Page 66 of Raging Inferno

Presley was quiet on the drive to the safe house. Charmaine Dunn Wells was dead. Four of the original Cheerios were now deceased. That left two.

Presley thought about Charmaine’s three young children. It hurt to know that the kids would grow up without their mother. According to Ezekiel, anyone with boobs in his congregation could replace her. That made Presley sick. Would that woman remind the children of their mother or make them forget about her? It wasn’t fair to Charmaine.

“I’m sorry, babe,” Dominic said, breaking the silence. He reached over and clutched her hand.

“Me too.” She glanced at him. “I gave my condolences to her husband, Ezekiel. Do you know what he had the audacity to say to me?”

“No, what?”

“That there were a dozen women in the congregation who could take her place and raise the kids.”

“Damn, that’s cold.”

“Yeah. So is the fact that he’s not even holding a wake or funeral. But, get this, he’s going to say a prayer for her soul at his Sunday service.”

“That’s sick.”

“Dominic, he admitted he was fascinated with fire.”

“Seriously?”

“Yep.”

“How did he work that into the conversation?”

“We were discussing the candle station that turned over and started the blaze. I told him I thought it was a Catholic tradition. He said it shouldn’t belong to one religion and that he’d always been fascinated with fire.”

“That’s a symptom of pyromania. It makes you wonder how often he indulges his obsession.”

“My thoughts exactly.”

A sharp trill sounded. Presley glanced around. “What is that?”

Dominic pulled his phone from his pocket. “Someone’s trying to break into my house.”

Chapter Sixteen

Dominic accessed the closed-circuit television feed from his front gate, almost dropping the phone when Presley whipped to the side of the road. “A little warning would be nice.”

“Sorry. Let me see.”

He held the monitor so she could view the video with him, only there was nothing there. He manipulated the camera to rotate from left to right.

“Does it tell you where the breach is happening?”

“Yeah. There are fence sensors.” He switched to a different screen and located the one that had alerted. “It was the south side. There aren’t any cameras back there.”

His phone rang, and he checked the caller ID. “It’s the monitoring service.” He answered and told them he wasn’t home. They contacted the police department to investigate.

“What happens when the sensors alert?” asked Presley.

“They’re up high, so it means someone was trying to climb the fence, not simply an animal brushing against it. Bright lights snap on.”

“Most likely scaring the perp away.”

“Probably. The house is wired, too, so if he managed to climb the fence, there’s another layer of protection.”

“That’s some pretty advanced security for Serenity Shores,” Presley noted.

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