I whistled sharply, startling Muffin into a bark that silenced them more effectively than my attempt."Guys!Was it a metal lighter, Heath?"
He nodded."One of those generic Zippo jobs."
Gwendolyn smoked.And she definitely had a silver lighter—I’d picked it up after she’d knocked her bag over.
"I need you both to just hear me out, okay?"I began.Ben perked up like a hound but Heath just went very still and had an expression on his face that clearly conveyedoh god not again."The lighter might belong to Gwendolyn Terhune."
Heath groaned and covered his face with his hands but Ben slipped into professional mode."Why do you think that?"
I filled them in on the brief encounters in the nail salon and in the tea shop.“Before they left, Gwendolyn dropped her bag. I helped her for a minute but she chased me off after I scooped up a lighter and some of her spilled makeup."
"But why would they plant your fingerprints at the scene of an arson?"Ben asked, his tone curious rather than chiding as I'd feared it might be."The two of them don't have a history of anything criminal related outside of that one misdemeanor situation when Gwendolyn Terhune went off on Tubbs back in the late eighties and Pamela has a DUI from shortly after Beth Ellison's death."He paused, frowning.“Wait, before.It was before.”
I opened my mouth to answer, then froze, a small smile creeping forward."How do you know that, Mister 'I don't read gossip rags'?"
He blushed but didn't look away."My mom was a big fan of them.She had stacks ofPeople,StarandUs Weeklyas high as my knee all over her bedroom towards the end."
Heath had mercy on Ben before the blushing could make my poor friend burst into flames."Look, the long and short of it is, don't do anything that'll put you on MCU's radar.Or mine, for that matter."
I was saved from further lectures by Heath's work cell.He had to go to the car to take it so we said our goodbyes and I did my best to avoid Ben's stern glare as I headed for my room."I'm not doing anything," I called back over my shoulder."Just taking a nap."
"I talked to Phil—he's managing partner at the firm—and he said I can take a few days of leave so long as I check in on a few clients while I'm out."
"What?"I stopped at the top of the stairs and turned to stare down at him, agog."You arenottaking off work just because I have a broken arm!I'll be fine!"
"You'll need help with the dogs," he shot back."And grocery shopping and—"
"And I walked Muffin just fine this morning.And Tony is a backyard only kind of guy.Andthe store will deliver for a fee, if I absolutely can't be bothered to go down and get it myself."
He frowned deeply at that, aging himself a bit in the process."What about your appointment with Doctor Bash tomorrow?"
I winced sheepishly."Can I borrow your car?"
"I don't want to take the Beetle all the way to Boston," he hedged."The parking at my place there is chancy.And it’s a classic car.And my dad’s so...”
Narrowing my eyes, I asked, "Are you just mother henning me?"
For a second, it looked like he was going to argue, but he just spread his hands and asked, "Can you blame me?"
"I'm going to go rest," I said, barely managing to keep from rolling my eyes."Let me know before you head back."
"Damien, just a second.Molly O’Neill emailed me.She said she’s thrilled about the video from Max and is looking forward to it.So much so that she sent this.”He held out his phone, open the notes app and a list of items.
“This is from the fire?”I confirmed, gesturing vaguely towards the door as if Heath could jump back in and demand I hand over the phone.
“It’s a partial list.Most of the intentional burn was apparently papers and reduced to ash, but a few things stood out.”
“Tablet, phone, prescription bottles—melted...”I scrolled down, frowning.“Why try to burn this?I mean, you can recycle electronics.Erase the hard drive, reset it to factory, take it to one of those electronics stores that’s got one of those recycle boxes.”
Ben sighed.“I feel like I’m contributing to your bad habits by having this conversation but...If someone was panicking, someone was in a hurry to get rid of something they didn’t want around, they might try to burn it.”
“Why not just hide it?Or take it with them when they left?”I scrolled back up through the list.It was depressingly short and mostly personal electronics and a few items of clothing that melted rather than burned—better living through synthetics, thank you fast fashion.“You know, I dated this guy when I was like twenty-one, twenty-two.When I broke things off, he burned all of the little mementoes from our relationship and sent me a video.Arson as revenge?A thwarted lover, maybe...But if it was Anmorata, why would Gwendolyn’s lighter be there?”I scanned the list again.“It’s not on here.Someone put it on the site after the first sweep.”
“Heath didn’t confirm it was hers.”
Huffing a frustrated breath, I handed his phone back and threw up my hands.“Who else’s could it be?Why would he tell me about it if it wasn’t my prints?The only lighter I’ve touched in weeks has been hers, when I picked it up for her at the tea shop.”
“Promise me you’re not going to try and question them, Damien.”
