Burning Proof

by Janice Cantore

  The smoke thickened and the harsh hacking worsened, but Cox kept her gun up. “They were arguing. He didn’t see me come in behind him. I hit him with a shovel.”

  Abby felt numb and she tightened her grip on her gun. The dense smoke made it difficult to see, to breathe, to think.

  “Just so happens we were putting in a pool. There was a grave ready and waiting for your father. Imagine the pool company’s surprise the next day when we told them we’d changed our mind and now we wanted a concrete patio instead of a pool. I never imagined anyone would dig that backyard up ever again.”

  Cox collapsed in a coughing fit as the pop of breaking glass sounded from the bedroom.

  Abby flinched and fought the urge to turn and run down the stairs and out of the burning town house.

  “You better let me go,” Cox said, voice harsh and raspy, “or we’ll both die here.”

  “You’re not going anywhere but prison.” Except Abby was already weakening, the smoke close to incapacitating her. She knew she had to do something.

  Before she could move, the carpet caught fire behind Kelsey, and she screamed. She dropped her gun and dove forward, tackling Abby and knocking the gun from her hand. Chest burning, Abby tried to stay on her feet but couldn’t. She and Kelsey fell in a tangle down the stairway.

  They stopped when Abby’s head hit the tile floor at the bottom, hard. The last thing she thought before losing consciousness was that she was going to burn to death with the woman who killed her father.

  CHAPTER

  -69-

  LUKE DROVE AS FAST as he could to North Long Beach. Woody was certain that Kelsey was heading home with Abby on her tail. Luke prayed he was right because they had no plan B. Woody knew Kelsey’s address, and Luke worked hard to stay calm as he drove, praying they would arrive in time to keep Abby safe.

  “There, there!” Woody pointed, and Luke saw Abby’s car.

  He stomped the brakes, and his car squealed to a stop next to Abby’s. He was out of the car in a rush. Woody had told him the number to look for, and he took only a second to get his bearings and was off in the direction indicated on a directory sign.

  He could hear sirens, and as he neared the unit, he saw why. Smoke was pouring out an upstairs window. Neighbors were gathered on the ground nearby, several on cell phones.

  Luke didn’t waste time asking them anything. He burst into the townhome. “Abby!”

  The smoke and the heat stung his eyes. Luke saw the two women in a tangled heap at the bottom of the stairs, neither one moving. His heart stopped when he saw the blood. Fire greedily descended the carpeted staircase toward the women. Dropping to his knees, he gently moved Kelsey off Abby.

  “Abby!”

  She moaned and coughed. She was alive. He scooped her up, intending to come back for Kelsey, but as he stood, two firefighters appeared at his shoulder. He thanked God as one of them helped him and the other tended to Kelsey.

  All Luke could do was nod as the firefighter led him out of the smoky entryway with Abby limp in his arms.

  Abby came to, coughing and sputtering in the oxygen mask paramedics had affixed to her face. She recognized that she was on an ambulance gurney.

  “Cox . . . she started the fire . . . burned her papers.” She tried to say more but collapsed in coughing. Strong hands gripped her shoulders, holding her until the fit passed. When it did, she looked up into Luke’s worried eyes.

  “She’s being tended; medics are working on her. She cut her head, but it looks like she’ll be okay. Relax.” Luke pointed.

  Abby followed his gaze and saw that paramedics were treating Kelsey and getting ready to transport. Her head was wrapped, and when Abby looked down and saw blood on her own shirt, she realized it was Kelsey’s.

  “She’s not going anywhere but to the hospital, and Bill is on his way. I’ll tell him what you said. It all will be sorted out, I promise.” His hand brushed her face as he replaced the mask that had moved with her coughing fit. “You took in a lot of smoke.”

  Abby nodded and thought better than to try to speak again. She took deep breaths from the mask, hoping to clear her lungs and ease the burning in her throat. She was conscious of Luke’s hand holding hers, and she squeezed it, loving the rough, warm strength there. His very presence made her feel safe and secure.

