Laurel gave him a sternare you kidding me?look. “This isn’t some crime-ridden city, Chase. Don’t try to tell me there might be some serial killer on the loose either, because I won’t buy it. You’d think I’ve never gone for walks in worse places.”
“Please, let me give you a ride.”
Several beats of tense silence followed.
“Laurel?”
She let out a huff of air. “Fine,” she relented, much to Chase’s surprise. “But I’m not ready to go home yet. I still have two hours and twenty-one minutes before I’m on Melly duty. I’m not wasting them.” She hopped in the truck and pointed her finger at him. “No talking. I want silence. Hence, the walk,alone.”
Chase lifted his hands in surrender as she fastened her seat belt. “I have to stop at home and get Zeus,” he said, smirking when he felt her narrowed eyes burn into him. But he was moving too quickly down the road for her to bail now. “Then we’ll go for aquietdrive.”
“Fine.”
Laurel waited in the truck while Chase ran inside and got Zeus. After a quick stretch of his legs in the fenced backyard, the dog eagerly followed Chase to the truck and darted into the back seat like a rocket. He hopped onto the center console before Chase climbed behind the wheel, catching Laurel giggling at the overzealous greeting.
“He’s used to sitting up front,” Chase said in mild apology.
“He can still sit up here,” Laurel said to the dog, gathering him into her lap, not a bit bothered by his fifty pounds. “You won’t talk my ear off, will you, bud? I might even steal you tonight. How do you feel about fussy babies?”
Chase pulled out of the driveway, biting back the urge to tell her about Zeus’ last encounter with an infant. The way he eagerly licked every inch of the little girl who screamed at first but ended up in a fit of giggles within seconds. He’d make the perfect family dog. But since Laurel had asked for quiet, he wasn’t going to risk her cutting their unexpected time together short.
“Where’re we going?” she asked Chase when he turned onto the main road along the bay and headed out of town.
He answered with a devious smile.
“I’m not going on any moonlit walks or anything,” she added. “Not that there’s much moonlight this time of year. But you know what I mean.” Laurel stroked Zeus’ neck, and much to his surprise, the normally restless dog settled in her lap. Chase had never seen himnotdemand to stick his head out the window. Or at least nose up the glass from the inside. It was uncanny how instantly calm he was around her.
Chase turned off the highway onto Jack Rabbit Creek Road without a word, but Laurel seemed to put the pieces together without him cluing her in.
“Why are we out here?” she asked. “Are you worried someone will start another fire or something? It looks like the old shack is gone. Except for that creepy fireplace.”
Parking along the dirt road, Chase turned in his seat toward Laurel. “For someone who demanded silence, you’re sure talking a lot.” Before she could do more than drop her mouth, he added, “Put him on the leash if you two come out.”
He didn’t take his camera or anything more than a nearly dead cell phone. Chase wasn’t sure what he hoped to find at the site of the recent fire. He highly doubted the culprit would return to assess the damage. But running into the owner had Chase’s thoughts stirred up once again. Chief Bauer wasn’t happy with Chase’s decision to delay the report another day, but something tugged at him.
He heard the truck door close and the rattle of Zeus’ tags as the pup shook his whole body in excitement.
“You really like this job?” Laurel asked, her tone curious as the pair approached him. “Deputy fire chief?”
“Most days,” Chase answered without looking back at her. He could sense her presence as strongly now as he could years ago. It was impossible for them to both be in a crowded room, even in opposite corners, without that awareness raising the hairs on his arms. No one else had ever had that effect on him. “I could do without all the spreadsheets and hours spent behind a computer.”
Laurel let out a soft laugh that transported him back to a time when conversations like this were normal. Her laughter was a regular part of his day, one he looked forward to almost as much as he did kissing her. “I always thought you’d go back to being a deckhand. You liked having large chunks of time off.”
“Nah, that life is behind me now.” Chase approached the fireplace, shining his cell phone flashlight into the dark cavern and ensuring he wouldn’t startle any wildlife. He crouched down once again, using the stick he’d procured the last time to poke around the ashes.
“What are you looking for?”
“Good question.” He wanted to share his theory with Laurel, but he didn’t need yet another person telling him he was making too much out of nothing. The evidence supported the main theory, and he could find nothing to shed any doubt on it.
“You don’t think the fire was an accident.” Not an ounce of question in her voice, only conclusion.
“It’s a gut feeling.”
“You’re never wrong about those.”
Chase felt a soft glow of warmth in his chest from her words. “Rarely.”
“What do you think thispersonwas trying to accomplish by burning down an old shack no one’s lived in for what? Ten, fifteen years?”
