Playing With Fire

by Alison Bliss

  “I want to see those notes,” the sheriff said.

  “I’ll swing by Anna’s and bring them to you in the morning,” Cowboy stated, glancing over at Mandy. “I’m sorry. I know they’re your brothers, but they need to pay for what they did to her.”

  Mandy shook her head. “That’s what the sheriff is trying to tell you. It’s not possible. They couldn’t have been responsible for the kidnapping. Both of my brothers have been locked up in County Jail since last night. They started a bar brawl over at The Backwoods and were arrested. They’re still in a cell.”

  “Wait,” I said, trying to wrap my brain around this new information. “If what she says is true…”

  “Then they both have rock solid alibis for their whereabouts,” Cowboy finished for me. “Which means there are no more suspects to investigate.”

  “Actually,” Sheriff Wells began, a somber expression taking over his face. “Sorry, Cowboy. I hate to ask this, especially right now, but…well, where were you earlier this evening when Miss Weber was abducted?”

  Apparently, Mandy hadn’t seen that one coming either because we exchanged a look of shock and confusion.

  “Are you fucking kidding me?” Cowboy asked.

  “You were the last one to see the victim before she disappeared, the one who reported her missing, and the first responder on the scene. Not only that, but the Barlow brothers claim you were yelling at Miss Weber and beating down her door more than once over the past few days. Like I said, I hate to ask, but…”

  “Oh, fuck me,” Cowboy said, rolling his eyes. “I left Anna’s house around midnight after my fire pager went off, but it was a false alarm. After that, I went straight back to Anna’s. Probably only took me half an hour at the most. She was gone and there was a lamp turned over, so I knew something had happened. That’s when I called the sheriff’s office and reported her missing.”

  “And then? Where did you go after that?”

  “I was driving around looking for her. What the hell do you think I was doing?” Cowboy glared at him, but Sheriff Wells set his jaw and stared right back, as if the man were waiting for a full confession. “Oh, give me a fucking break! You think I kidnapped Anna, tied her up, and left her in some old barn so I could report her missing and then blame it on her father?”

  The sheriff shrugged. “Crazier things have happened.”

  “Then how do you account for the blue Cavalier? I don’t drive a car and I would have had to leave my truck at Anna’s house.”

  “True. But like you said earlier, the man who gave us this information is an ex-convict. Doesn’t hold a lot of weight at this point.”

  I scoffed. “I can’t believe you’re even considering Cowboy as a suspect. He didn’t do it.”

  But the sheriff continued with his questions. “Were you alone when you returned to Miss Weber’s home?”

  “Yes, of course,” Cowboy responded.

  “So no one can verify your whereabouts around the time Ms. Weber went missing?”

  Cowboy blew out a breath. “Guess not.”

  “Then that leaves me no choice,” the sheriff said, shaking his head. “Cowboy, I’ll need you to come down to the station with me for more questioning.”

  “You’ve got to be shittin’ me!”

  What? This couldn’t be happening.

  I ripped off my nasal oxygen tube and sat up, but Cowboy held me there, not allowing me to stand. “He didn’t do this!” I yelled, my throat burning from the effort.

  “It’s okay, darlin’.” Cowboy squeezed my hand and gave me a wink. “Don’t worry. We’ll get this all sorted out soon enough.”

  “This is absurd,” I said, my voice straining against the ashes in my throat as tears leaked from my eyes. “He didn’t do anything.”

  “Maybe not. But someone did. And it’s my job to find out who.” Sheriff Wells motioned for the door. “Let’s go, Cowboy.”

  I watched helplessly as the sheriff led him toward the door.

  When they reached it, Mandy suddenly spoke up out of nowhere. “Wait,” she said, biting her lip. “I can vouch for his whereabouts. I…saw Cowboy earlier.”

  “You already told me you saw him at the station when he showed up for the false alarm. But that was before Miss Weber was kidnapped.”

  Cowboy and Mandy exchanged a look. I wasn’t sure what it meant, but I saw worry in both of their eyes. “No, I saw him after that, too.”

  “You didn’t mention seeing him earlier in your statement, Miss Barlow.” The sheriff glared at her. “So if this is true, then why didn’t you say that to begin with when I questioned you?”

