Page 75 of Rest In Pink

Will looked down. “The way I heard it was that Mickey’s mother, Rhonda, brought a bunch of pies to a pot luck. Which was a big deal for Rhonda because they lived Over-the-Hill and were dirt poor. She’d made them all from scratch. And Bertie Roarke, that’s Belinda Roarke’s momma, thought it would be funny if no one ate Rhonda’s pies. It was just a mean thing to do, especially for church ladies.”

Rain made a noise that I suppose was a scoff at the concept of church ladies being mean.

“Rhonda’s pies were the only thing left at the end of the potluck,” Will said. “Rhonda left in tears and that very night, the church burned down. Mickey had always been setting fires before and everyone just knew he did it, but there was no proof.”

Fucking Burney, I thought. Every town has a dark side to it.

“What does Mickey have against the Blues?” I asked Will.

“I don’t know. Maybe because his sister married Cleve? My dad used to say there was something hinky about Cleve and the Wolves.”

“Like what?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Will said.

Something occurred to me. “Why was Mickey here?” I asked Rain.

“Probably coming back to jerk off on the scene of the crime at the factory,” Rain said.

Will was shocked, but Rain continued. “There’s a sexual aspect to arson. It’s actually common for the perp to return to the scene. Relive the excitement of the fire. He drove up and saw we were there. Decided to fuck with us. He knew he could lose us on the dirt bike.”

“We don’t have the manpower to stake out all the burn sites,” I said.

“I don’t think he’ll do it again,” Rain said. “Or he could have just been driving by on his way to somewhere.”

“Faye lives up the hill,” I said. “Maybe he was going to see his sister? That seems more likely. But, if so, why?”

Neither of them replied.

“You going to be all right driving home?” I asked Rain.

She nodded. “Thanks to my man here.”

It was dark but I could swear Will blushed in the glow from his wrecker lights.

“Give me a call to let me know you got home safe?” I asked Rain.

“What are you? My mother? I’ll be fine.”

“Rangers lead the way,” I said as she got in her car.

“Didn’t this time.” And she drove off, very carefully, in the dark, back toward Factory Road.

“Hey, Vince?” Will said.

He was troubled by something and I couldn’t blame him. We had a serial arsonist on the loose in Burney who might very well have murdered someone.

“Yeah?”

“Liz came by the garage just before you called. She wants to buy a car.”

“What did you tell her?”

“I told her to come back tomorrow at six.”

Will would have made a terrible poker player. I knew Liz knew he was up to something just by the way he told me what he told her.

Tomorrow would be soon enough to deal with that. I knew Liz had her hands full with Anemone and Peri and it was late.

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