On Fire (16 page)

She faced him. “I was waiting until we got through the scene first.”

“All right. We’re finished for now. Since I was out all night, Columbo missed his morning walk. How about we pick him up and we’ll talk about it away from here?”

“Sounds good.” They headed back to the truck. She closed up
the evidence collection boxes in the bed of the pickup and said, “I take it from your overnighter that the date went well?”

“Yeah…not bad. I appreciate you handling things last night.”

“You needed the break and I knew we’d need daylight to get the full scope.” She slid behind the wheel and headed to his house.

“You know Chris isn’t responsible for what happened to Danielle, don’t you?”

Darcy glanced at him. “I can’t believe he’d do it. I can’t believe anyone I know could do that to another human being.”

Setting his elbow on the window ledge, Jim rested his head in his hand and sighed. “He wasn’t wrong when he said she’d changed. There’s no easy way to say this…”

“So just say it.”

“She was…seeing a few men at the same time.”

Darcy’s grip tightened on the wheel. It was painful realizing there’d been a widening gap between her and Dani, and she hadn’t realized it. “Go on.”

“One of the guys was Mitch.”

“What?” But the moment she asked the question, she knew it wasn’t so surprising after all. Mitch was the sort of hardworking, good-humored type Dani had been drawn to. “Okay.”

“When he caught on to her having other interests…it hit him hard. She was special to him and he hadn’t realized that feeling wasn’t mutual. So I went to see her, talk to her, try to get her to let him off the hook easy. Turned out she was upset because he’d been following her. Angling to catch her in the act, I suppose. She told me she’d been trying to cut him off for weeks and if I was really worried about him, I’d tell him to knock it off or she’d have Miller arrest him.”

She felt him look at her, his gaze heavy on the side of her face. “Darcy…I bluffed when I said she told me about her and Miller. There was just something in her voice. I wondered. When he showed
up at your place so upset about tying the arsons in with the murder—I took a shot in the dark.”

Pulling up in front of his house, she parked and twisted to face him. She thought of Jared asking her about Mitch that morning and wondered what had drawn his attention in that direction. “Do you think Mitch killed my sister?”

“No! Hell, no.” He shook his head violently. “If I even suspected that, I would’ve driven him to the sheriff’s office myself. Danielle was driving into Seattle a lot. I figure that’s where she met the guy, whoever he is.”

She shoved the door open and got out, needing to stand and suck in air to get past her sudden nausea. “I really need that walk.”

“
THAT WAS A
real dumb move, Mitch.” Trish circled his seat at a metal interrogation table in the sheriff’s department. “Running from a marathon man like Deputy Cameron.”

Through the two-way mirror, Jared watched Mitch Quinn sprawl insolently in his chair and shake his head. “I wasn’t running from the deputy. I left some ice cream in the truck.”

“Um, ice cream. What flavor?”

“Vanilla.”

“Ah, too bad. I like chocolate myself.” She settled in the seat across from him. “So, let’s talk about some of the packages that have been shipped to the station to your attention.”

Quinn met her gaze directly. “All packages coming into the station are addressed to me. Stuff was getting lost before. I keep things organized.”

“You’re meticulous, aren’t you, Mitch?”

“I am, yes.”

Trish nodded. “I bet building a precision incendiary device
would be child’s play for a dedicated, meticulous, organized fireman such as yourself.”

He bolted upright. “Now, wait a minute! You’re not pinning the arsons on me. I fight fires, I don’t start them.”

“But in a town of this size, there’s no budget to take on more permanent firefighters, is there? Unless there was suddenly a rash of fires in the area. An arsonist setting up shop here would be almost a blessing for a long-suffering volunteer.”

“That’s sick.”

“I agree. The supply room here in the sheriff’s office is missing a can of tear gas. Did you know tear gas was used in the motel fire last night? Our arsonist didn’t mind charbroiling me and Deputy Cameron, but he wanted to get the other guests out. You were in the supply room yesterday, Mitch. What for?”

