Returning to the sitting area, she removed her coat and hung it on one of the wooden pegs attached to the cabin wall. She picked up the umbrella she’d dropped and placed it on the shelf above the pegs and put her flashlight on top of the desk.
“I’m sorry to be such a baby. The note rattled me. Grown women aren’t supposed to be afraid of the dark, but I am. Thanks for being here.”
She walked over to the fireplace, turned on the fan, and adjusted the thermostat, then moved to the entrance to the kitchenette. Since she wasn’t ready to have him leave, she relaxed when he removed his coat and hung it on the hook next to hers. He unclipped the leash from the dog’s collar, then sat in the recliner while the small animal smelled every inch of the room before settling under the coffee table at his feet.
“Can I get you something?” she asked, knowing she desperately wanted a drink.
“Sure, I’ll have a beer.”
Going to the minifridge she pulled out two bottles.
“Do you want a glass?”
“I’m good.”
She handed him a bottle of beer.
“I don’t remember you being afraid of the dark,” he said. “If you had been, James would have used that ammunition to torture you mercilessly.”
“It’s a little thing I picked up earlier this year after a run in with an unexpected visitor and some particularly nasty people. You think you’ve put it all behind you and then something happens ... I’m sorry. My problem, not yours.” She tried to keep her voice light, hoping he wouldn’t ask any more questions. She would probably have nightmares as it was.
“Hey,” he countered. “No big deal. I can afford a few extra bucks in hydro expenses. Tell me about your drive here. What’s this about a moose?”
“That monster came out of the fog,” she said, her hands gesturing wildly. “I almost hit him, but I swear there wasn’t another car on the road either ahead of me or behind. I can’t imagine how whoever sent me that note knew about that. That’s what has me spooked. I didn’t have a clue I was being watched.”
Jake frowned, his eyebrows becoming one. “He must’ve followed you using the logging road that runs parallel to the highway, but that means he knew when you were coming. That wasn’t public knowledge, so he’s either one of us—which I pray God he isn’t—or we have a leak, and unfortunately, I know exactly who that might be. Do you remember Lynette Scott? She’s our dispatcher, and she likes to talk. No doubt she told the whole bowling league that you were coming to help with the investigation, but I’m sure she didn’t have your final itinerary. I’ll have to find out.”
“Please do. Loose lips sink ships. The last thing we need is for details to get out before we’re ready to release them.”
Someone was going to have to talk to Lynette before she compromised the case. Good thing it wouldn’t be her. Things might get ugly fast.
Chapter Nine
Alexis raised the bottle of beer to her mouth and took a drink, careful not to guzzle it even though that was exactly what she wanted to do. It was time to pull herself together, stop behaving like the scared girl she used to be, and salvage what she could of her dignity. The best way to do that was to get off this topic and back to the man who’d threatened her.
She waved the note in the air. “So, how do you want me to handle this? I’m not leaving. I have a job to do, and I intend to do it.”
“And, as much as I hate to say it, I need you to do it. I just wish the son of a bitch hadn’t drawn a bull’s eye on you. This maniac is as unpredictable as they come. From now on, we’ll travel together.”
She jumped up from the couch.
“Hold on He-Man. Back off,” she ordered, unable to subdue her anger.
She stood, her jaw clenched, her cheeks burning, and her eyes narrowed, furious not only with him, but with herself. Given the way she’d acted about the dark cabin, no wonder he thought she couldn’t manage on her own, but that stopped now. She’d worked too hard for her independence to just suddenly toss it all away and let someone make decisions for her. It had to be being back here, but she wasn’t going to let the past dictate the present or the future. Arms tightly crossed over her chest, she paced the small room.
