Page 142 of Sunkissed Colorado
But then, from the corner of my eye, I saw a flash of something strange on the video feed.
“Wait.” I pointed. “Go back.”
“What isthat? Looks like a reflection in that car window.”
I nodded, peering closer. The angles were odd at first, but then the picture solidified in my mind.
Oh, God. I gasped, rearing back.
That was aface.
Someone else had been in that parking lot.
And I knew exactly who it was. The years had changed him, but his features still reminded me of my best friend.
That was Leo Mackenzie. Jessa’s brother.
THIRTY-SEVEN
Zandra
Leo Mackenzie wasin Silver Ridge. He’d been at Hearthstone the night of the fire.
The shock of seeing him faded, but so many questions remained.
It wasn’t clear if Leo was the same person who’d sneaked through the back door after Ian. Unless Leo had taken off the dark clothing, then stuck around in the parking lot to watch the flames. Callum told me that sometimes arsonists liked to see their handiwork.
Leo hadn’t been small-framed in high school, though. He’d been tall and broad, like Callum. Could that smaller figure in the video really have been him?
Whatever the truth, Callum called Silver Ridge PD to share the fact that we’d seen Leo on the video. Just in case the police had missed it, and it turned out they had.
At least the police had arrested Ian. Thank you, Dixie Haines, for that bit of info.
Then we learned they’d also picked up Tommy Pickering the morning after the fire for drunk and disorderly conduct, and he was being questioned. Now, they were looking for Leo Mackenzie too. They’d already known Leo was wanted for assault andjumping bail over in Fort Collins—the bar fight incident Teller Landry had told Callum about.
But that just meant more waiting for us. More wondering where Leo was and whether he was responsible for the fire. Wondering if Jessa’s brother had meant to destroy the brewery.
Or if he’d actually known I was inside.
If he’d wanted tokillme.
The gate around my parents’ property provided a little more peace of mind, so Callum and I stayed. He helped Gladys cook dinner one night, and the next Callum and I did the cooking because it was Gladys’s night off. Mom and Dad didn’t even notice the pasta was gluten free. Though there were complaints about lack of cheese until we brought out the parmesan.
While neither of us had been back to Hearthstone, we’d been getting updates from my grandpa. Repairs would start soon. He was paying all the employees for their missed days of work with the brewpub closed.
Two days after I’d left the hospital, Mom knocked on the guestroom door. “Zandra? There’s a call for you on the house phone.”
Yes, my parentsstillhad a landline. And I still didn’t have a cell of my own. Ian had apparently tossed my phone out his car window onto the highway, and by the time the police found it, it was crushed. I’d ordered a new one, but it hadn’t arrived yet.
“Just a sec, Eliza,” Callum called out.
I heard Mom grumbling out there.
It was morning, and Callum and I had been lounging in bed, doing absolutely nothing but kissing and talking. For a girl with an overachieving streak, it was kind of amazing to have zero goals except being with my man.
Over the last couple days, my throat had gotten better, and my headache was nearly gone. I could actually speak without much pain or a coughing fit, though my voice was still hoarse. Callum and I had even been able to make love the night before, his body heavy and solid over mine, seeming to surround me with hiswoodsy scent and slow, hypnotic caresses. My limbs still felt languid from the afterglow.
“It’s Chief Nichols,” Mom added.
