Familiar Fire

by Caroline Burnes

  Kate walked in beside Jake and watched. “Is he okay?”

  Jake spied the empty foam container. “What’s that? I didn’t give him anything except dry dog food.”

  Kate walked into the cell and picked up the container. It had been licked clean. “This was something I bought for Familiar.” She frowned. “It was on my desk. The only way it could have gotten here was if Familiar pushed it.”

  “A cat? Giving his meal to a dog? I’d have to have it on videotape to believe it.”

  “There’s no other way,” Kate answered, “unless someone sneaked in here and poisoned him. Let’s get him out from under the bunk.”

  “Ouzo!” Jake called the dog’s name in a commanding voice. “Ouzo!”

  The black form beneath the bunk didn’t respond at all.

  “Jake, pull him out. I’ll call Dr. Weathers and tell him we’re bringing Ouzo right away.” She started toward the telephone when Familiar blocked her path.

  “Meow!” he said.

  “Not now, Ouzo may be in terrible shape,” she said as she distractedly pushed past the cat and made her way to her desk.

  Familiar whipped past her and rushed into the cell. He extended a front paw, claws out and obvious, then swatted Ouzo’s black rump as hard as he could.

  “Arrr-ar-ar-ar!” Ouzo leapt to his feet, ignoring an astounded Jake completely, as he took off in pursuit of the cat. Familiar, hardly breaking a trot, whirled into Kate’s office and jumped on the windowsill, far out of reach of the dog.

  Kate stood, telephone in hand, as Jake walked out of the cell and into her office. His eyes met hers. “I told you he was smart.”

  Kate replaced the receiver. “That dog. was punishing you. And me.” She pointed at Ouzo. “You, mister, are too smart for your own good.”

  Chapter Eight

  Jake sipped his coffee and stared across the desk at the woman who seemed imprinted in his mind. Kate’s green gaze held his, and the tiniest smile touched the corners of her lips. God, but he’d dreamed about that smile. There had been nights when the memory of her lips had been more real than anything around him.

  Kate’s eyebrows drew together briefly. “I probably shouldn’t ask, but my curiosity is killing me. What are you thinking about, Jake? You’re staring at me almost as if I were an inanimate object—a painting or something.”

  Jake didn’t answer immediately. “This is one of those conversations that could delve into the past’ Are you sure you want to open it?”

  Kate shook her head. Her voice was suddenly husky. “The problem with you is that every conversation seems to head back to the past. I’ve put my bad memories behind me, why can’t you? If we’re going to try some type of relationship again, the best thing for both of us would be to put the past aside. To start fresh.”

  The fact that she’d even mentioned the possibility of a relationship made Jake’s heart rate increase. This time, though, he wasn’t going to mess it up. “It won’t work,” he said softly.

  “Why not?”

  “Trying to ignore what happened between us isn’t possible, Kate. Most men my age are married with children. Most women your age are, too. Something happened in the past that prevented either of us from following the normal course of life.” He held up a hand at the angry expression that stormed over her face. “I’m not saying that women who don’t marry aren’t normal, I’m just saying that the past played a key role in our evolution to adulthood.”

  Kate’s lips compressed into a thin line. “Lots of kids have it tougher than either of us dreamed. They get over it and they don’t go dragging it around behind them like some badge of honor. The past is over. Kitty is dead. Mother vanished into the night. You and I made our mistakes too, and they’re behind us—where I intend to keep them. If you can’t move forward without digging up moldering old bones, then I guess we can’t move forward together.”

  Jake waited for her to cool down. “You asked why I was looking at you. Because I see my youth in you. I look at you and I remember the day when you were in the eleventh grade and I was a senior. Remember the big spruce tree out behind the high school?” He waited for the memory to register with her.

  When he saw her green eyes soften, he continued. “That was the first day I kissed you, and it was like falling through the looking glass into a magic world. I’d kissed other girls, and I was expecting that same sort of charge that made kissing them a pure torment and an absolute delight. With you, it was so different, Kate. It was as if I’d found a part of me that I never even knew was missing.” He reached across the desk and brushed his hand over her cheek. “I know it was like that for you, too.”

