Page 263 of Her Reluctant Hero
“You think he did it?” Gabe was surprised by the vehemence. He’d expected to find support for Doug here.
“They arrested him, didn’t they?”
Just like a young guy to believe what he saw on the news. “They’ve arrested innocent people before, and they don’t have too much against him.”
“No? What would they need besides what they got?”
Gabe wove his fingers together, stretched them in front of him. “Motive. No one can figure out why he would do it.”
“Lots of reasons. He’s a firebug, he needed the money, he wanted to get his wife in command.”
Gabe shook his head. “None of those play for me.”
O’Doul’s eyebrows lifted. “You hate the guy.”
“Doesn’t mean I think he’s a killer.”
“What do you mean?”
“Four firefighters died yesterday. Whoever set this fire is a killer now.”
O’Doul swore and looked down.
“You hadn’t heard?” Gabe asked.
The young man shook his head. Gabe put a comforting hand on his shoulder. “You might not have known them. They were based out of California.”
“Doesn’t matter,” the boy said in a choked voice. “They’re on our team.”
“So is Doug. Tell me what you know about Doug.”
*****
“What did Gordon tell you?” Gabe asked as he pulled the truck onto the highway toward Bounty.
Peyton folded her spiral shut and tucked it in her pack. “It would have been incredibly easy for someone with access to the base to set him up. But I don’t know who would. He doesn’t seem to have any enemies, according to Gordon.”
“If there was something bad to say about Doug, Gordon would say it,” Gabe said.
He wanted to ask what Gordon had said about him, but he did have his pride. Pride hadn’t stopped him from opening Peyton’s car door, putting his hand on her waist proprietarily with a glance over his shoulder at Gordon. Yeah, primitive, so what?
“So someone could have set up Doug, but we don’t know who.” She took a deep breath. “Gordon did say only smokejumpers are allowed to go back into the ready room where the equipment is, though.”
“And reporters.”
“I thought of that,” Peyton said, not upset as he expected. “There haven’t been any reporters back there this season. I think the T-shirt and jeans got me special privileges.”
“Yeah, he was staring pretty hard down your shirt. I wanted to break his nose.”
“I hear that’s your MO.”
Ah. Here it came. “I’m sure Gordon had a good time telling you about me.”
She waved a dismissive hand. “He’s just jealous.”
“What?” He damn near drove off the road at her assessment. “What does he have to be jealous about?”
“He’s a lonely, bitter man, and from what I can see, he doesn’t have the respect of his men. You’re both about the job, but he’s had to bully his way to get where he is. You worked. He wouldn’t be in his position without being an asshole.”