“Because there was a note on the dry erase board in the station telling me to grab a box labeled LBFD—Lion’s Bay Fire Department, if you couldn’t figure it out.”

“Who left the note?”

“I don’t know.”

“You didn’t recognize the handwriting? A meticulous guy like you?”

Quinn’s gaze was icy. “I didn’t look at it that closely.”

“All right.” She pulled out her cell phone. “I’ll text Deputy Cameron to snap a picture of it and bring it over.”

“I erased it after I finished the job,” he bit out. “That’s what we’re supposed to do, so we don’t have guys trying to do jobs that have already been done.”

“That’s a shame. Or maybe I should call it convenient?”

“This is a witch hunt. You’re looking for a scapegoat to keep your record looking good and I’m the lucky guy. No way. I’m done talking. I want a lawyer.”

“Fuck,” Miller muttered from his place beside Jared in the observation room. “This is why I should’ve interviewed him. He’d trust me enough to hold off on lawyering up.”

“Too risky,” Jared said, although he’d already said it before. More than once. “If the arsons in any way tie back to Danielle Michaels’s murder, you and I both have a conflict of interest. This way we’re keeping it semi-clean.”

His cell vibrated and he pulled it out of his pocket, reading the text from Darcy that said she’d gone to Ralston’s house and that he’d pegged Mitch Quinn as one of Danielle’s lovers.

Trish pushed back from the table. She’d gone casual today with jeans and blouse paired with a Marshals Service Windbreaker, but there was nothing soft about her approach to the job. “Maybe your lawyer can explain why you checked out three different books on Reginald Merkerson from the Seattle public library.”

“That’s a goddamned lie!” Quinn lunged to his feet, knocking over his chair and putting Jared on alert for his partner’s safety. Quinn’s eyes were wild and hot, his face pale. “I’ve never been to the Seattle library in my life.”

She pulled a copy of the library check-out list from the folder in her hand and set it on the table. “This says different.”

“I’m being set up!”

“Tell it to your lawyer.” She reached for the doorknob.

“Why the fuck would I drive to Seattle for books on Merkerson when Jim Ralston has copies of the actual case files in his office?”

“Check the dates on the paper there, Mitch. Those books were checked out before the fires started. Months before. Plenty of time to figure out how to make nasty little toys like Merkerson was known for.”

His jaw tightened. “Someone’s setting me up.”

“Who would do that to a nice guy like you?”

“I don’t know. What I do know is that I didn’t start those fires. A dedicated, meticulous, organized guy like me wouldn’t leave such an obvious trail.”

“Ever date Dr. Danielle Michaels?”

Mitch was clearly knocked back by the unexpected change in topic. “We hooked up a time or two. Why?”

“You wanna talk?”

He sat back down and crossed his arms. “I want a lawyer.”

“Hey, boy.” Darcy dropped to her haunches and wrapped Columbo in a big hug. “You’re looking handsome. Miss me?”

The energetic German shepherd greeted her with a bark and a tongue swipe across her cheek. She rubbed him down with both hands.

Jim set his notepad down on the dining table and pulled the leash off the rack by the door. “He does, of course. I told him after things settle down around here, he’ll see you more often.”

She stood. “I need to talk to you about the settling down part.”

“Oh?” He hooked the leash onto Columbo’s collar. “Shoot.”

“I know I’m pretty superfluous around the station…”

He arched a chastising brow at her. “That’s not true.”

“Okay, I’m copping out,” she admitted, shoving her hands in her pockets and rocking back on her heels. “It wouldn’t matter if I was indispensible. The thing is, if you really need someone to do what I’ve been doing, you should start putting out feelers.”

“Why?”

“Because.” She took a deep breath. “It’s time for me to pick up the life I left behind.”

Holding the leash loosely in one hand, he leaned casually into the wall and crossed his legs at the ankles. “Is this because of Deputy Cameron?”

