Page 118 of Heating Up (Nugget)
This time he took both her hands. “I’ll be there as soon as I can, okay?”
“I’ll go with her,” Gia volunteered, and suddenly a dozen eyes fell on her.
“Who are you?” Aidan asked.
“Isn’t that the woman from TV . . . the financial wizard . . . Gia Treadwell?” came a murmuring from the crowd.
It was then that Dana passed out.
Chapter 23
“Aidan!” Captain Johnson stood at the south end of the inn, waving his hands in the air. He’d obviously found something.
Aidan watched the paramedics lift Dana onto a gurney and carry her to the back of the ambulance. She’d come to but was dazed.
“I’ll go to the hospital as soon as I can,” he told her. One of the medics moved out of the way so Aidan could get closer. “Gia will meet you there.” Now he knew who Dana’s big client was. Dana had been good at keeping a secret.
“I love you, baby,” he said as the paramedics closed the doors. It killed him that he couldn’t go with her, but the medics assured him she’d be fine. And duty called: He had to catch this son of a bitch.
He jogged over to Johnson. “Whaddya got?”
“Your girl okay?”
“Yes, but I’d like to get to the hospital as soon as possible.”
“Take a look at this.” Johnson walked him around the building.
The flames had been knocked down to a few smoldering hot spots and the damage appeared to be limited to the kitchen area, thanks to Nate and his employees’ preemptive strike. Like the Nugget Realty blaze, the fire had been started from outside. Aidan could see that right away from the charring patterns near the back door. This wasn’t a cooking fire, which, given its location, would’ve been Aidan’s first theory.
Again, there was a strong smell of gasoline, and someone had used a mound of garbage to get the party started. Rhys strode over to join them.
“This guy is really pissing me off,” Johnson said.
“This guy is beyond pissing me off. This is my wife’s business. She was here, for God’s sake, with an inn full of people, one of whom had to go to the hospital.” Rhys looked straight at Aidan. “Sam’s on her way. Maddy would’ve gone, but she has”—he gazed out over the lawn, where guests wandered aimlessly—“this to deal with.”
“Her client went too,” Aidan said.
“Yeah, I saw that. Apparently she’s some big celebrity. Harlee’s in reporter heaven. So what do we got here?”
“So far not a hell of a lot,” Aidan replied. “I’ll take samples, but there is no question in my mind that this was intentional and that our perp used gasoline, just like the others. I’d like to talk to Nate, Maddy, the chef, or anyone who was around at the time the fire started.”
Duke came rambling over in his turn outs. “I heard about Dana. Is she okay?”
“She has smoke inhalation,” Aidan said. “Thanks for asking, Duke.”
“We gotta get this SOB.” He shook his head. Another firefighter called him and he trotted away.
“Let me see who’s available to talk,” Rhys said.
While Rhys was gathering up potential witnesses, Aidan used his sniffer to find the area with the highest content of accelerant, got a few unused paint cans from his truck, and filled them with debris samples.
Rhys returned. “Maddy is getting the guests settled back in and will meet you in the inn’s conference room. The chef is gone for the day and Andy, the reservationist, was out on his dinner break. So far, from everyone I’ve talked to, no one saw anything.”
“Nate and Maddy own the property, correct?”
“Yeah,” Rhys said. “I know I’m biased here, but they would never burn this place down. Too much love went into reviving it. The Victorian was a dump when they bought it.”
Aidan held up his hands. “I was just wondering if Trevor might own it.”
