Chapter Three

Helena

A FEW MORNINGS later, I pulled into the parking lot of the little diner near my sister’s home and rushed inside. Prudence was already seated in a booth in the back, and I made my way to her. “I’m sorry.”

My sister rolled her eyes and slid out of her seat to hug me. “If I had a dollar every time you were late…”

“You’d have two dollars,” I retorted, sliding in across from her.

She smirked, nodding toward the mug in front of me. “I ordered you a cup.”

“Bless you,” I hissed, pouring sugar into it and opening three of the little creamers I’d pulled from the ramekin between us. “Did you order?”

“No, I actually just got here.”

I wrapped my hands around the mug and raised an eyebrow. “Oh, so I’m not late.”

“Technically, yes, but I was too, so…” She shrugged.

I chuckled. “If I’d been on time, I’d have been waiting for you, per ush.”

She grimaced. “Um, yeah, probably.”

My sister was always late. Always. You could set your watch by the fact she would be at least twenty minutes late to everything. It used to get her in trouble in school and work, but now that she ran her own business, she made her own hours.

A server came and took our order before refreshing Pru’s coffee, and once we were alone again, I asked, “How did the date go?”

Pru dropped her head back with a groan. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“That bad?”

“No, it was great. He was awesome.”

“So, what’s the problem?”

She leaned forward and whispered, “I googled him after and found out something that no one should ever know.”

“He sucks toes?”

“Nope.”

I cocked my head. “What could be worse that a toe sucker?”

She pulled out her phone and unlocked it, sliding it over to me.

“What am I looking at?” I asked.

“You know how I’m part of that group that warns you about guys women have dated, divorced, fucked before, etcetera?”

“Yes. It’s weird and a little privacy invasive, but whatever,” I said.

“I did a search on his name in the group and his name came up.”

I frowned. “Okay. How bad?”

“He was dating one of the women and it was meet the family night. She got to his parents’ house early, and the door was unlocked, so after ringing the doorbell and no one answered, she let herself in. She found him breastfeeding on his mother.”

I made a gagging noise in my throat. “What the hell?”

She nodded. “Apparently, he does it every now and then when he’s stressed. He’s thirty-two, Nelly.”

“Ew. A nipple sucker,” I retorted. “Way worse than a toe sucker.”

“Not if it’s my nipples,” she countered.

“Oh, right. Point taken.”

“Why is there always something wrong with them?” she complained. “He seemed so normal. Great looking, gainfully employed, paid for dinner, he even stood when I left the table to pee.” She groaned again. “But, no, he still sucks at the teat of his mother. Jesus.”

“I’m sorry, Duncy.”

She sighed. “It’s fine. Back to the drawing board, I guess. How’s the hot felon?”

“He’s not a felon,” I said immediately before I realized what she’d just said. “Wait, what are you talking about? What felon?”

She grinned. “Hot Bob the Builder Uncle Skip says torched his homes.”

I scowled. “Uncle Skip needs to shut his goddammed mouth.”

“In fairness, he was having a closed door convo with Mom. He didn’t know I was listening.”

“Prudence Annaliese,” I admonished. “You’re the worst.”

Prudence still lived at home with Mom and our step-dad. Well, let me rephrase. She’d moved home after a really bad break-up with the asshole of the century after our step-dad had stepped in and threatened to cut off his dick if she didn’t. That had been six months ago and she didn’t appear in a hurry to move out anytime soon.

“So? How goes the investigation?” she asked.

“I can’t talk to you about it.”

“Okay, but you need to figure it out because the Wallace brothers are hot, hot, hot.”

“How do you know that?” I demanded.

She took a sip of her coffee and smiled over the rim of her cup. “I looked them up. And did a search in my group.”

“I don’t want to know.”

“Yes, you do.”

“Duncy—”

“Look, how about I just share what I found out… against your will? You don’t have to listen if you don’t want to.”

The server arrived with our food setting it down and then left us alone again.

“So, Connor, the oldest one, the biker, who goes by Hatch, doesn’t date, so I couldn’t find anything on him. Cade wasn’t mentioned in my group either.”

“Cade’s with Navy.”

“Navy Simmonds? Your attorney? ”

I nodded.

“Whoa, then you better be careful with all of this,” Prudence said. “Because Navy probably wouldn’t be with someone who’d torch his own buildings.”

“I’m not listening to this.”

