Riggs backtracked to give Stone the matchbook and found Macy Stark standing beside him, looking concerned as she glanced across the charred woods.
“Good work,” Stone said. “I’ll have the lab run it for forensics.”
“What happened with Woody?” Riggs asked.
Stone shrugged. “Guy’s a mess and needs rehab. No confession, and no proof that he’s done anything. I’m going to have to cut him loose.”
Riggs indicated the matchbook. “Is he a smoker?”
Stone’s eyebrows drew together in a frown. “Yeah, matter of fact, he begged for a cigarette. But he’s still in a holding cell, so he couldn’t have started this fire.”
Stone nodded. “But Billy could have.”
“He’s on my list to question,” Stone said before being called away by one of his deputies.
Macy cleared her throat. “Do you think someone intentionally set the fire?”
Riggs shrugged. “Considering the threats to Kate and the point of origin being in close proximity to her house, we have to consider that possibility.”
Macy rubbed at her arm, drawing attention to the sling. She was taller than Kate, her long black hair wavy, her green eyes as sharp as a cat’s. She’d been physically fit in high school, competitive, a good athlete and the fastest sprinter on the track team.
Macy had always seemed intense, almost aloof at times, unlike sweet Kate, or Brynn with her golden-blond hair, fashion sense, and beauty pageant titles who thrived on being in the social limelight.
The three were so different that he’d thought their friendship odd, but something had drawn them together.
So what had torn them apart?
Macy’s voice resonated with concern. “How’s Kate?”
“Shaken,” Riggs answered. “Haven’t you seen her since you got to town?”
Macy glanced back at the woods, a distant look in her eyes. “I saw her after her car caught fire, but we haven’t talked.”
Curiosity got the better of him. “What’s going on?”
Her mouth tightened. “Nothing. I just have a lot to do. I came to clear out my mother’s house and get it ready to sell.”
Riggs dug his hands in his pockets. He’d heard rumors about Macy’s mother having psychological problems, that she’d been institutionalized, and didn’t know what to say. “Does that mean you’ll be in town for a while?”
“Just until after the dedication ceremony and I put the house on the market.”
“Stone said he asked you to look over the files about the shooting.”
Macy’s expression darkened. “He did. Everyone wants to know if Ned acted alone.”
Stone walked back toward them, clipping his phone on his belt. “Crime team is on its way here. I’ll meet the deputies and hang around until they rope off the area.”
“Did they find forensics on the graffiti wall or anything from the trash cans?” Riggs asked.
“Lifted some partials off the wall. We’ll compare them to Don’s. No discarded paint-stained clothes, though.”
“Someone from the firehouse will stay overnight to make sure the blaze doesn’t reignite,” Riggs said.
The sound of a car engine rumbled and Gretta’s Lexus careened onto the side of the road, pulling to a stop behind the sheriff’s car.
“I’ll check on Kate,” Riggs said. “Keep me posted on the lab results.”
Stone muttered he would, and Riggs hiked back toward his truck, determined to avoid the pushy reporter who’d fueled the rumors about his relationship with Cassidy. One afternoon she’d hid behind the bleachers and snapped a picture of him and Cassidy arguing. He’d been trying to convince Cassidy to tell him if he was her baby’s father, but she’d refused to talk. That photograph had painted him as a hothead and made Cassidy look like a victim.
If Gretta learned about the letter of blame Kate had received or that Kate felt guilty for Ned’s actions, she would plaster it all over the paper and make things worse for Kate.
He ordered himself not to care, but he didn’t want to see Kate hurt, especially by someone as conniving and unethical as Gretta.
He went still as a disturbing thought struck him. What if Gretta had sent the letter to Kate? Would she stir up trouble in town to enhance her story?
KATE FINISHED THE list for Stone, although she was hesitant to toss accusations at innocent students.
Then again, she couldn’t ignore the facts or students’ behavior—that was part of her job. If someone had noticed how deeply troubled Ned had been, he could have been helped and lives wouldn’t have been lost.