  But the back of her mind niggled with the thought of Ethan and the fact that she’d never returned his calls.

  “We’re ready to go.” A paramedic stepped around to her even as Kelsey’s ambulance pulled away.

  Abby started to protest that she didn’t need to go to the hospital when another coughing fit struck.

  “Calm down, kid.” Woody stepped up. “Let them look you over. You were out cold when Luke picked you up. We’ll be right behind to take you home when it’s time.”

  “Listen to your training officer,” Luke said, letting go of her hand.

  Abby relaxed, hoping by the time she got to the hospital, she’d be able to speak without coughing.

  Besides the smoke inhalation, Abby had a slight concussion. She was cleared to go home after a couple of hours in the emergency room. By that time, aside from a raw throat and a slight headache, she felt okay. Luke, Bill, and Woody joined her in the emergency room, and she learned a little about Kelsey as they chatted and waited for the doctor to sign her release. In a hoarse voice Abby told Bill what happened in the town house and what Kelsey had said.

  “She said she killed my father; she hit him with a shovel.” She felt better now, stronger.

  Bill nodded. “I just got a preliminary report from the coroner on the body we dug up. That would fit with the probable cause of death. The skull was fractured. In any event, Cox has a lot to explain. The bomb squad was called out. After the fire was knocked down, firefighters checking for hot spots found a bag of C-4 explosive in her garage, along with a wallet and ID card. I ran a check on the ID; it belongs to a man who works for Lowell Rollins, part of his protection team.”

  “Well, Kelsey works for him as well,” Abby said. “That doesn’t surprise me, but explosives?” Unease nagged at her about the situation, but her thinking was still foggy, smoky. One glance at Luke and Woody, and the concern she saw in their faces made her decide to shelve questions and worries for the time being.

  “Like I said, she has a lot to explain, but she’s not talking,” Bill continued. “Her injuries are minor, but she’ll be in the hospital at least overnight. I’m working on getting a warrant issued for when she’s released medically. I’ll charge her with starting the fire and possession of explosives.” Bill checked his phone and said, “I’m glad to see that you’re okay, but I’ve got a lot of work to do.” He left them just before the doctor came in and signed her out.

  “I’ll go get the car,” Woody said, leaving Luke to help Abby out.

  Abby looked at Luke. His hazel-brown eyes warmed her, but at the same time she saw a distraction there, like his mind was elsewhere, and she remembered Faye. She realized her mind should be elsewhere as well, with Ethan, not Luke.

  “We have all the answers now,” he said, “don’t we?”

  She thought before responding. Yes, they did have answers, answers she’d spent most of her life trying to find.

  Turning her attention back to him, she said, “Answers but no solutions.”

  “By ‘no solutions,’ you mean because the responsible parties have not all been held accountable.”

  She nodded, and he cocked his head knowingly, holding out his hand to steady her as she slid off the exam table.

  “They will be eventually, I know,” Abby said. “But part of me wants it now.”

  “Well, let’s see how all this shakes out. After you feel better, maybe we’ll find an opening, a way to have justice now. What say we hold off closing any doors until we hear definitively what kind of story Kelsey will tell?”

  Peering into Luke’s sharp, clear eyes, she held his gaze. “Might be a long wait.”

  He shrugged. “Used to that.
Anyway, I’ll keep busy. It’s time to concentrate on other people’s cold cases.”

  They walked out to the curb to wait for Woody, and Abby let her mind wander. She doubted Kelsey would say a word. The woman had been caught burning evidence; she wasn’t ready to step up and do the right thing.

  On the other hand Abby thanked God that she had her father’s letter. But she was disappointed that she would never know why Lucy hadn’t gone to the police with it right after her father disappeared. Still even there Abby could see God’s hand in things. It was possible Lucy might have trusted the wrong cop back then, someone like Kelsey Cox, and the letter would have been destroyed. Perhaps Lucy might have been collateral damage. As it was, Abby now had the letter and would keep it safe, if for no other reason than because it was like hearing her father speak, and that was special to Abby.

