Page 30 of Lone Star Secrets

Chapter Ten

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Mia re-read the preliminary report from the fire department and tried to make sense of it. She couldn’t.

Because it didn’t make sense.

Someone had intentionally set the fire, using gasoline and a simple timer that anyone could have set up after getting the instructions from the internet.

Well, anyone with a motive, that is.

And that was her sticking point. She was having trouble figuring out why anyone would have done this.

“You’re sure the CSIs got everything they could from Kenton’s room?” she asked Angel.

He was on the other side of his office, working on his laptop at his desk, and she’d taken his office sofa while she used her tablet. And they’d been at the research since arriving back at his place after having to give their statements once again about the fire.

“Yes,” he confirmed. “SAPD and the CSIs wouldn’t have agreed to let Ruby do the reconstruction if they weren’t finished.”

That’s the conclusion Mia had drawn as well. So, she was back to this not making sense. Setting the room on fire didn’t eliminate any evidence that had already been collected, and the blaze hadn’t been big enough to destroy other areas that might have held something forensically important.

“Are you getting anywhere on this?” she asked.

His sigh told her the answer was a big fat no, and on that sigh, he swiveled his chair around to face her. “There are no traffic or security cams with feed that’ll show if anyone sneaked into the house. Added to that, the person could have been there for hours. Hell, for days.”

That was another truth. The house was plenty big enough for someone to find a hidey hole and wait. But wait for what? To hear what they all had to say about that shitty night with Kenton?

Maybe.

But then she thought of the two people who were known to have been in the house and had had the opportunity to set the fire.

RJ and Dwight.

RJ could have done it during that bathroom trip shortly after Birdie’s arrival. Dwight, before he even showed up in the kitchen.

“I did turn up something interesting on Roger,” Angel said, turning back to his laptop and pulling up something. “Six months ago he was investigated for using hired muscle to intimidate a former employee who was scheduled to testify against him in small claims court.”

Mia frowned. “There must not have been a huge payout at stake if the case was being heard in small claims. And he used hired muscle for that?”

“He was accused, investigated but wasn’t charged. There wasn’t enough evidence, and the hired muscle vanished. But the former employee claimed she was wrongfully terminated because she’d bad-mouthed Birdie, his then fiancée. Apparently, Birdie and she had crossed paths during Birdie’s wild child days.”

Mia gave that some thought. “So, Roger would maybe go to some lengths to protect Birdie.”

Angel shrugged. “It appears that way. But that doesn’t necessarily mean he’d hire someone to burn that room, especially not while they were in the house. He could have hired someone to set it before Ruby ever got there. Or hell, do it last night when it would have been empty.”

That made sense unless… “What if Roger chose the timing of the fire so that Birdie and he would be excluded as suspects?”

“It could have played out that way. The front door was unlocked and obviously stayed that way since Dwight was able to walk in. And there were no signs that the lock had been tampered with.” He stopped. “My money’s still on Dwight.”

“Mine, too. He could have come into the house while we were in the kitchen, set up the fire on the timer and come back down, pretending that he’d just arrived. What I’m stuck on is his motive unless he killed his own son and then wanted to make sure there was nothing around that could incriminate him.”

“It’s possible,” Angel agreed. “But this could have been his warped way of stirring things up, or perhaps even bringing more media attention to Kenton and therefore himself.”

He turned his laptop so she could see the social media page on the screen. And the profile photo on the page was none other than a very young Dwight with his arm slung around a very young Kenton. Mia was guessing he’d only been seven or eight in the picture.

“Dwight’s already set up a GoFundMe page to pay for Kenton’s funeral expenses,” Angel explained, “and I suspect none of that will be used for anything else but to line his own pockets.”

She considered that as well, remembering something in the background check she’d done on Dwight. “He’s flat broke, and while I couldn’t find any debts to a loan shark, that doesn’t mean there aren’t any.” Mia paused. “I just don’t want it to be RJ who set that fire,” she added in a mutter.

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