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Hoyt rounded on my brother. “Were you not going to say a word to defend her?”
Before I could open my mouth to say how out of line that was, my brother responded with admirable calm. “That man wants to put me away for a murder I didn’t commit. I can’t afford to antagonize him.”
Hoyt’s nostrils flared. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”
“Doesn’t mean I wouldn’t like to plow my fist into his face.”
“I’ll hold him down,” Hoyt snarled.
“Maybe don’t be plotting an assault on an officer. You’re no good to me in jail,” Thompson said mildly.
Hoyt spun toward him. “Tell me you didn’t hear everything he just said. He’s not going to take this investigation seriously. He’s going to blow this off and point it toward something else, just because he doesn’t like Caroline’s family for God knows what reason. We can’t let that happen.”
“We won’t. We’ll continue to run our own investigation, separate from the police department. We’re going to find out who did this.”
I appreciated his intent, but I was losing faith.
Because it seemed like maybe the questions were over for now, I finally asked the one that had been circling around my brain since we’d left the scene. “How bad is the tavern?”
At the fire chief’s hesitation, my heart sank. “We won’t know for sure until we get a structural engineer in to confirm it’s safe to do further investigation, but we know the control valve for the sprinkler system was damaged. That’s why they didn’t turn on. There’s no question this was arson. We’ll be checking out David Foley to find out where he went when he left the bar last night. We’ll also be speaking with Ed Cartwright to see if he’s had any problems with anyone who might target the tavern. It could be a coincidence that you happened to be there. We’ve had multiple fires on-island this summer, and not all of them had anything to do with you directly or indirectly. So we’re going to keep looking. In the meantime, Hoyt, you are officially off duty until further notice. Rest. Heal. Take care of each other. We’ll keep in touch.”
Frank shook the fire chief’s hand. “Thanks for looking out for my boy. For both of them.”
Then he was gone.
“Well, that was some shit.”
I had to admire Drew’s tendency to cut through the niceties to get to the heart of the matter.
Hoyt sighed and sank back to the couch beside me. “It’s been a long damned night. Thank y’all for coming out for us.”
“Always, brother.”
Rios finally stopped pacing, moving over to settle into one of the folding camp chairs that were the only other seating we had. There were still things to discuss. Long-term ramifications of last night’s events, and it was obvious he knew it.
Ibbie fidgeted in the living room doorway. “Do you want something to eat?”
Hoyt’s stomach let out a growl in answer to that. “I could eat.”
I wasn’t sure if I could, but if she was kind enough to put food in front of me, I’d sure as hell try. “Some breakfast would be great. Thank you.”
Hoyt’s mom wrapped an arm around Gabi’s shoulders. “Come on, honey. Let’s put together some food for everybody.”
As soon as they were out of earshot, I dropped my voice to a near whisper. “I have no idea how we’re going to keep afloat after this.”
Rios reached out to squeeze my shoulder. “I’ve got some put by. And you’ll find another job.”
I hadn’t even begun to process the reality of that. Because regardless of the degree of damage to the tavern, chances were it would be closed the rest of the season. And that was if Ed decided to rebuild. Maybe he’d decide it was too much. Maybe with whatever he had going on with his health, he’d elect to retire. Either way, that didn’t solve the immediate problem.
“Who’s going to want to hire me? I’m lucky that Mr. Foster didn’t fire me from my cleaning job.”
“You had nothing to do with that,” Sawyer defended.
I lifted my gaze to his, then to Ford’s, and back to my brother. “But think about it. Carson’s not actually wrong about this. One of the properties I clean caught on fire and is still being repaired. Now the tavern? Regardless of whether this is bad luck or if it’s directed at me or our family, seriously, who is going to want to hire me after this? Who would want to risk it?” As the fresh fear began to take hold, my throat tightened. “I don’t know how we’re going to afford rent, groceries, anything.”
Hoyt wrapped an arm around me. “We’ll make it work. I don’t need the rent. Put what you’ve got toward essentials right now. It’ll be fine.”
How the hell was it going to be fine? It wasn’t reasonable for him to have to pay for his association with me. That was what all this felt like. No amount of arguing could convince me that the burning of his truck wasn’t somehow connected to me. What was going to be next? I closed my eyes as every single doubt and worry I’d had about getting involved with Hoyt ignited again.
