by Stacy Finz
A representative from the insurance company had met them first thing in the morning and cut them a check for the repairs. Unlike with Dana’s house, they needed to get the place up and running ASAP. Carol and Dana didn’t want any disruptions to their business. In the Sierra Nevada, spring and summer were their best seasons for selling real estate. Typically, in winter, when snow covered the pass, sales slumped to nothing.
“These desks are probably savable,” Dana said. “Let’s carry them outside so they can dry and air out.”
They each lifted a side and started to carry out the first desk when a pair of strong hands took the bulk of the load.
“What are you doing here?” Dana asked Aidan, pleasantly surprised. When she’d left the house that morning, he’d said he was going to spend the day working the case.
“I have some time on my hands.” He bussed her lips right in front of Carol. “Where do you want this?”
She beamed at him, her insides contracting like they always did when he was around. “Outside in the sun.”
He carried the desk himself and came back for the other one. Finishing the chore, he took time to look around, walking to the back and assessing the damage. In the light of day, it looked even worse than it had the previous night. “Jeez. You’ll have to rebuild most of this.”
“It shouldn’t be too time intensive,” Carol said. “The plumbing is still there. It needed updating anyway.”
Dana marveled at what a good attitude her partner had. Frankly, the construction would be a colossal inconvenience. Workers constantly underfoot, noise, and dirt. Then they’d have to pick out appliances, fixtures, and a new conference table and chairs. The one true silver lining was that no one got hurt. Real estate agents, slaves to the convenience of their clients, worked odd hours. It was a miracle that neither one of them had been in the office at the time of the fire. It made her wonder if the person who set it had been scoping out the place to make sure the building was empty. At least there was that.
“You have any leads on who might’ve done this?” Carol asked.
“We’ve got a few things working,” Aidan responded, keeping it vague. But Dana had gotten the sense last night that Aidan and the police were on to something.
Of course she was dying to know, yet she wanted to give Aidan space to do his job. She found the intricacies of his investigations fascinating and was so impressed with what he did. No doubt firefighters were heroes, but to her, he was doubly so. Then again, she was probably a wee bit biased.
Out the window, Dana saw a couple of trucks pull up. “Looks like the construction crew is here for the roof.” A van drove up behind them. “The cleaning team is bringing up the rear.”
Perfect timing, Dana thought; the cleaners could work around the roofers.
“You ladies interested in lunch? Seems like now might be a good time to take a break. Let these folks do their jobs.”
“I’ve got to dash home to check on the kids,” Carol said. “You two go.”
“I’ll be back in an hour,” Dana said.
“Perfect.” Carol let the cleaners in the front door while the roofers started carrying ladders and equipment to the building. “I’ll just get the workers started and see you back here later.”
Dana walked with Aidan to his truck. “Where are we going?”
“The Bun Boy reopened today.”
“Really? That seems fast.”
“Their damage amounted to a storage shed,” Aidan said. “It’s nothing like yours.”
“Each one is getting worse.” She got inside the passenger seat and belted herself in. “Why do you think that is?”
Aidan got in as well, turned on the ignition, and started the AC. “He’s either getting braver or he didn’t get enough attention with the first two. There’s no telling. The Bun Boy?”
“I could definitely go for a burger.” She reached over and kissed him. “Do you still have to do your twenty-four-hour shift?”
She could feel him tense. “Of course I do. Why wouldn’t I?” he asked, his voice edged with annoyance.
“I just thought you’ve been working like crazy. I’m not a firefighter; how would I know how it works? Why are you being so defensive?”
He appeared to relax. “Sue used to give me a hard time about my hours. I guess I’m still sensitive about it.” He’d alluded before to the fact that it had been a problem between them.
“I get it,” she said. “I work all the time myself because I’m at the mercy of the client’s schedule. I was just curious as to how it works.”
“I wouldn’t be on call as much if the fires weren’t right here in Nugget. It would be ridiculous for the fire marshal to send someone else.”
She nodded. “That makes sense.”
“I’ll be off in time for the wedding, though.”
“You really don’t think it’ll be weird for me to go with you?” Admittedly, she was curious about Lucky’s cowboy camp, having never been there. And the idea of being Aidan’s date thrilled her.
“Nope,” he said and squeezed her knee.
Cars crowded the Bun Boy parking lot. Apparently, it only took a few days of closure to get folks jonesing for their fried food fixes.
“Is there a table available?” Aidan gazed out the window at the picnic tables on the lawn. “There’s one. You go get it and I’ll order our food at the window. What do you want?”
She told him a burger, curly fries, and lemonade and headed out to grab the table. The temperature was cooler than it had been in days. Still nice to have shade under a large redwood tree. Aidan joined her with their drinks. She imagined they’d have to wait a while for their food order to be called.
“A lot of people ahead of us?”
“It would appear so,” he said. “They looked backed up in the kitchen.”
“I wonder when Donna plans to put in the barbecues.”
“Before the fire, she seemed to be in a big rush. Maybe she put it on hold for a while until the crowds get back to normal.”
Griffin pulled up on his motorcycle, saw the line, and started to leave. As soon as he spotted Dana and Aidan, he made a beeline for their table.