  He saw in her eyes that she remembered.

  “If we throw away the past because of our mistakes, we throw all of that away, too. I’m not willing to do that. I remember the clean smell of the spruce needles and the light filtering down on us. It was spring and the sky was so blue. When I touched your face, like this, I’d never felt anything so wonderful in my life.”

  Jake allowed his fingers to brush along her face, to float through the silky red hair that hung to her shoulders. His impulse was to pull her into his arms and cement the past and present in the most intimate of ways. But he saw the flicker of fear that flared in her green eyes. He lowered his hand. “I know you’re afraid, and I won’t push you. I may not be as smart as my dog, but I am smart enough to know that what we have, the potential of what we can be together, is worth waiting for—until you want it too.”

  He lowered his hand and stood up. His body ached for her, for the feel of her against him. It was time to leave.

  “I’m going to stake out the hotel where the representatives of Dandy Diamond are staying. I got a bad feeling from those guys.”

  Kate braced her hands on the desk and stood. “Jake…” She let the sentence fade.

  “All I’m asking is that you think about it, Kate. Take it slow and try to get back to the place where we both knew that our futures were destined to be together. Once you remember that, we can work out all the rest.”

  “You’re asking a lot of me,” she answered.

  “I am. But it was something we once gave each other without even thinking about it. We have to get back there before we can ever hope to go forward.”

  “And what if you’re wrong? What if going back to the past makes me bolt and run?”

  Jake felt a smile touch the corners of his mouth. “This time I’ll go after you. I won’t be a fool twice in a row. Whatever the Double J once represented in my mind, it’s not nearly as important now as you are.”

  He walked to the doorway and turned back to look at her. “I believe we’ve both learned enough hard lessons to be able to see what a gift we’ve been given.” He snapped a leash on Ouzo’s collar. “He’s a poor substitute for you, but I’ll keep him by my side.”

  Kate’s smile was wry. “You’d better. He can cause you a lot more heartache than I ever could.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong, Sheriff.”

  KATE AND FAMILIAR sat in the pickup outside the tidy home of Reverend Lyte. Looking at the well-maintained two-storey home, she realized she knew very little about Lyte. Like Alexis and Evelyn, he was a newcomer in Silver City.

  Kate had done a background check on the minister, which had turned up a series of churches where he’d ministered, and finally a request to move to the West. His record of service was without blemish, and he had no family that Kate had been able to determine. In fact, none of the background checks she’d run, on several suspects, had given her any useful information.

  With a little more time, Kate could have had more specifics on the minister, but Lyte was probably nothing more than a victim. She’d decided to stake out his house because she feared the members of the DDC might attempt retribution for his vocal stand against them. If the DDC was behind the arsons, then Lyte was a logical target. If they were the perpetrators—and that was still a big if—they’d already gotten his church and it had failed to quiet his protes
ts. Would they try a home fire?

  Jake was trailing the DDC members, but he couldn’t follow four men at once if they decided to take separate paths.

  “Meow.” Familiar’s cry ended on a low growl.

  “What?” Kate picked up the binoculars with special night vision capacity and focused on Lyte’s back yard. A dark shadow crouching low to the ground crept through the bushes.

  She was too far away and the yard was too filled with shrubs and foliage for her to get a clear look at the person. “Damn,” she whispered to the cat. “I can’t even tell if it’s human.” The shadow flitting through the shrubs could easily be an animal. Maybe a deer.

  “Meow.” Familiar hopped out the open window of the truck before Kate could stop him.

  “Familiar,” she whispered. “You’re going to obedience school with Ouzo if you don’t get back here.”

  Familiar paused to give her a golden gaze, blinked once, then disappeared into the shadows of the lawn.

  Kate’s hand dropped to the revolver on her belt. She was an expert with weapons and better than fair at martial arts. Coming back to Gilpin County, though, she’d hoped the time would never come when she had to draw her weapon against another person. Throughout her childhood there hadn’t been a single incident of violence that she could recall.

