Familiar Fire

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Familiar Fire Page 13

by Caroline Burnes


  “Alexis, they all but threatened you in the meeting. Is that so easy to dismiss?”

  “I’m not hurt, am I?” Alexis stared pointedly at Kate’s temple.

  Alexis’s cool demeanor baffled Kate. The casino owner had suffered a partial loss on a multimillion-dollar business—and nearly her own life. After all, she’d been trapped in her apartment when the fire started. Which made Kate wonder why none of the staff had made any attempt to warn or save the woman.

  “I have to say I find your lack of concern for the casino fire to be more than a little suspicious.” Kate put it on the line. “That was your place of business and your home. I find your attitude strange.”

  Alexis gave her a look. “You would find that strange. You find everything strange, don’t you?”

  Kate decided to let the barb pass. “The fire at the Golden Nugget is the sixth in Gilpin County. It’s strange that both you and Evelyn Winn should suffer an arson attack.” She saw the first glint of apprehension in Alexis’s eyes, but it was quickly covered. “Don’t you find it strange?”

  “No,” Alexis snapped. “Not in the least. We’re local businesspeople and the fires are directed at local businesses. I’m one in a long list of unfortunate victims. As far as I’m concerned, that’s the end of that.”

  “Betty Cody’s house wasn’t a local business. Jake’s ranch wasn’t a local business. Lookout Church isn’t exactly a business.” Kate waited.

  “In a way, they all do have connections to Silver City businesses.” Alexis wasn’t about to back off her point. “Even the church. If Silver City doesn’t grow and thrive, the church won’t grow. It’s simple economics. And before you go off on Evelyn again, we’ve patched everything up. In fact, she was thinking of helping me do some minor redecoration in the casino. We had a lovely visit yesterday. And Evelyn doesn’t gamble, she’s a businesswoman.”

  Kate followed her gut instinct and kept playing the line. “A case for business-relatedness could be made for each fire, but in some way all of the fires also have connections to gambling.” She leaned forward. “Especially the Golden Nugget.”

  Instead of the denial she expected, Alexis nodded in agreement.

  For the first time Kate saw how tired Alexis was. Her skin, normally a healthy golden color, was pale and sallow. The mint green suit, which had once been lovely, was now wrinkled and dirty.

  “Who’s setting the fires?” Kate asked.

  Alexis sipped her tea before she answered. When she did look at Kate, her gaze was direct. “I honestly thought it was Jake. I really did. Until this one. But he’d never burn the Golden Nugget. He’s too much of a history buff to even consider it. He loves all of the old buildings in town and that one in particular.” Her gaze sharpened momentarily. “I’ve often wondered why, but then…” She shrugged in her nonchalant way. “There’s no accounting for taste, is there?”

  Kate sipped her own cup of tea. “Why do you think Jake would bum anything?”

  “He’s opposed to more gambling coming into town. I thought maybe he was trying to frighten the DDC out of Silver City.” She lifted one eyebrow. “Or perhaps that he’d taken a payoff from another gambling interest. Someone who wanted to make the DDC think that Gilpin County wasn’t a good place to locate.” Alexis’s gaze didn’t waver. “Some of the casinos that are here already don’t want to see more competition. Jake’s got a lot of friends in town. He’s not a stranger. Good old hard cash can be a tremendous motivator.”

  Kate nodded. Alexis Redfield was no dummy. “Jake and I have thought of those angles.” She made it clear Jake wasn’t a suspect in her mind. “But why aren’t you more upset by the fire?”

  “Oh, it’s down to the tedious truth.” Alexis made a face. “I wanted out of that business. It’s a dreadful bore, and the casino wasn’t making the kind of money I wanted. It was very lucrative, don’t get me wrong, but it was…boring. The fire was actually a blessing, and I know you’ll hear this from Roy if I don’t tell you myself. Because of all these fires, I went in last week and had the insurance increased. The amount I’ll collect will pay my debts and give me a nice little nest egg to pursue a new line of work.”

  Kate was amazed at the total innocence with which Alexis made her confession. “Don’t you realize this will make you the prime suspect in the fire?”