She’d made it a policy to instill programs to prevent bullying, to open doors for lonely students to find friends, and had always examined the larger picture when a student acted out. Digging into their family lives often revealed the reasons for their misbehavior. Instead of harsh punishment, students needed counseling and love, to be taught coping skills to deal with their problems.
She pulled the yearbook from her senior year and thumbed through it. A photograph of Macy crossing the finish line first when Briar Ridge went to State brought a pang to her heart.
After the win, Macy had celebrated with the track team and been excited over the prospect of running in college. When she’d gone home that night, her mother had locked Macy out of the house again. She’d been enraged that Macy had been at a school meet instead of at home taking care of her.
Macy had run to Kate’s in tears, and Kate had stayed up with her half the night, consoling her. Her mother had made them brownies and hot chocolate, and assured Macy that she should be proud of herself.
Kate’s heart swelled with love and pride for her mother as another memory surfaced. One much earlier, when she’d first learned Macy’s mother had a mental health problem.
When Kate was five years old, her mother had read bedtime stories with her and then tucked her in. Swaddled in kisses and covers, Kate had nestled in for the night....
A noise startled her. She clenched the covers and listened again. A light rain pinged off the roof. The wind was blowing. Thunder clapped.
The screeching came again. Her heart stuttered. That wasn’t the storm. It sounded like a cat was crying. In pain. She had to do something. Save it.
Barefoot, she slipped from bed and tiptoed to the back door. But she hated the dark and the lightning zigzagging across the treetops, making her jump back from the door. She couldn’t go outside alone. What if it was a wild animal in the backyard instead of a cat?
She ran to the window, pushed the curtain aside and peered out into the night. The moon was only a sliver tonight. A few stars glittered, just enough for her to see something by the back porch near her window. The crying grew louder.
She ran to her mommy’s room and pushed the door open. “Mommy, I heard something. I think it’s a cat outside. It might be hurt.”
Mommy stood in front of the bathroom mirror rubbing face cream on her cheeks. “Are you sure it’s not just the storm?”
“No, I heard crying,” Kate whispered. “He’s hurt and out there in the rain.”
Mommy set the jar of cream on the counter then clasped Kate’s hand and squeezed it, reassuring her with a smile. She loved her mommy so much. Mommy was always smiling and made everything all right. “Come on, we’ll look together.”
Together they rushed to the front door. Mommy paused and listened. Worry flickered in her eyes. Then she quickly opened the door and stepped out onto the porch.
More thunder clapped and lightning lit up the sky. Rain ran from the roof, pounding the ground by the porch and splattering mud everywhere.
Kate shivered, hanging on to Mommy’s leg. Suddenly the thunder’s rumble grew softer, and an eerie silence fell. A second later, Kate saw the bushes rustling by the steps.
“Over there.” Kate pointed to the right side of the porch.
Mommy patted her shoulder. “Stay here, sweetie. “It’s probably a stray cat trying to get out of the rain.”
Kate clung to the porch railing as Mommy ran down the steps. Another streak of lightning flashed, and Kate saw her mommy stoop beside the stairs.
Her heart pounded with fear. What if she was too late to save the cat? Or what if something got Mommy?
A second later, Mommy stood. She wasn’t holding a cat, though. It was the little girl next door, Macy. Macy was shivering and shaking as she wrapped her arms around Kate’s mommy’s neck and sobbed into her chest.
Kate rubbed her eyes to keep from crying, too. Poor Macy, she looked like a drowned rat.
“Come on, let’s get you out of the rain,” Mommy said.
Macy clung to Mommy as she carried her into the kitchen. “Get me a towel, Kate.”
Kate raced to the drawer and grabbed a couple of drying cloths and handed them to her mommy, who wiped at the mud on Macy’s knees and hands where she’d crawled beneath the steps for cover from the downpour.
Kate shivered as her mommy soothed Macy. Finally, when Macy stopped sobbing, Mommy lifted Macy’s chin and looked at her face.
“Are you hurt anywhere, honey?” Mommy asked.
Macy’s chin quivered, but she shook her head.
