Page 108 of Raging Inferno

Val smiled. Presley took that as a yes.

“Margy was a font of information.”

“How did you know to target her?”

“I’m very smart, Presley. I researched the people who were there that night. Then I discovered the girls lived in the area but hadn’t stayed in touch. I thought that was strange.”

So had Presley.

“During my investigation, I learned Margy was a lesbian. Since I am, too, targeting her was child’s play.”

Presley recalled the conversation with Margy’s former girlfriend at the wake. Val had been the woman who had broken Margy and Janice up.

“Some wining, dining, sex, a little shot of sodium pentothal, and she spilled all her secrets. Because of those vile girls, my brother ended his life.”

Presley was disgusted. Revenge was never the answer. Val should’ve let the courts handle the situation. “How did you pull it off? Nancy and her husband, Charmaine, Margy. There was nothing in—” It was as if a lightbulb snapped on in Presley’s head. “They didn’t die from smoke inhalation. You are the medical examiner. You manipulated the findings.”

Val smiled deviously. “Now, that’s not true. Sure, I drugged them, but not enough to kill them. They were breathing when the fires broke out.”

“So you could claim smoke inhalation.”

“Exactly.”

“What about the samples my office requested?”

“There is no shortage of bodily fluids around the morgue.”

The woman was pure evil. Presley had to keep Val talking until she could figure out a way out of the situation. Dominic and Kayne would have no idea where she was. Her purse was gone with her phone and watch. There was no way to track her. She was on her own. “How did you make them look like accidents?”

“I had help from my girlfriend. She’s a firefighter, so she helped remove the batteries from the smoke detectors, as well as with the flammable details.”

“A firefighter?” She prayed it wasn’t—

“Come say hi, Rena.”

Presley closed her eyes. It was her.

“Hey, Presley.” Rena waved. “I enjoyed spending the evening with you the other night.”

Presley flinched. They’d worked on a puzzle together. Good God, with Gia! She couldn’t return the sentiment, so she remained quiet. Then a memory surfaced of Dominic telling her a story. “Two firefighters died in an accident.”

Val smiled again. “There were no openings, and my significant other needed a job.”

Lord have mercy. “All this death to avenge your brother? Val, innocent people lost their lives.”

Val shrugged. “Nobody’s innocent.”

Presley had no words. Val wasn’t a vigilante; she was a mass murderer.

“Was that you at Margy and Nancy’s funerals, watching from afar?”

“I had to pay my respects,” Val murmured. “It would be rude not to, don’t you think?”

Was Presley supposed to believe she was the least bit worried about propriety after she was responsible for ending their lives?

She had to figure a way out of this. She’d worked on the binds around her wrists and was nearly free. It was hard to do with Rena behind her. She had to be stealthy about her actions. She flexed her gracilis muscles, feeling the gun strapped to her inner thigh. If she could get a hand loose, she could take out Val and Rena before too much poison dripped into Jessie’s and Tamera’s veins or Val torched the place. She hoped.

“We’re kindred spirits, you and I, Presley. Those girls took one of your family members, just as they did mine. Then they lied. They lied!”

---