Page 39 of Single Mom's Firemen

And bruises aplenty.

“Halle,” I whisper.

She’s slightly slimmer and looks miserable. The fear in her eyes literally jumps off the page. Even in photos where she clearly wasn’t aware of the camera, it’s evident that Halle was on edge, terrified, while walking beside that man. I’d recognize a victim of domestic abuse anywhere.

“Helena Nash,” Charlie reads aloud from a marriage certificate.

He didn’t hear me whisper her name. The Halle we know and the woman in these photos looks almost completely different. We know Halle as Halle Harrison.

The pieces of the puzzle start coming together and the greater picture is startling.

“Charlie, can you tell us where this guy’s car has been since the diner?” Chase asks, his brow furrowed as he gives me a quick but knowing glance.

“I’m running a search through the city’s traffic cam system, but it will take a while,” he says. “I can send everything over as soon as I get the first batch of results.”

“Please, do that. Thanks, man,” Chase replies, then looks at me again. “We need to talk.”

Once we’re out of the police station, I’m finally able to start cussing like a drunken sailor while Chase texts Eric. There’s a lot of traffic at this hour, drowning our voices in a river of car engines and aggravated horns as we make our way down the street. I’m not ready to get in the car just yet. I need another coffee. With some whiskey in it.

“Halle Harrison,” I say her name again.

“Helena Nash,” Chase replies. “One and the fucking same.”

“She lied to us.”

“Given who her ex-husband is, I’m not exactly surprised. It all makes sense now, doesn’t it?”

I nod slowly as we stop outside a local, cop-friendly bar. It’s almost noon, and the waitress is out on the summer terrace, cleaning the tables for the day’s customers. We take a seat at one and order ourselves a couple of Irish coffees.

“Since all of her paperwork was lost in the fire it was easy for her to lie,” Chase says.

“That motherfucker tried to burn the diner down with her and their kids in it,” I mutter, my blood boiling with rage. “He’s even worse than his father.”

“You read the articles. Unhinged. Psychopath. They called him every name under the sun, crediting his mother’s 500-bucks-an-hour-lawyers for the fact that he’s still a free man.”

“It was only a matter of time before he slipped up, though,” I say.

Chase seems doubtful. “He’s gotten out of bigger pinches than this. The camera footage is circumstantial, at best. The footage that shows him getting in the driver’s seat of that green Jag at the diner can be contested as not being the same man in the traffic cam shots because those showed the driver in a different colored shirt.”

“He must’ve taken the hoodie off.”

“Probably, but the first shot doesn’t show the plate numbers. Only the nearby traffic cams do. And any good defense lawyer can place enough doubt in a jury’s mind to potentially acquit the fucker,” Chase says. “You heard Charlie. They need more evidence. The gas can with his prints on it would be gold but we don’t know where he tossed that.”

“That’s a wild dream, Chase. We’re never gonna find that,” I say, taking another sip of my coffee. Slowly but surely, that generous dash of alcohol starts working its way into my system, relaxing me somewhat. “Halle lied to us. It’s… I don’t know.”

“Do you think she knows who set the fire?”

I shake my head. “It may have crossed her mind that he could’ve been involved but seems she would’ve run like hell if she knew it was him for sure.”

“Yeah, that makes sense,” Chase agrees. “Have you noticed how neither she nor the kids ever talk about him?”

“We could’ve told Charlie about this,” my brother says, ignoring my question.

“And draw even more attention to Halle? No. She is terrified of that man, and based on what we already know, for good reason. We need to talk to her first before we bring it up with Charlie. She and the kids almost died in that fire.”

I’m genuinely conflicted.

My brothers and I are falling head over heels for this woman. She never asked for anything from us and yet we offered her everything. Everything, including ourselves, as of late. Halle welcomed us, body and soul. We must be careful, though. This could easily end in heartbreak for all four of us. We need honest communication, first and foremost.

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