knit top. She hesitated, then said, “I’m going to grab a bite to eat on the way home. Care to join me?”
“Another time.” He flashed her a friendly smile. She was a chatty woman, and he figured he had already gotten from her all she knew about the flu epidemic and the fire in the records room.
Which amounted to zilch.
“Okay.” She looked disappointed. But though she would probably be good company, he knew better than to date someone when on assignment.
Unless she was part of the assignment. Like Kelley…
“You’ll lock up when you leave?” she asked.
He nodded. “See you tomorrow.”
He wasn’t ready to leave the hospital yet. He needed more information, and not just reports generated by people officially on the investigation, no matter how competently they had handled it so far. He needed to get a feel for what had happened.
It was what he was good at.
Yet it had been awhile. He would have to prepare himself for what he would find. What he wouldn’t find. And the way his own damned gut always twisted into knots at arson fire sites.
Once he was sure Marge was gone, he headed down the empty hall.
SINCE THE FIRE, Kelley hadn’t trusted Randall to pick up Jenny when he said he would, though she called to remind him.
As a result, she found herself on her way to KidClub late that evening. Later than anyone should be there.
As late as it had been the night of the fire, when Jenny had been there alone….
“No,” she whispered aloud. Her daughter wouldn’t be there. Though Randall had manufactured an excuse for not having retrieved Jenny himself that night, surely not even he would be stupid enough to forget about her now. Or to send his beloved, lying assistant Cheryl to fetch his daughter.
In any event, Kelley would make certain no one was around.
That no one had left Jenny.
When Kelley reached the closed door of the child-care center, she tried it. It was locked. She stood still and listened, just in case. She heard nothing from inside. No whimpers from outside. No menacing crackles or crashes.
Except… There was a noise from the direction of the former records center.
Even after six weeks, the area was still cordoned off with yellow tape demanding that no one enter. Kelley had heard that, though experts on fire and water damage repair had made recommendations, reconstruction would not begin until the fire department and the insurance company gave the go-ahead. The walls, or what remained of them, were covered by plywood sheets. One sheet was now a door, kept locked at all times.
But Kelley had heard a sound from that area.
Could the arsonist have returned to the scene of the crime?
Not likely, but someone was there.
Carefully, she crept down the hall.
And stopped. Inhaled sharply. The door was ajar. Slowly, quietly, Kelley ducked under the yellow tape. Without opening the door further, she looked inside.
A man with a flashlight stood in the middle of the damaged but otherwise empty room. He didn’t move. In a moment, when her eyes adjusted to the dimness, Kelley could make out who it was.
Shawn Jameson.
What was he doing here? The psych student hadn’t even worked at Gilpin at the time of the fire. He couldn’t be the arsonist. Could he?
She watched for a long moment. His shoulders were hunched, as if he was in pain. He remained very still.
She wanted to approach him.
He aimed his flashlight at the blackened floor. Knelt and touched it. Inhaled deeply, as if absorbing the now-faint odor of burned building materials and paper.
Though she felt immobilized, Kelley must have made a sound, for he abruptly stood and stared right at her.
She took the offensive and pulled the door open farther. “What are you doing here?”
“What are you doing here?” he countered. At first, she thought she glimpsed raw fury in his eyes. But it must have been a trick in the dimness, for his gaze was flat.
“I heard something and thought I’d better check it out,” she said.
“Sorry,” he said. “I heard about this fire in the news a few weeks back. I was curious, so I figured I’d take a peek.”
His words were light, but Kelley sensed something behind them. Frustration? Anger? Pain?
Definitely lies.
“I don’t suppose you’d like to get that cup of coffee now, would you?” he asked.
To her surprise, she wanted to say yes. And yet—she felt a pang of unease. “Maybe tomorrow,” she replied noncommittally. When it would be daylight. Plenty of people around.
And she would have had time to prepare herself for a conversation with this very disconcerting man. There were some questions she definitely wanted him to answer.
“Tomorrow,” he confirmed. “See you then, Kelley. It’s okay to call you Kelley, isn’t it?”
She nodded automatically, then wished she hadn’t. Being on a first name basis with Shawn eliminated a barrier between them. One she suspected she would miss.
He brushed past and left her standing there, alone in the burned out, empty room, lit only from the hallway behind her.
Tomorrow? She didn’t really need those answers. She could always make up an excuse to put off their meeting. Put it off forever.
Yet she wondered, as she hustled out the door, if she would.
NIGHTTIME.
The arsonist stood alone, outside the administrative wing of Gilpin Hospital, and looked up at the stars.
It was better to look at them far from here, without the bright city lights of Denver interfering. There were a lot of fascinating things in the sky that couldn’t be seen here.
But Denver was still home.
And on this side of the building, at this hour, there were few office lights to disturb the darkness.
The arsonist liked the night, even here. When ambulance sirens weren’t shrieking to herald yet another serious case requiring emergency attention, the area around Gilpin Hospital was quiet, with only traffic sounds interrupting the stillness.
This was a time when things could be done in darkness.
Without being seen.
Like setting fires, when necessary.
Fires