  Mandy’s gaze flickered from Cowboy to me, then back to the sheriff. “Because he didn’t want Anna to know.”

  “Didn’t want me to know what?” I asked.

  She looked down, keeping her eyes from meeting mine. “That Cowboy was with me tonight.”

  “What are you talking about?” I asked with an angry bite to my words. “No. You’re lying. Cowboy, tell the sheriff she’s lying.” For a moment, there was nothing but silence. He didn’t say anything in his defense. Instead, his gaze lingered on Mandy and he frowned. “Cowboy…?”

  “I’m sorry, Anna,” he said, not even having the gumption to look me in the eye. “It’s true.”

  Hurt and confusion filled my heart. Cowboy had been with another woman. Even after he made the big play of pronouncing me as his and pretending we were ever anything more than a booty call. And I had believed him.

  God, I’m an idiot.

  “Why don’t we give you two a minute alone,” the sheriff said, motioning for Mandy to follow him out.

  Once they cleared the room, Cowboy came toward me with an outstretched hand. “Sweetheart, I—”

  I jerked away from him and tears filled my eyes. “Don’t touch me, you…you cheating bastard. I trusted you!”

  He sighed heavily and lowered his voice. “Anna, it’s not true. I wasn’t with Mandy tonight. I swear.”

  “Oh, really? Well, that’s not what the two of you just told the sheriff,” I sneered back at him.

  “That was just her way of saving my ass. She was keeping me from going down to the station and getting my ass arrested.”

  “And you went along with it? Yeah, right.”

  “Darlin’, look at me.” When I wouldn’t allow my eyes to meet his, he raised his voice. “Damn it, Anna, I can’t sit in a goddamn cell at the county jail and leave you unprotected. The guy who did this is still out there somewhere. So I took a chance that you’d be reasonable and logical enough to allow me to explain myself before you thought the worst of me.”

  “Explain what? Why you just humiliated me in front of the sheriff by letting him believe a girl like me couldn’t satisfy a man with your reputation?”

  He cringed and ran a hand over his face. “I didn’t mean to humiliate you. But that’s always what it’s going to come back to, isn’t it? My reputation. Well, you know what? That road of trust drives both ways, honey. It sure the hell didn’t take me much convincing on my part to get you to believe I wasn’t faithful to you, but like you said…with my reputation and all.” The sarcasm oozed from his voice.

  “Don’t you dare throw my words back in my face. It’s not my fault you have a reputation as a playboy. What did you expect me to think?”

  “I expect you to trust me. You should have at least given me the benefit of—” His cell phone buzzed on the nearby counter, so he lifted it and glanced at the screen. “I have to make a call. Can we argue about this when I get back?”

  I nodded silently, feeling the awkwardness between us when he shifted his eyes away from me and headed toward the exit without so much as a good-bye. He swung the door open just as Dan filled the doorway, wearing a medical boot on his injured foot and lifting his hand to knock. When his knuckles only swept air, Cowboy chuckled and moved aside, allowing him entry.

  Dan wasn’t the least bit amused as he tapped his cane back and forth on the floor and stepped inside. “Ve
ry funny, asshole.”

  Cowboy looked back at me and grinned, long enough for me to feel the tension dissipate between us, then he disappeared out the door. I hoped that was his way of saying all was forgiven, but I wasn’t entirely sure it was. But I couldn’t worry about it right now.

  “Hi, Dan. How are you?” I asked loudly, letting him follow the sound of my voice.

  He found the chair next to me and sat. “Stop yelling. I’m blind, not deaf.”

  I coughed a little, which helped stifle my giggle. “How are you doing? You okay?”

  “Fractured my ankle. Doc says I have to wear this fucking boot for a few weeks.” He gave me one of his big rotten-toothed grins. “Since they released me, I came to see how you fared with our death-defying leap out the window.”

  “Actually, I didn’t jump from the hayloft. Apparently, there was an old ladder on the outside of the barn. That’s how I got out.”

  The smile Dan wore melted. “What the fuck is wrong with you, girl?”

  “I, uh…beg your pardon?”