“The only two guys that appear to be single then are Cullen and Cameron. Cameron’s a total dog, I think. He’s got a reputation of fucking anything with a skirt and dumping them just as fast, but no one seems to have anything bad to say about him, other than being phenomenal in bed and the fact no one’s gotten a second date.”

“And Cullen? No, don’t answer that,” I countered.

“A ghost. Nothing, nada, no one says anything about him.” She shrugged. “So I couldn’t really get a read on him. He’s hot though.”

I salted my eggs and said nothing.

“What does Roman say?” Prudence asked.

“I’m not talking to you about this.”

“Nelly,” she pressed, tapping her fingers on the table.

“What?”

“What does Roman say?”

I sighed. “He’s good friends with Cade and Hatch, and he says I need to dig deep because he knows they wouldn’t do this, but he’ll have my back whatever call I make.”

“Ooph,” Prudence breathed out. “That doesn’t really help.”

“No, it really doesn’t.” I raised an eyebrow. “But again, I’m not talking to you about this.”

“Well, I think you need to clear the hottie Bob the Builders so they can ram their hammers into your—”

“Prudence!” I snapped. “Stop.”

She grinned. “Okay, okay, I’ll stop.”

“Thank you.”

“For now.”

“No more eavesdropping on Mom and Uncle Skip. It’s bad enough I’m under a microscope as it is, I don’t need you adding your shenanigans to the pile.”

“You’re mixing your metaphors again.”

I jabbed a fork toward her. “I’ll mix your metaphors in the form of telling them about the vent in your bedroom that makes Mom’s office a not so confidential place for her to meet with people.”

Prudence gasped. “You wouldn’t .”

I shrugged. “I might.”

“Okay, fine. But it’s only so I can have your back, you know.”

“Just don’t get involved, Duncy. It only makes things worse. I mean, I appreciate that you want to have my back, but I’m already on thin ice so I have to make sure I do this right or it could be my job.”

“I get that.” She reached over and squeezed my hand. “I’ll be careful.”

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” She dropped her phone back in her purse. “Now, are we doing girls’ night next Friday or not?”

“Yes, I can make that work,” I said.

“Awesome. I’ll make reservations, you invite your side, I’ll invite mine.”

“Perfect.”

We finished breakfast, then after an extra-long hug, we went our separate ways.

* * *

I walked into work and set my files on my desk, opening my laptop just as our office assistant, Marcia, peeked her head into my cubicle. “Chief’s here.”

“What? Why?” I asked.

“No clue. All-hands in the conference room in twenty. Mandatory.”

I nodded, sitting in my chair.

“You need anything before I set up?” she asked.

“No, I’m good. Thanks.”

“Righty ho. See you in there.”

Once she walked away, I dropped my forehead to the wood, forcing myself not to slam it against it.

I had a feeling I knew exactly why the chief was there and that reason was me, but I honestly had nothing to say yet. I hated being micromanaged. Damn Skip.

Chief Evelyn Parks was as no-nonsense as they came, following protocol to a T, which was great when you ran multiple departments, but it wasn’t always great when you knew in your gut that something was off.

So, if the chief was here, that meant Skip had made a call, and I was probably about to get the lecture of a lifetime or fired.

Or both.

Shit.

After grabbing a cup of coffee, I made my way into the conference room, sneaking in and sitting in the very back. Marcia was handing out stapled packets of information to everyone, so I had to move from behind to grab it, revealing myself to the room. The chief raised an eyebrow in my direction, but otherwise didn’t acknowledge my existence.

“Thank you all for coming. I know how much meetings can be a drag, so I’ll make this brief…”

Admittedly, I tuned out the rest of the speech. I’d heard it all before and I couldn’t get my mind off my case. So, while the chief talked to the group, I studied my file for the umpteenth time.

“Lieutenant Bridges?”

“Hm?” I said, whipping my head up.

“I need you to hang back please,” the chief said.

I glanced at my watch and realized forty minutes had passed and I hadn’t even realized it.

I wrinkled my nosed. “Um… okay.”

The room emptied, Marcia being the last one out and closing the door behind her, and the chief waved to a chair at the table. “Take a seat.”

I rolled my eyes, moving to do as I was told, setting my files on the conference table. “This wasn’t just a random visit, was it?”

“I like to visit all my houses on a regular basis, you know that.”

