Page 49 of Through the Fire
After a startled beat of silence, Vicki tipped her head back and roared with laughter, drawing the other cops’ attention again. When she’d finally recovered enough to speak, Vicki reached out with her non-brush-wielding hand and slapped Kit on the shoulder. “You’re okay, new cop. In fact, you’re the best one out of all those other donkeys.” She tilted her head toward the other officers.
“Vicki! How could you say something so mean?” Hugh asked as he joined them. “I thought I was your favorite!”
Kit swallowed a curse. She’d just established a rapport with Vicki, and Hugh had interrupted before Kit could get any valuable information from the cook. Although Kit tried to catch his eye and send him a silent go away message, Hugh was focused on Vicki and missed all of Kit’s nonverbal hints.
“So, Vicki,” he said as Kit resisted the urge to elbow him for hijacking her interview—an interview that had just been getting interesting. “Tell me what happened.”
Vicki’s expression returned to its previous sour lines. “Why bother? Hasn’t the princess given you guys the story already?”
His eyebrows shot up, and he finally glanced at Kit. It was too late to resuscitate the connection she’d formed with Vicki now that Hugh had stuck his big head in it, so she just gave him a flat look as she leaned against the counter. “You sound like you don’t care much for Elena,” he said, turning back toward Vicki.
Her laugh was that humorless crack again. “How’d you guess?”
After studying her for a few moments, he waved his hand. “I still want to know your version of what happened.”
As Vicki started scrubbing again, Kit shifted a little farther away. Judging by the speed and ferocity of Vicki’s movements, Hugh was already managing to seriously piss her off. “Well, my version of what happened is that it was an inside job, no matter what little Princess Firebug says.”
Hugh straightened, interest clear in every line of his body. It reminded Kit of Justice when he caught a fascinating scent. “Princess Firebug? Are you saying that you saw Elena start the fire?”
“I was in the bathroom, so I didn’t see it, but I know it was her.”
Some of the sharp interest in Hugh’s gaze faded. “What makes you suspect her?”
“Seriously, Hugh?” The scrub brush clattered to the counter as Vicki dropped it so she could turn to face him, her hands fisting on her hips. “A masked man broke in during the three minutes I was in the bathroom, started a fire, and dragged Elena out? Three minutes, Hugh. I left the princess in the kitchen, and when I came back, there was a fire that she didn’t even try to put out. Kit and I grabbed the fire extinguishers. Kit and I put out the fire. She just cried big, fat crocodile tears as she supposedly got dragged down the alley.”
Although he regarded her thoughtfully, Hugh didn’t look convinced. “That’s a little harsh, Vicki. Not everyone is good in a crisis.”
“You think that’s harsh?” Vicki growled. “That’s nothing compared to what I would’ve done if this place burned down and I had to set up another kitchen. I just did that a few months ago after that first crazy bitch blew up the diner, and I’m not doing it again.”
“Vicki,” Kit said quietly, knowing she needed to intervene before there was an assault. “Let’s go up front to talk.”
“No.” Despite her answer, Vicki sounded a little calmer. “I’m done talking to you guys. You’re not listening to a thing I’m saying, anyway.” Pivoting around, she headed for the next counter.
Kit gave Hugh a speaking look.
“C’mon,” he said, either ignoring her silent reprimand or completely missing it. “Let’s see if County or State has spotted the car.”
In her gut, Kit knew that Vicki was right—something strange was going on, and it revolved around Elena. Still, she followed Hugh. If she tried to fit the evidence to her theory, rather than letting the facts lead her to the answers, she wouldn’t be a very good cop. Folding up her irritation, she tucked it into a drawer in her mind so she could pull it out later, once there weren’t so many possible eavesdroppers.
Strange things were happening in her new town, and she was determined to find out the truth.
* * *
Alex scrubbed her hands fiercely, angry with herself. If Theo had listened to Kit and done that gunshot residue test, Alex would’ve been caught. She knew better than to shoot a gun without gloves on. She blamed it on her impromptu pseudo-kidnapping and not having time to plan out all the details. When she’d overheard the weird tower lookout telling Kit that someone had witnessed her leaving the house she’d burned, she’d panicked.
Stupid, she mentally berated herself. Impulsive decisions were never a good idea. It was done, though. The only thing she could do was move forward. Taking a deep breath, she let it out slowly as she dried her hands. Her thoughts calmed, falling back into their usual logical order.
One thing was very clear. Kit was a problem. Killing her would be difficult, since she was trained to defend herself and already distrusted Alex. She’d need to up her efforts to discredit Kit. Since she was closer to Jules and Grace than with the other cops, she’d start there.
The bathroom door opened, jerking her out of her thoughts, and she had to quickly mask her flash of annoyance at the sight of Sam.
“S-sorry,” he muttered, turning to leave when he saw her.
“Wait!” Her mind was working, processing what she knew about Sam, about everything his stepmother, Courtney, had done to him, and about how protective Jules was of her brother. Alex wondered if there was a way to use that information to fix her Kit problem. Courtney, that idiot, had told her every terrible thing she’d done to those kids after Alex had lied and said that private investigator/client privilege was a thing, and that everything shared with Alex would be confidential. She’d learned a lot of useful information from Courtney. It’d been worth killing off the previous PI to get that job.
She gave Sam her sweetest smile, even as he eyed her with his usual suspicion. “I’m done in here. It’s all yours.”
Slipping past him, she made her way down the hall toward her room, feeling much more cheerful than she had a few minutes earlier. A solid plan always made her feel better.
