Okay.10AM.Kids will be in school.
He set the phone down in exactly two seconds of profound relief followed by a wave of near panic.He ran both hands through his hair.Looked at the photographs, the blueprints, the timeline he’d drawn on a six-foot length of drawing paper and tacked on the wall, the diagrams.He was going to break her heart all over again tomorrow morning.And her heart had already been broken once in the worst possible way.
He had every answer now except the one that mattered most: how to tell her without destroying her.
10
Bonnie arrived at the station at 9:47 AM because she’d spent just long enough at work this morning to be sure Lucas wasn’t coming in, and then she’d bolted from the office.She’d driven around town for an hour and then headed for the fire station.She’d driven past it three times trying to make herself go inside.
Finally, disgust at herself overtook her terror of what Gray was going to show her.She parked in her usual spot, beside the bay door that was open despite the March chill.The front end of the fire engine gleamed red in the morning light.
Gray had waxed it again.Of course he had.That man polished things the way other people breathed—constantly, unconsciously, as if leaving a surface unshined was a form of neglect he couldn’t abide.
She knew what he was going to tell her.She’d known for weeks, maybe longer.Since the first time he’d asked her about the building permit, politely, over the phone, with careful phrasing that tried very hard not to spook her.Since the storage unit, when he’d gone quiet over the mechanical systems page and she’d watched the color drain from his face one shade at a time while he pretended to be fine.
She’d asked him to warn her before he told her.He had.Every time he’d asked her if she was ready to go over the evidence, he’d done exactly as she’d requested.He’d been clear and direct with no ambush.
She’d spent countless hours since the first time he asked, rehearsing calm, composed responses she already knew she would never use.
Her big purse sat on the passenger seat.Inside it were two folded sets of email printouts.She hadn’t planned to bring them today.She’d been carrying them in her bag ever since she found them.They’d been heavy at the bottom of her bag like a loaded weapon.
She’d been blindly loyal to Lucas for over four years.Until she wasn’t.Not anymore.And she didn’t understand why.
She told herself it was caution.The instincts of an organized woman who couldn’t bring herself to destroy something important without understanding what it was.
But that wasn’t the whole truth.
Some part of her—the part that had been smart enough to see through Brent’s lies four years ago, the part she’d been trying to silence ever since—had known what those emails meant.She recognized the careful language of a man concealing something he couldn’t afford to have discovered.
She’d refused four years ago to play along with Brent’s concealment of his affair, and she refused to participate in whatever cover-up Lucas was engaged in.At the end of the day, it wasn’t in her make-up as a person to tolerate obfuscation and dishonesty.
And that was why she was here today.It was time to learn the truth about how Brent died and why
She got out of the car.
Gray was waiting for her in the training room.She’d been in here before, but today it was arranged for a presentation to an audience of one.
He had set up two chairs side by side at the round table, facing a wall covered with pictures, blueprints she recognized, and a long timeline.A glass of water sat at each place.Nothing else sat on the table except a single folder.
“Hi,” he said.
“Hi.”She set her bag on the floor beside the chair.Did not take off her coat.Did not sit down.
He didn’t try to make her.He stood there with the quiet patience she’d come to associate with him, the steadiness that made her feel safe and terrified in equal measure because a man who could hold this much complexity with this much calm was a man who saw everything.And being fully seen by someone was the most dangerous thing she could imagine.
Eventually, she took a deep breath, slipped off her coat, and sat down.“Let’s do this.”
He nodded and sat down beside her.
He started with the blueprints, walking her through the barn layout and electrical wiring plan.So far, so good.
Then he said, “Let’s compare the plans to the ignition points.”
“Ignition points?Plural?”she blurted.Her voice sounded far away, as if it belonged to someone standing at the end of a long corridor.
“That’s correct.There were two ignition points.The fire started in two places simultaneously or very close to simultaneously.I’ll show you how I know that in a minute.Right now, I want to show you where the ignition points are on these blueprints.Here—” he pointed at the barn layout, “—and here.Both in the exact center of the alleyway.Both approximately thirty feet from the nearest door.”
She wrapped her hands around the glass of water.It was cold against her palms.
