Page 45 of No Good Deed

Joe moved to walk beside her. “Relax, Piper. We’ve got great people on it. They’ll make sure the fire is contained and no one is hurt.”

But he couldn’t know that.

Lia walked on her other side. “The people at Midnight Lake are extremely well equipped to cope with emergencies. I haven’t been here as long as the others, but this team has worked together to stop several criminals in the last year. Some of them pretty terrifying people.”

Joe nodded. “Troy’s a part of our group because he’s smart and resourceful. Marcus too. And Mitch, who will make sure that fire is contained.”

Lia nodded. “We’ll be there soon. Have faith.”

Piper did have faith in Troy. And Marcus. And she was beginning to believe in the rest of the people of Phail as well.

But the problem wasn’t with any of them. The problem was with her and potentially Ethan Westerlake.

Her faith didn’t extend that far.

* * *

Troy and his three buddies raced down the trail to where the vehicles were parked. When they reached the lot, Flynn beeped open his truck. Troy jumped in the front seat while Sam and Nico hopped in the back. The property wasn’t even two miles from Phail, so in only minutes, they pulled onto his street. The town’s fire engine stood in front of his home with Mitch Robinson and his team of volunteers on site.

As they neared, he realized that his home stood unscathed, but a small plume of smoke rose from the garage. As soon as Flynn stopped, Troy jumped out and moved to where Marcus was standing in front of the open garage door.

Troy spotted the smashed side window of the two-car garage. Piper’s car was in the slot nearest to the mudroom door and didn’t appear to be touched.

“What happened?”

Marcus gestured. “The asshole broke the window with a brick, then tossed in an open can of gas and a flaming rag. Probably hoping to burn the whole thing down with Piper’s car inside.”

Troy was glad there were no windows on the back of the garage. If there were, the guy would have probably broken one and climbed inside. With only the side window available, he’d have rushed in case someone spotted him. That had saved his garage and Piper’s car.

He turned to Mitch and offered his hand. “Thanks for the assist. Damn glad we talked you into moving to town and starting up the fire unit.”

Mitch grinned as he shook his hand. “Glad we’re here too. This was a small blaze, but it was good practice for the group with all the potential hazards in a garage. We caught it early, and extinguished it easily. According to Bella, he used regular gasoline for the accelerant. I don’t think your guy is habitually an arsonist. He could have done much more damage in that time frame if he knew more.”

Bella Martinez, Mitch’s partner and arson investigator, emerged from the garage. “Nothing useful in there, but I’m going to check the outside. Unless you need to check for evidence, Marcus?”

Marcus led the way. “I didn’t check anything yet. I was trying to catch the asshole.”

Troy sighed. “Did you see a car? Anything?”

Marcus shook his head. “I’m guessing he parked on the next road and took off through the bush to get to his car.”

Probably. Troy had always enjoyed living with trees across the road, but now it seemed it would have been nice to have some nosy neighbors living there.

Marcus and Bella proceeded slowly, checking for evidence. Troy followed close behind. A fence separated his lot from the next one. The neighbor had several blue spruce clustered in the corner. Troy pointed at the ground beneath the tress. “Looks like someone was standing here.”

Marcus took out his camera to take photos. “It’s pretty trampled, but we might be able to get some clear boot prints.”

A small hole appeared in the snow near the prints. Wearing gloves, Arrow took more photos then moved aside the snow to see what had dropped.

Troy nearly cheered when they found a wad of gum in the snow. Marcus grinned. “I’ll get this sent to the lab and put a rush on it.”

When they didn’t find anything else, he joined his buddies to check the nearby street and homes. No one had seen any strangers and the sidewalks were too flattened with people and dog tracks to identify individual prints.

Troy pulled up the security feed on his phone. By the time he’d found the spot on the video, the others had gathered around him. He held out the phone so they could all watch. A brick shattered the window without anyone in sight. Then, a man wearing a hoodie and ball cap to cover his face rushed up, opened a gas can, and dipped a rag inside. He lit the far end of the rag with a lighter, then leaned through the broken glass to place the can inside.

The whoosh of flames was visible as he turned and ran without lifting his head, proving he’d spotted the cameras beforehand.

Troy watched it again. This time, with a smile. “He’s only wearing one glove. He probably took the other one off to make it easier to open the gas can.”

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