“You know as well as I do that no bear shifter would ever put anyone in that kind of danger just to try and impress their mate or even a prospective mate,” she reminded her uncle. “And if you want to look at this from a strictly Ordinary point of view, Roy interviewed my neighbors, and not a single one of them saw—or scented—Tyler at my place before the first responder alert went out. So there’s no evidence at all linking him to the fire at my home!”
Uncle Bill raised his hand in a placating gesture. “I know that. Which is why we aren’t charging Tyler with setting the fire to your place, just the hardware store.”
“I still think we need to see if Zack Barenkamp has any connection to the other fires we’ve had recently,” Mary said. “Especially if there’s a chance that those delayed incendiary devices were used anywhere else.” She paused. “In fact, I think we need to look at anyone who arrived in town after Tyler did.”
“Okay, you’ve convinced me to take a deeper look at this,” Uncle Bill said, and the line of his mouth was grim now. “Let’s get back to the office. I think we’re going to need a warrant for the cellphone GPS records for both Tyler and Zack.”
* * *
A long, anxious week passed while Mary and Bill worked to exonerate her mate.
To Mary’s relief, Judge Einarsson immediately granted the warrants to obtain the cellphone GPS data for everyone who had been in Hawkins Hardware on the day of the fire, but it took a few days to obtain the actual records from the companies involved.
In the meanwhile, Mary re-interviewed a number of the witnesses to the fires. And after contacting a shifter who worked at the Idaho State Police forensics lab, Uncle Bill sent the glove to her for examination. He had already sent in the scraps of notepaper and cigarette butts that were all that remained of the incendiary devices
“How’s Bogey doing?” Tyler asked when Mary went downstairs to bring him lunch on the tenth day of his incarceration.
“He looks depressed,” Mary admitted as she unlocked Tyler’s cell.
Her mate looked depressed too, though he was doing his best to hide it. She knew that the lack of fresh air and his usual exercise meant that he hadn’t been sleeping well.
Neither was she. Tyler’s scent was fading from his bed, and the house felt uncomfortably empty without him.
She had skipped the monthly pack meeting, unable to face all the questions she knew her relatives would be asking her about her sudden mating, followed by Tyler’s equally sudden arrest.
She handed Tyler a large paper bag printed with the Wildcat Springs Texas BBQ logo. The bag contained a stack of takeout containers and filled the air with the smell of Justin Long’s succulent smoked beef brisket.
Tyler inhaled deeply, took the bag, and bent to give her a long, slow kiss that kindled a hot throbbing pulse between her legs.
“He doesn’t even beg me for extra treats anymore, and he hasn’t been talking or playing with the toys in his cage,” she continued, trying to distract herself from the arousal that she knew they couldn’t relieve. “At least he hasn’t tried to bite me lately. I think he really misses you. I know I do,” she added.
“I miss both of you,” Tyler said, then gave her a smile filled with sexy promise. “But especially you, and once I’m out of here and back home, I’m going to show you just how much I’ve missed you. I’ve had a lot of time to think about exactly what I’m going to do to you.”
“I can’t wait,” Mary assured him and went up on tip-toes to give him another kiss.
He dropped the bag of food, and she felt his arms come around her.
She hid her face in the crook of his neck, let his scent surround her, and pretended for a few moments that they were home and everything was okay again.
“So…” Tyler said, eventually. “How’s everything coming along? Mark’s been telling me that things are going in my favor, but I’m still here.”
Mary hugged him hard, then forced herself to step back. “You know I can’t talk about the investigation. Uncle Bill is letting me come down here to see you because he trusts me not to break the rules.”
“Yeah, I know,” Tyler said in a resigned tone. “I just wanted to know if there was any hope.”
“We’re doing our best. That’s all I can tell you.” And it was killing her not to be able to offer her mate any more comfort than that. She ached to tell him about the leads she was following, but she’d given her word. And she wasn’t about to do anything to endanger their line of investigation.
