Page 30 of Fear of Flames
How did the man gain entry?
Had he gotten in as easily as Fletch picked the lock on the cabin door?
It was a mystery she didn’t have time to solve. Fletch told her she had five minutes.
How many had already passed?
The last sighting of Michelle’s suitcase was in the upstairs bedroom at her father’s home. Scrambling, she found two carry-ons and a rolling duffel bag. The first thing she wanted to pack were her stories.
It wasn’t family pictures—many of those were lost when her mother died. It wasn’t family heirlooms. They’d met the same fiery fate. She hurried to her home office and shut down her computer. Without her laptop, she would need to take the desktop.
“What the hell are you doing?” Fletch asked as he appeared in the doorway. “I told you to pack what was important.”
Michelle looked up. “Did you put him in the car?”
“I found his wallet in the glove compartment.” He pressed his lips together. “The car’s a rental. His name is Mathew Wilcox. Also saw his badge.”
“His badge?”
“Iron Falls deputy.”
Michelle slumped back in her chair.
Fletch lifted his wrist, pulled back his sleeve, and looked at his watch. “We need to get out of here before whatever I shot him up with wears off. I told you to pack your things, not your computer.”
Over the last few minutes, Michelle’s life passed like a slide show in her head. Her parents were gone, but she had something else: her work. Her lips began to tremble. “Fletch, what’s on my computer—it’s my whole life. It’s what I do, who I am. If I leave it all behind, it will be like cutting off a leg.” She fought the burning in her eyes. “You said to pack what’s important.” She pointed at the screens. “This is what’s important.”
Closing his eyes, he exhaled. “Go throw some clothes and whatever else you need in a suitcase. I’ll pack up your computer. Are there paper files?”
She nodded. “But everything is backed up either on the hard drive or the cloud. I can’t think right now. I know not everything is on the cloud. I need the hard drive too—the whole computer.”
“Fuck,” he murmured. “Hurry.”
Within minutes, Michelle brushed her teeth and changed into long yoga pants, a sweater, and warm socks. She slid her feet into wool lined boots. Grabbing clothes and cosmetics at random, she filled both of her carry-on bags. As she left the bedroom she met Fletch coming in from the door to the garage.
“My car is in there,” he said. “I’ve got your computer, mouse, keyboard, and one screen.”
“One?”
“One,” he said matter-of-factly.
“Car?” Michelle asked. “You had a truck a few hours ago.”
“Yeah. I traded it out.”
“How?”
Fletch reached for her shoulders. “This goes against everything I do and everything I’m supposed to do, but I couldn’t leave you. It felt wrong.” His eyes opened wide. “Shelly, taking you away from here is what I need to do. It’s what Denny would want.”
Pressing her lips together, she nodded. “You haven’t told me what you do.”
His nostrils flared.
“Whatever you do, can you find out who killed my father? I don’t mean just Sheriff Perkins. I mean why Dad was killed.”
Fletch inhaled. “I’ll do my best.”
It was more hope than she had with the Iron Falls Sheriff’s Department. She steeled her shoulders. “Then I’ll go with you.”