“What happened?” Mommy asked.
Macy looked down at her soaking clothes and her face turned red.
“It’s okay, you can tell me,” Mommy said. “Kate and I just want to be your friend.” Mommy rubbed Macy’s back. “Did you get locked out of the house?”
Macy ducked her head again, her voice a low pained whisper. “Mommy got mad and put me out. She told me I was too much trouble and I could sleep outside with the dogs tonight.”
Kate gasped but her mommy kept soothing Macy. “Sweetheart, no little girl should sleep outside, much less in this weather. Is your mommy okay? Was someone else there?”
“No one was there but her,” Macy said on another sob. “She just got mad at me. She does that sometimes when she doesn’t want me around. She says I’m tr...ouble.”
Kate barely held back a cry, but her mommy’s warning look told her to stay quiet. That this was bad. Real bad.
“Well, you can stay here tonight with me and Kate, right, Kate?”
Kate nodded, her heart hurting. Mommy would never make her go outside in the rain alone, much less sleep outside. Macy didn’t have a dog, either. The only one nearby belonged to Big Rob the Butcher at the end of the street. Big Rob and his dog snarled at you if you got near either one of them.
“Let’s get you in some dry pajamas.” Mommy lifted Macy, and Kate followed her to Kate’s bedroom.
“She can wear some of yours, can’t she, Kate?”
Kate’s favorite pj’s had flying unicorns on them, and she’d never shared her clothes before. But Macy looked like she needed some flying unicorns tonight, so she dug them from her drawer and pushed them toward Macy.
“These are the bestest ones,” Kate said. “They always bring me sweet dreams.”
Macy changed in the bathroom, then Mommy brought them both cookies in bed and Kate gave Macy her stuffed puppy to sleep with. Then her mother sang them songs until they both fell asleep.
The next morning, she heard her mommy raise her voice for the first time ever. She had called Macy’s mother and they were having a talk.
Later she explained to Kate that Macy’s mother was sick and that illness caused her to do things that might hurt Macy. From then on, it was their job to watch over Macy.
A TREE BRANCH scraped the window outside, bringing Kate back to the present. From then on, Kate and Macy had been inseparable. Kate’s mother had driven Macy to school and back. They’d taken her to the park with them and to the zoo and to movies. Macy spent the night at her house more than her own.
But Macy rarely talked about that first night, or the other times when her mother had thrown a fit, or why Macy never invited Kate to play at her house.
Kate knew the reason. Her friend didn’t have to say the words out loud.
Kate loved her mother even more for taking Macy in with no questions asked.
And then her mother had died and Macy had disappeared from her life, leaving an even bigger hole in Kate’s chest.
Kate walked over to the window. Smoke still seeped into the sky. Riggs hadn’t hesitated to rush out to help battle the blaze. He could have gotten killed.
Maybe she was wrong about him.
It didn’t matter. She’d lost Brynn and Macy and her mother. She couldn’t afford to let herself care about someone else.
BY THE TIME Riggs reached Kate’s, he’d decided Gretta might be responsible for the letter of blame to Kate. Gretta’s father had owned an auto repair shop before he died. She could have learned enough from him to know how to cut a gas line.
He parked, then sent Stone a text relaying his theory. Maybe Stone could get the blasted woman’s fingerprints or DNA for comparison in case they lifted some from the matchbook or car. Stone texted a reply that he would consider Riggs’s suggestion.
Riggs scanned Kate’s property, alert for trouble, as he walked up to the porch. The scent of smoke and burned wood lingered, but he didn’t see anyone lurking around.
He wiped soot from his hands onto his pants and rang the doorbell. Seconds later, the sound of footsteps echoed from inside and then the lock turned.
He sucked in a breath as Kate opened the door. Her long hair spilled over her shoulders in sexy waves.
“Are you okay?” she asked in a raspy voice.
“Yeah. Are you?”
She nodded and gestured for him to come inside. Although he’d removed his firefighting equipment, his hair and skin held the smoky scent of where he’d been.
