Fire

by Lynnette Bonner

  She giggled. “Not right now. But I might be able to get you some for the right price.”

  “How mu—”

  “Chloe Elaine Schumacher you get your butt in the car right now, young lady!”

  Chloe gasped and tossed her still smoldering cigarette into the green grass behind her.

  Case’s eyes fell closed for a moment before he looked up to see an angry woman storming their way. Chloe’s mother, whom he’d seen briefly at the restaurant. Despite his disappointment, he couldn’t help but think Good for her for tracking down her daughter like this. But could the woman’s timing be any worse?

  Chloe rolled her eyes. Then with a saucy quirk of one brow, she sauntered toward her mother, hips swaying.

  Case released a breath and glanced up to see RD watching him from across the yard.

  Case lifted his chin in greeting.

  RD returned the greeting with his W gesture.

  It was time to find out what that sign was all about. He stepped over to toe out the cigarette’s remaining heat, then sauntered past the cooler, snagging a cold beer as he went. He popped the tab. Not that he’d be drinking any of it, but it didn’t hurt to look like he was at least trying to fit in. He ambled over to RD and was thankful when the kid greeted him and didn’t force him to start up an awkward conversation.

  “Yo newby. You down with my digs?” The other boys RD had been talking with quieted down and studied him with more curiosity than animosity.

  Case glanced around the yard and took in the house once more, every sense on the alert. “This is your place, huh? Nice. I like it.” He reached out to shake the hands of the others in the circle. “I’m Case.” Each was athletic and fit. They were probably soccer teammates of RD’s. One by one they gave him their names.

  “John.”

  “Hunter.”

  “Blake.”

  “Gerard.” That name gave Case pause. Gerard Dunn was the name of one of the kids who had ODed but lived this past July. But according to Mick, the local cops had leaned on him quite heavily and he’d refused to give up his dealer. Gerard was a fairly unique name, so it likely was the same kid, but it only took Case a split second to decide that tonight was not the night to try to gather more information. He’d keep him in mind for the future.

  “So what does this mean?” Case mimicked the W gesture that RD and his friends kept flaunting. “This some sort of gang sign or something?”

  The boys all laughed and bent double, slapping thighs and backs.

  RD draped one arm around Case’s shoulders and pretended to laugh so hard that he needed help to remain standing. But after a long stretch of their theatrics, the boys finally quieted down and RD flashed the W in Case’s face. “This is ‘Whasup?’ Not a gang sign, man. Coach would have us lapping-it until we puked ourselves inside out if he ever thought we was bangin’.”

  Case couldn’t deny a sense of relief at that revelation. He flashed the sign back to RD. “Whasup?” He allowed a sheepish laugh to escape. “Glad to hear I won’t have to off anyone in order to hang.”

  The boys all laughed again, if a bit less enthusiastically this time.

  Case transitioned the conversation back to safer ground by turning an appraising eye toward the house. “So the home place is sweet, man.” He fist-bumped RD to show his appreciation.

  RD shrugged. “My biological is never around, but he laid down for this place for my mom and me to live in.”

  “Your mom lets you have parties?” Case eased himself to a seat on the picnic table next to John.

  “No, dawg! You think I have a death wish?” RD laughed. “She’s away.” He tilted a nod to the water. “On the main at a conference for her work.”

  Case set his beer down by his side and leaned back against his elbows that he propped against the table top. “Wish my pops would have to go to a conference.” He grinned at the kid.

  “Heard you want to go out for the soccer team, yeah?” RD changed the subject.

  Case shrugged and released what he hoped sounded like a longsuffering sigh. “Can’t. My pops said schoolwork has to come first.”

  “You always do what your daddy says?” That jab was from Hunter.

  Case only shrugged and attempted to look like he felt he had no choice.

  RD gave him a squint-eyed look. “Probably best anyhow. You don’t look like you got the moves.”

