Page 26 of Inferno

And the satisfaction she got out of it was plain on her face.

Once upon a time, he had put that look on her face as well, the one that made her seem so much brighter. The passing of the baby they had created together had stolen that light from her, but she seemed to have figured out how to get at least some of it back.

He wanted to figure out how to see the expression of pure joy on her face again—because of him. Not just for the sake of bringing the past back to life, but because she deserved to have that much happiness. Maybe she didn’t want it with him now. He might have to accept that it was too late. But the truth was, he’d never been able to let go of her.

He knew she had lost a partner in the last year. Did she want some of that joy again?

“Captain Espinoza-Vasquez?”

He blinked and realized Tennet was talking to him. “Sorry, what was that?”

Across the table, Romeo Alvarez smirked—though it did seem good-natured. Julio wanted to ball up the paper in front of him and toss it at the guy’s head. Samantha didn’t make eye contact with him. Though he could see a red blush to her cheeks.

Maybe he was making more progress than he thought.

Kissing her off the bat, just to make a point? That might have backfired. But no one could deny it was a simple way for everyone to know where he was at.

Tennet said, “You’ve made amazing progress, detectives. Please continue. We can come back to what Captain Espinoza-Vasquez has afterward.”

Romeo said, “When I spoke with the company, they reluctantly explained they are getting ready for a fight with a group of disgruntled customers who believed they received faulty equipment. The company supplies machinery to dry cleaners. We are going to work with the court case angle and try to see if the fire might have been started by any of the plaintiffs.”

Beside him, Samantha said, “The fire was set to destroy the building and their people. If one of the plaintiffs is the suspect, then all they achieve is potentially destroying evidence. The company files on their insurance for the building and gets paid. It might mean that the lawsuit goes nowhere, wrecking the case. Possibly on top of that, the company ends up ahead thanks to the insurance payout.”

“So you don’t think it was one of the plaintiffs?” Julio asked.

She shook her head. “It’s a longshot, but we have to rule out what isn’t as much as trying to ascertain whatwas.”

Julio could understand that. “One of the plaintiffs in the case would have no reason to commit the other crimes, right? There would be no reason for them to set the other fires and kill the mother of an arsonist from years ago.”

“No reason that we know of,” she said. “The connection is too abstract, which means it’s likely a case of figuring out which it is.”

Tennet nodded. “So what’s next, Captain?”

“Testing from all the scenes is ongoing,” Julio said. “But I went out to the warehouse yesterday and managed to confirm the ventilation system was blocked. Someone purposely prevented airflow to maximize the smoke buildup inside the building.”

“Sabotage by the arsonists, or poor maintenance in the warehouse?” Romeo asked.

“That’s what I need to find out next. Probably by talking to the same people you’re talking to.” Though, he’d rather go with Samantha to speak to people than go with her partner. No offense to Romeo Alvarez, but his partner was much better looking.

Samantha said, “Romeo has interviews set up with the plaintiffs. I’m going to the jail to talk to Richard Sylvana.”

Julio sat up straighter in his seat. “I’ll go with you.”

He started to pack away his things, along with everyone else. No way was he going to pass up this opportunity to spend several hours in a row with Samantha. Most of it in a car where she couldn’t run away from whatever questions he had.

But that wasn’t the tactic he needed to take.

Could he breach the anger he’d felt toward God for so long, enough to figure out how to ask for wisdom with Samantha? Sure, he’d gone to church over the years when he could. He always told people he was a believer, and on the surface heprobably seemed like a guy who did the right thing and didn’t swear all the time like a lot of the firefighters did.

Underneath the surface, his faith had been hollow for a long time.

In order to get Samantha back in his life, hopefully this time for good, he might just have to do the work to make his belief genuine. Rely on God. Though, even that was a gamble when he took into account God’s will. Maybe the Lord had been working years ago when they broke up, and they weren’t supposed to be together.

Maybe he was supposed to have moved on.

But instead, he’d held on to his feelings for her, almost as though he’d moved on from God.

Julio winced.

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