Page 119 of Not Quite Dead Yet

‘Do you even know how to use a gun?’ he asked as they crossed the doorstep, shutting the front door behind them.

‘Yeah, it’s just point and shoot,’ Jet replied, hiding the gun against her leg.

Billy opened the passenger-side door for her, hand folded over the top as she climbed in the truck.

‘I can point and shoot.’ Jet looked up at him, the gun resting in her lap. ‘Even with my left hand. It’s not rocket science, Billy.’

He closed the truck door, jogged around to the driver’s side.

Jet leaned forward to open the glove compartment, shoved some of the papers aside to make room for the gun.

‘It can live in there,’ she said, closing the compartment as Billy sat down, clicking in his seatbelt. The gun out of sight but not out of mind, either of theirs.

‘Jet, I don’t know about this –’

‘– It’s just a precaution,’ she cut him off, tempering it with a small smile. ‘Someone also tried to kill you last night, Billy, or didn’t care if you were col-coll-co –’

‘– Collateral?’ he guessed.

‘Right.’ Jet nodded. ‘And you’re not dying anyway, like me. You’re alive, have to keep on living. It’s just a precaution.’ She patted the glove compartment.

‘Oh shit,’ Billy said, his phone in his hands, scrolling through. ‘I’ve got loads of missed calls. From your parents. And my dad. Hold on.’ He tapped the screen, raised the phone to his ear. ‘There’s a voicemail.’

He listened, the low buzz of a voice rattling from the speakers, words too fast and too fuzzy for Jet to understand. But she understood that look in Billy’s eyes as he turned to her, lowering the phone.

‘It’s Dad. He says they need to speak to you at the station. It’s urgent.’

24

‘It burned down?’

Jet’s voice pitched up, joining her widened eyes in feigned surprise.

‘It’s all gone.’ Jack Finney sat across the table from her, Chief Jankowski beside him, squeezed into those too-small metal chairs.

‘We’re still waiting on the full report from the fire department,’ the chief said, his chair creaking, sighing, as he leaned forward to rest his elbows on the table. ‘But this is a clear case of arson. An accelerant was used. The whole place would have gone up in minutes.’

The whole placedidgo up in minutes; Jet knew, she’d been there, stood on the very edge of hell, its heat still prickling in the burn on her hand. Jet eyed it, dropped the hand into her lap, hiding it under the table.

‘Acc-acce –’ she began, couldn’t find the word the chief had used, one she’d lost out the hole in her head.

‘– Gas,’ Jack said, helping her. ‘Someone poured gas all over the first floor, set fire to it.’

‘That’s terrible.’ Jet swallowed. ‘Who would want to burn my dad’s company down?’

‘That’s what we wanted to talk to you about,’ the chief said.

Jet met his gaze. ‘Do you think it’s related to my murder? That it was the same person who burned down Mason Construction? But JJ is in custody, so that means –’

‘– We’re just considering if there’s a connection,’ the chiefcut her off. ‘Nothing concrete yet. We wondered if you knew anything that might help us?’

Jet pressed her lips together. ‘No, sorry. I don’t know who would want to do that.’

‘And where were you last night, Jet?’ The chief opened the file on the table, clicked his pen as it hovered over a blank page.

Her chest tightened, heart reacting to the question before she could.

‘I’ve asked a lot of people a similar question the past couple days.’

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