  Case gave him a good-natured back-handed slap to the arm. “I got the moves any time you want to take me on. Why not here and now?” He swept a gesture to the grassy lawn. “You got a ball in that fancy house of yours?” He grinned at the kid to keep it lighthearted, but his pulse started thumping in earnest then. It had been quite some time since he’d been varsity captain of his team in high school. He’d only played a few pick-up games here and there over the years. He just hoped this kid wasn’t some sort of soccer ninja or something. He needed to keep up appearances if he was going to solidify this friendship.

  RD hopped up and down and shook one hand like he’d been severely offended. But he grinned as he backed toward his house. “You are on like a light, sucka.”

  Case returned the grin. He didn’t remove his elbows from the table but kept his forcibly relaxed pose while he motioned with his hands. “Bring it.”

  It only took a few minutes for Case to recognize that he could easily keep pace with RD. He was good, but Case had been too in his day. When Case was the first to score in the improvised goals made of a spectator on each side, RD groaned loudly but good-naturedly. He reached a hand out to Case and walked him through the motions of a multi-step handshake. “You alright, dawg.”

  After that the game evolved to include others standing around and they spent a good thirty minutes getting sweaty, and another thirty chasing the ball through the underbrush at the edge of the yard and one time even into the waves when a wayward kick sent it there. When they grew tired of soccer the party moved indoors.

  Case kept an eye out, but he never saw anyone dispensing drugs, orange or otherwise. It was almost midnight when he decided that it was time for this party to break up. He fired off a quick text to Mick. Go.

  Within minutes, the place was surrounded by cops and kids were sprinting away through the bushes. Those who didn’t take off running were easily rounded up, and those who did run were only a few minutes behind them. Case was satisfied that he’d prevented anyone from driving home in their present conditions.

  As planned, the officers cuffed Case and Ramon to the same post on the house’s deck railing. One of the officers served RD with a search warrant for the premises and then they headed inside.

  “Yo man, this is police brutality!” RD yanked dramatically at the handcuffs, clanking them against the post.

  The officer only waved over his shoulder and continued into the house.

  Case leaned close to Ramon, giving the house a worried scrutiny. “You don’t have anything in there that you don’t want them to find, do you?”

  Ramon slumped down. “My mom’s gonna off me!”

  Case held his silence, unsure if Ramon meant that he did have something to hide, or if he was just talking about the party in general. After a long moment, he decided that pushing for a little information at this point couldn’t hurt. He leaned closer. “You aren’t the one selling the Fire, are you?”

  RD spurted a laugh. “I ain’t stupid, yo. I was just messin’ with you when I asked if you could score me some. Trying to figure out if you was the dealer. Soccer is too important to me. Only thing in the house is the beer and stuff.”

  Case felt a wave of relief. He genuinely liked this kid and was really glad to hear that the worst that was going to happen to him was a few nights in jail until his mom got back to the island, and likely some community service for distributing alcohol to minors.

  Another wash of horror swept over RD’s face. “Coach is gonna off me too!” He moaned and yanked at the cuffs again, as though he might be able to reverse time with the action.

  “Yeah, my da
d too.” Case could only hope that RD would learn an easy lesson from this situation.

  A few minutes later when one of the officers stepped out of the house, Case gave him a subtle shake of his head. It didn’t take long for them to be released from the handcuffs, Case into the care of his “extremely angry father” and RD into custody until his mother returned and could take charge of him.

  As soon as they reached Mick’s sedan, Case told Mick about the disappointing interruption of Chloe’s mother.

  Mick blew out a breath. “Yeah. She stormed the station, I guess, Chloe in tow. Demanded that Parker get down here and bust the party up immediately. Almost destroyed the whole op!”

  Whatever had happened, it appeared they’d been able to stall long enough to keep to their plans, so Case pressed ahead. “Did you find anything in the house?”

  Mick gave a frustrated shake of his head. “We’ll know more once the chem analysis of the place comes back, but it looked clean. No signs of Fire that we could find.”

