Chapter Fifteen

Jensen

I turn back around to find him still sitting in exactly the same place as he was before, beer held loosely in his hand as he stares out over the stillness of the lake.

"Yeah?" I reply curiously when he doesn't immediately say anything else.

"Do you know the houses about five miles from town on the other side, past the welcome sign, and down the first right-hand turn?"

I frown but reply, "Yeah, I think there are three, all several miles apart, right? All really run down? I don't think anyone has lived in them for years."

Knox nods once, "That's the ones. The one furthest away, the old white farmhouse, sits in the middle of lots of land."

"What about it?" I ask curiously.

He turns to look at me, "You might want to check it out. I'd imagine that you'd find quite a lot of information there. You'll need solid proof that something is going on there before the cops will investigate it."

"Thanks, we'll check it out," I reply. I turn to go, but I just can't let this one slide. "How do you know this?"

His lips tick up into his half smile again as he replies, "I make it my business to know what's going on in town and where the threats are." He pauses, "My family founded the town. Did you know that?" I shake my head, and he continues, "Many people don't, but I guess it's because of that, that I feel kind of protective about it."

That's it, that's all of his explanation, and if he thought that it would satiate my curiosity, he was incredibly wrong because, actually, if anything, it made me a thousand times more curious.

"I don't think that did what you thought it would," I say honestly, "in fact, I'm going to come back with some beers, and we're going to have a whole conversation about why the fuck we don't know that your family founded the town, because I feel like there's a story there. But right now, I have somewhere to be."

He doesn't reply; he just does that half grin and salutes me with his beer bottle; he doesn't say that I can't come back, though, so as far as I'm concerned, that was an agreement. I feel like he's got some stories to tell. I'd be especially curious to know how exactly he knows so much about the people in town, especially if he's correct and there's something at this farmhouse that is going to help us get this drug out of our town.

Trick

"J ensen's been gone for a while," Cash says, tension evident in his tone.

"I'm sure he's fine," Luc replies, "he knows Knox, or he's at least had a few conversations with him."

Riot studies him closely for a moment. "Why do you look nervous? You wouldn't normally be in this situation."

Cash scrapes a hand through his hair and then sighs, "I did some research on him after what Jensen told us."

"When?" I question, since he went to sleep before I did and we rushed here this morning, there was pretty much no time that I can see when he'd be able to do that.

He smiles, "I woke up before everyone else this morning and was curious."

I chuckle, "Of course you were. What did you find out then?"

Cash's smile drops, "His family was pretty prominent. They had a lot to do with the town and were involved in almost everything."

"But?" Rafe asks, because there is obviously a but in that sentence somewhere.

"Well, this is where it gets interesting," he replies, getting more animated the more he talks. "There are mentions of them everywhere, in news articles, meeting minutes, literally everywhere, but no pictures."

"What? Nowhere?" Riot questions with a heavy frown.

Cash nods, "Yeah, there's no visual record of them, and if they weren't mentioned so heavily in everything I read, I wouldn't know they existed at all."

"That's really strange," I admit, "did you look through the archives and see how far the family went back and shit like that?"

Cash shakes his head, "No, I ran out of time. I'm not sure that would tell us anything anyway; I just thought it was interesting."

"Yeah, I guess you're right; it's definitely curious," Luc agrees. "Did you find anything out about the fire?"

"Not a lot. I read through as many articles as possible, and there were quite a few," Cash replies, and then lowers his voice like he doesn't want us to be overheard, which, of course, immediately piques my interest. "There were a couple of things about the arsonist's suicide that didn't really make sense, but the guy had security cameras, and there was no sign of someone else being there, let alone that someone being Knox. I'm not really sure why they decided to look at Knox in the first place since I don't have access to the police files, and I don't particularly want to call in one of our favors just for curiosity's sake."

"What didn't make sense?" I ask, my own curiosity piqued enough that I will admit to considering calling in a favor to get the file.

Cash frowns, "Okay, so this is just from what I read, and we all know that the media likes to warp the truth, but the suicide note was said to be too perfect of a match to the arsonist's handwriting."

"What the fuck does that mean?" Rafe signs, making my lips twitch as I repress my smile.

"Well, apparently, they had a handwriting expert look over it, and they said that they would expect there to be some hesitation in the strokes of the pen, some stops and starts, and some emotion since taking your own life is an emotional thing, and there weren't, it was precise and even and written calmly. They said that it was highly unusual."

I nod, "Okay, I'll admit that's odd, but is there a chance that he could have taken something to calm his nerves?"

Cash shakes his head, "There were no drugs found in his system."

I raise my eyebrows, "Not that then, anything else?"

"He owned loads of guns, but the one he used didn't belong to him," Cash adds.

"That's definitely an odd one. Why wouldn't you use your own gun?" Riot questions.

"There were a few other things that didn't quite match up, but those were the major ones," Cash adds and then lowers his voice again, "and the body disappeared before the autopsy could be done, but he wasn't the only one, the remains of Knox's family disappeared too, and just so we're clear when they said whole family, they meant the whole family. They lived in this giant house, mom, dad, brother, two sisters, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins; they were all killed."

"Why wasn't Knox?" Luc asks, his voice hushed.

"He was out of town, gone with some friends or something on a last-minute trip; he was supposed to be at home."

"Shit," I reply and then frown, "is it me, or does it sound like more of an assassination than an arsonist choosing a random family?"

"That's what I thought," Cash agrees with me.

Riot, Rafe, and Luc all nod in agreement, too, with heavy frowns on their faces.

"You think Knox had something to do with the arsonist's death?" Luc asks.

Cash nods, "Oh without a fucking doubt. I also think he knows exactly why they were all killed, and he killed the arsonist first in order to stop him from coming after him."

"And for revenge," Riot adds, and then smiles sharply, "If I were him, I'd do exactly the same."

"Me too," Rafe signs.

"Is it weird that I'm now more intrigued by him?" Cash asks. "Like, I want to know what really happened, and the only way to know that is to talk to Knox and get him to tell us."

I sigh, "That's because you're into all of the true crime stuff, but I'm going to have to be a dick now and say that we leave it the fuck alone. We've got enough going on at the moment, and he's clearly capable of taking out people who get in his way or threaten to expose his secret. As curious as I am, this is one that we stay away from unless he tells us himself."

Cash practically pouts but sighs heavily and nods, "Yeah, I know you're right, and I promise I'll leave it where it is. We've got so much to deal with, adding in the drama of a town mystery, and it will all get really complicated really quickly."

"So, we just leave it be?" Riot questions.

"Yep, we carry on like we don't suspect anything because, in all actuality, all we have is theories and hearsay; there's a very good chance that the media warped a lot of that story." I reply.

"Shit, you're right." Rafe signs and then shrugs and adds, "I'm good with that."

"Fine with me," Riot agrees.

"Yeah, I'll admit that you make a good point," Luc smiles.