Page 64 of Serial Burn

He flushed and tried to ignore it. “I guess not.”

The woman took pity on him and smiled. “I’m glad she has you in her corner.”

“She’s a very interesting person. I like her.”

Carol narrowed her eyes at him. “That surprises you.”

“Yeah, I guess it does a little.”

Grief flashed for a brief moment before she lowered her lids and covered the emotion. “She needs someone like you,” she said, her voice soft. “Just understand that she’s a very driven person.”

“I do understand that. We’ve talked about it.”

Her eyes went wide and locked on his. “You have?”

“Yeah.” He cleared his throat. “I don’t know if it’s my place to ask this, but what do you make of the fact that she believes the arsonist—murderer—was in her bedroom watching her sleep shortly after her family’s funerals?”

“She told you about that?” Carol couldn’t have looked more shocked if he’d punched her in the nose.

“She did.”

“Wow.”

Nathan fell silent in case she didn’t want to talk about it, but after several seconds, she shifted. “It was a terrible time for her. For all of us who were left to deal with the aftermath. But for Jesslyn, it was...” She waved a hand. “I don’t have the words to describe it, really.”

“I can’t imagine.” Well, he could. A little. But not really. He’d lost a friend. She’d lost her entire immediate family in one night. However ... grief was still grief. Loss was still loss.

“She insisted the man was there, but I shudder to think how he got in the house, much less managed to get to her room without waking anyone. It’s honestly easier to believe he wasn’t real.”

“But what if he was?”

She grimaced. “What if he was? He left without hurting anyone. I don’t have answers and I prefer not to add questions to the ones I already have.”

“Understandable.”

“She’s so dedicated to her job,” Carol said, then frowned. “Actually, dedicated isn’t a strong enough word. Obsessed is more accurate. She’s had men interested before, and she’s pretty much chased them all away because none of them could understand her fixation with catching her family’s killer—or if they did actually sympathize, it didn’t last long.”

“Okay.” What was he supposed to say to that?

Tears formed in the woman’s eyes. “I wish she could let it go. As much as I want justice for my sister and her family, I want Jesslyn tomove on more. I want her to find happiness and settle down with someone, but she ... won’t. Not until she’s exhausted every avenue and concludes that she’ll never know who killed them.”

“Do you think that’s even something that could happen?”

She hesitated. “I’d like to think so, but I just don’t know. Only God can answer that one.” A pause. “There are a lot of questions that only God can answer.”

She wasn’t wrong.

FIFTEEN

Jesslyn was released from the hospital shortly after eight Monday morning. They’d kept her to be sure she’d have no adverse reactions to the smoke inhalation. She was well armed with instructions on how to care for her wounds and the supplies to do it. And of course, she had Lainie to rely on if she needed to.

At home she took off most of the hospital bandages from her hands and simply used large Band-Aids. Much easier to navigate the laptop keyboard and phone.

With two off-duty officers on her house thanks to Cole’s connections, and Lainie and Kenzie in her kitchen, she was well covered. Aunt Carol had wanted to come, but Jesslyn was antsy about having the woman around her outside the hospital. All precautions would be taken. No one was assuming Kenny was the arsonist. If he was, great, they had their guy, not just a scared kid running from the scene.

And if itwasn’tKenny, she didn’t know if her attacker would take out his anger on others close to her. This was one situation where she’d err on the side of caution and keep Aunt Carol away. She didn’t want to risk her law enforcement friends either, but at least they all had guns.

Kenzie, laptop in hand, walked into the den and settled into therecliner across from the couch where Jesslyn had made herself comfortable. “So that piece of jewelry Nathan showed you Saturday. What did you think of it?”

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