  When they reached the house, Case strolled over to their suspect board and turned RD’s photo to face the wall. If the chem analysis came back clean, they would later put a red X to cross him off the list permanently. But for now, Case felt certain he was no longer a suspect.

  He studied the profiles of the remaining suspects on the board. Principal Vaughan and his wife, Simon Hall, Ashley Adams, and Chloe Schumacher had all been at Harbor House the night Greg died and had opportunity to pass him the drugs. Kyra Radell, several of the parents, and the two police officers had all been crossed off the suspect list with red markers already. The two officers because they’d both voluntarily submitted to residue testing for both themselves and their vehicles, as well as a drug sniffing dog that had been brought over from the mainland. They had passed all the steps without a hitch. And both had an alibi of having been away at a Northwest Security and Police Conference Expo in Idaho when Mason Green, the most recent victim—well, before Greg—had died just a few weeks ago.

  The video from Harbor House showed that the parents who’d been crossed off the list had never left the restaurant from the time Greg arrived till after he left, and none of them had come close enough to him to pass him a bag of drugs.

  Several others who’d been in the restaurant had either walked close enough to Greg that they could have passed him something or moved to locations off the camera where it couldn’t be proven what they’d done.

  They were down to five suspects from the restaurant that night.

  Case turned to face Mick. “Do we need to reconsider the possibility that Greg purchased the drugs elsewhere, kept his meeting with Simon, and then shot up afterwards in the parking lot?

  Mick rubbed one hand over his face. “No. I still feel that possibility is really slim. Greg’s autopsy revealed that he’d been using the drug for quite some time. So he was probably itching for a hit the minute he got his hands on the product. I still say those people on the board are our best suspects.

  Slowly, Case returned his scrutiny to the board. “I’m inclined to agree. Who do we go after next?”

  Captain Danielson strode closer to the wall and tapped his forefinger against Chloe Schumacher’s forehead. “I think this is our next step.”

  Case nodded even as a bit of dread clenched his stomach. Just when he’d put her on notice that he wasn’t interested… “Right. I’ll see what I can do. But for now”—he headed for his room with a wave over his shoulder—“I’m beat. And I have seven AM detention again in the morning. Night.”

  A grunt was the only reply he got, but it was more than he got most nights. Case brushed his teeth and then flopped into bed. But even though he was exhausted, with all the adrenaline still pumping through him and his thoughts going a hundred miles an hour to process and analyze all he’d seen tonight he wasn’t going to be dropping off to sleep anytime soon. He put his mind to work trying to come up with a way to get information out of Chloe without making her think he was interested. Thoughts of being interested brought to mind a beautiful woman named Kyra Radell. And the next thing he knew, he was waking up early Saturday morning with her still on his mind.

  His lips twisted into a sardonic smile as he sat up and scrubbed the sleep from his face. Maybe after detention this morning he could swing by her place and take her some coffee. She might have some ideas for how he should approach Chloe without making her think he hadn’t meant the distance he’d put between them last night. Kyra could also call the station while he was there and, so help him, if Damian—who he’d phoned last night before heading to the party and told to expect the call—threw him under the bus, the man wasn’t going to live to see another sunset.

  CHAPTER 11

  The Java and Juice coffee shop on this island wasn’t half bad, but Case would have downed the brew even if it tasted like bilge water. Might as well face it. He was an addict. He tossed his empty coffee cup in the trash can outside of the school as he jogged up the stairs toward detention. Today it was to be held in the chemistry room if he wasn’t mistaken.

  When he opened the door to the chemistry room, surprise filled him. Principal Vaughan himself was the supervisor today.

  Fortuitous.

  He eased into his seat. Unless someone was late, only two other kids appeared to have merited discipline this week and he didn’t recognize either of them. Leaning back in his chair he considered… Was Principal Vaughan the kind of teacher who would forbid the students from speaking a word? Or could he use this time to extract some information from the man?

