Seeing Red Read online

  “That makes it even stranger.”

  “She’s young enough, and he’s old enough. Don’t worry about them.”

  “I won’t, because I can’t concentrate on anything knowing we still have to do this.”

  “Just keep breathing, slow and relaxed.”

  She shot him a sideways glance. “How about another lesson in relaxing? The one you gave me last night is wearing off.”

  “Red. I can’t talk about this on the job.”

  “You’d rather talk about it tonight? On my living room floor? Okay, but I don’t remember having a lot of breath for talking last night.”

  He kept his voice low and quiet with what looked like great effort. “Last night was a little more than just stress relief.”

  She hadn’t expected him to give in and discuss it, but she should have known better than to bait him because he never backed down, not from anything. “You know what? I don’t want to get into this.”

  “Right.” He let out a harsh laugh. “We only talk about things on your terms. Fine. Back to the fire then.”

  “I really don’t want to get into that.”

  “I bet.”

  “In fact, I just remembered. I have to have my wisdom teeth pulled out, slowly, without Novocain.” She surged to her feet but he was quicker and gently took her arm.

  “Red.”

  She sat and sighed. “Yeah.”

  His eyes were solemn, his voice quiet. Calm. “Who did you work with yesterday?”

  “You have the schedule.” She pointed to the top sheet of his clipboard, where he’d pinned the schedule Tina had just given him.

  “We both know the schedule changes on a whim at Creative Interiors.”

  “I worked with Stella and Gregg in the morning. Chloe came in later with stock from Tina’s house. Braden was on his computer. Tina popped in and out. So did my mother.” She and Joe both looked over at Camille.

  Camille still had on the little smile from before, but Summer could see the stress behind it. “Hang on.” She rose and walked over to them. “Mom? You okay?”

  “Of course.” Camille began adding sugar to her tea. One teaspoon, two.

  Oh boy.

  “We’re talking about the fire,” Kenny said, watching Camille load him up with enough sugar to handle a whole pot of tea. “How she called you on your cell. When you were trapped.”

  More sugar.

  Kenny glanced worriedly at Summer.

  “Um, Mom? Can I get you anything?”

  “No, thank you.” Yet another teaspoon. “You should all join me, it’s ginseng. Good for your circulation. Helps oxygenation.”

  “I’m good,” Kenny said, and stood. “You’ve been a huge help.”

  “Oh!” Camille wasn’t able to hide her hopeful expression. “We’re all done then?”

  “For now. Why don’t you let me drive you home?”

  “Oh, I couldn’t let you do that. I don’t want to put you out.”

  “It’s right on my way.” Kenny offered her his hand.

  Camille shocked Summer and put her hand in the tall fire marshal’s, allowing him to pull her to her feet. “Are you on your motorcycle?”

  Kenny shook his head. “I wouldn’t have asked you if I had been.”

  “No.” Summer would have sworn she looked…disappointed? “Of course not.”

  Kenny laughed. “When I have more questions, maybe tomorrow, I can come back on the bike.”

  “With an extra helmet?”

  “With an extra helmet,” he said.

  “Mom, how do you even know he has a bike?”

  Camille blushed. Blushed. “I don’t work tomorrow,” she said to Kenny.

  He smiled. “At home then?”

  Camille didn’t say yes but neither did she say no. Summer stared at her mother in shock as Kenny led her out the door. “What was that?” she asked Joe. “He’s flirting with her.”

  “I think you have that backward,” Joe said, watching them go.

  Summer frowned and dropped to a chair, nodding to his clipboard. “Okay, hit me.”

  “Why don’t we—”

  “Just do it, damn it.”

  Just do it, Joe thought. Yeah, sure. He’d just tear her apart, no sweat. He kicked a chair around and straddled it, needing the back of steel and the table between them. “Who closed the shop yesterday?”

  “I did,” Summer said.

  “You were alone at that time?”

  “Yes, I—” She paused. “No. I thought I was, and went around turning stuff off, and then Braden came out of the bathroom and startled me.”

  Joe stopped in the middle of writing. This was new to him. “Startled you how?”

  “I thought I was alone. He apologized for scaring me, and then left.” She bit her lower lip and stared at him, obviously seeing that she’d told him something new. “Look, I’m not saying that I think he had anything to do with—”

  “I’m just putting the pieces together, Red. No assumptions, no jumping to conclusions.”

  She tried to read his notes. “Do you really think it’s arson?”

  “Don’t know yet.”

  “But you know what you’re leaning toward.”

  “Most fires are not arson, and I still have to ask these questions. What did you do after Braden left?”

  She scrubbed a hand over her face. “There was a light on downstairs. Tina and my mom are pretty anal about that, so I went down there to turn it off. The room is—was—an employee rest area.” She looked down at her clasped fingers. “And I was tired. Really tired. I found a big purple beanbag down there, looking so comfortable—” She looked at him and he knew both of them were remembering how many times he’d slept on a bag just like it, and why.

  “I fell asleep,” she murmured. “And when I woke up—” She paused. Her breathing changed, quickened, and she closed her eyes tight.

  Ah, hell. Again he got out of his chair and crouched by hers, covering her hands with one of his. “Breathe, Red.”

  “I am.” But she was breathing so quickly she was going to hyperventilate. “Last night I remembered something about the first warehouse fire. About—When my dad—” She gulped air and gripped his fingers hard.

  “Slower. Come on now, in and out.” He showed her with his own breath. “Nice and slow, see?”

  “Oh, damn, it’s bad.” She clutched at his hands when she couldn’t catch air into her lungs.

  Gently he pushed her head down to her knees, staring helplessly over her head while she relived the nightmare. Because of him. “Just keep breathing.”

  “I know—I’m trying—I’m mixing up the fires now. Old and new. God. I’m sorry. This is so stupid. I feel so stupid.”

  “Think of it this way. You’re alive. How stupid is that?” Because he couldn’t help himself, he stroked a hand down her slim, shaking back. “Can you tell me what you remember?”

  “I remember standing there between you and Danny, and seeing the smoke. I remember running up the steps, screaming for my dad, then opening the basement door—” She closed her eyes and hugged herself tight. “The flames. I could hear him—” She couldn’t possibly get herself into a tighter ball, though she tried. “That’s all. There’s more but I can’t seem to get to it.”

  He gritted his teeth. “The beam came down and hit you.”

  She pressed her face to her knees and nodded. “I know this isn’t the right fire. Go ahead and get this done. Ask me the rest of your questions.”

  “Red.”

  “Do it.”

  He ran through the list as gently as possible, memorizing her answers to write down later because he wasn’t going to take his hands off her.

  No, she hadn’t used the bathroom in the hours before the fire. No, she hadn’t heard anything while she was down in the basement. No, she hadn’t used gasoline in the shop.

  And when he was done, she leapt up. “I have to get out of here.”

  “Yeah.” He looked away from her, remembering he wasn’t