  “Welcome to the nineties,” she said to herself as she crept out of the truck and began to follow the route the cat had taken.

  Lyte’s yard was bigger than she’d thought. She moved from shrub to shrub, using the glasses to check the area around her. Familiar and the shadow had completely disappeared. Maybe she’d been a little too hard on Jake about Ouzo’s disobedience. It was obvious that when Familiar decided to take off, he was not going to listen to anyone.

  Up ahead she caught a flicker of movement and crept toward it. Familiar purred and kept his attention focused on the back door of Lyte’s house. The evening was mild and the door was open, golden yellow light spilling out into the yard.

  In a moment a dark shadow shifted into the light.

  “Damn,” Kate whispered as she recognized Ouzo. “Where did that dog come from?” Before she could move, he pawed the screen door open and entered the minister’s house.

  Kate rocked back on her heels and waited for the night to explode. If Lyte caught the dog, then he would certainly have a right to demand that he be destroyed.

  Kate held her breath, counting the seconds. A minute slipped away, then another. Just as she was considering going to the front door and knocking as a diversion, Ouzo slipped through the screen and headed straight for them. He was carrying something in his mouth and his leash was dragging behind him. As soon as he got to her side he dropped the shoe, his tail wagging with pride.

  “Let’s go,” Kate commanded. She picked up the shoe simply because she wanted no evidence that the dog had been in the house. Together the three of them slipped back across the yard. Ouzo jumped into the truck behind Familiar without any urging.

  Kate started the vehicle, going a full block before she turned on her lights. When she finally felt safe, she glared at the dog. “What in the world do you think you’re doing?”

  “Arf!” Ouzo wagged his tail. “Arf! Arf!”

  “You’re going straight to Jake and he can leave you in the jail cell if that’s what it takes to keep you out of trouble. I hope you know Theodore Lyte would have taken great pleasure in holding a public lynching if he’d caught you in his house.”

  “Arf!” Ouzo said, pushing the black cat aside as he went to the open truck window and stuck his head out, ears flapping in the gentle breeze.

  Kate gave the dog an exasperated glare. He was completely without remorse. Scolding him was a waste of breath.

  Kate pulled in at the fire station, intending to shut Ouzo up in the apartment until Jake returned. She’d barely had time to shut off her motor when she saw Jake pulling in beside her. At the sight of Ouzo in her truck, he shook his head.

  “That rascal took off about an hour ago.”

  “What about the DDC?” It wasn’t like Jake to leave a job half finished.

  “They’re playing poker at the Golden Nugget. They were deep in a game and I left Led and one of your deputies to watch them.”

  “At the Nugget?”

  “They’re in their shirtsleeves. It looks like a long game ahead of them. Of course, if they’re behind the fires, they may have hired someone to do their dirty work.”

  Kate nodded. That was the problem. If the DDC wanted something burned, they’d never get caught red-handed. She held up the shoe. “Your charming canine has been breaking and entering and burglarizing Theodore Lyte’s house.” Instead of the anger she expected, Jake’s face brightened. “What?”

  “I could wring his neck, but the dog was working.” Jake hurried to the passenger side of the truck and caught Ouzo’s head in both of his hands. Looking into the dog’s eyes, Jake frowned. “It’s good work, Ouzo, but if you had gotten caught…”

  “What, exactly, is this about?” Kate demanded. “He could have gotten himself killed. Not to mention the fact that both Familiar and I were in danger.”

  “It’s the shoe,” Jake said. “Now I can see if Lyte’s matches the print from the church fire. There was no legitimate way I could have gotten Lyte to agree to give me a shoe. Ouzo just skipped a few technicalities and got one for me.”

  Kate looked from Jake to the dog and back. “He retrieved a shoe because you needed it?” She’d accepted Familiar’s brilliance, and she was well aware that Ouzo was a very smart dog, but was he that smart? She was skeptical. Besides, what he’d done, if he was cognizant of what he was doing, was illegal.

