Summer Flash Burn

by Unger, Erin;

  Christopher was lost in his own thoughts. He pulled a few napkins free of the holder and handed two of them to me. He wiped his face, and the glob of mayonnaise at the corner of his mouth disappeared. He took a huge swig of his soda before returning to his sandwich. Why did he get quiet all the sudden?

  The heavy weight of metal in my pocket pressed against my hipbone. His knife. This was going to be fun. My nerves hummed a happy beat. “Queenie gave me something today.” A smile would not stay pressed down. “It belongs to you.”

  He stopped chewing the huge bite in his mouth, his cheeks puckered out a bit.

  I took a sip of my drink. “And I can’t wait to hear the story on this one.”

  Christopher swallowed hard. He knew what I had before I pulled it out.

  It clinked against the table as I set it down in front of him. “Why would Queenie have your knife?”

  He stared at the knife and then stuffed another bite in his mouth. Nice play. I sat back and gave him a chance to chew. “I have a good imagination, and something tells me you left this when you went to see Tony. I can’t imagine why it wouldn’t be on your person. Please tell me you didn’t threaten him with it.”

  He fingered the smooth handle. “Well… It wasn’t exactly like that.”

  “Then how was it?” I smiled.

  He chased the bite of food down with another sip of his drink. “Let’s just say it left my hands...and landed in front of him.”

  I choked and spit out the sip of soda I’d taken. “You’re not serious.”

  Once again, he avoided my gaze, but I thrust out a hand to stop him from putting another bite in his mouth. The sudden brisk move made his eyebrows shoot upward. Dropping the sandwich, Christopher stopped trying to evade me. “He threw a tomahawk at me first.”

  I guffawed. “No way.”

  “I’m usually much more levelheaded. But when his weapon went soaring through the air at me—I lost it.”

  That had to be the scariest, yet coolest, thing ever. I shook my head and did my best not to laugh with an unholy glee.

  His hand covered his mouth for a moment. “What I did wasn’t right, but I’m telling you the truth. I don’t usually act like that.” He set his hands into his lap. “It was like some movie when the tomahawk was coming at me. Before I knew it, my knife was in my hand, and I threw it at him.”

  I bit my lips. Awesome.

  “Starting now, I’m going to work on this irrational state I can’t shake.”

  Wouldn’t it have been something to see him throwing the knife? Scratch that thought. No one should ever wield a weapon against another human being for any reason other than pure self-defense. But did this count? “So you’re saying you didn’t have a choice?”

  He shrugged.

  This didn’t seem to qualify if he was shrugging away an answer.

  He thrust the knife into his own pocket and returned to eating.

  What was I getting myself into? My client could land himself in jail before the case was closed. It was never too late to forget about him. And there was no point in making it into more than it was. With Leona clearly in the picture, I didn’t need this mess.

  Christopher lowered his sandwich for a moment. “It’s great that you were in the military.”

  I studied his face. He was the king of distraction. “Yeah. I didn’t re-enlist because being away from family for such long periods got to me. But I don’t know…civilian life isn’t the way I remember it.”

  “You regret being discharged?”

  I screwed up my face. “Maybe?” I hadn’t admitted it to anyone else, so why’d I let it slip now? “I don’t know.”

  He watched me. “Tell me about your family. They must be very important to you for such a drastic career change.”

  What was with the sudden interest? “They are. And my friends too. It was a big thing to go in the military in my family. Two of my older brothers are active duty. Now, I don’t know what I’m doing. I thought by joining the investigative team I’d be able to go back to normal life, but it didn’t work that way. I seem to be floundering for some reason.”

  “I see how that would be a hard transition. How long ago was it that you left the military?”

  “It’s been about two years.” I played with my napkin. Why did I keep telling him all this? I still hadn’t been able to talk to Ava and Jillian about it.

  He rested against the back of his chair. “I understand how you feel, with all that happened the past few months…my dad…I don’t know what I’m doing right now either. You know…with the stores and all.” He toyed with the remaining half of his sandwich. “Are you close to your brothers? Do you have any sisters?”

  How nice it would’ve been to have a sister instead of a bunch of mean boys tackling me and telling me what to do all the time. “Only brothers. I guess you could say we are close.”

  “All I ever had was my dad.” He looked down to his hands in his lap. “Oh, and Aunt Eena, of course.”

  Well, if he wanted to play the avoidance game and get my personal info, I could play too. What would he say if I asked about his mother? I never heard one mention of her. Had she left when Christopher was very young, or was it just that she left in a very bad way? It would make sense why he no longer went to church. Lots of people blamed God when they lost something important to them. But most people didn’t want to talk about the past when it hurt them so much. Yet it was worth the gamble to ask. “And your mom…? I don’t remember seeing anything in our reports in reference to her. Is she around?”

  A heavy breath escaped his nostrils. “She’s not around.”

  He returned to eating with a vengeance, stuffing a huge bite in his mouth. How could he even taste it with so much in there? Yes, it was better not to mention his mother. I took another bite of my sandwich and chewed very slowly.