  And Luke was right about waiting right now for things to shake out. Maybe Kelsey would decide to come forward with everything she knew.

  Abby could be patient; at least at the moment she was too tired to think about anything else.

  CHAPTER

  -70-

  “A DATE?” Maddie looked up at Luke, hands on hips.

  “Yep, a real date.” Luke smiled at his daughter. “And I didn’t even have to join a computer dating service.”

  “That’s probably best. I don’t know that I would like a girl the computer spit out.” She gave him a hug and settled back into finishing her schoolwork before dinner.

  Luke chuckled in agreement and once again checked his image in the mirror, working to calm his nerves. He’d not been on a date since he courted his wife, and he felt rusty to say the least. He stopped on his way to the car when something on the television news his mother was watching caught his attention. It was about Lowell Rollins.

  In the week since the incident at the retired deputy chief’s town house, a firestorm had erupted around Cox and her connection to Lowell Rollins. Added to the mix was the unknown dead man at Barone’s house in Tehachapi. He’d eventually been identified as the man whose ID Cox had in her garage. He was also on the governor’s payroll. As a result the would-be senator’s campaign had been hit with a barrage of questions and intense scrutiny. What was the man doing there? Why did he have C-4 as Cox claimed?

  The only information Kelsey Cox volunteered was that the C-4 belonged to the man named Quinn. Beyond that she would not talk. She was in jail for arson. Though she had confessed to killing Abby’s father all those years ago, Luke knew from Bill that they needed to build a case before they could charge her with murder. And her lips were sealed when it came to answering questions about Alyssa Rollins’s involvement in anything.

  Abby had called him after the revelation that the dead man in Barone’s driveway had been positively identified as Quinn Rodgers, Alyssa Rollins’s bodyguard.

  “Does the fact that Cox had explosives she claimed belonged to a man employed by Alyssa Rollins—a man who was found dead in Tehachapi, where we were both working—bother you as much as it does me?”

  “Yes, it does,” he said, but maybe more, he thought, when he considered the danger Alonzo Ruiz had brought to his doorstep. “I believe his being there had something to do with us. The locals certainly found no connection between him and Barone. Cox was probably there as well. My speculation is that Alyssa sent them there to deal with us. Though why she would consider us a threat is beyond me.”

  “As long as Alyssa Rollins is free and clear, we have no assurance the danger is past, no assurance everyone involved has been stopped. I believe Alyssa was trying to get rid of us. I don’t want to live looking over my shoulder, wondering if she’ll try again.”

  “Do you have an idea about how we can be certain she won’t?”

  “No. That’s why I called. I can only guess what she planned in Tehachapi. At least right now she has her hands full; the press is all over this story. I’ve even gotten calls. Gunther is practically camped on my doorstep. Everyone who was in the Triple Seven that day, except for me, is dead.”

  “Did you tell Gunther about the letter?”

  “No. I, uh . . . The letter is mine. It’s personal. It would never hold up in court without corroborating evidence. I don’t want to go through an authentication fight or have to answer questions about chain of custody.”

  “You don’t have to justify that decision to me. I understand. But you do know that even if you lay off of Alyssa and keep quiet, that doesn’t mean she’ll stop. The Triple Seven invest is closed tight, and still, for some reason, she sent Kelsey Cox and Quinn Rodgers after us.”

  “But it’s not closed anymore.”

  “What?”

  “My father’s body has reopened the case. Since it wasn’t him next to my mom, homicide has to find out who it was.”

  “Piper Shea?”

  “It has to be proven.”

  Luke considered this for a moment. “You’re right, and while the governor is caught in this firestorm about Kelsey and Quinn, I doubt Alyssa can do anything.”