“I thought he was going to Hawaii,” Aidan said, sounding put out. Dana blamed his grouchiness on the fact that he was working too hard.
“Not until after Tawny and Lucky’s wedding.”
“Great.”
Dana could’ve sworn she’d seen him roll his eyes. Lowering her voice, she asked, “What’s wrong with you?”
“I don’t like how he’s always coming around you.”
Griff was too close for her to respond, but the idea that Aidan might be jealous . . . well, that had never happened to her before, and as childish as it was, she liked that he felt proprietary toward her.
“Howdy.” Griff shielded his eyes from the sun. “The place is a zoo.”
“It’s like a grand opening.” Dana laughed.
“I heard about your office.” He shook his head and turned to Aidan. “What the hell is going on?”
Aidan lifted his shoulders. “We’re working on it.”
“I have security cameras at the Gas and Go.” The station was on the same street as Nugget Realty.
“You do?” Suddenly Aidan showed a bit more interest in Griffin’s company. “Would you mind if I came over and took a look?”
“Sure, but you can’t see Dana’s office from the Gas and Go.”
“What can you see?”
“A little bit of Main Street, but mostly the pumps, the inside of the convenience store, and a small section of the mechanic bays.”
“I’d like to check them out just the same. How many hours do your cameras record?”
“A few days,” Griffin said. “Then it starts recording over itself. You should have yesterday on it, though.”
“What about the day before?”
“Yep. Come over and check it out if you think it’ll help.”
“I’ll do that, thanks.” Someone called out t
heir order and Aidan excused himself to get the food.
“You eating?” Dana asked Griff.
“I was thinking about it until I saw the line. There are hot dogs back at the gas station. You and Aidan going to the wedding?” He didn’t need to say which wedding. In Nugget, it was just “the wedding.”
“Mm-hmm,” Dana said and gazed at her tennis shoes.
“If it’s not assigned tables, save Lina and me seats next to you guys.”
Somehow Dana didn’t think that was gonna happen. “Okay. You taking off?”
“Yeah, I’m not dealing with that.” He pointed at the growing group of people snaking around the building. “Tell Aidan to come in to the store anytime. I’m sorry about your office, Dana. These fires really suck. But I’m glad no one has gotten hurt. If you and Carol need any help cleaning up . . . or anything . . . let me know.”
“Thanks, Griffin.”
Griffin sauntered off, looking as drool worthy as he always had in faded jeans, motorcycle boots, and a T-shirt with the Gas and Go logo stretched across his wide chest. But for the first time he did nothing for Dana. Not so much as an imperceptible sigh. That was because she only had eyes for the gorgeous, tall, ripped man coming toward her.
“I got us soft serve too, because there was no way I planned to wait in that line again.” Aidan put the tray down on the table and handed Dana a wad of napkins. “You might want to eat it first before it melts.”
Ice cream before the main meal; that was Aidan McBride. “Okay.” She reluctantly took a few licks of her vanilla cone, even though a month ago it would’ve been sacrilege.
He smiled at her, undoubtedly reading her mind. “What’s the difference between this and having a shake with your meal?”
“That’s why I don’t have shakes with my meals . . . it’s mixing dessert with the main course.”
“Nothing wrong with that.” Unlike her, he dug into his cone without hesitation.
“Why do you want to look at Griff’s security cameras?”
“It’s the only one on Main Street. I’d be remiss if I didn’t look at them.”
She put her cone down and started in on her burger. “But he said it only filmed the gas station and a little bit of the street.”
He shrugged his shoulders. “It doesn’t hurt to look.”
She got the impression there was more to it than that, especially from the way his eyes lit up when Griffin mentioned having cameras. “You’ve got a reason.”
She expected him to deny it; instead, he laughed. “You’re too smart for your own good.” He leaned over and kissed her. “Yeah, I’ve got a reason, but I’m not planning to tell you. Not since you and Harlee are best buds now.”
“I would never betray your confidences,” she argued.
“I was just teasing. I know you wouldn’t. But I really can’t talk about an ongoing investigation, not even with you, as much as I would like to.”
“You would?” That amazed her. She didn’t know a thing about firefighting or arson. Hell, she’d burned her own house down.
“I like how interested you are in it.”
Dana did find his job fascinating. She leaned over and laid her lips on him. “I’m interested in everything about you,” she said against his mouth, as he ardently returned the kiss.
They stopped when Aidan’s phone rang. With the fires, every call had them on edge. He fished the phone out of his pocket, looked at the display, frowned, and put it away.
“You don’t need to get that?”
“Nah,” he said, and then hesitantly added, “It was Sue.”
Dana’s stomach dropped. “Why do you think she’s calling you?”
“I don’t know,” he said, but she got the impression he did. “She called the other day about a friend of her husband’s being interested in my condo.”
“Did you talk to her then?”
“Yeah, for a little bit.” He didn’t elaborate, and she would’ve liked him to.
“Do you think this has something to do with that?” Evidently not, or he would’ve answered.
“I don’t know. But you and I are in the middle of lunch and you only have an hour. This is our time. I’ll call her later. It can’t be that important.”