  It’d be safer to talk about the case. “Can we go back to your place and see what kind of St. John’s Wort Mr. Newen has in his cabinets? I hope he was a bathroom medicine kind of guy because the kitchen…” I winced. Stay on safe ground. “Maybe the label will tell us who he bought it from. Or at least how high the dosage for each pill is. I’m sure Leona would like to know any details.” I tried to keep the sarcasm out of my voice. “Anything to help the investigation.”

  He quirked his mouth. “I’ve been living in that house for three months now. I don’t remember seeing anything, but then again, I haven’t been going through all of his cabinets. Not like I should be.”

  Avoidance. I only imagined how much I’d be avoiding if it was my father. “Do you know if there’s anyone to call for access to the house? Maybe someone needs to let us in this time too.”

  “Yes, we need permission. I haven’t heard from the fire marshal yet.”

  I finished my drink and set it back on the table as Chris picked up his phone and dialed it. He talked to his fire chief then ended the call. “He said the fire marshal finished his investigation at the house so we can go whenever we want but that we really need to be careful. Preliminary reports show some damage in the hall, and the kitchen is unsafe, but other than that we should be OK to take pictures and get some more personal items. There won’t be any electricity for a while, either.”

  I could only imagine the scores of people he’d have to deal with to get the house checked and repaired before he moved back home. I squeezed his hand. “I’ll let Ava know where we’re going.” When I ended the call to my partners, I turned back to him and swiped at the crumbs on the table.

  Christopher put the last bite of his sandwich in his mouth and then rubbed his hands together.

  This whole thing with Leona the perfect blonde stuck in the air. “So you have a meeting with Leona, huh?”

  He put his elbows on the table and sat forward, staring at me. “She wanted to talk with me, I guess about the case. I don’t know. I don’t want to do anything to inhibit this whole thing. It’s not a date.”

  “You don’t have to explain it to me. Your life is your lif
e. I’m just here to investigate this case.” That wasn’t true at all. I actually wanted an exact explanation as to where he stood with Leona.

  29

  Shauna

  The visible damage to Mr. Newen’s house only showed a fraction of what might be wrong within the walls and support system. Just like this town where the broken managed to hide and break everything they touched?

  Christopher guided me off the sidewalk to the door and pulled the tape aside. The rain didn’t clear away all the clouds. A few scuttled across the sky toward the higher mountains. One hovered right over his home and blocked the light over the yard. Wouldn’t it be fitting on such a day? “Watch your step.”

  With my hand on the doorframe, I pushed the door open. The humidity in the foyer almost created tiny droplets in the air. “We need to check all the cabinets in the bathrooms. Is it possible to get in the kitchen and check any cabinets that survived the fire too when we finish?”

  “We can try, but I doubt it according to my chief.” He guided me to the back, careful to avoid the blackened hole where the sub-floor showed as we headed to the half-bath at the end of the hall. We shuffled through the cabinet under the sink and behind the mirror. “Nothing. I would’ve remembered seeing it in this small bathroom.”

  “OK. Next bathroom.”

  Together, we went up the stairs to the second bathroom and rifled through it as well. On my hands and knees, I reached as far back as possible and felt behind a large bag of toilet paper. Sitting back on my haunches, I glanced up at Christopher. Something thumped in the hallway. I looked into the shadows of the hall. “Did you hear that?”

  He stopped what he was doing and stared in the same direction. “Hear what?”

  A second thunk had me on my feet and my hand at my back hidden holster. “Who’s there? You’re trespassing. Stop.”

  The stealth I had learned in the military took over, and I rushed down the hall with careful steps, my back against the wall. Someone in black rounded the corner of the stairs and disappeared out of view. “I said stop.”

  Christopher was not far behind me. He put his hand on my shoulder. “Don’t chase him. He might be armed and dangerous.”

  “Somebody has to catch him.” The tension in my arms tightened even more. Someone was there looking for something. They could have stolen it already.

  I flew down the stairs. “I said stop. You have no right to be in this house. It’s private property, and I’m calling the police.”

  Turning right to peer into the living room and then left down the hall, my heart pounded. I paused at a closed door and flung it open. Only a utility closet. To my right, the black singed wood of the burnt wall that separated the kitchen from hall darkened my view. Had they gone into the bathroom? I drew my gun and pointed its barrel to the floor. The tiny window in the bathroom wouldn’t allow anyone to exit it. That only left one more closed door. Behind it, a window screeched open. I ran as fast as I could, the stillness of the air threatening to choke me. Too late, I careened into the open window. Whoever had been in the house was nowhere in sight. Bushes lined the side of the yard. Trees covered the backyard.

  I almost jumped when Christopher said, “I can’t believe someone was brave enough to come back.”

  How’d he get to me so fast?

  “Give me a minute.” I ran out the front door and hurried to every possible vantage point. The trespasser was gone.

  After straining to see through the bushes, I returned to Christopher. “Is it possible some neighborhood kids or someone scouting out for electronics and goods got in here? This is a pretty small town and everyone knows about your house fire, I’m sure. You better start searching to see if they took anything. I hope they were only curious about the fire.” I studied the room for the first time. Storage boxes filled most it. It seemed there were lots of things Christopher hadn’t gone through since he’d moved in, because I doubted all the old magazines and newspapers were something he would have kept.