  They had agreed to wait and watch. But as Luke listened to the news report, he wondered if waiting would be possible. His jaw dropped as the newscaster read a statement issued by Governor Rollins. It said that Quinn had been in Tehachapi investigating a possible hacker. One of the governor’s campaign offices had been hacked, and Quinn had been unofficially following up a lead. The governor was not at liberty to discuss specifics because of an ongoing federal investigation.

  Luke knew that the officers who searched Barone’s house had found a setup they thought was related to hacking. As the press’s questioning got lighter and lighter, Luke felt a sinking in his chest and knew that Rollins would weather the media volcano. The major news outlets were buying the explanation and the governor would likely emerge from this unscathed.

  Luke no longer wondered if it would be the end of his campaign. The man would never give up the quest to be a senator. Alyssa was winning.

  Abby put the letters away when she saw the clock. Ethan would be there any minute and she wasn’t ready. She just couldn’t put the letters down. Uncle Simon had mailed her all of her father’s letters. The visiting approval had not yet come through, and he didn’t want to keep her in suspense.

  Her father had written messages to his brother overflowing with love for his wife and his daughter. She’d never known how much her father loved her; she’d only been able to guess. But now she knew. In his own words Buck Morgan laid open his heart. All her life she’d heard how important the restaurant was to her father, but in the letters he barely mentioned the place. It was all about his daughter.

  Little Abby is the best thing to ever happen to us, Simon. I wish you could see her, watch her play, see her smile. She makes the dreariest day bright. When she was a baby, if I came home from having a bad day, all I had to do was stand at her crib and watch her sleep and the badness went away. Pat thinks she’s a daddy’s girl, and I have to agree. I love it. If you could see the grin on my face right now, you’d laugh. When I pick her up and see her smile . . . Bro, my heart is full; my life is perfect.

  There were four letters in all, written in the two years before her father’s death. In them he also talked about his faith, telling Simon about Jesus, about salvation, and how he wanted his brother to see a chaplain and give his life to God. Simon said that he had followed his brother’s advice and that had turned his life around. This information took Abby’s breath away. All her life she’d heard that her father was a wild child, pugnacious, ready to start trouble. To learn that he was a Christian had knocked her back a step.

  And there was something else in the letters, words that had taken Abby completely by surprise—her father’s affection for Lowell Rollins. They were truly good friends. Abby wanted to ask Simon about that when they finally got to visit. Before he went to prison, Simon would have known Lowell.

  A picture of Lowell formed now in her mind that rocked her world. And she began to believe that only Alyssa was the evil one. Lowell was complicit
in one respect: according to her father, Lowell never wanted to see the petty, mean streak in his wife, so he turned a blind eye. True, the man could have changed in thirty years, but Abby had a feeling that wasn’t the case, and now she had to figure out how to put together all the pieces she had in a way to stop Alyssa cold.

  But at this moment her heart and her mind had to be with Ethan. They had only talked on the phone for the past week, even though he was back in Long Beach. He’d spent several days in LA working on passports and visas for a couple of his team members.

  She hated to think that she dreaded this visit from him, but she did. She knew he was not happy with what had happened with Cox, with the danger she’d put herself in. The tone of his voice and his choice of words told her that he was ready to call it quits where their romantic relationship was concerned.

  Sad thing was, she agreed. Her heart would never be in overseas mission work, and that was where Ethan’s heart would always stay.

  Then she heard his knock at the door. Taking a deep breath, and praying that God would help her with this difficult meeting, she went to the door.

  She gave him a hug, even as she noticed his disapproving glance at the fading bruises on her arms from the tumble down the stairs.

  “How’ve you been?” she asked, suddenly feeling the nervous drive to speak.

  “Good. Packed and ready for Malawi.” He walked to the dining table and sat. “I’m so ready to head out again. I had a great Skype chat last night with the team members who are already there.” He rubbed his face with both hands and then looked up at her. “We need to talk.”

  Sighing, Abby sat across from him. “I know.”

  “You feel it too?”