“Except, I’m pretty sure Captain Loman has decided to yank my chain and what better way to do that than to call in the big guns?”

“ Helena .”

“Yes, Mom?”

Oh, did I mention my mother was the chief? As her father had been before her, and his father before him. And then when Mom got the chief position, my uncle thought it meant he could tattle on me at every turn.

So much fun, let me tell you.

“Skip’s just looking out for you,” Mom said.

“Skip’s worse than a high school girl with a juicy tidbit of gossip,” I countered.

I could tell Mom was trying not to laugh as she pressed her lips together. “Well, there is that.”

“How’s Barry?”

“He’s good.”

Mom had married Barry my freshman year of high school. My dad had died when I was six and Pru was four and Mom met Barry when I was in middle school. He was nice, he had money, and he was really good to my mom. He was also really good to us. I adored him.

But he wasn’t my dad. And I missed my dad.

“Can I go now?”

“How’s the arson investigation going?”

I shrugged. “It’s going.”

“Want me to look at it?”

“Mom, don’t you have, like, a million things to do?”

“I have time to be a second set of eyes if you need it.”

I sighed, flipping open my folder and sliding it toward her. She rifled through the pages and photographs, giving nothing away with her expression, which was annoying as hell, and then she closed the file, and looked at me. “What does the information tell you?”

“It’s definitely arson. An accelerant was used, most likely paint thinner, and it was an amateur job,” I said. “Time was taken, but the perpetrator had a lack of fundamental understanding of intentionally starting fires.”

“Suspects?”

“No one outside of the business owners,” I said.

“What does your gut tell you?”

“That they didn’t do this, but someone wanted to make it look like they did.”

Mom cocked her head. “A frame job?”

“I can’t prove it yet, but I think so.”

“What makes you think they’re being framed?”

I opened the file again and pointed to one of the photographs. “See this? It’s Cullen Wallace’s expired driver’s license. Do you see how it’s barely burned? Only around the edges? Yet, everything else around it is torched to ash. I found it on top of the debris. Almost as though it was placed there to be found. Same with this.” I showed her another photograph. “This was taken from a nearby security camera. You can’t see who’s driving, but that’s clearly a Wallace Brothers work van. At every turn, I’ve found one convenient piece of evidence after another that incriminates the Wallace brothers. But, from my research and what I’ve seen, these guys don’t appear to be stupid or inept. If they wanted these homes burnt to the ground, they would have done a better job, and I don’t believe for a second that they would have been stupid enough to leave evidence like this behind.” I let out a frustrated groan. “I need more time and Uncle Skip’s all up my ass telling me to hand it off to the DA to arrest the Wallace brothers, but I can’t do that, Mom, because he’s wrong. I just know it.”

“Well, you know you can’t just keep a case open on a hunch, penguin. We don’t have the budget.”

“I’m aware.” I met her eyes. “But I just know they didn’t do this. Something’s off.”

“What do the brothers say?”

“I haven’t talked to them yet, for obvious reasons.”

“Well, I think you should sit down for an official interview. One-on-one and see what they have to say.”

“Can you get Skip off my back?” I begged.

“You know I can’t do that, honey.” She gave me a gentle smile. “You have to go through all the same channels everyone else does.”

“But he can pull rank and bitch about me all day long?”

“He could, but if he did, he’d get nowhere because I’d tell him the exact same thing.”

I raised an eyebrow. “He bitches about me all day long?”

“Helena,” she admonished. “No, he does not, and you know it.”

I wrinkled my nose and let out a quiet grunt. “I just wish he’d see what I see.”

“He’s not as good as you are.”

I gasped. “Did you just say that out loud?”

“Sure did, but I’ll deny it if you repeat it.” She closed the file again. “Look. You are so unbelievably gifted at seeing the unseeable, penguin. Honestly. Not since your dad has there been anyone better. It’s in your blood, and Skip knows it. But he has a job to do and that’s to keep to a budget. He also has a little pride problem, which I will deal with. You just do your job, be respectful, and find the truth.”

I sighed. “Yes, Chief.”

“There’s my girl.”

“Am I dismissed?”

“Sunday dinner…?”

“Nana’s lasagna?”

“Sure,” she said. “I can do that.”

“That sounds really good, actually.”

She grinned. “Get back to work, Lieutenant.”

We stood, and after giving her a salute (albeit a little bit of a sassy one), I headed back to my desk.