Tyler smiled down at her. “I know. And if anyone can clear me, I know that you can.”
She heard the door at the top of the stairs open and took a reflexive step back from her mate.
“Mary,” her uncle called down the stairs. “I have something you’re going to want to see.”
* * *
“So this means Tyler is cleared, right?” Mary said, looking up from her computer monitor a short time later. “His cellphone GPS records show that he never went inside Hawkins Hardware on the afternoon of the fire, and he wasn’t at any of the other places where fires started, either.”
“It would appear that way,” Uncle Bill said. He leaned on Mary’s desk and peered at her screen. “But Zack Barenkamp’s records show that he wasn’t at any of those other fires either. So that eliminates him as our serial arson suspect, because we don’t have any other evidence pointing to him.”
“So we’re back at square one?” Mary asked, trying to contain her excitement. “But you’re going to be dropping the charges against Tyler, right?”
Tyler’s coming home! Maybe even today!
She wanted so badly to rush downstairs and tell Tyler the good news.
Then her uncle sent her soaring spirits crashing to earth like a duck shot by a hunter.
“Not until we get the report from Forensics.” He gave her a sympathetic look. “The lab is really backed up, but my contact there promised she’d do everything she could to put a rush on the examination and testing.”
“Damn it.” Mary sat back in her chair, unable to bear the thought of Tyler shut up in a jail cell for a moment longer.
“But we’re not all the way back to square one,” Uncle Bill added. “Zack and Tyler’s cellphone GPS records didn’t match the times and locations of the fires, but someone else’s did. Owen Barenkamp.”
“Owen?” Mary asked in disbelief, “But…he’s an arson investigator!”
She quickly brought up Owen’s records and scanned them, matching them against the summary report of all the fires reported in the state in the past four months.
“Holy crap,” she exclaimed when she had finished matching the data. But the evidence was right there on the screen. “You’re right. The pattern of arson fires statewide matches his known whereabouts at the time.”
“Which put him at the top of my list of alternate suspects if Tyler and Zack didn’t pan out,” Uncle Bill said grimly. “I know I speculated that Tyler might have set the fire at your place because he wanted to look like a hero.”
“Believe me, I remember that,” Mary said and heard the acid in her tone.
But Uncle Bill was only doing his job, she reminded herself. And now he’s trying to exonerate Tyler.
“That’s because I know there have been a number of cases where firefighters and arson investigators were the ones setting the fires that they were assigned to investigate,” Uncle Bill continued.
Mary stared at him in shock. She couldn’t imagine any firefighter committing arson, not when they were the ones who put their lives on the line to fight fires.
“When I re-interviewed Dane,” Uncle Bill said, “he told me that he noticed Owen among the crowd of bystanders at your fire. He hadn’t mentioned it before, because he just assumed that Owen had tagged along with Zack when the call went out to the first responders.” He hesitated. “And there’s one more thing that’s been bothering me about Owen.”
“What?” Mary asked, unsettled by the troubled expression on her uncle’s face.
“He was here in Bearpaw Ridge visiting his sister on the weekend that Mike Swanson’s house burned down.”
“Oh, no,” Mary said. A cold shiver ran down her spine at the implication.
Please don't tell me that Owen murdered Michael Swanson, and now he's trying to frame Mike's son. But if it's true, then why?
"Did Owen and Mike have any kind of conflict that anyone knew about? Something that would have made Mike a target for arson?"
“I wondered the same thing when I put two and two together,” Uncle Bill said quietly. "I never heard any rumors of bad feelings between them."
“And if Owen is the one setting the fires, then he might be the one feeding his nephew that line of BS about Tyler being a prime suspect,” Mary said, frowning at her screen. “Are we going to arrest him?”
