Page 23 of Colton’s Inferno

He tucked both bags into the front pocket of his kit. Years earlier, he’d been trained how to search the site of a suspicious fire. Create a grid and examine each sector. But today was different. Aiden had a hunch.

Walking carefully through the debris, he found where the door to the back room would have been. Sure enough, parts of the door were still there. It had fallen inward, blown down when the helium tanks exploded. He picked up one corner. The wood crumbled and Aiden froze.

There, attached to the rusty latch, was a shiny, new padlock.

Without question, this was a case of arson.

Worse yet, whoever started the fire also tried to kill Lucy Harris.

Chapter 7

By the time Aiden had bagged the padlock as evidence, the sun had risen. Standing by his car, he stripped off the latex gloves. After shoving them into the passenger side door pocket, he grabbed his phone and found Callum’s contact information. He placed a call to his oldest brother’s personal number.

“I figured that you’d sleep in today,” Cal said, answering the call after the first ring. In the background, Aiden could hear the staticky voice from a police radio and the whine of an engine.

“You’re one to talk. Sounds like you’re already at work.”

“If anyone deserves a late morning, little brother, it’s you.”

“I’m at the Five Steers Ranch already,” he said, resting his arms on the roof of his car. “I found something suspicious with the fire.” For the next few minutes, he filled Cal in on what had been found. The burn mark on the ground. The grommets, that looked like they’d come from a tarp or some other kind of cloth. He ended by saying, “The thing that worries me the most is that a newer looking lock had been placed on the door leading to the adjacent room. It’s the same room where Lucy was getting the helium tanks.”

Cal cursed. “That means we aren’t just dealing with arson, but attempted murder.”

It was exactly what Aiden had been thinking.

“I’m not too far away from the ranch,” said his older brother. “I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

Aiden pulled his travel mug from the cup holder and took a sip of coffee. Even now, the brew was still hot. As he took his second swallow, Cal’s black and white cruiser crested the rise. He set his coffee back in the holder and waited as his brother parked next to the red sedan.

“You weren’t joking about being nearby,” he said as Cal opened the door.

His brother was dressed in the dark brown uniform of the Stark County sheriff. His hair was slicked back, still wet from his morning shower. A gold nameplate on his breast pocket read C. Colton. Callum slammed his door shut. “I was on my way to Mom’s,” he said. After the divorce, Emily had bought a condo twenty miles outside of Red Grove. The Five Steers Ranch was in between the two towns. Callum continued, “She mentioned that her dishwasher was busted when I took her home last night. I was on my way to see if it can be fixed.”

Aiden said, “Yesterday evening, she asked me to stop by.”

“Mom mentioned that when I dropped her off last night, too. But I offered to stop by her place before work. We both figured you’d take a day to recover.”

“We see how well that worked out,” he said, joking.

Cal chuckled. “So, show me what you found from the fire.”

Aiden removed all three evidence bags that were tucked into his kit. He placed them in a row on the hood of his car. “I found this grommet where the fire burned the hottest. Looks to me like it might’ve been part of a tarp. Certain fabrics make for perfect fuel—especially something old and maybe dusty.” He pointed to the next bag. “This came from a scorch mark on the ground. I want it tested to see if an accelerant was used. Same for the grommet.” Finally, there was the lock and latch. “You can tell that the lock is a lot newer than the latch.”

“Yeah,” said Callum. “They might not be from the same century.”

“What are the chances we can get something useful off the lock, like fingerprints?”

“You said that the door fell onto the lock?”

Aiden nodded. “When the helium tanks blew, they knocked the door over.”

“That’s our first piece of good news. The wood could have protected the lock from the water and the flames. If our luck holds, there might be fingerprints.”

“Might.” Aiden shook his head.

“Might is better than not at all.”

His brother was right. “What happens now?”