“I realize my behavior over the darkened cabin may have sent out mixed signals. A long time ago, I decided no one would tell me what to do ever again, and this damn note hasn’t changed that. I’m a big girl now, and I can take care of myself.” She held up the sheet of paper. “I’ll get this to the station as soon as I can. Maybe the forensic technicians can pull fingerprints or DNA from it. We can’t be certain that this sicko actually knows me personally. He might just know of me—know I ran off back then. My uncle has lots of friends. One of them approached me in the restaurant. If the person who wrote this does know me, he could be one of James’s buddies, one of the guys who tormented me day and night back then, who somehow found out I was back and is trying to scare me. As I recall, there were quite a few bad apples in that barrel. We have no proof this note really comes from Fire Angel. It could be from anyone. It isn’t as if you have his signature on file and can match it.”
“Of course, we don’t,” he agreed, running one hand through his hair. “But that doesn’t mean we can treat this as anything but a threat. Be reasonable, Alexis. He did follow you.”
She took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down. This wasn’t the best time to rip open the throat of the only friend she had in town, and Jake wasn’t trying to subjugate her. Sitting once more, she prayed she could keep her temper in check.
“I’m sorry. It’s not your fault. If Lynette did let slip when I was arriving, and Fire Angel somehow found out, then he could’ve done an Internet search and discovered how good I am at my job and feels threatened by me. Hence, the note.”
“Why doesn’t that make me feel better?” Jake asked, pursing his lips.
She shook her head. “Don’t you see? Instead of scaring me, this note gives me power. It also may give us a suspect pool. I assume bowling and curling are still big in Paradise in the winter months?”
“Yes. After hunting and fishing, which goes on pretty much all year. The only other activity is driving into North Bay for hockey games. Some still go to Ottawa if the Senators have an afternoon game, but since that’s a three-and-a-half-hour drive, one way, most settle for watching Junior A in North Bay.”
“Which one does Lynette do?”
“She bowls.” He grinned. “I see where you’re going with this. I can get a list of the bowlers in her particular league and crossmatch them with the people here tonight and those who fit the profile.”
She smiled, pleased with herself for having handled this almost professionally. “I’m not unreasonable, Jake. I agree that when it’s feasible, we can travel together, but we each have our own work to do. We may be partners, but that doesn’t mean we have to be together twenty-four/seven. I don’t operate that way. This jerk isn’t the first to try to stop me, and I doubt he’ll be the last. I don’t like bullies. I learned to stand up to them years ago. Let me use the facilities, and then I’ll tell you more about the moose.”
Jake nodded and raise his beer to his mouth. Thank God he wasn’t going to argue with her. She hurried into the bathroom, glad to put her soapbox away. He was trying to protect her not control her, and she needed to remember that.
* * *
Choosing discretion over all-out war and knowing better than to argue with anyone with that “come hell or high-water” look on their faces, Jake nodded and watched her leave the room. He would let it go for the moment, but whether she liked it or not, her independent streak was going to be curtailed for her own safety. He’d seen what this guy could do. She hadn’t.
“So, tell me about this moose,” he said when she returned.
Alexis described her encounter with Bullwinkle, as she referred to the animal. Although there had been nothing funny about the incident—she could easily have been killed—her dry sense of humor manifested itself in the way she r
elated the story. When his heart started beating again, he appreciated the fact she could laugh at herself. Her ability to pull herself together after that scare testified to her courage and determination, so different from the memory he carried of a woman who’d allowed herself to be cowed by everyone around her.
“So when the rental agency gets the car back, they can say the finger grooves in the steering wheel are for improved navigational control.” She chuckled and shook her head. “I don’t think they’ll be open to returning my security deposit though.” Reaching for her bottle on the coffee table, she took a drink.
“Probably not, but I’m sure the department will cover that cost if the insurance doesn’t. Unfortunately, Duffy’s was the only local garage, but there are lots of body shops in North Bay.”
