Page 18 of Crash and Burn

“The FBI has the box.”

“The FBI? Why?” Again, she blurted her thoughts.

“They took it as evidence—” Marina seemed to cut off the last word, as though she were going to say more before thinking better of it.

Maggie wasn't having any of that. Though she wasn’t a courtroom lawyer, she’d also been trained in tenacity. She’d harbored hopes that one day she and the officer might be friends. This was putting a damper on that, as her tone came out harsher than intended. “Evidence of what?”

Silence reigned from the other end of the line.

Maggie tried a tactic she knew when waiting out a client, one that let them off the hook. Legally they could say later that they’d never told her anything. “Okay, if I'm wrong, tell meno. The FBI took my jewelry box as evidence because they think the jewelry in it links to a crime.”

Silence stretched again and Maggie waited, hoping the officer would say something to put her at ease, but nothing happened.

Maggie pushed a little harder, not liking where this was going, but needing answers. “They took it because they think it's related to the Blue River Killer.”

Again, Marina Balero didn’t speak

Holy shit.

Chapter Seventeen

“Kane! Come around to the front with me.”

The chief motioned for Hernandez to take Sebastian’s place on the fire hose. They were soaking the final corner of a home that had been almost fully engulfed just hours before. Only the front of the home had survived, making it look a little surreal from the street view.

He operated a stepwise hand-off with Luke. The power of the firehose could get away and cause more problems if the exchange wasn’t well orchestrated. When Hernandez was successfully in his spot, Sebastian headed toward the wet and dirty front yard. It had been a long night to say the least.

At the front entry, he waited as his boss slowly placed a foot, and then his whole weight, on each of the steps from the front porch. It looked as though the area had remained untouched by the fire, but they both knew looks could be deceiving.

Firefighters all learned early on to be rule followers, for their own safety and that of their brothers. So Sebastian followed rank and waited until the chief turned around and motioned for him to follow. Only then did he pull his mask off and breathe open air.

“I need your head in the game on this one,” the chief told him, as he opened the front door, a silly gesture given that the back half of the house was mostly gone.

Sebastian wondered what the chief had meant about his head being in the game, but he nodded in agreement. It had to mean that all his distractions and worry about Maggie had been showing. As it ran through his head quickly, he took a brief moment to decide what to say.

Rex was another firefighter that the chief was having trouble with. Though it wasn’t anyone's fault, and they all knew it, it might help if the chief knew what was going on. Sebastian spoke up. “Before you go in … I don't know how much of this Rex knows, because he's been so swamped lately, but Maggie's had a burglary at her home.”

“She told me all of it a while ago,” Chief answered as though to ask if there was anything else.

That was good at least, Sebastian bought. “So you know about the jewelry box?”

Now his chief frowned at him. Maybe she hadn’t told himall of it. “She found a box of jewelry shoved under the floorboards and it looked very suspicious. It's been given to the police.”

“Interesting.” The chief drew out the word as though the story had finally become pertinent. “Do they think the two are related?”

“We don't know yet,” Sebastian said. “But that's where my head has been. I've been trying to help out.”

The chief nodded at him and Sebastian fought the flush that wanted to creep up his cheeks as though his father had caught him crushing on some high school girl. He stumbled through the words to cover it up, and probably did a crap job. “You said to get my head in the game. It is, but that's where it's been, and I thought you should know since she's our volunteer.”

The volunteers were considered part of the team and this was a job where being distracted could get you killed and though it hadn't been comfortable, Sebastian was glad he’d brought his boss fully up to speed.

Though Sebastian was ready to head inside and investigate, the chief turned back to him and offered up, “That might have something to do with why she and Rex broke up and why she's not watching Hannah anymore even though the new babysitter quit. It's been a cluster.”

Sebastian tripped over his own thoughts at the information.They’d broken up?

That was the last thing anyone should have said to get his head in the game. So with sheer force of will, he turned his thoughts back to the building. “Well, now that everyone's up to date. What's going on in here?”

“We're looking for any obvious signs of arson.” The chief opened the door and gingerly headed into the room. “Can't get into the back half of the house yet, but I'm curious if anything might be visible here.”

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