Uncle Bill shook his head. “Not yet. I want to dig deeper on this. I want to see if we can match any other incidents in the state with Owen’s whereabouts. I contacted a friend of mine at the State Fire Marshal’s office and found out that there was a suspicious structure fire that happened during a professional arson investigator’s conference in Boise four years ago. And again in Twin Falls the following year. And Pocatello the year after that. Basically, for the past five years, there’ve been suspicious fires in every city where there’s been a firefighters’ conference.”
“And you really think Owen might have set those fires? And do you really think burned down Mike Swanson’s house?”
“Maybe,” said Uncle Bill. “But first we have to find some real evidence linking him with the fires. The cellphone records are a good start, but knowing Judge Einarsson, I’ll need more to convince her to issue a search warrant on the Barenkamp house.”
“Yes, she can be a hard-ass about probable cause,” agreed Mary, who’d had more than her fair share of encounters with the judge during her career in law enforcement.
Uncle Bill grinned down at her. “And that’s where you come in, Mary. Once we get the fire reports and copies of the attendee lists for those conferences, I want you to analyze them and see whether there were any attendees—specifically Owen— who overlapped between conferences where arson fires were reported in the area.”
“I’m on it,” Mary assured him.
“And I’m going to see if I can call in another favor with Forensics and see if they can find anything useful on the incendiary device we found at Hawkins Hardware,” Uncle Bill said.
The faster she could examine those logs and lists, the faster she could get Tyler out of jail.
“Don’t mention what you’re working on to anyone,” Uncle Bill cautioned her. “I don’t want to tip off our new suspect and give him a chance to get rid of any evidence. And for God’s sake, don’t tell Tyler. He’s got enough to worry about right now without wondering whether his father’s killer is wandering free while he’s sitting in jail.”
Chapter 17 – Protective Instincts
“So I’ve got some good news for you,” Uncle Bill greeted her when Mary arrived at the beginning of her shift seven days later.
She felt exhausted from lack of sleep. Without Tyler at her side, she tossed and turned all night, acutely aware of his missing presence. And she hadn’t been able to eat much; thanks to the stress, her stomach felt queasy all the time.
How on earth do Steffi and Evan manage when Evan is gone on one of his summer-long research trips? Mary wondered irritably.
It had been two weeks since Tyler’s arrest, and she felt like she was coming apart. Only their brief daily visits at mealtimes were helping her hold it together.
And she had to hold it together, or she’d never prove Tyler’s innocence.
Everyone in town was talking about Tyler’s arrest. From what Mary could tell, people were divided on the question of Tyler’s guilt. On the one hand, she discovered that he was well-liked because of his generosity and because of his service as a volunteer firefighter. Plus, Mary’s staunch defense of her mate had swayed a few opinions.
On the other hand, there were a number of residents who still remembered Tyler as a young hell-raiser. To make things worse, Zack and Owen Barenkamp were busily pointing out to anyone who’d listen that there hadn’t been any new fires since Tyler’s arrest.
It was painful and difficult to have to listen to Owen lie his ass off about Tyler and not be able to tell anyone that Owen was now the prime arson suspect.
“I received the forensic report on the glove found at the Hawkins Hardware scene,” Uncle Bill continued. “The DNA swabs from the inside of the glove prove that Tyler was wearing them at some point, but the burn patterns were inconsistent with the surrounding items, and the chemical signatures in the burned areas didn’t match the soot samples retrieved from the store’s interior. The report concluded that the glove had most likely been burned elsewhere, perhaps using a blowtorch, and then planted in the bin after the fire had been extinguished.”
Mary felt dizzy with sudden relief. As the room began to spin slowly around her, she grabbed the edge of the service counter to steady herself.
“And how convenient was it that Owen Barenkamp was the person who found that glove?” she asked sarcastically. “That jerk!”
Tear his throat out! Let’s tear him apart! urged her wolf.
No. Let’s take a better revenge. Let’s make sure that he’s convicted of his crimes and locked in a cage for the rest of his life, just like he wanted to do to our mate.
“Since that was the only piece of evidence linking Tyler to any of the fires, I’ll get on the phone with the district attorney right away and see if she’ll drop the charges against him,” Uncle Bill promised.