  There was only one way to find out, but how did he go about pressing subtly?

  Maybe it was better to just approach the situation head-on. He picked up a pencil and bounced the eraser against his desk. “Too bad about Salazar. I mean, I only had him in one class and didn’t know him that well, but he seemed pretty chill.”

  He watched the man’s face, searching for any small tick or blanch that might reveal something, but he saw only sadness. Weariness.

  Mr. Vaughan leaned back in his chair and ran both hands through his thinning hair. Removed his glasses and massaged the bridge of his nose. “Yes. It was a terrible tragedy. I hope none of you will feel the need to try out this new drug. It’s obviously very dangerous. I pray the police will find the person responsible sooner rather than later.”

  The other two boys mumbled soft agreement.

  So far, so good. Case pressed his luck. “Did you know him well?”

  This time a muscle in Principal Vaughan’s cheek did twitch, but again, Case read grief in the reaction and not guilt. “Since he was just a baby. His parents moved in next door to us almost sixteen years ago now. I can’t imagine what they must be feeling. He was a good kid. Too good to go out like that. I only wish—well, I wish none of these deaths had happened.” His expression morphed into full-on teacher mode. “You three listen. You’re too good to do drugs. Don’t ever let anyone make you feel like you need the high offered by a drug. It’s temporary. It’s destructive. And there are plenty of things in life that provide that high in a lasting way. Working hard to provide for your family. Building healthy relationships. Heck, even taking in a gorgeous sunset down at the beach with a pretty lady by your side.” The two boys at the back of the room chuckled softly, but Case didn’t miss the fact that the principal’s voice had broken there at the end. The man paused to clear his throat.

  The question remained… Was it out of guilt? Or a true concern for his students?

  Case considered him carefully. He studied the man’s eyes. It was easy to voice an emotion, but much harder to make the eyes match it. If truth needed to be discerned it was always important to pay attention to the eyes. Was this all an act? There was an actual glimmer of moisture in the man’s lower lids. And a quaver in the hand that reached out for a Kleenex from the box on the corner of his desk. And a fathomless depth of grief reflected in the steady gaze the man pinned him with when he said, “I don’t want one of you kids to be next, understand?”


  No. Case didn’t think that was an act. The man was truly broken with concern for his students, not guilt.

  He nodded at the man and leaned back in his chair. “Yes, sir.”

  For now he would quit pestering the man with questions. Case didn’t think he was their guy. When he got home that would be one less suspect on the high-priority list.

  Detention had only been going for about ten minutes when the outer door of the classroom opened.

  Case lifted his head from where he’d been half snoozing on his desk, and was instantly awake. What was Principal Vaughan’s wife doing here?

  The other night he’d thought her much younger than her husband, with maybe a little help from plastic surgery, but now he could see she was probably in her late forties. The too tight skin around her puffy lips and pencil-dark brows revealed she’d had more than some work done with the hopes of keeping herself looking younger. Way more than some.

  Principal Vaughan’s face lit up at the sight of her, though.

  She returned his smile and sashayed toward him, one hand wrapped around the strap of the tan bag over her shoulder and the other holding out a metallic silver travel mug. “I swung by the house to get a few things. You forgot your coffee on the counter when you left.”

  Were they separated? That hadn’t been in either file.

  Case didn’t miss the slight jolt her words gave the man. Had she purposely been trying to humiliate him? Or was he just sensitive to the separation? Had that been what he was so earnestly trying to convince her about at the restaurant the other night? To come back to him? Whatever it was, it only took the man a moment to recuperate.

  “You’re a life-saver.” Mr. Vaughan accepted the cup and her quick kiss on the cheek.

  And then to Case’s further surprise, both of them turned their focus directly on him.

  Mr. Vaughan stood and spoke to the other two detainees. “Boys, please stay in your desks. I’m just going to step out into the hall with Case and my wife for a moment.” With that, the man pegged Case with a look and stretched his hand toward the door, indicating Case should precede them.