“We extinguished the blaze,” he said. “But it burned at least a half mile of woods. Deputies and the fire department will monitor the area tonight to make sure the wind doesn’t spark the fire back to life.”
Kate rubbed her arms with her hands. “Was anyone hurt?”
“No. Thankfully, we didn’t find casualties or anyone trapped or injured.”
Kate heaved a sigh of relief. “Thank God. I was worried about you.”
He arched a brow, surprised at her admission. “I know what I’m doing, Kate.”
A soft smile flickered in her eyes. “Your job is still dangerous.”
What was dangerous was the heat simmering between the two of them. He wanted nothing more right now than to pull Kate into his arms and hold her. To wipe that worry off her face with a mind-blowing kiss.
Her gaze locked with his and, for a second, he thought she might welcome that kiss.
Then she turned and walked over to her desk by the sliding-glass doors leading to her back deck, and he called himself all kinds of a fool.
“I made a list of students for Stone,” she said. “Although I don’t think any of them is violent enough to try to kill me.”
Riggs didn’t want to frighten her, but they couldn’t bury their heads in the sand. Everyone had done that with Ned. Ignored the signs.
Then it was too late.
“We can’t be too careful, Kate. Someone is playing a deadly game and he or she needs to be stopped.”
Kate rubbed her arms with her hands to ward off the chill. “I can’t believe this is happening.”
“I know and I’m sorry. But I found an empty matchbook in the woods. It could have belonged to the person who set the fire.”
“Or someone was smoking and accidentally dropped a cigarette or match.”
“That’s possible. Or they lit the match and intentionally threw it into the weeds to start the fire,” Riggs said. “Woody is a smoker but he’s still in a cell, so he didn’t do it.”
Kate shifted uncomfortably and looked back at the envelope on her desk.
“That the list of students?” he asked.
She murmured that it was.
“Any of them smokers?”
Kate sighed again. “Don Gaines. He was caught in the bathroom at school and outside behind the bleachers.”
“You notified his folks?”
“Yes. But Don is all talk. He wouldn’t have the guts to come after me.”
“His sister was paralyzed because of that shooting, Kate. That had to have affected the entire family.”
“I know, but—”
“Maybe you could talk to Brynn,” he suggested.
Kate ran a hand through her hair, pushing it away from her forehead. “I can’t suggest to Brynn that her brother is an arsonist. Besides, she and I haven’t been close in years.”
“Why is that? I thought you and Macy and Brynn were best friends.”
A wave of sadness washed over her face. “We were. But that was a long time ago.”
She didn’t elaborate and he sensed the subject was closed.
Kate might not believe Don was dangerous. But the kid had an attitude.
And Riggs didn’t trust him.
KATE COULD JUST imagine Brynn’s reaction if she showed up tossing accusations at her little brother. And the mayor and his wife... Mrs. Gaines hated her already.
“Macy was with Stone at the scene of the fire tonight,” Riggs said.
Kate lifted her head. “What was she doing there?”
“Stone asked her to look over his father’s files. He hopes she’ll find something he missed.”
“That makes sense, I guess.”
“She asked about you,” Riggs said, his gaze scrutinizing her.
Tears blurred Kate’s eyes and she blinked to stem them. Earlier, she’d been thinking about Macy and Macy’s awful childhood, and how they’d been like sisters when they were young.
“She said she’s going to clear out her mother’s house and put it on the market while she’s here,” Riggs said.
Kate’s heart squeezed. “I heard her mother was institutionalized.”
“What happened between you two?” Riggs asked.
Kate clenched her hands by her sides, annoyed at his persistence. “Everything changed after the shooting. As soon as graduation was over, Macy just moved away.” Without even saying goodbye.
Her abandonment had felt like a knife in Kate’s gut at the time.
Her phone trilled, saving her from more questions, and she rushed to answer it, although she had no idea who would be calling at this time of night. Maybe someone from the school council about the memorial.
“Hello?”
“Back off, Kate,” a deep muffled voice growled, “or next time your fireman boyfriend won’t be able to save you.”
Cold fear seized Kate as the line went dead.