That made her feel better about the situation. Still, his reaction to the call sent warning signals up her spine. She tried to tell herself this wasn’t like the way it had been with Tim and Griffin. Aidan cared about her. But did he care about her more than he did Sue, or was this history repeating itself?
Chapter 19
Aidan’s phone rang again. Afraid that it was an unrelenting Sue, he hesitantly checked the ID. Not Sue, Rhys.
“I have to take this one,” he told Dana, got up from the picnic table, and found a private spot next to a nearby tree. “What’s up?”
“We got the results back on both the shirt and the lighter. The shirt’s got traces of accelerant on it. And you were right about the logo on the lighter: Rigsby Electrical. The problem is, he hands them out to clients like candy, so not exactly a smoking gun. Still, between the shirt and the lighter . . . You ready to take a ride over to the Rigsby farm?”
“I’m over at the Bun Boy and have to take Dana back to work. You want to meet there?”
“No, let’s go together. Come over to the station when you’re ready.”
He walked back to the table, where a family of five was loitering, making it obvious they wanted Dana and him to leave soon so they could have their seats.
“We’ve got to go,” he told her.
“Has there been another fire?” She immediately started collecting their trash and putting it in a neat pile on the tray.
“Not a fire.” He grabbed the tray from her hands and dumped their wrappers in a nearby garbage can. “Rhys and I have a lead to check out.”
“Oh?” She waited to hear what it was.
“I’ll tell you later, but it could be promising.” Although he didn’t think so. His gut told him it was a red herring.
“It’s not dangerous, right?”
“Not in the least.” He reached for her hand and held it while they returned the tray to the takeout window and walked across the parking lot to his SUV.
Halfway there his phone rang again. Thinking it was Rhys with a new plan, he started to answer. Then he saw the caller was Sue and muttered a curse under his breath. Why was she suddenly calling him all the time? Like the first one, he let it go to voice mail. He’d handle it later.
“Who was that?” Dana asked.
“A friend from Chicago. I’ll call him back after work.” He hated to lie to her. But he could tell that Sue’s previous call had bothered her and he didn’t want her upset. There was no reason for her to be. “I’m sorry I can’t help you more at the office.”
“Carol and I are fine. We’ve also got two crews there. It’s more important that you catch this jerk.”
When they got to her office it looked like the construction team had begun its work in earnest on the roof, and the cleaning crew had filled an industrial Dumpster with debris from the fire.
“You want me to carry those desks back in?” By now they should’ve dried.
“No, you go do what you need to do. We’ll take care of the desks. Besides, a little more air will help get the smoky smell out them.” She kissed him. “Be careful and I’ll hopefully see you tonight.”
He lingered, wanting to tell her how important she’d become to him, but he didn’t want to do it and have to rush off. Instead, he watched her walk from his truck to the building, admiring the sway of her backside. He’d never felt so relaxed in a relationship. No pressure to impress her or be more than he was.
A memory of his second date with Sue flashed in his head. She’d been upset with the way he’d dressed—a pair of dress pants and a white button-down shirt—and had canceled their dinner reservations. The restaurant had been her idea and he’d happily booked it, despite menu prices that cost as much as a week’s salary. But when he’d picked her up
, she’d looked at his clothes warily.
“I thought you knew a place like this calls for a jacket and a tie,” she’d said. “It’s not a big deal, I’ll cancel.”
He’d insisted the restaurant would lend him a jacket if it had a dress code, but she wouldn’t hear of it.
“It’s fine. Really, I don’t mind if we don’t go there.”
Unfortunately, he’d been so blinded by her beauty that he hadn’t seen a major red flag. Now he knew if you looked up “passive aggressive” in the dictionary, a picture of Sue would appear. Her favorite mantra was “I’m not angry,” but she always was. She was angry that he didn’t do enough for her, that he didn’t spend “quality” time with her, and that he didn’t care about making a good impression, which was code for not being materialistic enough.
The idea that she’d fallen for a schoolteacher was laughable. Aidan would guess Sebastian made even less money than he did. Maybe, like Sue, he had a trust fund. Who knew?
On his way back to the square he played Sue’s messages on Bluetooth. The first one was a hang up. In the second message she hesitated. “Aidan? . . . Uh, it’s me, Sue.” And in a small voice, she’d continued, “I think I made a horrible mistake. I need to talk to you.”
Why the hell was she doing this? With no time to think about it anymore, he pulled into a parking space in front of the police station, got out, and went inside.
Sloane and Jake had their heads together.
“What are you two up to?”
“Checking to see if Rigsby has a sheet,” Sloane answered. Jake nodded in greeting.
“You want some coffee? I just made a fresh pot,” Connie said. Aidan had only met her once or twice but knew she was the police dispatcher. Cal Fire went through county dispatch, but occasionally residents would call in fire type emergencies to the police department, in which case Connie handled them. “The chief’s on a call.”
“Sure.” He turned back to Sloane. “Does he have one?”
“I couldn’t find anything. Jake’s double-checking.”
It didn’t seem like there would be too many jurisdictions to check; from what Aidan understood, Rigsby had grown up in Nugget.