Page 40 of Serial Burn

His brother’s face went concrete hard. “Right. Exactly. I wasn’t there.” He opened the door and disappeared.

Nathan stifled the yell he wanted to release and settled for a combination of a low growl and harsh groan instead. He pressed ahand to his pounding head. It almost hurt worse than his hip. He swallowed hard, dragging in ragged breaths, ordering the contents of his stomach to stay put.

The door creaked open. What now? Couldn’t everyone just leave him alone for five seconds?

Jesslyn’s head appeared. Okay, everyone except her.

“You okay?” she asked.

“How much did you hear?”

“Not enough to really understand what it was all about. You weren’t shouting.”

“This time.”

“You said things were strained between you and your brother. Did he have something to do with the fire you mentioned? When you were a kid?”

He frowned. “No. It was all me. I was the one who...” Something blipped at the edges of his memory. Eli shouting at him and Danny. It faded as quickly as it appeared. What was that? WherehadEli been? “I mean, maybe he was inside the house? Or with a friend? He was sixteen when it happened, so he would have been driving.” He leaned back and crossed his arms. “I don’t know. I’m not sure it matters.”

“So your parents left you alone at the age of eleven?”

Nathan thought about that. “I guess they must have.” Why didn’t he remember? Did it matter? Another something flickered in the back of his mind and he swiped a hand down the side of his face and froze. “Wait.”

“What?”

“I just remembered that Eli was supposed to be watching us.” Nathan swallowed hard. Where had that memory come from? “Yeah. He told us to go upstairs and play video games. I decided to disobey and the results were tragic.”

“You were kids, Nathan.”

“I know.”

His phone buzzed and he glanced at it. “It’s Lindsay.”

“Go ahead.”

He swiped the screen. “What’s up?”

“I hear you’re channeling Superman.”

Nathan worked hard not to growl. “Haha. I assume you have something helpful to share with me?”

“Lots. But, seriously, are you okay?”

“I’m in one piece, which is something like a miracle, but yeah, so please go for it.”

“Right. So here we are. The gun from the attack at the restaurant is registered to a George Harlow. He reported it stolen about two weeks ago. I had ballistics test-fire it and compare bullets, and there aren’t any known crimes where this gun has been used in the system. Not to say they haven’t been committed, they’re just not in the system. I ran a background check on Harlow and he came back squeaky clean. He owns several other weapons and they’re all accounted for. This one was stolen out of his car.”

“That’s good to know. Frustrating, but good to know.” Another dead end, but ... “I’ll talk to Andrew and we’ll see if we can run down Harlow’s acquaintances. Close friends, but also people maybe not so close? His yard guy, cleaning lady, pool boy, whoever. Even the person who cleans his workspace. I want to find out who knew he had a weapon in his car.”

“You think the person who stole it knew him?”

“Maybe. I’m not ruling it out. Might have just been a guy looking for a gun and got lucky. Or it could be someone who knew Harlow kept one in his car and acted on it. Where was the car parked when the gun was taken?”

“At the guy’s office. He’s a financial adviser with an office on North Main.”

“Thanks, Lindsay. If you don’t mind, pull footage of the parking lot from when he says the gun was stolen. I’m curious to see if there’s anything there. Like a dark blue sedan.”

“Sure thing. I’ll be in touch if I find out anything else. Bye.”

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