Page 9 of Rekindle My Heart

“No, this is a preliminary report. The full one with the medical examiner’s conclusions will take a while. But the fact that there were two bodies and an accelerant was used…”

Ryan ran the possible scenarios through his head while his fingers tapped out a rhythm on his thigh.

“Think out loud, please. I know your brain is ticking.”

“We don’t know who the victims are, so we can’t point to a motive. But we have an accelerant, so it points to arson. My gut says one of the DBs is my contact. I hope not, but it’s too much of a coincidence to have the fire start while I was waiting to meet them.”

“Agreed, so where do we go from here?”

“We dig in, go back to the beginning, and hope we get more to go on when the final report comes in.”

Ten seconds later, a panting dog stood beside him. Karma came back… again. “He loves fetch.”

“Not really. What he wants is for you to play tug-o-war with him.”

Ryan held the toy this time. Karma’s strong, large jaw clamped on, and he put his whole body into the game. Ryan leaned back, but the dog’s powerful mouth and muscular body had his chair sliding. “Wow. Easy, big boy.”

Erica’s face brightened. “Karma, drop.”

The dog spit out the toy. His butt plopped to the ground.

“Well trained,” he muttered.

“He has to be, or he could hurt someone. Me included. Not that he would. He’s a big baby.” She rubbed the dog’s huge head and babbled some baby talk to him.

Karma’s giant tongue rolled out of the side of his mouth, and his eyes rolled back. The dog was in heaven, soaking up the attention. Lucky bastard.

Shit. He was jealous of a damn dog. Ryan cleared his throat and stood. “I’m going back to the scene to see if we can find a security camera, a homeless person, or anyone who might have seen or heard something. Even if it was an hour or two before I showed up.”

“I’ll go through and see if I can find out more about this accelerant.” She stood as well, bringing her close.

Ryan inhaled, and the floral scent of her shampoo brought a flashback of the one night he’d buried his face in that thick, jasmine-smelling mane. He stepped back.

“I’ll touch base later.”

“First day of my rotation starts tomorrow. I’m on twelve-hour shifts for the next two days, then I will be off for a few days. Next rotation, I go on nights, but I’ll check my email.” She opened the door for him but didn’t make eye contact.

Stay safewas on the tip of his tongue, but he was afraid if he said it, she’d think he was questioning her ability as a firefighter. He fisted his hands in his pockets. He’d almost touched her on the patio. While he’d love to feel her skin again, his instincts were telling him it was a bad idea. So, he rocked back on his heels, gave Karma a pat on the head, and said, “Sounds good.”

They’d made progress today with both their professional relationship and moving past a decade-old wound. He wasn’t about to push his luck. Not yet. So, he ran like the scaredy-cat he was to his vehicle.

Ryan made the turn onto Industrial Boulevard. The hollowed-out building looked worse in the bright sunshine than it did the night of the fire. He parked in front of the police barrier, crossed to the crime scene tape, and ducked under.

He hooked his shades on his collar and took in the charred remains of the building. Fire and water had reduced it to rubble. The brick walls still stood, but sections of the top were missing, and soot caked the once red façade.

He didn’t pass the inner red tape, knowing this was an active crime scene and likely unsafe from the fire damage. He should have asked Erica to come with him. She’d know where he could go and what was off limits.

Not much he could do here. Returning his shades to his face, he opened the app to check his direct messages.

Please let there be a reply from my contact.

No response. Shit. He closed the screen and pocketed his phone.

The two DBs in the fire could have been vagrants or meth-heads who OD’d. But with each minute his contact didn’t reply, Ryan’s cop instincts reminded him coincidences were as likely as him making captain by thirty-three—which was only two short years away.

He scanned the street. He couldn’t do anything about the identification of the bodies, but he could look for witnesses. He knew the patrol officers knocked on doors, not that there were many, but it didn’t hurt to double-check, widen his search circle. Maybe he’d luck out and a neighbor who was gone that night remembered seeing someone earlier in the day.

Ryan walked up and down the block, looking for cameras of any kind. Nothing. Going from the tire tracks in the back he’d seen that night, he changed tactics and moved down the alley. The buildings were rundown, but a few of them on the next block still had open businesses. While no one was around the other night, and no cameras were running out front, the back might be another story.