Page 29 of Shadow of Doubt
Her fierce defense relieved Brooklyn’s feelings of imposing. “Thank you.”
Eryn waved her good hand. “A while back, I had a ransomware hacker threaten my life and needed the team to help me locate and bring him in. Means I know a bit about what it’s like to be stalked. Mine was for a much shorter time. I can’t imagine living under the strain and stress for years.”
“I’m glad it all worked out for you.” Brooklyn’s attention was captured by movement in the scrub. She scanned the darkness. “It’s Nick and Colin. They’re back.”
She wanted to race out to meet them, but lowered her window instead. “What did you find?”
“Hold on, and I’ll be right there.” Colin stopped to talk to Reid. His posture was rigid and stiff.
Her heart dropped. “It’s not good news.”
“How can you tell?” Eryn asked.
“Colin’s posture. He’s tense.”
Eryn leaned over the seat to look out the front window. “He’s definitely not relaxed.”
He suddenly spun and marched to her open window. “You need to prepare yourself for some bad news. It’s not what we expected to find. Not at all.”
Colin stood by the guys near the burned-out shell of a building, the smoke still curling into the night sky. He’d pulled one SUV into the drive and pointed the headlights over the scene for a better look. Eryn and Micha volunteered to escort Brooklyn back to the compound and keep watch over her while the others scouted the property. The best plan in his mind when he couldn’t be certain that Tarver wasn’t hiding somewhere in the woods,waiting to strike. Even if Colin’s brain continued to say keep her close at hand, he knew he’d made the right decision.
“You think he was on to us?” Nick asked. “Burned his own house down so we couldn’t find any leads, then bailed?”
Colin stared at the ruins. “If so, it was effective. Looks like the fire burned hot, and we won’t find much here to go on, if anything.”
“We need to call the locals and report the fire,” Ryan said. “But let’s split up and take a quick look before we do.”
“I’m not sure we need to call them,” Dev said. “We don’t know a crime was committed here. We can notify the landlord, and they can take care of bringing in the authorities if they want to. Or we just let it be and let them find it when they do.”
Colin looked at his brother. “I’m with Dev on this. Keeps us out of it, and we won’t be in any official reports. That way Tarver won’t know we were on to him.”
“Makes sense to me,” Nick said.
“Then we won’t see any of the sheriff’s reports.” Dev faced the house. “And we need to do more than take a quick look. We can do a grid search of the yard and house perimeter. With the heat, we’ll have to wait on the house.”
Colin agreed. They might’ve arrived at the tail end of the fire after it had died down, but the burning embers were still too hot to walk on. “If we don’t find anything actionable, we get out of here. Then I’ll find the landlord’s name and make an anonymous call.”
Reid firmed his shoulders. “So let’s move. Hopefully, we’ll be done in time to spare Russ from orientation duty.”
Nick eyed Reid. “Is it really that bad?”
“Not if you don’t mind teaching someone how to boil water.” Dev laughed.
“Oh, right. It’s bad then.” Nick chuckled.
“Follow me.” Colin led the men, then assigned coordinates to process the scene.
Carrying flashlights, they formed a straight line and marched forward as one, sweeping the beams over a yard littered with fallen debris. Every now and then, one of them paused to look closely at something, and they all stopped with him. But it turned out to be nothing, and they moved forward again until they reached the house without locating any leads.
“Fire was set intentionally.” Reid held up his hand, and they all looked to where his beam was focused on the embers. “See the clear lines of accelerant residue? Indicates it was poured, not the pattern of a fire occurring naturally.”
“And looks to me like the majority of the burning took place on the floor level not the ceiling in this area.” Dev waved his light around an area where the structure still stood. Location said it was the entryway.
“Accelerant trail comes from there too,” Reid said, moving his light. “Like he backed out dumping gasoline or another accelerant on the way out.”
“Not surprising.” Colin took a few steps closer to the section of building in front of him. He swung his light over the glowing embers that seemed to draw him in and came to a sudden stop, his heart wanting to stop too. “No. Oh, man. No. Is that a body?”
Dev added his light to the area. “Looks like it. Burned beyond recognition.”
