Page 102 of Ink and Ashes
I hit the lock button on my key fob to make sure my car is locked at the same time Colson’s truck rolls to a stop. I hop inside and his eyes roll over my body as if I’m his last meal and he’s a man starved. The butterflies in my stomach take flight and I clench my legs together as his dark gaze meets mine.
“You didn’t have to pick me up,” I rasp, trying to clear some of the tension in the vehicle. I can’t tell if it’s because of the situation or our attraction for each other, but it grows stronger with every moment we’re alone together.
Colson finally tears his attention from me, shifting his truck back into drive. “It was on the way. We’ll come back for your car later.”
I swallow roughly, nodding. Neither of us say anything more as he takes off in the direction of his parents’.
CHAPTER 36
Colson
Holland and I pull up in front of my parents’ house shortly after six, the tension in my truck cab palpable. We’re here to talk to my dad about the cause of the Welland Ranch fire thirty years ago, and based on the silence neither of us have been willing to break, we both have a bad feeling about how this conversation will go.
Without a word, we exit the vehicle and make our way up the front steps. My mom welcomes us with a warm smile and hugs, but she can tell something’s up. And when we sit down at the dining room table for dinner, my dad wastes no time cutting right to the chase.
“Is this about the arsonist?”
I glance at Holland, who gives me a soft nod.
“Yeah. We think these fires may somehow be connected to the Welland Ranch fire. There’s obviously something about this year and this town that is significant, and that’s the only explanation we’ve been able to come up with.”
Dad’s brows pull together. “That seems like a stretch, son. The Wellands are gone.”
I jerk my head with a swallow. “We know, Dad. But why else would the arsonist escalate their behaviour this year if it isn’t related to something like that? We haven’t had any new residents move to town, so Holland believes whoever it is has been here for a while, likely setting fires the whole time. Which means something about this year in particular is important to them.”
“It could be anything, though. It might be entirely unrelated to fire.”
“All due respect, Mr. Caldwell,” Holland pipes up. “It’s not. After what happened at the church, I realized that this guy isn’t just an arsonist. He’s a murderer who uses fire as a weapon. That’s not typical, which means there’s one hundred percent a reason for it. And considering there aren’t any records of other large fires in Ember Grove in the past thirty years, I’m betting that reason has to do with the ranch fire.”
My dad swallows roughly, glancing over at my mom. She looks as shocked as him, but something in her face tells me there’s more they aren’t sharing.
“What is it?” I ask, keeping my gaze trained on my mom.
She looks at my dad. “Tell him, Will.”
“Tell me what?”
Dad pauses for a moment, then stands from the table. He leaves the room, then a moment later, returns with an envelope.
“This was left in our mailbox the other day.”
I take it from him, and Holland leans in close to look too. The envelope is addressed to my dad, with only his name on the front of it. That means it couldn’t have been mailed—someone must’ve left it.
I open the envelope to find a note that reads,Joseph Welland is still alive, and I’m pretty sure Holland and I both stop breathing.
“Who left this?”
Dad shrugs. “We didn’t see. I thought it was strange but didn’t think anything of it, because I didn’t realize you guys had found a connection between these fires and that one, and there’s no way Joey Welland is still around. But now…” he trails off. “Sorry, son. I should’ve told you about it sooner.”
“Mr. Caldwell…” Holland starts, looking up from the note. “What was the cause of the fire at the Welland Ranch?”
Dad’s brows pull together while he thinks back. After a moment, he simply says, “Candles.”
We’retwo days out from the next expected arson-caused fire, and we’re still no closer to figuring out who it is. Yesterday, we talked to more people around town to see if anyone else can remember anything important, but that didn’t help much either.
At this point, Holland is certain these fires are somehow related to the Welland Ranch fire. With what my dad told us, it’s too much of a coincidence that these fires have been started by candles when that’s the same thing that started that one. Couple that with the note about Joseph Welland, there’s no question that these are related.
But we still haven’t been able to figure out why. The Wellands weren’t super involved in the community outside of providing the town with crops, and even those in town who did know them can’t think of anything relating to that night that might help explain what’s happening now.
