Chapter 19

NINETEEN

J ulio closed the door of his work truck and walked from the engine bay to the entrance that led into the firehouse, his jacket in one hand. Gripping the material tight gave him something tactile to focus on—something outside of his mind and the images still swirling there.

"I'm gonna hit the showers." The lieutenant of his Rescue Squad slapped Julio on the back shoulder and turned down a different hall.

Julio nodded and continued toward his office.

The others filtered in behind him, headed for the locker room or the kitchen. Even if they still had blood on them, some of the guys insisted on coffee first. They would take it into the showers with them and leave it on the floor just outside the curtain. A hot drink that was more like a lifeline sometimes.

As he wandered down the hallway, the building intercom chimed. "Captain Coda to the Chief's office ASAP."

Julio pushed open the door to his tiny captain's office and tossed the jacket on his cot. Then he turned on his heel and jogged through to the other wing of the building and upstairs to the offices.

Chief Frayer's assistant sat behind her desk, red-rimmed glasses perched on her nose as she typed. Her long nails clacked on the keyboard.

Julio spotted Greyson through the window, currently on the phone. He grabbed a chair from another desk, currently unoccupied, and tugged it over to the short side of Viola's desk. He set his elbows on a clear spot. "Good morning, Vi. How are you today?"

She didn't look over, but her features took on a pinched expression. "Too busy to be interrupted, even by a cutie such as yourself," she replied, still typing.

Julio chuckled. "Maybe you should have sat in on that sexual harassment seminar with us last month."

She made a face. "I'm going to tell Reginald you said that." She chuckled lightly. "He'll get a kick out of the insinuation I'm some kind of hussy."

Julio prepared himself for another one of her "in my heyday" stories. These days, she was helping Ashlyn and Greyson plan their wedding, and she and Reginald were about to have their second grandchild within the next couple of months.

She finished typing and looked at him. "Did you need something?"

Apparently, he had skated out of listening to a story he'd probably heard several times before. "Just waiting for the chief."

She nodded. "You can just go on in. It sounded important." But before he could stand, she said, "How was that last callout? I never know what to think when it's announced as a ‘person trapped.'"

Julio was only willing to say, "We got him out and off to the hospital."

She knew what that meant—the implication of what he hadn't said. "I'll tell the guys we are having pizza delivered tonight."

"Good idea."

She always sprung extra for the good stuff from Backdraft rather than franchise pizza that tasted the same no matter what city you are in.

Julio knocked on the desk and headed for Greyson's office. He slowed at the door.

The chief waved him in with his free hand. "Thank you, sir." Then he hung up the phone. "Have a seat."

"Thanks, Chief." Julio slumped into the seat, knowing what Greyson would ask first before they even got to what this was about. "We got the guy out, but Max and Prichard had to dismantle the entire machine. He probably won't be able to keep his arm, but he's alive and he will eventually be able to go home to his children."

Greyson nodded. "Sounds like you guys did a good job."

On top of that, things were good right now with Samantha. Two nights ago, he had kissed her good night and gone home to sleep like the dead until his shift. She was at home resting, probably working on her computer from her house. He'd worked a twenty-four-hour shift that ended earlier this morning—a couple of hours ago actually.

Not many of the guys complained about overtime, especially when they hadn't had many callouts for the duration of the shift. It just so happened that the last one overlapped the end of their time clocked in. Julio considered this morning's work on shift with the other firefighters as a win, even if it had gone longer than they were supposed to be working.

There was a hopefulness inside him centered on the new day. Something in him had settled, questions had been answered.

The thing that had always been between him and Samantha was at least somewhat resolved. Or, he simply woke up yesterday, or this morning, more observant of the new mercies available to him than he had been for a long time. The verse of the day that popped up on his Bible app this morning came from Lamentations chapter3.

Great is thy faithfulness.

So why did he feel like Greyson was about to drop a bomb and ruin all of it? At least Julio had the training necessary to diffuse the device. But not if it was about to explode before he could do damage control.

"Yesterday afternoon, Detective Jesse received an email from the arsonist," Greyson began. "She wasn't logged in to her work computer at the time, so the email bounced to the on-call cop in the Intelligence Division on duty, which happened to be her boss, Sergeant Deerdan. They managed to move the email before she could read it."

"So she doesn't know?"

"It's my understanding she's being pulled into a meeting this morning, and that's when they're going to show it to her."

