Page 46 of Serial Burn

“Nothing, man. Just eat.” And hopefully talk. “Are you sure you don’t know Jesslyn?”

“I’m sure.” The kid grabbed the bag, opened it, and took out the burger.

“But you were at the fire.”

“Yeah, I saw it from the street and went to watch with the other gawkers.” He paused, took a bite, chewed, then swallowed. “What made you single me out anyway?”

“Instinct.”

“Well, I can’t say much for that. You got the wrong dude.”

“We’ll see. You didn’t want a lawyer. Do you want to call your parents?”

“No!” The shout echoed and Nathan raised a brow.

That question had touched a nerve. “Why not?”

Kenny swiped a hand over his eyes. “I can’t tell them about this. They’ll cut off my school funds and I’ll be forced to go home. No way. I’ll deal with this myself.”

“Let me guess. The reason you changed your mind about the lawyer is because he or she is actually your parents’ lawyer and would tell them why you called?”

“Yeah.” The answer was subdued.

“Eat,” Nathan said. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

Nathan left the guy scarfing the food and stepped out of the room. Andrew and Jesslyn appeared seconds later. “Well, that was a bust,” Nathan said.

Andrew waved his phone at him. “Not necessarily. As soon as you picked up on the shoelaces, I called Lake City U. His name is Kenneth Davies like he said.”

“Guess he didn’t want his face splashed across the evening news,” Nathan muttered. “He’s scared to death his parents are going to find out about this. That’s what all the lies were about. Stupid.” He huffed. “Do people really think they can lie and we’ll just buy it? They don’t think we’re going to check on their story?”

Andrew shook his head. “I know, man. They always hope they’re going to get away with it. As for the other stuff, he’s a junior and majoring in math—again, like he said. The school is sending over his file—the warrant was provided quickly, thank goodness—but said he hung out with several other math major students. They’re on the competition team. Got their names along with a couple of the professors’ who travel with them to their competitions.”

“Great,” Nathan said. “Looks like we’ve got some old-fashioned footwork to do. Let’s go knock on some doors and see if we can find out what Mr. Kenneth Davies is up to these days.”

“And if he likes to play with matches,” Andrew murmured. “And has access to pool supplies.”

Nathan nodded. “Does he live on campus?”

“Yep.”

“Excellent.”

Jesslyn ran a hand over her hair, tucking stray strands behind her ear. “Right. Excellent. Good place to start.”

Nathan’s phone rang. “It’s Lindsay.” He tapped the screen. “Hey.”

“Sending you some footage from George Harlow’s business.”

“That was fast.”

“I asked nicely. But I don’t think it’s going to help you. Looks like the guy left his car unlocked. He simply walked up to the car and opened the door. The thief’s got a beanie hat on, along with sunglasses and a heavy coat. He’s just shy of six feet and probably in the hundred ninety, two hundred pounds range.”

“Thanks.” He hung up and the phone buzzed with the incoming footage. “Hold on, let me take a look at this and then we can go.” He hit play. It lasted all of ten seconds. The guy was in and out. She was right. “That tells us nothing.”

“Tells us the gun was stolen when Harlow said it was,” Jesslyn said.

“True.”

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