  He shook his head in disbelief. “You let a blind man leap out a fucking two-story window while you climbed safely down a ladder?”

  I tried not to smirk, afraid that he would hear it in my tone. “No, no, you got it all wrong. The smoke overwhelmed me before I could make it out. That’s when I sort of stumbled upon the ladder. Had I known it was there, I never would have let you jump.”

  I sat quietly as Dan recounted his harrowing “brush with death,” as he called it. I actually felt bad for the guy when he got to the part where he had to force himself to jump from the hayloft. Leaping out of a burning building would be frightening for anyone, but especially someone blind who couldn’t see how high up they were or what they might possibly land on. Thankfully, he landed feet-first in an unruly pile of brush—hence the “brush with death” part—which cushioned his fall. Otherwise, his injuries could’ve been more severe.

  Dan finally got to the part where my ex-convict father found him and moved him away from the burning building. He said he told the man there was a woman still inside and the man went silent, like he’d disappeared. Guess that was when my father ran to the barn to locate me.

  But why? After everything he took from me and after my testimony had put him in prison, why did he—

  “Can I borrow your pisser?” Dan asked.

  “Of course.”

  He sat there quietly for a moment. “You gonna tell me where it is or do you want me to guess?”

  “Oh, I’m sorry. The bathroom is directly behind your chair about five feet away.”

  Dan rose and tapped his aluminum cane back and forth on the tile until he found the bathroom. He disappeared from sight just as a light knock sounded on the room door. I didn’t even have a chance to say “come in” before the large door pushed open and Mandy came into view.

  She kept her eyes lowered as she approached my bedside. “I just wanted to apologize for my behavior,” she said, shaking her head furiously. “I didn’t mean to say anything. But I couldn’t stand by and let Cowboy get blamed for doing something we all know he didn’t do.”

  I was still upset, but considered her words carefully before answering. She obviously hadn’t meant to cause any problems. And she had put her own ass on the line to keep him from becoming the sheriff’s number one suspect. “Thank you, Mandy,” I whispered, feeling like an idiot for not believing in Cowboy from the beginning. “I appreciate you standing by his side.”

  “Always.” She offered me a sincere smile, but her brows quirked with confusion. “You know, you’re taking this a lot better than I thought you would.”

  “It’s okay. Cowboy already told me he wasn’t with you. I understand why you would say that he was, though.”

  “No, I don’t think you do. That’s not exactly—”

  The bathroom door swung open and Mandy shot out of her chair, wheeling around, as Dan tapped his way into the room. She obviously hadn’t realized we weren’t alone. She moved out of his way and around to the opposite side of my bed, allowing Dan to reclaim the chair. Staring blankly at me, Mandy chewed on her bottom lip. As if she wanted to say something, but stopped herself from doing so.

  A sharp stab of anxiety cut deep into the pit of my stomach. Had Cowboy lied to me? Was that what she was going to say? No. That couldn’t be it. No matter what he’d said earlier in front of the sheriff, I believed he was sincere when he said he hadn’t cheated on me. But the moment I got Mandy alone, I planned to ask her for an explanation and clarify things once and for all.

  The chair squeaked under Dan’s weight as he shifted to get comfortable. “You know, you might want to have the nurse get maintenance up here,” Dan said, leaning back in the chair. “The urinal in there is way too high.”

  “Um, Dan, there isn’t a urinal in there.”

  “Huh. Well, then you might want to have someone give your sink a good scrubbing before you use it then.”

  My face must’ve warped with a horrified expression because Mandy giggled out loud.

  Startled by the sound of a different voice, Dan sat a little straighter. “You got company or something?”

  “It’s Mandy Barlow. She came by to…check on me,” I explained, though I was pretty sure her reason for stopping in had more to do with what she’d started to say before Dan returned from the bathroom and stopped her.

  Sheriff Wells stepped back inside the room, interrupting my train of thought. “Pardon me, Miss Weber, but since we’re running low in the suspect department, I think maybe it would be a good idea to go over your account of what happened once more.”

  “Guess that’s my cue to leave,” Dan stated, rising from the chair next to my bed.

  “No, Dan, why don’t you stay?” the sheriff asked him. “I’ll need you to corroborate her statement.”

