Page 14 of Jina

She took Mr. Glen’s arm and led him farther down the street from the burning building, so they were out of the way. She hadn’t been in the house for long, but even that much exposure made her lungs feel like two pieces of sandpaper rubbing together with each breath.

“I don’t like this,” Cole muttered beside her. “It’s almost as if the arsonist waited for Mr. Glen to leave before starting the place on fire.”

“You think it’s arson too?” She believed the same. “But if this is the shooter, what’s the point of starting the place on fire?”

“Maybe he didn’t realize you were gone,” Cole pointed out. “He could have started the fire on the lower level to trap you upstairs.”

She seethed with anger but tried not to show it. She was usually calm in a crisis. Even if she was the intended target, she needed to think logically about their next steps.

Earlier that morning, she’d called Rhy to let him know about the attempts against her and contacted the tow truck for her Jeep. Then she had started a list of perps she’d arrested over the past six months. The team’s tech expert, Gabe Melrose, had agreed to begin vetting them through his various databases.

Now the perp had taken things to the next level. And the worst part was that Mr. Glen would suffer the most.

Wrestling back her temper, she turned to the older man. “Mr. Glen, we’ll put you up in the closest hotel. You won’t have to worry about anything, okay?” She eyed Cole who thankfully nodded in agreement. “We’ll take care of paying for the room.”

“No, no.” Mr. Glen waved that away. “My daughter lives in Ravenswood. I can stay with her.”

She remembered him mentioning a daughter but had never met the woman. “Are you sure? The repairs here could take a while.” From what she remembered from her teammate Raelyn’s fire, months at the very least.

“I’m sure.” Mr. Glen shrugged. “She’s been asking me to live with her for a while now. I guess this is a sign from God that it’s time.”

Despite her instinctive prayer, she wanted to scoff at the idea. Then again, things could be worse. She would never have forgiven herself if anything had happened to Mr. Glen. Maybe staying with his daughter was the right thing to do.

“We’ll be glad to drop you off,” Cole said. “We can leave here anytime.”

“Yes. That would help.” Mr. Glen turned from the fire, as if he couldn’t bear to watch it a moment longer. His voice was low and gruff as he added, “Thank you.”

She lifted her tortured gaze to Cole’s. He offered a reassuring smile, but it didn’t help her feel any better. This was obviously her fault. The perp who’d taken shots at her and chased her into a farm field had come here to set this fire. She didn’t care if he’d waited until Mr. Glen was out of the building on his morning walk.

She wouldn’t be satisfied until she’d tossed him behind bars, hopefully for the rest of his life. In her mind, this fire was attempted murder.

“Excuse me, are you the property owner?” A tall man with short blond hair crossed toward them. Recognizing arson investigator Mitch Callahan, she urged Mr. Glen forward. “Hey, Mitch. This is Mr. Glen Gleason. He is the property owner. I rent the upper-level flat from him.”

“Mr. Gleason, I’m sorry for your loss,” Mitch said, taking the older man’s hand gently in his. “I’m arson investigator Mitch Callahan, and I’m here to figure out what happened.”

“Someone torched it,” Mr. Glen said curtly, getting some of his spunk back.

“Yes, I believe so.” Mitch held the older man’s gaze. “I suspect turpentine was used as the accelerant here. Do you keep turpentine around?”

“Yes, in the garage.” Mr. Glen scowled. “You saying this guy used my stuff to set my house on fire?”

“It looks that way. Can you answer a few more questions for me?” Mitch asked. “Once that’s done, the Red Cross can help find a place for you to stay.” Mitch glanced at her. “For you, too, Jina.”

“I’m fine.” She wouldn’t burden the Red Cross; they existed mostly on charitable donations. She made a decent living and would figure something out. “Mr. Glen has a daughter in Ravenswood he can stay with, but it wouldn’t hurt for him to talk to the Red Cross too. Especially if he can’t move back home for a long period of time.”

“No need, I’ll be fine with my daughter,” Mr. Glen said firmly.

She curled her fingers into fists, imagining squaring off with the arsonist in the kickboxing ring. It would be extremely satisfying to plant her foot in his face.

Mitch asked Mr. Glen several questions, most of which he couldn’t answer. When she explained about the shooting incident outside Mike’s MMA gym, followed by the game of tag on the interstate, Mitch turned all his attention on her.

“Is there a police report on file?” Mitch asked, once she’d explained what had transpired.

“Yes, but the incidents took place in different jurisdictions.” She grimaced. “The state patrol and Brookland.”

“That’s fine, I’ll reach out to both entities.” Mitch glanced between her and Cole. “Do you have any leads? Anyone in mind for the person behind this?”

“I sent a list of perps I arrested to my boss, Rhy Finnegan,” she said. “It could be one of them, or it could be a man by the name of Rory Glick.”

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