Page 58 of Crash and Burn

Maggie nodded, but said, “When I was thirteen.”

The space between them descended into silence. What else could he say? He was too decent a guy to tell her to just go home. She waited him out while he took a deep breath and finally spoke.

“That’s why you came to Redemption?”

She nodded. She’d only ever said that she “needed a change.” It wasn’t a lie, but it was nowhere near the truth.

“I’m glad you told me,” Sebastian said, hugging her now and letting her sink into the relief that he wasn’t pushing her away. “That makes more sense now why you feel you have to be involved in this.”

“Itishappening inside my house,” she pointed out.

“True. Let’s go back.” He stood up as if the decision was made. “You’re the best one to know what was there all along and what wasn't. You were even there as a kid when some of the boarders lived there, right?”

“Yes!” Maggie thought about it suddenly—she'd not put those pieces together before.The boarders.

Abbie hadn't let her interact with the boarders much. When she was little, they'd seemed more like part of the house, the same way other guests did at a hotel. But maybe she could remember something, maybe she'd met this criminal before.

“We'll put the place back together and maybe we'll find something new. We’ll make sure the FBI and the police have all of it.”

“And we'll lock that damned cellar door,” Maggie added fiercely, wondering what other entries to her home might exist that she didn't know about.

“We'll check everything.” He said it as if he heard her worries out loud.

She’d expected to move to Redemption, open her business, and spend her spare time painting the house. She’d thought she would meet the townspeople and make friends with other women her age. She’d thought her biggest concern would be drumming up enough business.

Instead, she'd met the firefighters and taken over Aunt Abbie's volunteer position at the station. Some of the older firefighters had remembered her from when she was a kid, and it seemed a natural fit. She dated Rex and then spent so much time watching Hannah for him. Now she was hunting a killer. None of what she was doing had been on her agenda.

But then again, neither had Sebastian.

“Okay,” she agreed. “I'm ready to go.”

He grinned. “Well, I need a shirt and shoes. And why don't you give me a few minutes to pack a bag?”

Sebastian suggested they take his car, just so hers wouldn’t be obvious in the driveway. Then he drove them through Freddy's, the local burger joint.

They arrived at her house with hands full of hot burgers and cups of skinny cut fries. Opening the front door, Maggie headed for the dining room, but quickly realized there was nowhere to eat or even sit. Every surface was dotted with black fingerprint powder, in a few places it was bright green.

The chairs were pulled into the corners of the room, two of them still upside down, and the table was skewed in the room. The living room was entirely rearranged, and Maggie didn’t think that if she even found a space, eating near all the black dust could be safe, so they settled on the front steps, watching the kids go by on their bikes as they ate the burgers.

They watched a young woman walking two large dogs. Just behind her was a man with a dual stroller. When they finished, Maggie wadded up her trash and took Sebastian’s from him.

“I’m going to make a few calls,” he pointed to his phone but didn’t get up.

Nodding at him, she pushed the door open with her elbow and headed inside. She couldn’t help but survey the damage, but in the middle of the living room she spotted black dust along the mantle and on the bricks that lined the chimney.

She almost dropped the trash she held.Why hadn't she remembered before?

Chapter Forty-Seven

When Sebastian finally came inside, he expected to find Maggie pushing the furniture back into place or cleaning the smudges the FBI left behind. Instead, he found her kneeling in front of the fireplace, pushing at the bricks. Her fingers were dirty where she'd smeared the fingerprint dust.

“What are you doing?”

“I didn't remember,” she said, out of breath and almost frantic.

He tried to stay calm because she wasn’t. “Is the chimney another entry point?”

At least that made her sit back onto her heel and laugh. Then she stilled and her voice became wary. “At least not that I know of.”

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