“He was the spark, maybe, but the fire is my own.” She pulled out one of the dining table chairs and sank into it. “Time has been flying by and I didn’t realize it. I’ve been in a daze, I think, since Dani’s death.”

“And a couple nights of hot sex snapped you out of it?”

She shrugged, then smiled sheepishly. “It is really hot, but I’ve had great sex before. There’s something there, you know? Something more.”

“Yes, I know.” He pulled the chair out beside her. “So what are you thinking? You’re just going to drop everything and run off with a guy you’ve known a few days?”

“I dropped everything to come back here. Getting on with my life eventually had always been my plan, although I lost track of that for a while—”

“I think you’re losing track of what you’ve got here.”

“I’ve never been really happy here in Lion’s Bay, Jim,” she reminded softly. “It’s why I left in the first place.”

“And Deputy Cameron doesn’t have anything to do with your decision?”

“I already answered that question.”

He rubbed the back of Columbo’s ears. “When are you going to grow up, stop being flighty, and commit to something?”

“Excuse me?”

“One guy to the next, one town to the next. Without any concern for the people who care about you and went out of their way for you?”

“You sound like Chris.” Darcy slid her chair back and pushed to her feet, unnerved by his unexpected and provoking remarks. “We’ll talk later, once we’re both thinking straight.”

“Sit down.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Sit the fuck down.”

She stared at him, finding the harshness of his words very much
at odds with his calm voice and demeanor. A chill ran down her spine. “What the hell is the matter with you?”

“I’ve done a lot for you.” He gave her a mocking smile. “Don’t you think I have the right to get pissed when you throw me over for a gung-ho deputy who’ll be in and out of your cunt as fast as he’s in and out of this town?”

Darcy turned away, heading around the opposite side of the dining table to get to the front door.

Columbo started barking violently. She’d scarcely registered the addition of a third voice in the conversation when the leash whipped around her neck and yanked her back.

Her head slammed into the edge of the table and her vision blackened…

JARED WAS SEALING
up the contents of Mitch Quinn’s locker at the fire station when the hairs on his nape prickled with warning. He paused, knowing he was wasting time closing off an avenue that was a dead end to begin with. In the meantime, something was wrong. It hit him in the gut, and he knew better than to ignore it.

He pulled out his phone and called Darcy. When he reached her voice mail twice in a row, he went to the contact list hung on the station’s wall and called Ralston. When he got no answer there, either, he returned to the sheriff’s department and entered the interview room to confront Quinn.

Setting his palms on the table, he asked, “Why did you run?”

“I didn’t run, I—”

“Listen, I don’t give a shit, Quinn. The recorder isn’t on. It’s just you and me.”

Mitch shot him a look. “Do I look like a moron?”

“You look like a guy who’s being set up. You have no one to corroborate your alibis for the nights of the fires, you have electrical
wiring in your locker similar to the type Merkerson was known to use…With everything else we’ve got, it’s not looking good.” Jared saw cold defiance shift across Quinn’s face and changed tactics. “You consider Darcy Michaels a friend, don’t you? I know she’s real hopeful that you’ll be promoted to full-time soon. I bet she puts in a good word for you every chance she gets. Does that mean anything to you? Or do you just care about yourself?”

Jaw ticcing, Mitch said, “I like Darcy.”

“I think it’s possible the person responsible for the fires is responsible for Dr. Danielle Michaels’s death, too. I think it’s possible they’re going to go after Darcy Michaels at some point. And I think it’s really fucking unlikely that you had anything to do with any of it, but someone wants to deflect attention from himself by drawing it to you. Someone who knows something about you that would make you antsy, make you run, make you lawyer up right off the bat so you look guilty and waste my time. Who would know you’re into something shady, Mitch? Who would know your schedule? Gimme a name. Help Darcy after all she’s done to help you.”

Mitch scrubbed a hand over his face. “I don’t trust you.”