Page 61 of Crash and Burn

It took a moment to organize everything that she and Sebastian had found. Then Maggie thought to tell the firefightersnotto clean the living room yet. Not until further evidence was gathered.

The guys told her “no worries,” and “just tell us where to work.” Lord, she was buying them pizza and beer, or pasta dishes, or … whatever they wanted.

After Marina took a preliminary look at the fireplace, she grabbed the comm on her shoulder and called in more officers. They set up another evidence gathering station, more pictures were taken. Maggie tried to both watch and clean. She couldn’t just stand around and watch while the guys worked.

After pushing the couch and chairs back into their rightful spots, she headed to the dining room, where she could still see the fireplace. She moved the table back into place grateful that Abbie had been smart enough to put felt sliders on all the furniture.

Though Maggie kept one ear on the officers’ conversation, her first priority was to flip the two upside down chairs. But as she bent over, she discovered there was not only writing but fingerprint dust on the undersides of the seats.

“Officer Balero?” she called out, curious now. “You took fingerprints from under the chair. Why is that important?”

“That's just it,” Marina said as she headed over to see what Maggie was pointing at. “We don't know whose fingerprints they are when we find them. And we don’t know what they’ll mean, so we try to get everything we can.”

“Were these useful?” Maggie pointed to the bottom of the chairs. Abbie had reupholstered these herself. Maggie had been a teenager at the time and Abbie had been so excited to show off the work. She’d found this fabric that she loved—which Maggie now realized didn't go with anything else in the house, but Abbie adored it.

Marina used a small flashlight to illuminate the pencil scratches. “It's dated.”

Abbie was definitely a DIY kind of woman and, though she kept terrible records, she loved making scrapbooks and taking pictures. The year matched to Maggie's memory, but as she was getting ready to flip it back upright, she stopped.

“So are the fingerprints here from when it was reupholstered?” That would be ridiculous.Wouldn’tit?

Marina flicked the light back and forth. The fingerprints became clear and easy to see, and even Maggie could see there were two sets of prints.

Marina tipped her head and continued scanning with the light. “Fingerprints can last forty or more years if they are undisturbed.”

Maggie blinked, the smaller set of fingerprints was most liked Abbie’s. Just like Sebastian suggested, something of her was still here. The other set looked larger, probably made by a man, though she knew better than to make that assumption.

“Have you ever reupholstered a chair?” Marina asked Maggie and Maggie shook her head.

“No, I just remember that I came back one year, and these were done. That year, actually.” She pointed to the date.

“Well,” Marina looked up at her, “Two people upholstered these chairs.”

Once again, Maggie felt it like a blow and she realized something very important. Something that she wasn’t yet ready to tell Marina Balero.

Instead, she nodded as though that was very interesting and went about setting the rooms to rights. She wondered what other surprises the fingerprints might reveal. But she was holding onto her secret for now.

Chapter Forty-Nine

Sebastian probably groaned Maggie's name loud enough for the neighbors to hear. Just in case they hadn't missed the old bed creaking with every push and pull between them. Probably the FBI agents that were sitting out front casing the place now knew exactly what he and Maggie were doing.

He sighed with the release of being with her and realized he didn’t care who knew.

He watched as Maggie's eyes rolled up, and her expression turned to pure ecstasy as he'd moved inside her. That was more than enough to make up for anything the neighbors might hear.

After a good handful of minutes of rough breathing to make up for the energy he'd spent, he curled his arms tighter around her and enjoyed the sensation of her curling into him too. There was no feeling quite like knowing Maggie wanted him.

He wondered if she was falling asleep when she said, “I have to tell you something.”

His back stiffened. That sounded more than a little bit ominous.

He tried not to let his eyebrows pull together or his arms clench tighter around her. “What is it?”

“I asked Marina about the fingerprints on the bottom of the chairs. There were clearly two different sets. She said it looked like two people had done the upholstering—which would mean the prints were old. She said they could last that long.”

Sebastian appreciated that Maggie was more than willing to say this wasn't her field of expertise and willing to let Marina tell her how it had worked.

“So someone reupholstered the chairs years ago, and this is important?”

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