I crooked an eyebrow, but nodded nonetheless. Brutus took the lead, walking us over to the sliding glass door in the kitchen that led to the backyard. Up on the hill we were perched on, trees surrounded the large outer perimeter of the place. The valley was below with the rest of Lockhart nestled inside of it. The trees blocked our view of most of the town even from our perch point, but if we couldn’t see them, they couldn’t see us.
Which was the point of all the privacy trees.
“What’s going on?” I asked as I turned to face Cap.
He crossed his arms over his chest. “There was a fire in the woods a couple of nights ago.”
I looked over at Brutus before looking back at Cap. “And?”
Cap tilted his head. “And it took the fire department as well as both crews in order to put it out.”
My eyebrows rose. “You said this was two nights ago?”
Cap nodded. “Guess what was on fire?”
I didn’t skip a beat. “One of their hub houses.”
“Told you he’d get it,” Brutus muttered.
Cap just nodded again. “The one where Ariel and I were taken, to be specific.”
Fucking hell, no wonder he didn’t want her hearing about this shit.
“So not the main house,” I said for clarification.
Cap shook his head. “Nope, not that one. It’s clear that whoever set the fire used a cheap-ass accelerant for it. But while the firefighters worked to fight the flames, me, Wrecker, Ghost, and some guys from King’s crew were able to dip into the fire long enough to pull some things out.”
Brutus interjected. “Including DNA from the cages.”
That caught my attention. My eyes darted between the two men. “DNA? It wasn’t burned off in the fire?”
Cap unfolded his arms. “In the place where Ariel and I were being held, the cages were down a level and surrounded by cinderblock and concrete.”
“Aaahhh,” I said with a slow nod of my head. “So you want me to take over testing the DNA samples?”
Brutus blurted it out. “The police are doing that.”
My eyebrows shot up. “The police.”
Cap sighed heavily. “We didn’t have a choice in that matter. But that wasn’t the only thing that we pulled from the fire. We’ve got tech that wasn’t charred that Ranger is going to sift through. If he can even sift through it.”
I grinned. “Have you met Ranger?”
“That’s what I said,” Brutus mumbled.
Cap chuckled. “Yeah, well. Still. He’s handling that, the police are handling the testing of the DNA evidence, and it’ll be good to have not only the firefighters with their eyes on these buildings, but the police as well.”
“Builds a better background for our DOJ contact.”
I read Cap’s mind like a book. “But you don’t like the fact that they’re covering their tracks.”
Cap released a rare grin and shot it my way. “Always quick on the uptick.”
I just shrugged. “Like you said, it wasn’t their main building. But nonetheless, we should figure out what we’re going to doabout the other buildings we know about. If they make this a habit, it could mean they’re pulling out of the area.”
“Or re-establishing elsewhere that we haven’t checked yet,” Brutus said.
“Another bright side,” I said as I tilted my head, “the firefighters and the police will have to open up separate files for every piece of DNA they’re testing. Not to mention, the firefighters now understand that there are illegal buildings built back into the state park. That’ll strike up an investigation.”