  “I’m sure it will,” Alexis said reasonably, “but I didn’t do it I loved my apartment. It was the most perfect place I’ve ever lived in. I would never have burned it. Never.” She shrugged again. “It just so happens that whoever decided to burn me out did me a big favor. But then that’s your problem, not mine.” She stood up. “I’d better go by and see Roy. I’m sure he’s up, wringing his hands and wailing. I want to get my claim going as fast as possible.”

  She walked away leaving Kate at the tiny table staring after her.

  Kate paid the tab and left the tearoom, wondering if she could find Jake at the fire. He was going to be truly amazed by Alexis’s latest revelation.

  She hurried along the street. For a time, the fire at the Golden Nugget had slowed the gambling in the other establishments, but now everything was back in full swing. Music, the clanging of the machines, the cries of winners and the moans of losers came out from the open doors as she walked past the Ruby Slipper and Red’s Roulette Wheel.

  Folks young and old poured in and out of the casinos, never looking around, never once seeing the backdrop of the beautiful old western town that was more than a page out of history. The gamblers were eager only to get back to a machine where they could play the slugs they carried.

  The fire was out, the danger was past, and the tourists and gamblers were back in their own worlds.

  The loss of an old building didn’t touch them. They were mostly people from out of town. They came to Silver City not for the rich history of the past but to gamble.

  She walked along, wondering for the first time in a long while what life must have been like back in the early days, when Kitty McArdle ran a saloon and theater and house.

  As she drew near the Golden Nugget, the smell of the fire was all around her. Though the building still stood, it was blackened and burned. It would take a while before the true damage could be estimated. There was a good chance it would have to be torn down completely if it was a hazard. Only Jake would be able to determine that.

  The temptation to dash in and see if, by some miracle, the picture of Kitty had been saved grabbed hold of Kate. She resisted the urge and walked faster, easing through the gawkers who remained on the sidewalk.

  “Kate!” She heard Roy Adams’s voice and braced herself for a confrontation.

  She turned to face him. “Roy,” she said.

  He shook his head. “Terribly sorry, Kate. I know this is a tragedy for you.”

  She turned back to view the old building. “It is. I guess I’d fooled myself into believing that the old opera house was out of my family and therefore out of my heart.” She was startled by her own words. Something had snapped inside her, some constraint that had always made her deny that she even cared.

  “It isn’t that easy, is it?” he asked.

  Kate was baffled by the sentiment in Roy’s voice. “No.” Before she’d even thought it through, the words came to her lips. “Alexis wants to get out from under the building. Once the damage is assessed, I’m thinking maybe I’ll buy the place.”

  Roy’s mouth opened. “You? Get into the casino business?”

  Kate shook her head. “No, but maybe a community theater. Something along those lines.”

  Roy’s brows drew together. “Now that’s not a bad idea. If there’s anything left of the building. I saw Jake and he said he’d have to do a detailed examination. In fact, he’s in there right now.” Roy drew closer. “I heard the DDC men were in there gambling this evening. Do you think they were somehow involved in the fire?”

  Kate smiled. “What I think and what I know are two different things. I’ll check with Jake. As soon as there’s something concre
te, you’ll be the first to know.” Kate hadn’t forgotten that Roy was on the list of suspects. Sometimes the smartest thing to do was play along.

  “I suppose you know that Alexis just upped her insurance.” He glanced beyond Kate as he said it, his gaze roving over the building.

  “She told me.”

  “As my mama said, ‘I don’t believe in coincidences.’ I want some evidence in this fire, Kate. Something concrete. Alexis had this place insured to the max. Either she’s responsible for this, or—”

  “I’ll keep that in mind, Roy,” Kate said as she stepped around him and entered the casino.

  The place was a shambles. Water covered the floor, sogging the carpet that had once been so bright and colorful. The old stage remained, but the expensive curtains and the sound and lighting systems were a twisted wreck. Even the old piano, which Kitty McArdle had played, was burned into a knotted mass. Kate saw that the bar had not been severely damaged, but the portrait of her grandmother was gone. She remembered taking it from the wall and getting halfway across the room. Perhaps if she’d left it hanging…

  “Kate!”

