Page 66 of Burning Truth

Russell looked up with a smug smile. “I knew you’d be back, Addison. And it’s a good thing, too. We’re almost out of time. Where is my phone?”

Addie sat in the chair opposite Russell, and Eric stood to her left, shooting down the middle of the table.

“It took a bit for Eric to get here,” she said. “I have nothing to do with your phone.”

“And you cleaned up,” he said, smiling approvingly. “You don’t quite look your best, but it’s at least better than what you had on before.”

She didn’t respond to the dig. “Why don’t you tell the viewers your point of view? I know you feel like you’ve been cleaningup the city with the fires you’ve set, but why don’t you give the reasoning behind your actions?”

Russell launched into a long-winded rant against the city and the bureaucratic machine that ran it. She had to agree with some of his points. There was a lot of corruption in the city. Did she bring up his own shady past?

Sure. Why not?

When he paused to take a breath, she broke in. “To be honest, though, you have to admit you’ve been part of the problem. You told me earlier that you basically blackmailed your boss to keep your job when you were arrested at the Shipley building. Isn’t that right? To sweep everything with Victoria under the rug.”

Russell glowered at her. “I used some information I had at my disposal to encourage my executive director to keep me on, yes.”

“Blackmail.”

“Yes, I guess you can call it that. But it goes back to a bigger problem…”

Addie glanced at the clock on the wall. They were down to twenty minutes.

“And what is it you plan on blowing up today, Russell?” she said quickly, before he could launch into another rant. “Explain to the people of Columbus how you are making their lives better by setting their homes on fire. And planting IEDs in news vans and high schools.”

Anger sparked in his eyes, but he didn’t let it out. He was very aware that he was on film, being recorded for posterity.

“You’re being dramatic, Addison. I’m not burning people’s homes. I’m,” he started, but she spoke over him again.

“But you did, Russell. You burned Nelson alive. He and his innocent mother, correct? And you burned Victoria Sincenze. And Mama Kate. You tried to burn my cameraman and myboyfriend. How did any of them have anything to do with the corruption in the city?”

Russell stared at her with fury in his eyes. Fury that would be visible on camera.

Addie cocked her head. “This all goes back to Victoria, doesn’t it? She shut you down repeatedly, and you had to show her what a big man you are, by stalking her from the shadows, just like you’ve been doing me. Right, Russell? I’ve read the reports, and all the things you did to her. If we test the DNA of that bone you left outside my car, is it going to come back to Victoria?”

Russell barked out a laugh and sat back in his chair a little. “Oh, Addison. You’re so much smarter than anyone gives you credit for. How did you know?”

It had been a shot in the dark, really, but she wasn’t going to tell him that. “It makes sense that you would want to keep a trophy from your first kill.”

He leaned forward, his handcuff chain rattling. “She was more than that!” he snapped. “I loved her.”

She gave him an incredulous look. “Right…” she drawled. “You loved her so much you killed her.”

Tears suddenly filled his eyes. “I didn’t mean to. I just meant to scare her, but the fire, she got out of control and she took Victoria.”

Addie stared at him, trying to make sense of the words. He thought of the fire as ‘her’.

“And it was easier to kill the next time, wasn’t it? You knew there were people in the warehouse. And you didn’t know them, so it was like a blip on your radar, wasn’t it? I remember meeting you at that fire, and you seemed surprised when I said there may be people in there.”

“I didn’t know there were people there, but it didn’t matter. The place needed cleaned up. Cops were in there every hour ofthe day. It was ridiculous. They should have been patrolling and enforcing the laws. Instead, they were hanging out at the coffee shop and wasting taxpayer money.”

She let that sit out there for a minute. If, by chance, an audience did see this broadcast, his crazy needed to shine through.

Addie glanced at the wall clock. Eighteen minutes.

“It was a little shocking to me that you got caught yesterday, Russell. But I think you planned it, because you’re not stupid.”

His eyes flashed, and he grinned. “Yeah, I did. It was exciting because I didn’t know if they were going to shoot me or not. I rode that adrenalin rush for hours. The fire was disappointing, but there wasn’t a lot of fuel.”

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