“I’m not letting the Doc out of my sight. I heard you guys talking about food, so I grabbed the menu.”
Thirty minutes later, the group sat around the large table devouring simple bar food that tasted like a four-course meal. Letty beamed. “I love fried appetizers.”
Rhea nodded. “Perfectly fried…”
“Shit!” Someone bellowed from downstairs. “Fire!”
Wyatt was on his feet and down the stairs in the blink of an eye. He rounded the corner as Jackson finished putting out the fire with the extinguisher.
“The trash can was on fire.” Jackson stepped back. “Don’t know how it got started.”
“Okay,” Wyatt answered.
Cal strolled up behind him with Rhea and Letty on his tail. “How’d someone get this close?” Cal flicked his head at Wyatt. “Surveillance?”
Jackson walked over with a tablet showing a hooded figure in jeans tossing a flaming rag into the trash can by the door. “I can’t make out his face.” Wyatt grimaced. “Check for another angle.”
Jackson flicked through footage on the screen, shaking his head.
Cal’s phone buzzed. “Looks like the councilman wasn’t in the car.”
Letty straightened her posture. “So, if our theory is correct, whomever is doing this is trying to intimidate Pike.”
Wyatt donned a pair of nitrile gloves and picked up the trash can. The smell of chemical set his teeth on edge. “The accelerant burned fast.” Wyatt dumped the contents on the steel table just inside the door.
“I’m going to ops for a bigger screen.” Jackson walked away.
Letty turned her focus to Wyatt. “This intimidation is meant for me.” Letty stood with her arms wrapped around herself.
Wyatt turned to her. “They want you too afraid to continue.”
Letty’s voice softened. “Well,” she said, tipping her head, “that’s rude of them. I had plans tonight.”
“You’re not funny, Doc.”
“I’m coping.” She shot back.
Wyatt exhaled with restraint, forcing his temper back into its box. “We need to move your files. Secure them. Multiple locations.”
“I already did,” she said. “I sent all the info to my cloud, encrypted and time-stamped.”
He studied her. “You plan ahead.”
“Disasters reward preparation.”
He nodded once. “I’ve lined up a new place for us to stay.”
Letty’s eyebrow lifted. “Does it have safe parking?”
“It does. No one will be able to get to you.”
Smoke lingered on the first floor as Wyatt walked her to the metal table to scrutinize the contents of the trash can.This happened on my watch.
Letty stood with her arms folded tightly across her chest. “Acetone.”
Wyatt sniffed the can. “A lot of it. They must have soaked the cloth in it. I’m surprised it didn’t burn their hand.”
The comms chirped with Cal’s voice. “The perp knew where to avoid the cameras. They wore a hoodie and gloves and moved fast.”