  It didn’t take her long to locate Jake. He waved to her from a ladder halfway up the back wall where he was examining the wiring. From a safe distance she watched as he traced the wires, following them over beams. “The fire didn’t start in the wiring,” he called out to a fireman who was making notes in a pad.

  “Then how?” the fireman questioned. “There wasn’t anything else in the game room to start it, and we know that’s where it originated.”

  “I wish I knew,” Jake said. He caught Kate’s attention and waved her to his side as he climbed down the ladder. She looked pale, exhausted. He had to get her out of the burned building, because no matter how much Kate denied it, she cared. A woman didn’t run when she didn’t care. Jake’s hand on her arm was light. “Let’s get out of here.”

  She felt the aggravating pressure of tears that she blinked away. That Jake understood only made it worse. She met his concerned gaze. “I’m okay. I think I’ll go take a shower.” The night had lasted an eternity, and she was bone-tired. “Alexis had some interesting revelations. Maybe we can talk in the morning.” She knew she had to get out of the building. Fires were always tragic. Even when it was a place that held no memories, no past.

  “Kate?”

  She knew she hadn’t fooled him. “I’m tired,” she said, turning away. “I need a shower.”

  Jake’s hand brushed her back, a gesture of comfort and support.

  “Chief, we’ve got something over here.” The fireman spoke cautiously.

  “I’ll be there in a moment,” Jake answered before he turned to Kate. His voice was quiet, caring. “I haven’t had a chance to check the fire equipment. There were eight men here, counting me, Kate. I have enough equipment to fully suit eleven men. Could you stop by my apartment and count the equipment that’s left? Probably the sooner that’s done, the better. If someone took something, they might try to put it back. Besides, I had one of the men take Familiar there. You can feel free to take a shower at my place, too, if you want.”

  Kate was more than grateful that Jake had given her an out that also bolstered her dignity. The moment of teariness passed. There were a million things to do, and her job was to get busy. “I’ll take care of it,” she said, stepping out of the ruins and onto the street.

  “Chief Johnson!” The fireman called. “You’ve got to see this.”

  “I’m coming.” Jake walked to the far end of the building where one of his firemen stood, a shovel in his hand and an unreadable expression on his face.

  “What have you found, Grayson?” Jake asked. He walked to the edge of a shallow depression the fireman had obviously been digging. Ouzo sat only a few feet away, quiet and obedient for once.

  “I was trying to move that timber,” he pointed to a huge beam that still smoked, “when your dog started barking. I looked closer and found that.” With the tip of his shovel he eased more of the burned flooring back.

  Jake knelt, uncertain what he was looking at but with a strange feeling that it wasn’t wood. He used his fingers to brush away the timber and dirt.

  “Looks like a femur,” he said after a moment’s examination.

  “It looks human,” the fireman said. “I didn’t want to touch it until someone else told me what to do.”

  “You did exactly the right thing,” Jake said. He more closely examined the bone, brushing carefully at the dirt to reveal more of the skeleton.

  Ouzo moved up beside Jake and began to whine deep in his throat. With one paw, he gently pushed at the ground. “Easy, there,” Jake said. The body had been buried in a shallow trench, and Jake worked with quick efficiency to reveal the entire skeleton, except the head.

  “Wonder who it could be,” the fireman said.

  Jake had a real bad feeling, but he only shook his head. This time he would assume nothing. This time he would have the facts before he spoke. For everyone’s sake, but most particularly for Kate.

  “Rope off this area. I don’t want anyone near here,” he said. “And keep this quiet.”

  He stood up. Whatever tragedy had resulted in a body buried beneath the new curio shop of the casino, Jake intended to have an answer. He was no expert on bones. He knew the body Ouzo had found had not been embalmed. The body could belong to a time long ago—possibly even back in the days when Kitty McArdle ran the house. It might be some gambler who’d pulled a fast one and met his fate. Alexis had built the curio shop some eight months before. It was possible that she’d done that to cover up the body. It was also possible that she didn’t have a clue the bones were there. There was another possibility, and one that only forensic testing could answer. Jake was a fireman, not a detective, and he couldn’t begin to estimate the age of the bones. But one possibility he couldn’t get away from was that the skeleton Ouzo had discovered might be Kate’s mother, Anne McArdle.