At least that was something. He couldn't imagine getting sent something and not being the first to know. Then again, just because she was a police detective with active cases didn't mean Samantha wasn't allowed to take time off and disconnect from her job in order to heal from the injuries she sustained getting attacked. There had to be some kind of coverage for the unexpected while an officer wasn't available to deal with them.

"When do you meet with the taskforce next?" Greyson asked.

"Lunchtime today." Julio wasn't entirely sure when he was supposed to sleep, but thankfully had at least four hours last night. It would do for now.

"Presume that might get shifted to include the FBI and more cops."

"So this is serious," Julio said. "What did the email say?" He didn't want to jump to conclusions before he even knew how bad the situation was, but if the arsonist had written her a note, there was a reason why.

Greyson handed over a piece of paper.

Julio scanned the text, first frowning and then unable to keep his eyes from widening. "You may believe you know who I am? What does that mean?" He didn't expect Greyson to answer, just kept reading. " We will meet again. Oh, I don't like the sound of that at all."

"No one does." Greyson sighed. "I'm pretty sure the police department and the arson taskforce are all in on making sure Samantha doesn't wind up the target. Given how he's wording things and rambling, we aren't dealing with a stable person." He lifted his hand, palm out. "Not that I'm an expert about mental conditions, but in my opinion, this is the writing of someone who's unstable."

"Agreed." Julio wanted to crumple the paper in his hands and throw it, but what would that serve? This guy had fixated on Samantha. Or at least recognized her as the one he wanted to approach.

Why couldn't he have chosen Julio?

That would absolutely have been his preference, not just to save the woman he cared about from being in the spotlight. Okay, fine . That might be pretty much the only reason. But who would blame him? No guy wanted to feel powerless while a possibly psychotic person was focused on the one they cared about more than anyone else.

Any guy worth his salt would gladly stand between her and the threat.

"My guess?" Greyson said. "The FBI's behavioral analysis-profiler person, whatever you call it, will be at the meeting. They'll add to the other information on our arsonist, which might give them a stronger impression of who this guy is. Maybe enough to identify him."

Julio figured that might be wishful thinking. Still, in this he would much rather be wrong. "I hope so." He put the paper facedown on the desk and ran his hands down his face. "We need to figure out who this guy is before anyone else gets hurt."

"I'd suggest you focus on keeping Samantha safe, but that leaves Tennet heading up the search for the arsonist."

Julio nodded. Evidently, Greyson wasn't going to say it out loud, but neither of them currently had much confidence in the captain over the arson investigation department.

He didn't want Samantha to wind up like Mitchell, beat up and left for dead. She had already been attacked. What he needed to do was prevent anything worse from happening to her. He needed to keep her safe, and he wasn't going to trust that duty to anyone else.

He'd do the job God had given him from the beginning.

Greyson eyed him. "Have you thought about applying to work in the arson department?"

Julio didn't want to work under Tennet when they were the same rank. "Maybe someday, but not right now."

"I don't know how much more time Tennet has left in him. He jumped the gun with that press conference, labeling the arsonist a copycat."

Julio nodded. "I figured we would be talking about that whole mess during today's briefing."

Even if he would much rather be on the street trying to figure out who this guy was. But what leads did they have? If Mitchell woke up, they could at least get an ID on the guy who had attacked him. Then there was the detail following the man who had attacked Samantha, then been arraigned and released pending his trial.

As far as he could see, they had a whole lot of nothing.

When were they going to get a break in this case?

"Stick with it for now," Greyson said. "I can't guarantee what's gonna happen next. But focus on doing your job to the best of your ability—the way I know you will anyway. I get that everything in you wants to be all about protecting Samantha, but finding this arsonist and putting him away has the same effect. And will speak volumes for your career."

Julio nodded. "Thanks, Chief."

He headed out of Greyson's office, past his assistant, to the stairs. In his office, he grabbed his cell phone and called Samantha to see if she knew yet about the email the arsonist had sent to her. He listened to it ring, pacing the tiny office between the wall and the cot.

She never answered.

A few seconds later he got a text from her,

I'll talk to you at the briefing.

Julio tossed the phone on the bed. The captain who was supposed to be on shift now would be headed in soon enough, wanting to use this room. Meanwhile, Julio had three hours to burn until the meeting. He needed something to do. Like walk around one of the fire scenes and see what he could gather.

Decision made, he set the radio he wore on the desk and gathered his things. Shoving everything into his backpack so he could head out in his personal car. Praying the whole time that God would give him the mercy of answers, or some kind of lead. A way to figure out who this guy was.

Before someone else lost their life.