Page 83 of Rekindle My Heart

Chapter 18

“There has to be a link. Some connection.” An hour into the files, Erica had found zilch. She’d looked at the incident reports from the last month. No changes so far. Maybe the person who changed them stopped.

Why? Wyatt didn’t die because someone made an error. No, someone targeted him.

“Hey, Randall. What brings you in today? Did you pick up a shift?” Walker Evans strolled into the break room.

“Just looking up some reports.” As arson investigator, Evans would have access to the files. Heck, he wrote most of them.

He plopped down in the recliner and pulled out his phone.

She eyed him from the table. If he was involved, he sure didn’t seem bothered that she was looking into incident reports. A niggling suspicion pecked at her. The need to have someone in her corner at the department was strong.

Could she trust him? Her gut said yes.

“Hey, Walker, got a minute?”

He moseyed to the table and took a seat in the chair next to her. “Sure. What can I do for you?”

“Do you remember the structure fire last May? The old liquor store building?” She spun the laptop around to face him when he nodded.

His brows pinched as he read the report. “This isn’t right.”

“You’re sure?” She watched his face and posture for signs of lying. No shifting eyes. No fidgeting. Just a straightforward gaze and confusion marking his expression.

“It wasn’t started by an electrical wiring malfunction. The wires were cut. Where did you get this report? It’s not the one I filed.”

“I know. But it’s the one in the system.”

“I need to go talk to the Chief.” He pushed back from the table.

She grabbed his arm. “Don’t. It’s already being looked into.”

His face hardened. “What’s going on?”

She pulled him down, glanced over her shoulder, then filled him in. On the reports, the suspicions, Wyatt’s death, and finally, that the BCA was involved.

“No shit?”

“Keep it to yourself for now.”

His head bobbed just as the alarm sounded. Walker checked his phone as he rose.

Erica started to rise.

“Sit. If we need you, you’ll be called in.”

Right. The fire hall cleared out. The silence was eerie. She’d never been in the station without other firefighters. She shook off the chills racing up her arms and got back to work.

There had to be something she was missing. She opened an email from Ryan with his results of the scans. He couldn’t pinpoint a user, but maybe she could narrow the list.

She tapped the keys, pulled up an Excel sheet, and started tracking who was on shift the nights of the fires and, also, the days the reports were changed. She hadn’t thought of cross-checking before. Sure, she’d looked at who worked the fires but not the dates the files were updated.

The crew’s names were entered, and she was halfway through the dates when the lights cut out.

“What the…?” The meager glow from her monitor was enough for her to find her way to the light switches. She flicked the switch. Up and down. Nothing.

Weird, they must have blown a fuse.