Page 79 of Heat Advisory

“Can I get you both something to drink?” Stetson asked.

“Some water, please, if you don’t mind,” Cora asked, and I nodded in agreement.

Stetson stepped out of the room to grab the drinks.

I was happy for the private moment, even though it wouldn’t last. I pulled her close to me, wrapping my arm around her waist to keep her tight against me.

When Jade had pulled that gun out, my stomach had lurched, and I swore my heart had stopped. I’d dealt with a lot of scary situations as a firefighter, but none as scary as seeing a gun pointed at Cora.

I turned my head, putting my forehead to her hair, and kissed the space just above her ear. “I think seeing that gun pointed at you took years off my life.”

She relaxed into me and breathed a sigh of relief. “I literally don’t even know what to make of that whole situation. I thought Jade and I were more than just coworkers. I guess we weren’t as close as I thought. I didn’t even know she and Darren were a thing.”

“Sweetheart, don’t beat yourself up over this,” I told her. “They likely didn’t want you to know and were hiding it intentionally.”

I kissed her cheek, breathing in her scent and feeling some irrational need to make sure she was alive and okay in my arms.

Stetson walked back into the room and handed us two bottles of water before taking a seat at his desk.

Thompson walked in a moment later, his hand brushing over his face, tired and obviously mentally burned out. “Not that we don’t have enough proof now, but this does in fact confirm our suspicions of Mr. Derikson.”

“Wait…” Cora’s confused face turned to look at me. “You already suspected Darren?”

“He has been a person of interest for a few weeks now,” Stetson told her, and I hoped she would understand why I couldn’t tell her earlier.

“What? How did you know? Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked me.

Thompson came to my rescue before I had a chance to respond. “Before you get upset, just like all my fire investigators, Rainer here isn’t allowed to share information like this when it’s related to an investigation. We suspected Derikson for a few reasons, but mostly because he slipped up at one of the BAER meetings. He knew details about the start of the fires he shouldn’t have. But what we couldn’t figure out was why he would have set them. Plus, a few of them seemed too complex to be started by one single person. Now we know why.”

Cora didn’t respond. She just stared at her hands—still trembling slightly—as if she were trying to remember what they felt like before today.

I reached over, took her hands in mine, and squeezed.

She looked up at me, her eyes filled with the stress of the day, and then her head fell forward, her chin touching her chest.

“I didn’t know,” she spoke quietly. “I didn’t even see it.”

“You weren’t supposed to,” I told her. “Motivated people are very good at hiding things. That’s why they played nice when you asked for more information or shared your findings. That’s why Jade smiled at you at all the meetings and hung out with you outside of work. All those things build trust.”

“In cases like these, it’s often easier for outsiders—someone who doesn’t know them personally—to see these things,” Thompson said.

“You saw it, though,” Cora said to me. “You mentioned a few times that you didn’t trust him.”

“Sweetheart, I meant I didn’t trust him around you,” I explained. “That was coming from a complete caveman standpoint of me not wanting him touching or being close to my woman.”

Stetson snorted next to me, and when I glanced up, it was to see a smirk on Thompson’s face as well. The three of us had already had this exact conversation several weeks ago when Derikson’s name was brought up.

She swallowed hard and then leaned into me. I sensed part of it was for comfort, but also for closeness. Like she needed to be anchored to me. I felt the same. Like we needed to feel the other was still there and alive.

Thompson cleared his throat. “We’ve got both of your official statements, so the rest is up to the police. For now—go home. Relax and get some sleep so you can adrenaline-crash at home.”

“And maybe take a shower too,” Stetson commented, noting the fact that we likely smelled like smoke and wet dog.

We spent the next week in a strange kind of limbo—not quite fully back to normal, but no longer in an interrogation freefall.

Cora had met with her boss, then with her weather service team, and finally with a therapist. Thompson had recommended that we both see one because, as he put it: “You don’t walk away from a gunpoint situation without someone asking how you are really handling it,” and he was right.

We answered question after question as nearly a dozen different people interviewed us. Cora struggled most with Jade’s involvement. She fought back tears when describing Jade’s determination that what she and Darren had done was the right thing.