“And I’ll call Mark to let him know the good news,” Mary said.
And then you’re coming home with me, Tyler my love.
* * *
It was raining on the afternoon that Tyler Swanson was finally released from jail.
As Mark Swanson opened the door of the police station and ushered Tyler outside, Tyler took a deep breath of air fragrant with the scents of wet asphalt, flowers, and green grass.
Mary, still dressed in her police uniform, was clutching his hand hard enough to leave bruises, but Tyler didn’t care. Maybe because he was holding on to her just as hard.
When Mary and Bill Jacobsen had come downstairs to the holding cells a short while ago, he’d been expecting dinner. Not his freedom. He’d almost given up hope of ever getting out of here.
Then he had seen a jubilant Mark Swanson come down the stairs right behind them.
Tyler had listened, stunned, as Bill Jacobsen told him that the charges had been dropped against him and that he was free to go.
He hadn’t believed it until Mary had unlocked his cell and rushed into his arms.
As he buried his face in her hair and drank in her sweet scent along with the welcome feeling of her curves pressing against him, he listened as Mark and the sheriff explained how they had discovered that Tyler had been framed.
He felt stunned. He’d known that Mary and Mark were fighting to clear him…but Bill Jacobsen had come to believe that Tyler was innocent too?
Tyler always thought that the sheriff hated him…and for good cause. But not a trace of dislike showed in his expression now as he extended his hand.
“Tyler, you’re free to go. On behalf of the Bearpaw Ridge Police Department, I want to apologize for any inconvenience your detention has caused you. And I want to extend my personal apology for arresting you. At the time I sincerely believed we had cause.”
Tyler hesitated, then gripped Bill Jacobsen’s hand. “You helped Mary and Mark to clear my name, right?”
The sheriff nodded. “Yeah.”
It was more than Tyler had ever expected from the sheriff. Even now, he couldn’t believe that Bill had actually helped Mark and Mary free him.
But one huge question remained: Who hates me enough to try to get me sent to prison?
Right off the top of his head, Tyler could think of at least one person: Zack
. And Zack had been working at Hawkins Hardware just before the fire started…
Yeah, it’s going to be interesting to see who the sheriff arrests next.
“Then thank you. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the fact that you were willing to give me the benefit of the doubt.”
“You’re welcome. I was only doing my job.” Bill Jacobsen smiled at him with genuine good humor. “And now, I think you should let your lovely mate take you home. Mary, I’m giving you the rest of the day off.”
* * *
Mary drove him home in her police cruiser. He sat in the front passenger seat and held her hand during the short drive.
As soon as she pulled up in front of his house, he scrambled out of the car and vaulted over the hood to open the driver’s side for her.
He couldn’t wait to kiss her, not even for the few steps it would take to get from the car to the front door. So he pinned her against the side of the cruiser and kissed her hungrily.
Her arms slid around his neck and pulled him closer as she enthusiastically returned the kiss.
“I thought I’d never get you out of there,” she whispered between nibbling caresses of his lips.
He swung her easily up into arms. She made the cutest squeak and clung to him as he strode to his door, carrying her.
When he set her down inside the living room, she was smiling at him with her heart in her shining eyes. “You know the neighbors are going to be telling everyone about how you literally just swept me off my feet.”
“Let them,” he said and bent to kiss her again, a slow, sensual exploration that involved a lot of tongue.
God, I missed being able to do this!
He reached for her hair tie and loosened her ponytail, letting her hair tumble to her shoulders, and combed his fingers through the soft, glossy strands.
Meanwhile, she was pulling his T-shirt up from his jeans with frantic haste, laughing between kisses.
“We’re not going to make it to the bedroom, are we?” he asked as she yanked his shirt down over his shoulders.
“Nope,” she said. “But there’s a nice soft couch over there.”
Smoke (Bearpaw Ridge Firefighters Book 7) Page 18