  His hands went to his temples. “You’ll have to solve this before I go crazy. Whoever’s doing this is relentless.”

  “It looked like he was coming from one of the bedrooms upstairs, either yours or the one beside it. Let’s start there.”

  Locking the sash, I was careful not to touch anything with my bare fingers since the police needed to do a fingerprint search later. “You better lock the front door to make sure no one else tries to break and enter.”

  He flexed his hand, and his brows knit together. “People don’t lock their doors here, and I don’t want to start, either.”

  “I understand the invasion of your privacy has made things difficult, but this is the way it’s going to be for now. When it’s all over, you can go back to the way you used to do things.” But would he ever return to the old ways after the most despicable acts of mankind had been committed against him? “We better search this house before we finish looking in the bathrooms for the St. John’s Wort. Just to be sure.”

  We started in the bedroom I had never seen, and I held back as Christopher checked drawers and shelves. “I don’t see anything missing in here.”

  We headed to the master bedroom. Would he have left something valuable after our last visit? I doubt it. Of course, he only packed a couple bags when we came the first time.

  Christopher circled the room. “Umm, I don’t see anything different from the other night.”

  I raised my hands. “I guess it’s possible it was just a neighborhood kid. I hope he saw my gun, and I hope that makes him never want to come back.” I put my hand to my forehead and worked to steady my shaking knees. Christopher didn’t seem to be nearly as shaken, yet I was the professional. I’d better get my steel façade back in place.

  We returned to the upstairs bathroom and checked everything in it. I strained to hear any sound, any disturbance of air, but the house was silent. I grunted. “That leaves the kitchen and we may not find anything in it since the fire originated there.”

  Christopher nodded. “It was engulfed in flames too long. I’m sure you’re right about that. We can try to get a look, but it’s pretty much hopeless.”

  Together, we went to the kitchen door in the main hall. Christopher grasped the handle and gave it a gentle pull. The hinges threatened to not open as if the heat had begun to melt them together. The muscles in his arms bulged with the effort. I covered my mouth with the neck of my shirt. Two days later the acrid smell of smoke still held the room hostage. On the far side, where lower cabinets once lined the walls, only stubbled pieces of wood remained. Even the flooring was black and sopping with water. A hole in the floor and partially in the wall that separated the hallway from the kitchen made it clear it was going to take major work to restore this part of the house.

  Christopher didn’t let me pass him, and I began to protest, but he held up a hand. “Let me do this. I’ve been in a lot of burned buildings and I don’t want you to get hurt.”

  The old adage “ants in my pants” applied, and my muscles reacted. “But—”

  “I promise to let you in as soon as I deem it safe.”

  Putting my hands on my hips, I watched his every step. He was the fireman, he would know what was best, and I had to trust him on it. If the St. John’s Wort had been in the lower cabinets it was gone. Even a good portion of the ones on the top were disintegrated.

  As the floor popped and groaned, I stopped my nervous motion.

  Christopher glanced back at me. “It’s fine. I’ve got this.” The floor groaned again, and he stopped as it began to give under his weight. “Yeah, I don’t think we’re gonna be able to check this room. But it’s clear the fire took out everything in it, at least at that end of the room.”

  I studied every surface, every corner. Whatever the perpetrator wanted to destroy was gone. And there’d be no way to figure out what it was.

  Christopher returned to me. “There is one thing I completely forgot about. At the time, I didn’t know why Dad kept carrying this paperwork around, but some
thing about it made me stash them away. They were invoices. Nothing unusual. Come on. I’ll get them.”

  I remained on full alert and took in every shadow as we moved to the living room.

  Christopher’s deep tenor voice brought me out of stealth mode. “You must have been a great soldier.”

  “I don’t know. I guess. I’ve done lots of perimeter checks like everyone else. It makes you very aware of everything around you.”

  It would be in my best interest to call my partners. Five minutes later, Jillian and Ava were on their way to meet us at the house.

  Christopher pulled out stacks of papers from a long shelf of books and knick-knacks. “These papers just hit me funny. My dad was very fastidious about his businesses and didn’t bring work home, so I don’t understand why these were here. Unless right before his death he was looking into something, or there was something about them he didn’t want his managers to know.”

  People were very good at keeping secrets, and his father probably was no exception. “Why didn’t you turn these into the police? They’d be interested in them.”

  He looked away, his hand rubbing the sheet of paper on top. “These are copies of the ones I gave them.”

  “Good work.” I reached for the stack and flipped through them at the window where the light was better. “These are a different kind of invoice than the ones that we saw at the office in the souvenir shop, aren’t they?”

  “That’s what caught my attention too.” He joined me at the window and pointed at the name at the top. “See this company name? This is one of the companies Tony Slaiger sells items for. Now, in my gut, I believe he’s at the bottom of this. Look at the contents on the inventory list. It doesn’t say St. John’s Wort, but there are other herbal remedies here. Wouldn’t it make sense that he’s the one that provided it?”

  It could’ve been but maybe not. “We have to be careful who we blame without hard facts.”

  He pulled back as if I had punched him, and I reached for him. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

  He waved me off.