Ryan touched her cheek. “Are you okay?”
She looked into his eyes and wished she could tell him yes. But the past and death swirled all around them like smoke in the wind. “I don’t know. What happens next?”
“I’m hoping we can head the suspect off before he escapes but I have a feeling he had every aspect of this attack planned out. He’s tracking us somehow.”
Charlie frowned. “How?”
Ryan shook his head watching the fire as it completely consumed the cabin. “We’ve limited our information on the radio. I’m not using my cruiser.” He stopped and she turned his way. “My phone. It’s the only possible explanation. Since the beginning I’ve had my phone with me.” He noticed Boone coming their way. “Sit tight. I’ll be right back.” He got out and went over to the sheriff while Charlie watched the two speaking and couldn’t dispel the feeling that the showdown which had started years earlier was coming to a head.
Chapter Eighteen
“What are we missing?” Ryan exhaled a deep breath as he watched the new day dawning.
He and Charlie were now at Ryan’s house with law officers from the neighboring county stationed around the property and out on the road.
As much as he wanted to believe they were safe, he didn’t. The person coming after Charlie had proven himself cunning. He’d outsmarted them time and again.
Ryan kept a whiteboard at the house. When he couldn’t sleep sometimes, he’d go over whatever investigation he was working on and try to work through the pieces.
Now, he wrote names at the top of the board of those who were possible suspects. Junior. Eddie Hawthorne. Silas Montgomery. Former sheriff, Victor Kellogg. Jason or Grant Owens. The serial killer. Unknown suspect.
Charlie stared at the names, tapping her nails against her lip. “I think we can rule out Silas, don’t you?”
Ryan agreed. “Yes. He loved Pete. He wouldn’t hurt him.” Ryan crossed through Silas’s name. “That still leaves seven possibilities.”
Charlie flipped through the journal she and Ryan had found in the barn. “This doesn’t implicate or clear any of them.”
Ryan returned to his chair and grabbed his coffee. “No, but from what Boone has discovered about Grant and Jason Owens, I think we can rule out them being personally responsible. They could have hired someone, but I doubt it. According to Jason, he and Abby didn’t talk all that much. He had no reason to try to harm her, and he and Grant are as clean as choirboys. He sat his cup down. “I don’t think they’re involved.”
Charlie agreed.
Ryan started to rise and mark their names off the list, but she stopped him. “I’ve got it. I need to move around.”
Ryan finished off the last of his coffee while he watched her mark through the Owens’ names.
“I’m not sure how I feel about Eddie and Junior yet,” she told him. “Eddie admitted to covering up the money taken from the county fund. He wouldn’t say Junior took it but I think we can both agree he did. So, if he took the money and Abby somehow found out. . .” She pulled a face.
“How would Abby know unless Junior told her? Still, the initials Abby wrote in her diary match Junior, so I don’t think we can take either off the list yet.”
Charlie sighed. “You’re right.”
“There’s the serial killer who claimed he killed Abby.” Ryan believed he’d made the story up to gain more notoriety for himself and said as much.
“You’re right. All his other victims were recovered. He didn’t kill Abby and he certainly isn’t responsible for Pete’s death.” She put an X through the name before turning to him. “What about the previous sheriff? You worked for him, right?”
Ryan’s jaw tightened. The previous sheriff hadn’t been competent, in Ryan’s opinion. Ryan had certainly been surprised when Victor Kellogg was selected to fill the post instead of Boone who was far more qualified.
It still filled him with shame that he’d allowed Kellogg's incompetence to influence his part in the investigation into Charlie’s parents’ deaths. “Wait, your parents died in a fire. The killer tried to take us out by setting a fire. That can’t be a coincidence.” Ryan didn’t know why he hadn’t thought of it before.
“You’re right. How was the fire set at our place?” Her gaze bored into him. He’d never told her about the footprint outside the house, and he couldn’t now. Back then, he and Charlie had gotten close and was there at her side while she grieved for her parents. He’d fallen in love with her then. When they’d dated as teens, he believed what they had was love but both knew their plans would get in the way of having a future together. He hated letting her go when she’d gone away to college. He’d finished his police training and come back to Pine Haven to begin work as an officer, the job he’d dreamed about since he was a kid.
But he hadn’t expected one of the first cases he’d work was the arson deaths of two people he cared about.
“The fire investigator said there was an accelerant. He believed it to be gasoline.” The same as at the cabin.
“So, it’s possible this is the same person.” Charlie went for more coffee and held up the pot.
He shook his head. He’d had enough as it was.