  “I’ll call the coroner,” he said.

  He went to the fire truck to radio the coroner, glad that Kate had left. The one thing she didn’t need on top of everything else was a body. Especially this body. It was almost unbelievable, Jake thought as he made his request and made arrangements for the coroner to make an examination.

  As he replaced the radio, he had a sudden image of Kate alone. It was startling in its intensity—the clear picture of her in the shower—and for the cold that swept over him at the thought

  Someone had tried to kill her. If she was in the shower, would she be able to hear an attacker? His apartment had stout locks, but it wasn’t safe. Someone had already gotten into it once, and without even breaking a lock. That someone had knocked him in the head and had left no trace of his identity.

  Sending Kate there hadn’t been his most brilliant maneuver.

  He looked around. It was still several hours until dawn. Silver City was up and running. It seemed that gamblers never tired of the game. They were out on the streets, moving from casino to casino. For some reason the activity gave him no sense of security.

  He hurried back into the old opera house and left instructions with the firemen. They were highly trained, and for a few seconds he watched them work before he walked out and headed for the station house. He couldn’t get Kate out of his mind, nor could he leave behind the seed of worry that had begun to nibble at him.

  KATE WENT THROUGH the lockers in the fire station. She found three pairs of fire boots, two coats, two hats and two masks. The conclusion she drew was that someone had stolen a coat, hat and visor.

  She climbed the steps, hearing Familiar’s welcome. As she opened the wrought iron gate with the key Jake had given her, she stooped to sweep the cat into her arms. Sitting on the landing, she cradled the cat. “I hear you saved my life,” she said.

  Familiar rubbed against her, purring. She went to the refrigerator and pulled out milk and cheese, cutting off hunks to feed him as she prepared a bowl of milk.

  “This is a poor reward, b
ut there’s nothing else in here. I promise, as soon as I have a few hours’ sleep, I’ll order something from the finest restaurant in town. For Ouzo, too, when he gets here.”

  She stroked the cat and stood, stretching. “I’ve got to have a shower. Stand guard, Familiar,” Kate instructed, unbuttoning her smoky uniform as she walked to the shower. On the way she stopped by the door to Jake’s room. His clean laundry was folded on top of his dresser. He wouldn’t mind if she borrowed a T-shirt. She picked one up and went on to the bathroom. In a moment she had the hot spray jetting on her face, completely oblivious to the sound of the downstairs door opening, followed by the iron gate swinging wide.

  “Oh, what a handsome kitty,” Alexis said, bending to pet Familiar. “And Daddy’s in the shower, isn’t he? How perfect. Perhaps I’ll just knock on the door. Oh, no answer. Too bad! I’ll have to go into the bathroom and get Jake out of the shower myself.”

  Alexis opened the door. The bathroom was clouded’ in a layer of hot fog, but she walked to where the outline of a body could easily be seen against the pale blue shower curtain. “Hello, darling,” she said, pulling the curtain back.

  For a moment, Kate stared at Alexis in disbelief. She saw her own amazement reflected in Alexis’s face. For a split second, neither of them could say a word.

  Kate snatched the shower curtain which had dripped all over Alexis’s expensive pistachio flats. “Get out of here,” she said.

  “Gladly,” Alexis answered, backing away. Shock still registered on her face. “How dreadful. I think I’ve been scarred for life!”

  Kate pulled the curtain back. “On second thought, you’re under arrest.” A hive of bees couldn’t have stung Kate more. She was boiling angry, and water dripping from her hair down her face only made it worse. “Have a seat at the table in the kitchen, Alexis, I’m not done with you.” Kate grabbed a robe and herded Alexis into the kitchen.

  “You can’t make me stay here.” Alexis started to turn away.

 

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