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Instead, he forced himself to step away. ““I’ll come back out to take care of the peacock and the geese every day until the house airs out enough to live in again.”
“Are you going straight to town now?”
The distance in her voice echoed in the empty spaces of his heart. “Not yet. I’d better crash on your sofa until Katie wakes up.”
The drive back to the Rocking H felt like the longest trip of Zach’s life.
* * * *
THE SHADY OAKS CABINS would have been shady, if there’d been any trees. The place certainly wasn’t conducive to rest. When the good women of Fossil Hill heard about the fire they began coming in droves and the steady traffic hadn’t decreased yet. If Zach had accepted half of their dinner invitations, he and Katie could have been occupied for the next six weeks.
He’d spent endless hours over the past three days combing through the charred remains of the barn and searching the ditches on either side of the driveway and highway for evidence.
It appeared that the fire had been set using the gas can that had been stored inside the barn. The can, now buckled by the intense heat with its paint blistered away, had been tossed inside. No latent prints could be lifted from its damaged surface, and there wasn’t another shred of evidence to be found.
On Monday afternoon, Martha Benson knocked at his cabin door. “Coffee at the Pink Petticoat Inn in a half hour? We need to talk about the fire at my place. I would have been here sooner, but I was out of town.”
He almost smiled at the elderly woman’s patrician manner and complete confidence in being obeyed. This was one invitation he couldn’t turn down. “Of course.” Glancing toward the corner desk, where Katie was somberly coloring, he added, “We’re getting close to nap time, so I can’t guarantee how long we can stay.”
“Understandable. Though I hear,” she said in a voice loud enough to catch Katie’s attention, “there’s a brand new dollhouse in the back corner, and good little children can play with it while their parents enjoy a moment of peace.” She turned to leave, then offered her first smile. “That child seems to be doing so much better than when you first came to town. People said she seemed so...frightened. You’re a good father, Mr. Forrester.”
A good father. Could he be?
But Katie had been quietly despondent since the death of her mother and had already faced so much uncertainty and change in her young life. She deserved better than a single guy with erratic work hours and little experience with kids. Yet what would it do to her if she was uprooted once again? Would she be better off staying with him?
It was selfish thinking. He would do what was right for Katie, even though he couldn’t imagine life without her. He just wondered how he could ever let her go.
* * * *
AT THE PINK PETTICOAT, Martha had already settled at a prime table by the front window when Zach and Katie walked in. She gave Katie’s yellow sundress and beribboned ponytail an approving nod, then smiled and waved a hand toward the empty chairs.
Zach hesitated, uncomfortable with the exposed location, then reached up and twisted the wand on the miniblinds so no one on the sidewalk could look in. Catching Martha’s frown, he gave her a smile in return. “Terribly bright sun, don’t you think?” he said as he took the chair facing the front entrance.
Martha harrumphed and peered at him over her half glasses. “Same as always at this time of day.”
“Look!” Katie breathed when she caught sight of the dollhouse in the far corner.
As tall as her shoulders, the white wooden house featured windows draped with frothy pink curtains, and each room boasted a full collection of furniture. For the first time in days, her somber expression lifted.
Cindy appeared instantly, her order pad in hand. “After you eat, you can play over there, okay?”
Giving the dollhouse a last, longing look, Katie dutifully scrambled up into her chair.
“Let’s get to the point, shall we?” Martha said after the waitress delivered coffee, plus cookies and lemonade for Katie. “The sheriff called in a fire investigator from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. He concurred with what you told me on the phone that day. Arson.”
“Not a professional job, but it couldn’t have been anything else.”
“There’s never been any question in my mind about you being responsible, you understand.” Martha sipped at her coffee, then cradled the cup in her hands. “Though I hear the deputy was a tad disappointed when he heard you had an alibi.”
“Dana and I went on a late vet call.”
“Right.” She gave him a knowing look. “Be that as it may, I just wonder if you’ve any idea about who might have been involved.”
“Even if I’d seen someone, I probably wouldn’t know who they were. I’ve been gone over fifteen years.”
“It just seems strange...the place has been empty for so long without the least bit of vandalism. You’ve been here for what...a month? And an arsonist burns down the barn.”
“Maybe activity around the place attracted the attention of a passerby?”