“I’ll contact the rental company and see what they say.” She took another mouthful of beer and sat down on the sofa across from him. “Now, let’s forget my stalker and get down to business. Frankly, you haven’t been very forthcoming with information. I know you’re dealing with ten bodies, and you have my sympathies there, but from what I’ve read in the materials you sent, I’m not sure why you think you have a pyromaniac or arsonist on your hands. What did your chief of police tell Captain Peters that you haven’t told me and that he hasn’t shared beyond telling me I’m the only one who can solve this puzzle?”
Jake leaned forward, elbows on his knees, beer bottle in hand.
“We tried to keep a tight lid on this, hoping the locals wouldn’t panic, but it’s like herding cats. The truth gets lost in the rumor mill and things just go from bad to worse. I’ve had to interview suspects, and that hasn’t raised my stock around here either. I’m usually very good at my job, but this guy is leading me on a wild goose chase, and it’s driving me crazy. His motive’s revenge, but it’s his method that stymies me. The fire marshal from Ottawa came down to look over the first two with fatalities, and even he couldn’t tell me anything other than the fact they were arson because of the accelerants—which incidentally haven’t even been the same ones at each fire. He’s going to do it again. That’s why I asked for you. You’re the best there is. You can stop him. You have to.”
“If the accelerant is different, why are you so convinced it’s one man, this Fire Angel?”
He leaned back again, took a long pull from his beer, and huffed out a frustrated breath.
“For one thing, he sets the fires on the night of the full moon. For another, he drugs his victims to incapacitate them, then poses them—those he means to kill. Let me explain.”
Jake described the first three fire scenes in as much detail as he could. He then explained what they’d found at the cabin fire.
“There was enough Rohypnol in him to stop your Bullwinkle and then some.”
“He was a drug dealer, Jake,” she said, gesturing with her hands. “Maybe he was having trouble sleeping and just took too much of his own product. He wouldn’t be the first to OD that way.”
“True, but that doesn’t explain why five of the other ten bodies on our hands also had traces of the same date rape drug in their systems along with alcohol.”
She frowned. “What about the other four?”
“We think the three men in the other half of the semi-detached house were collateral damage. At the last one, the fourth body was in a room at the back of the garage. Still don’t know if he was targeted or just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Not all of the results are back yet.”
She nodded. “Anything else similar about the victims?”
“Other than the fact they weren’t Paradise’s favorite sons, all of them having annoyed people because of their shoddy workmanship, padded bills, or lousy advice, we think they’d been posed. The drug dealer was in bed. The next two seated at a table across from one another. At the last one, the garage owner and his mechanic were sitting, their heads bent low, while the third was sitting up—that one was a priest.”
“How do you know they were sitting up?” she asked, her voice barely a whisper in the quiet cabin. “In my experience, bodies fall over when the victim passes out or dies.”
“Other than the drug dealer who was rolled in a sheet of some sort, they were duct taped into place. There was residue on the seats, backs of the chairs, and what was left of their clothing to prove that.”
“My God!” Alexis stood and began to pace as she had earlier. She wrapped her arms around herself and worried her lower lip. “It’s as if he’s freeze framing them in strange tableaus only he understands,” she finally said. “How much Rohypnol was in their systems?”
Jake bit the inside of his cheek. This was the part that bothered him the most.
“Not as much as the first one. The coroner said they could well have been awake when they were overcome by the smoke. So far, all ten of the victims have died from smoke inhalation.”
Her face mirrored the horror he’d felt himself.
Standing, he carried his empty beer bottle into the kitchenette, giving her time to process what he’d said. He would make sure the charges for these drinks were waived. Opening the fridge, he saw three bottles of Millhouse Organic. When had Min started buying that? He took one of the bottles and handed another to Alexis.
“Try this one. I used to drink it when I lived in Ottawa. It’s the best organic beer I’ve ever had.” He sat down again. “My friend Andrew sometimes brings me a case when he comes back from the city.”
Alexis raised the bottle to her lips.
“So what do you think?” he asked.
“About the beer or the case?”
“Either one. Both.” He shrugged.
