Page 80 of Betrayed

Chapter Twenty-Six

Logan drove his patrols around the city. He’d thought about taking time off. His sergeant had even suggested it, but being out on the streets helped keep his mind distracted from all that had happened. Although being with AJ would have been nice.

He was thankful he kept his uniforms in his locker at the station—except for when one needed to go to the cleaners—so the fire hadn’t claimed them. As long as he didn’t think about it all too often, he was holding together fine. Even more than wanting to find the person who lit his house on fire, he wanted to find AJ’s stalker and bring the full extent of the law down on his head. They had several charges to put on him, if only they knew who it was and were able to link all of the evidence to him. Though that wasn’t looking promising.

Before his shift, Logan had talked to Adam and Amelia and, so far, the cameras weren’t leading to much. They had a lot more work to do with them, and the tech guy was doing his job to see if he could trace the signal. But while Amelia was hopeful it would lead to something, Logan hadn’t missed the skepticism on Adam’s face.

Turning down a neighborhood street near Lincoln Elementary, Logan kept an eye peeled for any hooligans up to no good.

Down another street, his headlights caught two shadowy figures dart across the road. In the driveway across the street, a trash can blazed.

Logan flipped on his lights, and over the loud speaker, commanded the teens to stop.

They turned and his headlights caught their faces. He’d seen these two around and knew their parents. “Zach and Brandon.”

Realizing they’d been busted, both boys’ shoulders slumped.

Logan got out of his squad car. “Put your hands on the hood.”

Zach said, “Yes, sir.”

Both boys obeyed, and Logan radioed it in. Officer Stillwater, the owner of the house with the fire, came out with an extinguisher.

“Thanks, Jackson. You caught them?”

“Sure did. You got the fire?”

He gave the affirmative.

Logan grabbed a second set of cuffs from his car. He hated having to cuff these boys, both of whom were only fifteen, but they’d put themselves in this situation.

He told them to sit on the curb. “Now I need some information from you boys, and if you talk to me I might be willing to help you out a little. You’re still in trouble, but maybe less if you are forthright with me.”

They both nodded.

“What is the deal with this dare?”

Brandon shrugged. “It’s just a stupid social media thing.”

“Then why do it? You aren’t stupid. What does it get you that makes it worth risking your futures?”

Zach said, “If the video goes viral, we’ll get a bunch of followers.”

“To what end?”

Zach shrugged.

“You do realize the number of these videos out there now reduces your chance to go viral?”

Brandon deflated even further. “I guess it was stupid.”

“Yeah. What if someone had gotten hurt?”

Brandon sat back up. “But nobody has. It’s just some trash cans.”

“Guess you didn’t hear my house burned down on Saturday.” Logan crossed his arms.

Zach said, “I heard about that. Everyone at the skate park today was talking about it. Nobody knows who did it.”