Page 53 of Inferno

“Most of it was crazy ranting.” Mitchell winced. “It’s hard to piece it all together, but I’ll tell you what I can.”

“It doesn’t matter if it’s disjointed,” Julio said. “We just need to know as much as you can recall.”

Samantha nodded. “Just start with what stuck out to you the most and fill in the gaps as you go.”

“The guy’s crazy ranting is whatstuck out to methe most.” Mitchell made a face. “A whole lot of stuff that sounded like it came from the Bible.” His gaze took on a faraway expression, his dark eyes shadowed. “He told me I had to call him Richard. Can you believe that? Like he really believes he is my old man. He kept calling meSon, but then he was also saying how we were brothers, but he was superior.”

“To your knowledge, are you related to him?” Samantha asked.

Mitchell shook his head. “I’d never seen the guy before. I don’t think I have any uncles or siblings. Not on my dad’s side.”

Julio figured that the taskforce should dig into any possibilities Mitchell wasn’t aware of. Just in case their arsonist really was related to Sylvana.

Mitchell continued, “He just sounded crazy. That’s all I can think of. How crazy it was. He said he was Richard, then he said he was the ‘son of promise.’ He was calling me Ishmael, like that was some kind of demerit. Or insult.”

Samantha glanced over. “Why does that sound familiar?”

“From Genesis. Ishmael was the son of the servant, from when Abraham was trying to bring God’s promise to fruition in his own strength. Using his own plan to achieve the same end. The son of promise was the true heir.”

Julio didn’t recall much more specifics than that. There were some names he couldn’t remember, as it had been a long time since he read the Bible. More than two years in fact. He really needed to start getting back into that again, considering how far he’d come the last few days. Managing to let go of a lot of his anger.

If God really had brought him and Samantha back together for a reason, then he needed to get back into the Bible.

He and Samantha needed to do things differently this time, living out their faith. Not just saying they believed and then going about their life in a way that made them effectively hypocrites. At the least they hadn’t acted in accordance with what they said they believed last time.

There were a lot of things he had to get straight in his head or figure out how to deal with. But he knew two things: God was real, and Samantha was the only woman he had ever loved.

He figured the rest of it would work itself out in time.

Mitchell said, “There’s something you guys need to know.” He glanced at Terri. “Something he found out when he was looking around my house. After he tied me up, he knocked me out, and when I came around, he was looking at papers. He found an invoice from a doctor in the house.”

Terri paled. She reached out and held Mitchell’s hand.

“Terri is having a baby. My baby. He started asking about the baby, and then ranting about how it wasn’t supposed to go down like that. How he was the one who was supposed to have the heir.”

“It seems like he might be mixed up about a whole lot of things.” Julio couldn’t even begin to decipher what Mitchell was saying this man believed. Added to the manifesto that had been emailed to Samantha, with its religious connotations, their arsonist came off like a true believer.

In something very scary.

Samantha nodded. “Did he mention anything about what his plans are next?”

Now that they were fairly sure her attacker wasn’t the same man who had hurt Mitchell, that meant they were looking for someone else. The police detail watching that man might as well go home. Although, if he contacted the arsonist, they would need to know. Especially if he met the person face-to-face.

Could Bill Morrison have been paid to attack Samantha like that?

“I can’t help but think that he might try and hurt Terri,” Mitchell said. “He was so angry, ranting about her. He even asked me where she lived and where she worked. But I didn’t tell him. That’s when he went too far and left me for dead.”

Terri sucked in a breath. Fighting tears, which were completely understandable in the circumstances.

Samantha said, “What else can you remember of what he said?”

“He just kept talking about how he was going to become the father. As if I was supposed to know what that meant. But then he was telling me to call him Richard, or Dad, like he believes he’s my father. He started ranting about becoming even more. Like…I can’t remember what word he used.”

So far, the arsonist had been targeting people who were connected to Richard Sylvana’s original case. Then he had come after the man’s son.

Julio was going to worry about himself and do what he could to protect the innocent from those who hurt them. Generally that was centered around fires, but he was leaning into this taskforce thing, and helping Samantha with her police department duties. People like Terri and her baby would be safe because they were working this case.

Mitchell looked at Terri. “When I get released from the hospital, I want to be in protective custody. I know no one is going to want to keep Richard Sylvana’s son safe, but with the baby, maybe someone will be inclined to help us. I don’t want to have to face that guy again, and if he comes after us both…?” He turned to Samantha.

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