“The beer’s good,” she said after tasting it. “I’m not usually a fan of microbreweries. As far as the case goes, you’ve got one hell of a sick person on your hands.” Her lips were pursed, her brow creased. “Tell me more about the accelerants they’ve identified.”
Jake moved over to sit beside her on the couch, stretching his leg out. Maya stood, circled three times and then settled again, her face facing him once more.
“At the cabin, the techs found turpentine. He used alcohol in the kitchen fire, and gasoline in the garage.”
She nodded, about to speak, but he stopped her.
“Alexis, this man is incredibly dangerous, and he’s got you in his sights. Maybe you should go back to San Francisco and have Captain Peters send someone else ... if anything happened to you...”
She shook her head. “No way. I’ve already told you that’s not an option. I’m not going to let some coward scare me away—and no matter what else this man may be, he’s a coward. He only kills those he’s rendered powerless. I can take care of myself. I’ve been doing it for a long time. In that note he sent me, he referred to himself as Fire Angel, but there’s nothing kind or angelic about him. He kills with impunity and doesn’t care who gets caught in the crossfire, excuse the pun. He takes time setting up his montages, selecting his tools, and he’s confident he can do it without getting caught. He’s a cocky little bastard who thinks he’s better and smarter than everyone, but I will take him down.” The words were spoken like an oath. “I’ve seen a lot of fire starters in my time, and this one is on a rampage of some sort. Finding out how these victims earned his hatred will be the first step to identifying other potential targets. Give me time to look at the scenes and feel them out. Once I do, I’ll let you know if he’s a pyromaniac or just a sociopath using fire to mete out his revenge.”
Jake almost choked on his mouthful of beer.
“Seriously? You’ll be able to tell me, just by looking at the fire scene, whether or not he got any gratification from watching it burn? You’ve got to be kidding me. I’ve never heard another fire investigator make that claim.”
Alexis stood and turned to face him, her cheeks flaming, her fury palpable.
“That’s the reason I’m here, isn’t it? Because I can do what no one else can? You aren’t the first to doubt my abilities. Let me do my thing, and we’ll see.”
>
“Fair enough.” He stood, realizing he probably owed her an apology. “You’re right. I don’t know enough about what you do to be skeptical. It’s late, and it’s been a long day for both of us. Since you’re hell-bent on being independent, I’ll meet you at the station in the morning. You have GPS in your car. It’s not hard to find. We can give your note to the chief and have it tested while you look at the evidence the techs have collected.”
She stood to walk him to the door. This hadn’t gone as planned.
“Alexis, don’t get me wrong, I’m really glad we have this opportunity to reconnect, but I have to ask—why are you really here? Why did you take this case?” He reached for her and held her shoulders, forcing her to look up at him. “When you left, I was angry at your uncle because he wouldn’t look for you. I’ve searched on and off for years. I’m good at my job, but Alexis Pruett vanished. Some of us cared about you, and you hung us all out to dry.” He let go of her and ran his hands through his hair. “It was my idea to send for you, but if I’d known it was you, and that I would be placing you in danger, I’m not sure what I would have done. You do realize that he still lives in town?”
She glared at him, her hands on her hips, so incensed that she trembled in her fury. He hadn’t wanted to anger her, but his need to know and fear for her safety drove him.
“For all intents and purposes, Alexis Pruett died twenty years ago. I’m not her. I’m not that scared little girl anymore. I’m here for one reason and that’s to do this job. Once it’s done, I’ll go back to Frisco.” She took a deep breath, her entire body quaking with it. “I didn’t think I would be recognized so easily. So what if the arsonist is someone I knew twenty years ago? Knew is the operative word. I’ve investigated fires at home. There’s always a possibility that a perp is someone we know. We don’t live in a bubble, a ‘fire or arson investigators only’ community. Some of us have families; we’re neighbors, citizens, volunteers. We shop, we go to the movies—we’re just as likely to rub elbows with criminals as anyone else.”
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