I turned away from him in case Malene had to tell me something like she’d fallen and couldn’t get up and her Depends broke at the same time.
Yeah, I didn’t know if Malene wore Depends. I doubted she did.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“It’s your place. The fire department is here.”
My heart jumped into my throat. “Why?”
Malene’s voice dripped with sorrow. “Clem, a fire broke out in your house. You’d best get home right away.”
Chapter 8
All I could think of while Rufus drove me home was, what had happened to Lady? Was she okay?
I dropped my forehead into my hands. I should have brought her on my date. She wouldn’t have bothered anybody, and it was a cool enough night that she could’ve sat in the truck while we dined. Lady would have been safe here—safer than she was at home.
“I wish I could get us there faster,” Rufus said.
“It’s okay.”
He remained quiet the rest of the way and must’ve sensed that I didn’t want to talk. I appreciated the silence. It helped me to quietly blame myself for what had happened.
But what had happened? I didn’t remember leaving on any weird electronics, and the electrical was all updated and to code. When I moved in, I’d gotten all the wiring replaced and had a new breaker box installed.
What if I had left some strange device plugged in? I would never forgive myself if Lady got hurt because of my carelessness.
What if it had been my curling iron? I’d used it to style my hair. But I distinctly remembered unplugging it and storing the rod beneath the sink, near the jar with the memory spell in it, in fact.
By the time I’d gone through at least three of the seven stages of grief, we pulled up to the house.
Rufus gave my hand a squeeze. I was grateful, I really was.
“Thank you for not making me talk.”
He gave me a lopsided smile. “Come on. Let’s see about Lady.”
I flung open the door and rushed up to one of the firemen. His back was to me, and when he swung around, I saw Lady in his arms.
“Lady,” I shrieked.
“Clem, what took you so long to get here?”
The fireman gave Lady a startled look, and I quickly scooped her out of his hands. “I can throw my voice,” I murmured. “Makes it sound like my dog is talking.”
“Er,” was all he managed.
Let’s face it, I didn’t want him overthinking this situation. To keep his mind occupied elsewhere, I pointed to the house. “So, what happened?”
“I’ll tell you what happened,” Malene said, strolling up. A bright red handkerchief was wrapped around her head, and she still wore her sunglasses.
At night.
Malene registered the startled look on my face with a wry smile. “An explosion is what happened. I heard it from my bedroom and looked out to see your porch on fire.”
A black stain dripped from the top of my porch down beside the front door all the way to the floorboards. The scent of burnt wood filled the air, but the damage was minimal. As long as the boards hadn’t burned all the way through, all I’d have to do was replace them and put down a fresh coat of paint.
Rufus spoke. “So this was arson.”
