kyle was just a friend, however. Not only had her mother read what had been reported, she’d heard the concern in Lourdes’s voice as she talked about the fire—and jumped to the obvious conclusion. Or what she saw as the obvious con
clusion...
“If you won’t come home for Christmas, there must be something in Whiskey Creek that’s keeping you,” her mother insisted.
Lourdes was beginning to regret interrupting her precious work time to accept this call. She wouldn’t have done it had she not been struggling to concentrate—thanks to the anxiety she felt while waiting to hear what the police chief and fire inspector had to say. “I’ve finally made some headway on my new album, Mom. That’s why I don’t want to come home right now.”
“But if you were only trying to throw off the media by making those statements, why aren’t you moving back into the farmhouse now that the furnace is fixed? There must be a reason.”
“I told you, I’m comfortable here at Kyle’s, so comfortable that I’m starting to work again. The music is what matters. That’s what I came here for. I don’t want to mess up a good thing.”
“Then you don’t particularly like him?”
Lourdes blocked out the vision of being in Kyle’s bed last night. She’d spent far too much time thinking about that as it was. “Okay, yes. I like him. A lot,” she admitted. “But I’m not the kind of woman he’s looking for.”
“Any man would be lucky to have you,” her mother said.
Setting her guitar to one side, Lourdes got up for a drink of water. “I’d hardly call you an objective judge, Mom.”
“It’s true!”
“Kyle believes in me and supports me in what I want to do with my career, but he’s not interested in becoming personally involved. He envisions a different sort of life for himself, like Daddy did. He’s satisfied with staying where he was born. He wants a simpler life, and you know how frenetic it can get with me traveling and promoting all the time. Being gone so often, always pushing toward some big goal, especially one as elusive as making it in showbiz, is hard on relationships.” Which was one of the reasons she’d thought she and Derrick were perfect for each other, why she’d never questioned it—at least at first.