Page 28 of Chilled

Brenna followed.

“Chief, how soon will we be able to get in there and see if we can salvage anything?” Nick asked the fire chief.

“It’ll be at least the morning before we can get in,” Chief Freund answered. “Has to cool down before our fire investigation team can get in and determine a probable cause.”

“Thanks, Chief.” Nick turned to Paul. “I want you here first thing in the morning searching through whatever’s left.”

“As they say in the great state of North Dakota, you betcha.” Paul gave Nick a mock salute and stayed with the chief as Nick and Brenna walked toward Melissa.

“Melissa, first thing tomorrow, I want you to scan the local online news sources and crime databases for arson cases in the area. And get some rest. I have a feeling there’s going to be more trouble before we’ve seen the end of this.”

“Yes, sir.” Melissa headed toward Paul, and they walked away together.

Chief Burkholder joined Nick and Brenna. “I know where Judge Tyler lives. If you’ll follow me, we can get there in less than ten minutes.”

“Good.” Nick shoved a hand through his hair, making it stand on end. “We need to get to the backup files before someone else decides they’re fair game.”

“Right.” The chief stopped next to an unmarked black sedan. “I’ll wait for you at the corner.”

Brenna and Nick jogged the rest of the way to her Jeep and then pulled in behind the police chief.

“Any idea what we’ll be looking for in those files?” Brenna turned at the next street, following two car-lengths behind Chief Burkholder. “We already know we don’t have a match between my convictions and her list of patients.”

“I don’t know, but my gut tells me he’s in there. We might also get Chief Burkholder to look at the information. Maybe he’ll know some of the patients.”

“I lived here almost all my life, but in a town the size of Riverton with a constant flux of people coming and going from the university, I may or may not recognize every name.”

“I’m not worried about the ones you don’t know. This guy knows you, and there’s a good chance you know him.”

“Yeah, but I might not. God, I hope I do. I’d rather face a poisonous snake in the open than an unknown snake in the grass.”

“Precisely.”

Brenna parked curbside behind the chief’s SUV in an upper-middle-class neighborhood and turned off the engine. “This must be the place.”

Chief Burkholder was already at the door, ringing the doorbell when Nick and Brenna stepped up behind him.

“Who is it?” a woman’s voice called out from behind the wood and glass-paneled door.

“Chief Burkholder, Riverton Police Department. We need to see Judge Tyler.”

“Oh. Okay.” The bolt rattled, and a classy-looking white-haired lady opened the door. “Please come inside and wait in the living room. I’ll find my husband.”

Brenna, along with the chief and Nick, remained standing in the nicely decorated entryway filled with antique furniture and family portraits.

Still dressed in her dirty sweats, her feet cold and wet, Brenna didn’t want to touch anything.

Tall and hefty, with a thick thatch of striking white hair, Judge Tyler emerged from a room on the other side of a sweeping staircase. “Tom, good to see you.” He held out his hand to the chief.

The chief turned to Brenna and Nick. “Special Agent Brenna Jensen of the Bureau of Criminal Investigation and Agent Nick Tarver of the FBI.”

Brenna shook the judge’s hand.

“I knew your father. Good man.” His words, like his hand, were warm and firm.

Brenna swallowed hard and nodded.

He held her hand a little longer in a light grip. “You’re not doing so bad for yourself, are you? I saw you in the news... What was it, two weeks ago?”

---