  “I told you Ouzo helped me with my cases,” Jake said, slightly defensive. “He’s as much help as that cat.”

  Familiar drew up one corner of his mouth and hissed at Jake.

  “The difference between Familiar and Ouzo is that Familiar is helpful and Ouzo is…a criminal,” Kate blurted.

  Glancing at her and the cat, Jake burst out laughing. “Perhaps you’re right But sometimes the forces of good need a little assistance from a master criminal.” He patted Ouzo’s head and opened the truck door so he could get out “Let’s see if this shoe is a match.” He reached beside Familiar and picked up the wingtip.

  Together they trooped up the stairs to Jake’s apartment where he now had crime photos and assorted lab reports on the different arsons. “I’ve got the print here,” Jake said. “And I should be hearing from the lab on the timing devices…” He checked his watch. “Soon.”

  “The print.” Kate eagerly pointed to the carefully packaged mold that had been taken from the wax print. Even before Jake matched them, she knew Lyte’s shoe size was smaller. “No match,” she said.

  Jake compared the two, his head shaking. “Well, it was a long shot. I really didn’t think he was crazy enough to burn down his own church just to try and make me look bad.”

  “No,” Kate sighed. “I keep going over the evidence, Jake. The fires are connected, and though they could be connected to you, they also go nicely with the motives of the DDC. But would men with that much money be so unsubtle? If Lyte could put their actions and motives together, so could everyone else in town.”

  “But what do they care if they are suspected of burning people out as long as no one can pin it on them?”

  “You’re right. They don’t pretend to be nice guys. They’re businessmen. The kind who find the most efficient means to achieve their end.”

  “Exactly why this community doesn’t need them.”

  Kate looked at Jake, her eyebrows raised. “You’re opposed to the DDC coming into Gilpin County?” She’d never heard him express an opinion one way or the other.

  “Enough is enough, and I think we have enough. How many more tourists do we need? How many more hotels and motels and restaurants? Pretty soon we won’t be a community any longer, we’ll be a strip mall with transient owners. No one will know anyone else.” He shrugged in a gesture
meant to downplay his sudden outburst of passion.

  “What about Roy Adams?” she said. “He seems awfully eager to have the DDC come in.”

  “Roy’s got the heart of a land developer. He sees more concrete and buildings as better. The natural beauty of the land has never touched him. He doesn’t have a problem destroying the environment, but I’ve never considered him a criminal.”

  “And does he stand to benefit from the DDC?”

  Jake nodded. “He owns about a hundred acres out where they’re proposing the theme park. It’s range land about like the Double J. Not good enough to really support cattle. It would be a financial coup for him to sell it to the DDC.”

  “And you?”

  “They’ve approached me, too.” Jake grinned. “Hell, I never made a profit off the Double J, so I don’t intend to start now. I told them it wasn’t for sale.”

  Kate’s eyes sparked. “But what if they decided they wanted it, and the easiest way to get it was to put the blame for these fires squarely on you?”

  Jake tensed. “So far I have been the best suspect At least everyone in town, except you, seems to think so.”

  “Give me your shoe,” Kate said.

  “What?”

  “Give me your shoe!” She pointed to his foot.

  Jake slowly slipped his foot out and handed the shoe to her. She held it to the mold of the print It was a perfect match.

  “Check and see if any of your shoes are missing,” she said. “Any left shoes.”

  Jake went to his bedroom and she could hear him rummaging around. In a moment he returned with a worn black shoe. “The mate is missing.” He stared at the print. “Whoever did this intended for you to find the print, not me,” he said.

  “Exactly. That’s why they were so eager to put me on the arsons.” While she was duty-bound to view this evidence objectively she simply didn’t believe Jake was involved in the crimes.

  “Maybe whoever is doing this knew about our past,” Jake added.

  “He thought I’d be burning to put the blame on you.” Kate thought back to the day when she and the cat had gone out to the church. If they’d started at the opposite side of the area, she would have found the print. Once she’d had the print, things could have gone in a very different direction.