  “Okay, then,” he agreed. “I’ll just get out of the way.” He tapped his cane and walked around to the opposite side of my bed until he bumped into Mandy’s shoulder. “Sorry about that. Didn’t hear you standing there.” He grinned at his own stupid joke, moved over to give her some room, and sniffed the air. “That scent you’re wearing…what is it?”

  “Oh, I don’t wear perfume,” Mandy told him. “You’re probably smelling my apple body mist.” She looked at me and I grinned. Apparently, Dan was a ladies’ man. Who knew?

  Dan’s mouth tightened into a firm, thin line. “No, that’s not it,” he mumbled.

  The sheriff took the seat Dan had vacated and focused his attention on me. “All right, Miss Weber, let’s go through this one more time. What happened after you woke up in the barn?”

  I prayed this would be the last time I’d have to go through all the details…at least for tonight. “I told you already. I was tied with my hands behind my back, so I maneuvered around until I managed to get my hands in front of my body and that’s when I untied my feet. Had I known there was—”

  I paused when Cowboy shoved open the door and entered the room with someone behind him, though I couldn’t see who it was. Cowboy held up his hand. “Sorry, Sheriff, I just need to interrupt for a moment. Someone wanted to meet Anna.” He stepped aside, revealing the shadow behind him.

  “Oh my God!” I covered my mouth in shock. He looked much older than I remembered, but I would recognize his face anywhere. “C-Chief Swanson?”

  “What?” Mandy exclaimed, backing up until she bumped into Dan, almost knocking him over. “Y-you’re alive?” Clearly distraught, she braced herself by holding onto the foot railing of my hospital bed and covered her face with her free hand, rocking back and forth. “But…but you’re dead,” she whispered.

  Chief Swanson glanced at the rest of us, and his brows furrowed. He stepped forward and put a hand on Mandy’s slumped shoulder. “I’m sorry, but I’m not—”

  Mandy reeled back at his touch, stumbling into the silver suture tray beside her. “No! It’s not possible. I saw you!” she shrieked, shaking her head frantically back and forth. “You were dead. I
know you were. I set you on fire and…I…I watched you burn.”

  A collective gasp sounded in the quiet room. Looks of horror and shock flicked across each of our faces at her confession and only then did Mandy realize her mistake. Her mouth dropped open and her eyes widened.

  Cowboy’s eyes cut to Sheriff Wells, but his expression remained bleak. “This man is not Ted Swanson. He’s the chief’s twin brother, Ned Swanson.”

  Mandy blinked. “W-what?”

  But Ned didn’t miss a beat. “You killed Ted?” he asked in disbelief.

  She didn’t say anything, just stood there staring at the man, as if the likeness of him to his brother had thrown her for a loop. The sheriff stood and took a step toward her. “Miss Barlow, I think you need to come with me.”

  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing and sat there with my mouth hanging open, blinking and gawking at her in silence. Her bottom lip quivered as she backed slowly away. When she stumbled again into the silver tray behind her, she must’ve realized she was cornered and had nowhere else to go.

  That’s when I got a whiff of a familiar, yet unpleasant, odor and realized I’d been wrong the entire time. “Y-you did this? You sent me the notes, wanting me to think it was your brothers, but…you put me in that barn.”

  “No, of course not. I—”

  “Don’t bother denying it. It’s faint, but I can smell the kerosene on you from here.”

  Dan’s head snapped to me. “Kerosene! That’s it!”

  Though he couldn’t see it, I nodded in confirmation.

  But Mandy shook her head furiously, denying the accusation. “We’re close to the same size. I couldn’t have possibly carried you into the barn—”

  “You’re a firefighter, Mandy, which means you’re trained to carry 150-pound manikins out of burning buildings. That’s thirty pounds more than I weigh. Besides, who said I was carried into the barn?”

  Panic flashed in her eyes. “I…guess I just assumed.”

  “Or you were there. I’m betting your whereabouts around the time I disappeared can’t be verified.” The last pieces of the puzzle linked together in my mind. “This was all you. That first night at the library, you weren’t driving past when you saw the flames. You set the dumpster on fire and let me take the blame, didn’t you?”