Page 25 of Inferno

The bland gold-colored car would need to be changed out for a new shade within a few days. It had served its purpose, but keeping it much longer was too risky.

He turned the engine on, flipping the air-conditioning to full blast so it could cool the car while he loaded the stuff in the back. When he was done, he sat in the driver’s seat and eased the little notebook out of his pocket. He crossed off everything he’d bought and wrote down the final totals.

He’d underestimated the cost. He was going to run out of the old lady’s funds if he wasn’t careful with how much he drove.

Gas prices these days. It’s enough to make a guy crazy.

Richard’s own amusement reached his ears when he hadn’t even realized he’d been laughing.

No more trips to look at the wreckage he’d caused, the burned-out buildings that were now symbols of what he could achieve.

Okay, maybe one quick look at the last one.

He’d figure out how to get some cash together another way. The old lady had been useful, but she’d served her purpose and that was done. He wondered if any of the others would turn out to be hiding money under their mattresses.

He could hope.

Right now, Richard wanted to see what he had achieved. His hands shook as he drove there, the curly strands of the wig flicked against his face as the air-conditioning vent moved the air around. A couple of blocks away from the hardware store, he’d tugged off the hair and scrubbed a hand over his scalp. His rough hand scratched across the skin on top of his head, and the strands around the sides that remained.

The spot where he’d had skin cancer a few years ago. The counselor he’d seen at the time told him to find his passion,to try to dedicate the rest of his life to meaningful work that fulfilled him.

And here we are.

He pulled over to the curb, close enough he could see the warehouse from this spot. Police tape blocked off the whole area, and technicians were still going through every inch of it. As if they would figure out his true motive. They could search and search, and still they wouldn’t find him in the center of anything. He was a ghost, a remnant of the past. And he would be up until it all came together, and he completed the task.

He felt his lips curl up, just thinking about the master plan he had in the works. How the police and that new arson investigation team they’d put together would be spinning their wheels trying to figure out who he was.

By the time they did, it would be far too late. He would have what he wanted.

Ascension.

He would become the best version of himself. The ultimate.

The truth.

TEN

“Go ahead and catch us up to speed, Detective Jesse.” Across the other side of the conference room table, Captain Tennet picked up his pen.

Julio glanced at the clock, which indicated it wasn’t quite seven in the morning. Still, Samantha didn’t look nearly as tired as he felt. Maybe she just slept better than he had last night. All that tossing and turning trying to figure out what to say to her next. He should have been working on this case, but instead, being in proximity with her just brought back to reality the strength of their connection. How thoroughly connected to her he was. How much she’d always been under his skin.

Across the table, she tapped the screen of a tablet. “Thank you, Captain. The elderly woman who died in the second fire you already know was Eva Bronswich, eighty-four years old and a lifelong resident of Benson. What you might not know was that she changed her name years ago, legally going back to her maiden name. As a married woman, she was Eva Sylvana.”

Julio frowned. He glanced around at the others, seeing similar looks on several faces.

He knew that name.

“If you recognize the surname, that’s because it belongs to Richard Sylvana. Convicted of several counts of arson and murder nearly twenty years ago now, the sentence for which he is currently serving. And where he will remain for probably the rest of his life.”

Captain Tennet shook his head. “The first victim of our arsonist was that arsonist’s mother?”

Julio knew the look on Samantha’s face. She had more.

“Now we get to the lawyer from the warehouse fire. The deceased didn’t always work in corporate law. At one point he was a criminal attorney, namely the lawyer who represented one Richard Sylvana.”

Tennet muttered something under his breath.

Julio might agree, but he wasn’t about to express it like that. Besides, he was far more interested in that look on Samantha’s face. The way her eyes lit up as she ran down the details of the case. She had always loved what she did. No matter what it was, she only did things she believed in. That meant when she was busy working, she put her whole heart and soul into what she was doing.

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