Page 30 of Love Again

“David Keller thinks whoever it is, is a firebug,” says Mateus.

“What do you think?”

Laurel told me that when Mateus left the SEALs and turned to profiling people, arsonists were a group he opted to study in graduate school.

Mateus shrugs. “I don’t know. I haven’t been asked to work on it.”

Finn pokes again. “You have now. And Keller’s got some green-gilled fire investigator credentialled that Carlson wants you to team with.” Finn turns to me. “Have you met him? A guy name Luke Walker?”

Almost beyond the reach of the firelight, I see Claire clamp a hand over her mouth.

I take a long sip of wine.

“He’s not green-gilled, let me tell you. Yes, I know him. Claire found out yesterday he’s Keller’s brother, and I worked with him in Colorado.” I pause for a moment. “We were smokejumpers together.”

Bryce grins. “That’s a weird coincidence.”

I sigh. “Yeah, I’m getting used to it. Keller’s much older. They grew up in separate towns but had the same mom.”

“You know a lot about him,” says Mateus.

“There’s a lot of downtime when you’re not fighting fires, and a lot of talk in the choppers and the planes.”

“What you did takes guts.” Mateus smiles as Laurel materializes out of the dark and links her arm in his.

“She’s always been the daredevil of the family,” says Claire. Then she adds, “It took me a long time to appreciate how wonderful that trait is.”

It’s in these short moments that we heal, each of us, and what tore us apart years ago gets reconciled with love and appreciation. She gives me a kiss on the cheek and pushes my hair back from my shoulders the way our mother used to.

Mateus starts ticking off facts. “Smokejumpers have to run a mile and a half in a minute forty-something, do six pull-ups, thirty push-ups with five minutes in between each, and, on top of that, pack a hundred and ten pounds and walk three miles in over an hour.”

“And you have to sew,” I add.

“Yeah. You have to make your own equipment, basically.”

“And he was a jumper with you?” says Finn, bringing the conversation back around to Luke.

Bryce laughs. “And his name is Luke Walker. Did he ever get teased about maybe being Luke Skywalker?”

“He has. It’s old.” I sip my wine again as everyone looks at me. Jesus, I have to learn to keep my mouth shut. I’m not supposed to know about his little, petty grievances.

“Carlson wants Luke and you to meet him at the police station in Rockland tomorrow, ten sharp. And you, Devon. You’ll get paid for your time.”

This is not what I expected at all. “Why me? An investigation? I don’t do this kind of thing.”

Finn reaches down and takes Claire’s hand. With what everyone has gone through this past year, he knows Claire will go ballistic if I’m asked to take extra chances doing anything. Cutting the grass might be dangerous.

“According to Carlson, you’ve been very helpful on all the calls. You’ve been to every site, and you helped him out before.”

I’m caught in the trifecta of stares: Claire, Chloe, and Laurel.

Claire, the mom authority speaks. “What did you ever do for Carlson?”

΅

It was just after I moved back, and Keller and I had yet to reach a truce. I couldn’t believe my high school nemesis was the fire chief, and I was scouting around for other work—anything that would pay the rent. I’d asked Laurel if she and Cory wanted to move in, figuring her paying half would help a lot. I had a small place, but it was a three-bedroom, and she said yes. But even with her help, my meager savings was drying up.

Then a friend up in Ellsworth told me Carlson was talking to him about a consultant job. A one-time thing. He couldn’t get the FBI interested, and he didn’t want to engage the Portland PD for reasons I found out about later.